'Tis the season. . .

. . . for gingerbread, j(g)ingle bells and GERMS. My apologies for the lack of posts recently. We've had the wave of sickness wash over our little apartment and are just now drying out. Tommy started with a nasty hacking cough, stuffy nose and fever which ended up becoming a double ear infection. Then, while Tommy was still recovering, Will came down with a terrible cold. I managed to hold my breath long enough to pass under the wave with just a slightly stuffy nose and a bad case of the sneezes (always at least three in a row, which is nothing compared to the amazingly long string of sneezes by a one Eric Krohn as witnessed by Carrie and myself and most recently and unfortunately, Matt - yes, he is ok, and yes, it is a little weird). In any case, we are now all on the mend and just in time for Christmas! I have no idea where the month of December has gone. One minute I was studying like crazy for the last tests of the semester (1 down, hopefully 5 to go!), the next, school was over and the shopping had begun, and the next, shopping is over and Christmas is practically here. Lots has happened over the past couple weeks so I will attempt to bring you up to speed with the following pictures.

First, Tommy and I traveled to Bristol to spend a couple days with Gatty and Uncle R. and bake lots and lots of Christmas cookies! Tommy even got to decorate some of his very own.

After the baking was done, Tommy got to open his present from Gatty and U.R. - Christmas books! As you can see from the picture below, he was just as excited about the paper as he was about the actual books.

Tommy happened to find U.R.'s ukulele and spent some quality time strumming it on the Christmas rug.

The next weekend, we decided to take our Christmas pictures. After several tries, we ended up with this one:

Then, we celebrated (long distance) with Uncle Matt, Shawn and Aunt Dani, as they celebrated their birthdays! We love you guys! Happy Birthday!


Today, Tommy had his first big boy haircut. Here he is with his new look.

And then he got tired of posing! Poor guy. He's just so cute!



Hope you've enjoyed your update! I probably won't post again until after we get back from our Christmas vacation. We're heading to Virginia on Christmas Eve and then on to Pennsylvania for New Years. Looking forward to seeing everyone!

Merry Christmas, and God's blessings to all of you during this wonderful season!

A VACUUM!!

A Dirt Devil to be exact. A thoughtful family from church (who obviously knows about Tommy's favorite house cleaning tool) bought him a vacuum for Christmas! They insisted that he open it early, and I'm glad he did. You would not believe the entertainment he gets from that thing. He pushes it around constantly. He cleans the kitchen floor, the living room carpet, the laundry room, and even under the bed. Sometimes I wish it really worked!! :) What a big helper. Check out this 10 second clip of our boy and his vacuum.

P.s. Will added a video to the last post of he and Tommy opening the new gift - check it out!

P.p.s. I think most all of you who read this blog (possibly with the exception of the California crew) can lament with me over the last 3 days of (admittedly, much needed) rain. Why it suddenly turns warm just in time for precipitation is beyond me. Let's have some SNOW!

Brrrrrrr...

This past Saturday, we decided to brave the cold and head downtown to watch the Christmas parade. Tommy got all bundled up in pj pants, fleece overalls, two shirts, winter coat, gloves and hat and hopped in a friend's wagon to wheel on down to Main Street for the big event. He watched in awe as tractors, clowns, firetrucks, horses, marching bands, beauty queens, motorcycles and, finally, Santa paraded down the road in front of him. Here are a few shots of him taking it all in. Check out those pink cheecks!

After Santa passed by, we practically ran back to the car on frozen feet. After cranking the heat up to high, we headed down the road to pick out our Christmas tree. We decided to buy a cut one this year, but hope to rekindle the tradition of cutting our own next Christmas. The climate in and around our quiet little town is not quite right for growing Christmas trees (Will and I found this out only after we tried 3 different places with no luck after we moved here two years ago), so we have to trek 45 min to an hour west of here to cut anything ourselves. Last year we did make the trip only to bring home a tree that was full of bugs. Yes, bugs. So we cut one, got rid of it, and bought a new one. This year, we just bought one. Here's Tommy checking out the new addition to our living room. So far he's touched the branches, hit them with his hands and various toys, wiped them across his face, and taken a tiny taste. So curious. We've decided not to put ornaments up this year as Tommy's already broken one - that was still in the box. Back in the closet!! You can't tell from the following picture, but it does have lights on it. I think it's one of the cutest trees we've ever had. What do you think?

And last but not least, here's Tommy playing with his little nativity set. What a hit! Special thanks to Gramma for sending this fun and special set Tommy's way.


Hopefully tonight or tomorrow morning I'll add the 10 second video we got of Tommy with his first Christmas present. Guess what it is. . .

Thanksgiving 2008

Here, in no particular order, are some of our pictures from Thanksgiving 2008 at Hakuna Matata. What a wonderful few days we had spending time with family and friends.

The ocean was more like a lake.

Tommy heading down to check out the big stick Pa was burying in the sand.

Mimi and Tommy playing in the sand.

Always gotta have a stick in his little hand.

Fun with GB!

A Cotton Plains sweet tater as big as Tommy's head!

The cousin's Christmas present this year: Advent calendars!

If you can believe it, each of those calendars, along with all the ornaments, was stitched by one of those lovely ladies. Fantastic!

Tommy's been putting an ornament on every morning. Today we put Mimi's heart up at the very top! 12/05/1907 <3

Tommy got to help Dada with one of Da's favorite things - a puzzle!

How cute are they?!

Tommy found a great way to use the chair cushions at the house - make a fort!

We spent a lot of time setting them back up so Tommy could sit down inside and then burst out with a "BOO!"

Here's Pa hanging out with the boys. Tommy got to spend some quality time with his bf Henry over the Thanksgiving holiday. Believe it or not, this is the only picture I took of them together. Please refer to Hankaroo's Thanksgiving slideshow for more fun shots of the boys. Funny that the first two M-K babies are boys after 7 girls! It's my personal opinion that Dani and Meg will both have girls first. We'll see about that. :)

Tommy with Gussy, Mimi and Gatty.

Tommy with Mimi and Pa.

Big hugs for GG and GB!

And finally, a great shot of GG, GB and T-bob :)

Hope you enjoyed the pictures! Christmas will be here before we know it - busy weekends from now until then. We're hoping to get our Christmas tree tomorrow morning, so we'll get some pictures posted once we have things up and decorated.

We're sorry to be missing Deb and Damon's wedding tomorrow up in Mass. Know it will be a most beautiful and fun celebration! We'll be thinking of you guys!

Happy Weekend!

Dancin' Fool

We're back from our fantastic Thanksgiving vacation! We headed out Tuesday evening and arrived at Gramma's house shortly after midnight. While we were there, Tommy got to spend a few quality hours with Gramma and Uncle Nick and put on his dancin' shoes (or his blue feetie pajamas). Wednesday morning we continued our trip east to the Outer Banks and the family who had gathered to give thanks and eat way too much food. Mimi, Pa, Aunt Bear, GG, GB, Gatty, Uncle R., Gussy, Uncle Joe and crazy Belle dog (who is surprisingly less crazy!) all had some good laughs with, and got some great hugs and kisses from our sweet Tommy. There are pictures to share, but I have yet to load them from the camera. For now, check out this hillarious video of Tommy breaking it down to the song of the snowmen in Gramma's kitchen. Hopefully the pictures will be up here in the next day or so.