Our First Christmas Together

Fast forward one year. Evvy has been home for 8 months and is totally a part of our family. I can't imagine my life without her. She has brought so much joy and happiness to my life. We have so many more Christmases to look forward to together as a family. My life has been so blessed this past year.

Evvy was the first one up on Christmas morning. I don't think it had anything to do with being excited about opening up presents and seeing what Santa brought her. It is just that she is always up at 6:30 (if not earlier) so no sleeping in on Christmas. We went downstairs and put on a quiet video (Baby Einstein) and she was quite content. We waited about an hour and then my niece came downstairs and Grandma and Grandpa woke up. Then my niece woke up my brother and SIL. I am sure they were thinking that all of their kids are older and they should get to sleep in. The joys of having house guests for Christmas.

Evvy was actually pretty laid back. She just sat on the couch and had presents brought to her. She opened them. She didn't really know what do do because some of them required assembly and batteries first. She got the cutest little pink "cat pack" backpack that she really liked. She would walk around with it on.. Very cute. I think we/I did a good job of not going overboard. Of course I gave her two of her big presents several weeks ahead since I knew we couldn't bring them with us. She had also had a little present opening when we had our Christmas with P and her family. It was a very nice day and I just basked in the joy of having my daughter with me and tried to not think of the sadness of last year.

Here are some pictures from this year's Christmas joy.

Susan

Last Christmas--Evvy's first Christmas

This Christmas was such a contrast to last Christmas. Last year I had visited Evvy in November and was waiting anxiously for news that she could come home. I had not made any plans to go anywhere for Christmas because I was expecting the call to go back and get my girl.

Last Christmas I was missing my angel baby and wanting her so badly. I remember hitting the send/receive button on my email hundreds of times hoping for pictures of Evvy. Thankfully she was with a wonderful foster family that was good about sending me pictures but the pictures didn't arrive until after Christmas.

I spent Christmas Day with my good friend P and her family. It was fun watching her kids open presents. Her daughter was just over 2 and got a kitchen for Christmas with all the stuff that goes with it. It was a magical Christmas for her. I could only imagine the magical Christmases to come with Evvy. I knew they would come.

I don't know much about Evvy's first Christmas except that she was with a very loving family that adored her and took such good care of her. I know that they took her to see all of the different Nativities that were displayed at the different Churces in Guatemala City. I also know that she liked the fireworks that they shoot off Christmas (and many other times) in Guatemala. I was told she wasn't afraid at all.

Here are a couple of pictures of Evvy from last Christmas.

Evvy with her foster father.

Visiting Nativities at various churches.

My happy girl.

Christmas Eve

On Christmas Eve day, we went to the horse farm where Evvy's cousin Abby has a horse. Evvy was in heaven. She had no fear of the horses and even fed the horse a couple of carrots. As you can see in the pictures, Evvy decided that if the horse liked the carrots that she would like them too. Don't worry, we watched her carefully to avoid choking hazards. She was in heaven hanging out with her Grandpa. If you can't tell, she totally adores him. Abby and Ally were both really good on the horse. This is a new horse for Abby and he is gigantic compared to her old horse. She rides in shows and had to have a bigger horse so that she would be in proportion with the horse. She is tall and very lean.

Christmas Eve night we all hung out and worked a puzzle and then read the Christmas story and had hot cocoa. The kids all went to bed and then Santa came and filled the stockings and left some more presents.

What a beautiful day.

Susan

Want some carrot Grandpa? The horse liked it.

My turn.

This is so cool.

Evvy and cousin Ally

Dad, Evvy & Jack

Abby riding Jack
Ally riding Jack
Sweet moment
Ally on Jack.
Evvy LOVES dirt!

Finally arrived in TX

We got back to the airport about 8:00 am and headed down to the baggage claim area. Thankfully our luggage was all there. The wonderful agents actually helped me carry it back down to the ticket counter. I pushed the stroller and dragged the big suitcase behind me and the agent carried the carseat and other suitcase. I couldn't have done it without her help. We boarded our flight on time. Gotta love the pre-board with small children option. Evvy was good and just sat and read her books while we waited to take off. We ended up being delayed about 45 minutes cause the water tank was leaking so they had to drain and refill it. Then there was a passenger count discrepency and then they had to de-ice the plain. Evvy started getting fussy but it was mostly cause she was tired. She finally snuggled in and went to sleep before we took off. She slept until we started our descent into Austin. She didn't fuss at all.


My brother was there to pick us up. We grabbed some lunch and then headed up to meet the rest of the family. My brother introduced Evvy to the big dogs so that they knew the new kid and knew their place in the pecking order. They were really good with Evvy. My brother has a German Shepherd and Golden Retriever. The German Shepherd was so gentle with her and she really loved the dogs. Don't get any ideas Evvy, mommy still says no to dogs.


