Christmas trip

Well, the Christmas trip was a huge success. Claire did really well in the car sleeping most of the way there and off and on the way home. She entertained her grandparents, great aunt and uncle, cousins and greatgrandma in various ways. She had a ready laugh and smile and interacted enthusiastically with her family members.

We took lots of pictures and will post some soon.

Claire got many nice gifts including a handfull of cloth books and board books, cloth and wooden toys, Christmas tree ornaments, CD's and a pink velour outfit.

It was great to get to spend some time with my cousin Heather and her son Kyle who were visiting from Boston. We got to pass on a tradition of playing a Pensylvanie Dutch card game called Dutch Blitz. Vaughn, Heather and I spent hours playing this when we were growing up, it was great to see Kyle getting into it. (Grandma gave him and Andrew their own Blitz decks.)

The day after Christmas Mark and I had a day out on the town while my parents babysat. I got a much needed haircut and we got to browse a few shops and take my grandma out for coffee.

Mark brought a box full of games and was able to play a handfull of them with various relatives. Andrew was very interested in learning new games and was quick to catch on.

It was great having lost of people around to help take care of Claire. My mom was great too, she took care of Claire in the early mornings so that Mark and I could sleep in. Claire had a couple of rough nights and one really good night. And amazingly enough last night she only woke up one time! So why was I so groggy all morning?! I got to nap around noon for about a half hour.