Russian Christmas

Bubby reads the Babushka Christmas story to us (which apparently isn't Russian in origin after all, but I love how it tells about Babushka being too busy cleaning her cottage to travel w/ the three kings to bring presents to baby Jesus...) just before there is a knock at the door... presents from Babushka!

Pick up sticks... don't let the smiles fool you... they almost led to a stabbing fight between siblings...

Love the outfits... they are growing so much, I'm not sure if I'll be able to use them again next year! Finding the first star! Thank you Bubby and grandfather for the wonderful feast! 12 foods... blessings for the new year... and more Christmas joy to extend the season of giving...

Slideshow of Christmas Eve

Decorating cookies... setting out food for the reindeer...attending Little Fork Children's Nativity Service... tracking Santa... and spotting Rudolph's nose just before bedtime!!

Slideshow of our Family Trip

Patrick had to use up his vacation time before the end of the year... so we had a lot of family time this Christmas and it was really nice. We took advantage of all of our days off and got out of town for a few days... Abby is a big Stonewall Jackson fan, so we went to Richmond so she could see the artifacts at the Museum of the Confederacy. We also went to the Children's Museum both days we were there. Then we headed down to Williamsburg and spent two days in our favorite place in the world. We ended the vacation with a surprise carriage ride through the Colonial area. It was a really nice vacation...especially since we splurged and went for the two room suites each night!

Slideshow of our Christmas Day Pictures

Great Christmas! Santa ate the milk and cookies and the reindeer nibbled the peanut butter celery and carrots we left on the roof! Visits from Pops and the Griz's...The kids still had plenty of presents under the tree when they hit the sack Christmas night...we love spreading the joy of Christmas out over the break... Best gifts: New pants for Patrick, E-Reader for Jen, Skateboard and portable DVD player for AP, MP3 player and DS for Margaret, a bunch of things to suit Abby's various interests!

Beginning of Dec

Click on the picture below to see more pics of us getting ready for Christmas!

Abby's MRI and Getting ready for Christmas

Abby had another MRI in the beginning of Dec. The news was promissing from the neurosurgeon. While there is still not a lot of room for spinal fluid to flow around her brain... the MRI showed no build-up of fluid... so that's good. He also saw that her brain stem (which had been sinking down past her 2nd vertabrate prior to surgery) has receeded and now is at the 1st vertabrate. That's good too. He doesn't think she'll need to have another sleep study or MRI until next Dec. That's good!! He is referring us to another doctor to address her hyperactive gag reflex... but he doesn't consider the gag to be so problematic that he would need to do more surgery... It's hard not to worry, but I am trying to relax and put it out of my mind.

One cute thing, is that Dr. Jane told Abby she could try to go on bigger amusement park rides and that it would be fine for her to play soccer. She was so excited at this news, that she kissed her own hand and touched it to the top of her head! She was congratulating herself! We celebrated our 13 anniversary, had a quick visit from Grandpa and Grandpa Mac last week and we've been busy getting ready for Christmas! We hope you have a great one!

Thanksgiving

Baltimore Harbor

National Aquarium

A Heelen hug

The next generation of Heelen boys...

Have "Bouncy Ball" will travel...

We spent Thanksgiving in MD w/ Patrick's family. We had Thanksgiving dinner w/ Pops, Nana and Sean and Carley at an Irish Restaurant in Davidsonville. We've been there for a few other Thanksgiving dinners so it's become a sort of tradition... The kids were well behaved, TG... and it was nice to see them interacting w/ their cousins.

Abby's been into dolphins lately, and we wanted to take the kids to the aquarium since we'd never been there w/ them. We got tickets for 5:00 pm for the Friday after Thanksgiving since the tickets only cost $5.00... It was awfully cold, and Abby was REALLY tired since she never naps for us... but she perked up enough so that the visit wasn't a total bust! I rented a back back even though she is getting so big... she was too tired to walk around that much, and it was packed w/ people, so I think it helped her feel safer. She enjoyed walking on the harbor and seemed to like the dolphin show even though the rest of us felt it was a bit of a let down... We plan on trying Port Discovery, the Baltimore children's museum soon.