My brother had spent the previous day baking like crazy to make gingerbread for gingerbread houses for all of the kids and a couple of neighbors. They made one for Evvy too. So we spent time decorating gingerbread houses. Evvy liked licking her fingers after smearing the frosting around the roof. I let her do 1/2 the roof and then she was done. Silly me forgot to take a finished picture with the designer.


The rest of the afternoon/evening we just hung out. Evvy went across the street to the park with grandpa and her 2 cousins.


Here are a few pictures from today.


Susan

Who is this guy? Poor uncle Allan. Most kids love him.

Piano lessons with grandpa.

Yum. Gingerbread scraps.

Hmm. This is fun and sticky.
Isn't this pretty mommy?

Leaving on a Jetplane......NOT!

(This is long but if you wade through it there are pictures at the end.)

Today, Evvy and I got up and had a somewhat relaxing morning as I finished up the last minute packing. I weighed the suitcases to make sure they weren't overweight and we were 3# under on the big one with all the Christmas presents. The forecast when we went to bed last night was for a big snow storm with high winds. I hoped that the weathermen would continue to be wrong. I packed everything in the car and we headed over to Peggy's house. She had graciously agreed to drive us to the airport so I wouldn't have to leave the car there and so she could drop us off at curbside with all of our stuff. I had no idea how much stuff was REQUIRED for travelling/flying with a young child especially at Christmas time.

• Christmas presents for all (I left behind the big ones that I had already given to Evvy early cause there was no way they would fit in the suitcases especially once they were assembled.



• 2 sets of clothes/day for Evvy. Not too bad cause they are small clothes.



• 2 blankets--one to carry on the plane and the other one required for sleeping.



• Books & toys to entertain her on the plane and at the airport.



• Diapers for a week.



• Mommy's stuff (I pack relatively light) preparing for a wide range of weathers. Even though we are going to Texas it still can be unpredictable and cool/cold.



• Winter coats, hats and mittens. After all, we were leaving and returning to the cold midwest.



• Stroller--against my mother's wishes I chose to bring the big one that reclines and has a basket and SOOOO glad I did (you will understand better later in the post).



• Carseat. Have to have to transport baby to and from the airport and around town once we arrive at our destination.



• Diaper bag with said toys & books, diapers, wipes, blankie, change of clothes, snacks, sippy cup, plane tickets, ids, birth certificate (just in case for baby), plastic bag for liquids.

So all in all we had 2 suitcases (48# and 23#), 1 diaper bag, 1 stroller, 1 carseat, 1 baby, 1 mommy.

Amazingly I didn't forget anything essential and even had a few diapers left at the end of the trip.

Anyway, we get to Peggy's. Install her carseat, cram the suitcases and stroller, Evvy, Peggy's 3 kids, Peggy and myself into her mini van. It was a tight squeeze. We then dropped my car off at the shop to be tuned up while we were gone.

As we drove to the airport, it was raining. As we got further north (it is about 30 minutes north of where we live), it started sleeting. By the time we got to the airport, the roads were very snowy and slushy. I wasn't worried. Planes fly in the snow all the time, right.

We pulled up to the curb right in front of the skycap station. Unloaded my little eskimo who started shivering cause it was cold, snowy and windy. Unloaded said luggage and carseat, handed the guy a generous tip and headed inside.

The monitors said we were still ontime. We went and had some lunch, had a diaper change in the wonderful family bathroom. Really it was great. It was a room with a big person toilet, lots of space for all our stuff and a nice changing counter, sink, hand sanitizer. We should have just stayed in there while we waited. Then we had to go through security. That was fun (NOT). Had to remove diaper bag, baby, blanket, coats, baby from stroller. Put them all in the lovely grey bins. Heft the stroller up on the conveyer belt to go through the x-ray machine. Heft the baby who is screaming cause her blankie was being x-ray'd and not in her hands. But alas we made no beeping sounds and were allowed into the gate area to hopefully board our flight soon.

Got through security put everything back into the stroller and found a place to sit. Did I say sit. No, you don't sit at an airport with an 18 month old, you find a place to let her run, climb and push her stroller. Luckily there were big windows with short ledges that made a perfect seat for a little one. So there we were watching the snow. Watching no airplanes coming or going. It really started getting bad so that you couldn't hardly see out the window past the gateways. I thought, so we will just be late. I called my brother and said don't go to the airport unless you check with the airline first cause it looks like we might be 30-45 minutes late.

Our flight was supposed to leave at 2pm and arrive at 4pm. At 3pm we were still here. I called my brother who didn't answer so I finally got my mom on her phone and told her to tell my brother not to go to the airport yet. She said, well, they are already on their way. They called the airline and it said your flight was ontime. How is that for efficiency. We hadn't even left yet an hour after we were supposed to leave and we were going to arrive ontime. I guess they were optimistic and maybe they had a supersonic jet on standby.

My brother called about 4pm and asked for a status update. He and my dad were hanging out at Cabellas thinking they could just blow some time until we arrived. I told him that they didn't know when we were leaving and that it was a 2 hour flight so they might want to head home. They live 45-60 minutes from the airport.

