Christmas Highlights

For the 2010 holiday season, we were pretty immobile.  We were lucky enough to drive to San Diego to be with my family for Thanksgiving, but Christmas was spent in Provo, pretty much anticipating Cora's birth, and being very careful not to do anything to entice her to come early.  (As cute as it sounds, I just didn't was a Christmas or New Year's baby.   I like to keep my celebrations separate.)

So this year we lived it up.  Not too long after returning from our Maryland Thanksgiving (and an October jaunt in San Diego with my family again), we flew out to my parents' house in Ohio for Christmas.  We got to stay for 2 whole weeks (benefits of being on a student schedule again), and over the course of that 2 weeks, siblings trickled in, eventually culminating in a nearly complete McHardy family Christmas.  Less only Tobi who is still on a Mission in California.  (Sorry, kid.  We'll get together again when you return!)

Highlights: 

Erynn:  I was able to see several good friends from my former life.  Sarah brought her little boys over for a play date with Carson.  I think it was a good break for him to have kids to play with.  And it was good for me to catch up with one of my oldest friends.  Later that week, our mutual friend Lisa was in town, and we got to go out for an evening with my friends and their husbands.  We talked, ate sushi, and went to a live show performed by another old friend that I was in a band with once. 
Austin and I also celebrated our 6th Anniversary--the first time ever (since our wedding) that we've done anything celebratory on the actual date of our anniversary.  Having a Christmas-time Anniversary, it's usually more convenient to celebrate in, say, September when there's nothing else going on.  But this year it worked out this way.  And after an evening with friends, Austin and I were able to spend a kid-free night in a local hotel.  Nothing fancy, but at least I never had to wake up to deal with crying children!

Austin:  Poor Austin struggles with Ohio.  He certainly does enjoy hanging out with my family, watching movies, playing games, and philosophizing.  But we're usually only there during cold months, and even at the best of times, the state isn't much of an outdoor mecca.  And when he's on vacation, he likes to spend it out adventuring and exploring.  But this year, he discovered a "Metro Park" down the road from my parents, complete with woods, river, running trails, and indian mounds.  He spent some portion of most days running in that park. 

Also, inspired by a GPS he had received from my Dad for Christmas several years ago, he has taken an interest in Geo-Caching.  This time around, Carson was old enough to have fun with Dad on these "treasure hunts", and so they spent a bunch of time searching the area for buried treasure.  I think this was equally a highlight for Carson as well as Austin.

Carson:  Carson loves Granny's house, so he was mostly just happy to be there.  He had fun seeing all his aunts and uncles and playing games with us.  But his highlight was, of course, Christmas morning.  And despite the fact that he received several awesome car-related gifts (Lightning McQueen toys, a Hot Wheels race track, a pack of classic Chevys), the gift that received the greatest reaction was a t-shirt that Paul and Aleta got for him.  It's a black and grey 2-layer shirt with a screen-printed tiger on the front.  For some, inexplicable reason, the tiger has a wheel in its mouth.  On the sleeve of the shirt is another little tiger head--this time with no wheel.  Carson went on and ON and ON about how much he LOVED his tiger shirt (pronounced tah-ger).  And, to anyone whose attention he could accost, he explained, in very excited 3-year-old tones, that "the tiger on the front is eating a wheel!  And this one," pointing to his sleeve, "already ate the wheel!"

Cora:  Cora, after pretty much giving up entirely on the walking thing, decided to start picking it up again at Christmastime.  So she spent a lot of time falling down, crawling fast, and then trying to get up again.  She mostly had it down by the time we left.  But there was still plenty of time for crawling adventures.  The biggest and, might I add, most horrifying of which, I will relate to you.  (Warning:  This is not for the weak of heart or stomach.)

On Christmas night, Cora was crawling around exploring the semi-finished basement where our room was.  This was normal, and I didn't expect any particular problems from it.  I knew I'd probably have to fish something out of her mouth, but again, that was normal.  What then, wasn't normal was the object that I DID have to fish out of her mouth.  I picked her up to change her diaper in preparation for dinner.  I saw that she was munching something, so I squeezed her cheeks and stuck my finger in to get it.  (Ack!  Ack! my stomach is turning and my skin is crawling at the thought of even typing this!!!)  What I pulled out was a big, dead, black, fuzzy SPIDER.  Gaaaaahhhhh!!!  Seriously, I am not joking when I say that this thing was at least the size of a quarter--and that was with its legs curled up.  Oh my gosh, I screamed bloody murder and flung that horrid thing across the room.  Then I ran upstairs and ruined everybody else's appetites by telling them what I had screamed about.  Yeah, that was Cora's highlight.

And I think that about sums it up.  Good times were had, memories were made, awesome gifts were given and received, and all returned home safely.