Christmas 2009

Merry Christmas! The 3 (or 4) of us (depending on how you count) had our first Christmas morning at our own home together as a family (we've always been visiting other family before this). It is really fun to watch Austin's understanding of Christmas develop over the years and to pass on some Christmas traditions to the next generation.

Here are some photos of our days of celebration...

Christmas Eve we had a new ornament for Austin to put on the tree. It is a cute ornament of Lumpy hugging Winnie the Pooh and Austin was really excited to put it on the tree before bed.Checking it out after placing it on the tree...
Christmas morning...
Austin woke up and wandered out to see the tree...still a little groggy.Austin slept in too late for us to make it to church for the morning Mass, but since he had been up late the night before, we figured we'd let him sleep so that the rest of the Christmas celebrations weren't with a cranky kid.

After checking out the tree and all the presents Santa brought him, Austin preferred to eat breakfast than to open his presents.

After breakfast, Austin sang Happy Birthday to Baby Jesus.


Aside from our nativity, we also have a Veggie Tales nativity for Austin. They did break their 1 rule for Veggie Tales though. They said they'd never make Jesus a vegetable. He's a baby carrot in this nativity!

We actually had to talk Austin into opening his presents. I certainly didn't expect that.
Austin's stockingCarrying on the Cronk family tradition...underwear in the Christmas stocking.
For Austin...Cars "big boy" underpants!
Exploring his stocking.
Then on to the presents under the tree...

Steve was thoroughly entertained by a gift I got him.
Austin got Mack from Cars! He was sooooo excited that we had to talk him into opening his other presents.Then he found Lightning McQueen and Sally!Action shot...More cars!
After our morning was complete, we all got dressed and ready to head up to Nanny and Grandpa's for Christmas celebration with them and Kevin and Keng (Michelle and Brian were in New York with Brian's family). Since it has been a while since we took a belly picture, we figured it was time to do so.

Yes, ladies and gentleman...I'm getting HUGE!And definitely carrying a little differently with her than I did with Austin. She feels much lower, so I am getting more leg and back aches and pains. On Christmas day, I was 35 weeks and 1 day. About a month to go.

We had lunch before heading out to Nanny and Grandpa's.
And, of course, we had to have some Christmas cookies!
Once at Nanny and Grandpa's, the festivities began again. We started with the stockings, which every year contain the tricky Bilz Boxes. They used to be flat rectangle shaped ones...now that we've mastered those, we've moved on to the tougher cubes. Grandma Dot brought Austin more cool cars...a police car, bus, and more.
Beer goggles for Kevin (to match Dad's and Brian's).
Bean bag chair!
Helping mommy open presents.
Our attempt at a family picture.
By that night, Austin was pretty tuckered out. He fell asleep with puppy in the rocking chair and he was so cute that way that we employed the night portrait setting on the camera to take a picture.
The next day, we gathered with more family at Auntie Trish's house.
Kevin stayed busy giving horsie rides...
And making Alexis fly...Jenna, Michael, Kevin, and Keng

The kids opening presents.
GiGi with her kids...Trish, Mom (Marsha) and Greg.

Austin actually did great and was generally a very good boy throughout the celebrations. On the drive home, he chattered or sat quietly the whole way...but then absolutely melted down once we arrived home. It was about 30-40 minutes of all out screaming, crying, kicking, and throwing probably the worst fit he has every thrown. We eventually got him into the house, undressed, bathed and into his jammies (all while throwing his major tantrum). Then we eventually got him calmed down and finally to bed around 10:30 or 11pm. Not surprisingly, he slept in this morning. Then he spent most of the day playing with his new toys...mostly his Cars.

Now because of a very lucky schedule, I've still got another week off before having to return to work. We'll keep busy this week, as we have plenty of things left on the to-do list. Today, we got a bunch of toys packed up to lessen the clutter in the playroom (in the interest of selling our house later this winter/spring). Then tomorrow, we plan on moving Austin to his new "big brother bedroom" so he has some time to get used to it before Baby Sister comes home. We don't want him to feel displaced by her. Then we'll get the nursery set back up in his current room (put the crib together, etc.) to get ready to welcome Baby Girl in the next month! Along with all that, we'll be getting the Christmas stuff packed up and moving lots of stuff to the storage space we rented. No rest for the weary! Then next week, I start on an emergency department rotation, doing mostly night shifts of 3pm-midnight or 6pm-3am. Sounds fun, huh? The compression stockings will definitely be heavily used this month.

That's what we'll be up to. I hope you all had a blessed Christmas and have a wonderful New Year to come!