Well finally a little after 6pm, the gate agent came on the microphone to make an announcement. We all thought for sure we were going to start boarding because 2 other flights had started boarding and were getting ready to leave. However, she came on and told us that they were cancelling our flight due to the weather. Still makes no sense to me since other planes were now leaving. The only thing that I can think of is the crew were out of hours or they just decided that the flight wasn't full enough and that they would take advantage and cut some costs and put us on the flights the following day so they would have full flights the next day.

Oh, I forgot to mention that during our 6 hour wait, they had us change gates which involved going through the wonderful security routine again since at this airport they have security for each set of gates. Luckily after the gate change, Evvy decided she had had enough fun and she fell asleep for 1 1/2 hours in the stroller. Had I brought the umbrella stroller, she wouldn't have been able to sleep so long and been comfortable plus I would have been lugging a lot more stuff cause the umbrella has no storage basket.

So they tell us to line up and they would rebook us for a flight the following day. We luckily were standing right by the podium and got on the 9am flight the next morning. Other people were not so fortunate and had to wait for the 2pm flight. They then told us to go collect our luggage and that we would have to recheck it tomorrow. I am thinking, you have got to be kidding. See above for all the luggage we had and now I am by myself with no help. We waited for awhile and the luggage didn't come up. I called one friend who lives relatively close to the airport but they weren't home. I couldn't have Peggy come back and get us. The roads were pretty bad plus we had to be back up to the airport by 8am the next morning. So while waiting for the luggage, I started calling the hotels. I learned about "distressed passenger rates" and was able to stay at a nice hotel for $59/night. Got lucky with that rate cause when we were checking in she started quoting 80-125/night depending on who called. Again, luggage didn't come and didn't come so I asked the luggage office what happened if we didn't collect our luggage. She rolled her eyes and said that all unclaimed luggage had to be stored in their luggage office which she emphasized was not very large and they already had a large backlog of luggage. I am thinking, oh well, your problem, not mine. I deserted the 2 suitcases and carseat and hopped onboard the hotel shutle with a diaper bag, baby and stroller.

I am so glad that I packed extra diapers and extra close for Evvy. At least she got to wear fresh clothes the next day and to sleep in.

We had a King size sleep number bed and Evvy slept great; me not so great with the bed hog.

Well this turned into a super long post but it was a super long day. Here are a few pictures from our adventuresome day at the airport and hotel 30 minutes from home.
Susan

It doesn't look too bad, right?

Let me entertain you all!

I am so cute. Everyone said so.

Snuggling my baby doll.

What a wild day. I need to find my sleep number.

Let me pour you a drink mommy.

What a day.

Some random Christmas Pictures

I haven't had time to blog much lately. However, I have taken some pictures of Evvy enjoying Christmastime. She has been great around the tree. She and the cats hang out under and behind the tree. She loves playing peek a boo through the branches with Bella the black cat. I put some presents under the tree the other night and she has pretty much ignored them except to use them to stand or sit on. I can't believe it is just one more week til Christmas. We get on a plane next Saturday to go to my brother's house for a week. Can't wait. It has been cold and yucky here. Last weekend we had an ice storm and this weekend we got snow. Evvy does like the snow. She likes to touch it. She is amazed at how it melts on her hands. She loves her little mittens. She will walk around the house with them on clapping her hands. I also bought her some snow boots this weekend. They are too big but she can walk in them. They should last a couple of years I am guessing. I will post pictures in her snow garb later this week if I get a chance.

Here are some pictures. If you are on our Christmas card list, you should be getting a card with our 2 best pictures from our photo session at our friends' house last week during the ice storm.

Susan

Checking out the nativities.

Hello Mr Snowman
My new favorite spot.
Bella and Evvy playing peek-a-boo under tree.
Yay! We are done taking pictures (not our tree)

Christmas Cookies & Friends

Last weekend we had our good friends Elaina, Sam & Luke over to "decorate" Christmas cookies. All of us mommy's supported each other while we waited for our beautiful children to come home from Guatemala.

The kids were much more interested in eating the frosting than putting it on the cookies. It just happened that they all chose a different color of frosting. Probably a good thing with some of the double dipping that was going on in Luke's bowl!


Susan

Evvy eyeing Sam's cookie
Sam digging into the frosting
Luke going for the frosting by the spoonfuls!
Elaina a little lady taking just a dollop.
Yummy, the cookies are good without frosting too!
Give this girl mouth to mouth, her lips are blue!
Sweet brothers
Good friends sharing cookies.
The cuatro amigos.
Yum, sprinkles make them even better.

Pictures

OK. I know the real reason you come to the blog is to see pictures of Evvy. So here are a few pictures from Thanksgiving. There are a lot more pictures in our photo album.

Evvy, Grandpa & baby Elise

Ethan & Evvy (touchdown!)

Mmmmmmmmm

Shopping Day after Thanksgiving

Sweet Baby Elise

Sweet Evvy & Elise

Elise on quilt made by aunt Susan