Blueberry Ever After

I know I am several weeks behind on this Christmas post, and it is barely still January, but humor me! We spent Christmas out in Nevada with my parents and sister and even got to spend some time with my Aunt Chris and Uncle Claude too, who are wintering in AZ. We covered more ground than you'd expect in 7 days with a 7 month old, squeezing in a trip to Laughlin, NV and also a night in Lake Havasu, AZ where we got to see the original London bridge...who knew?

Luke did great on the flights out and back. We really are lucky to have such a mellow kid. The only time he got fussy was on the landings when his little ears hurt. But as soon as we gave him a bottle he settled right down. And the time change didn't throw him off too much in NV either. He let us sleep until almost 7am most mornings and the best part was the morning after we arrived home, when he slept until 9:30am. Score!

His Nana & Grandpa did a good job of spoiling him for Christmas but we did manage to fit everything in our cases to carry home. Luke's favorite toys so far have been a jack-in-the-box and spinning top, both of which he finds mesmerizing.

It is hard to believe his first Christmas is over and we have started a whole new year. 2009 was packed full of amazing surprises for us. It started out a little rocky but quickly turned into the best year of our lives. I look forward to seeing what 2010 brings for us!

The London Bridge, all decked out with holiday wreaths:

Luke was very serious that day, taking in all the sights:

Posing by the fountains:

Hey does this thing work?

Luke had lots of fun playing with Grandpa Tim:

And he loved hanging out with Great Aunt Chris:

As you can see, Uncle Claude was really impressed with all of us:

Grandpa, how does my hat look?

Jay was formally initiated into the family this year with an Inch-style stocking:

Of course, Luke had to have one too:

Waking up Aunt Becky Christmas morning:

The tree with a crapload of presents underneath!

Luke got lots of nice gifts that morning:

But of course, playing with the paper is always more fun!

Modeling his new outfit from Aunt Courtney:

We have adopted the English tradition of Christmas crackers, they are so much fun, especially after a few mimosas!

I am working on catching up on holiday posts. Here is a quick preview of Luke's first Christmas. As you can see, he really loved tearing up all the paper more than seeing what was inside it!

I don't know what is up with me but I am feeling extra-Christmasy this year. Maybe motherhood has truly gotten to me, but I am just filled with holiday spirit and joy and I am doing my best to spread it everywhere. I have bought toys for tots, donated to the food bank, contributed to St. Jude's, pretty much done everything shy of sitting on Santa's lap myself to thank him for such a great year. Not that I don't normally enjoy Christmas, I do, it's just that I typically don't want to hear Christmas music until I go to mass on Christmas Eve, so being exposed to it for hours on end while running errands usually makes me want to poke my eyes out with a stick.

However, yesterday I found myself humming along in the middle of Walgreens and anyone who knows me can tell you how un-Heather-like that type of behavior is. I was shocked myself when I realized what was happening. I suppose I just feel so lucky to have a happy, healthy baby and a husband who puts gas in my car so I don't have to stand out in the cold and do it myself. Really lucky. So if you catch me humming some Bing Crosby in the next couple of weeks, no I haven't lost my mind. I am just so disgustingly happy it slips out before I even realize it. I will try and contain myself but this year I can't make any promises.

Merry Christmas Everyone!!!

My husband requested a holiday wish list from me the other day and it got me to thinking, as I could offer nothing I truly wanted or needed off the top of my head (apart from a shiny new ipod to replace the one that went missing this summer). A few items began to occur to me this week and let's just say I feel super lame about even putting most of them out here:

• New kitchen scissors. Yes, I said it.
• Dish towels for the kitchen that are pretty, neutral and not stained.
• Hand towels for the guest baths that are also pretty, neutral and not stained.
• I still want fluffy gray bath towel sets for the master bath (see birthday wish list).
• A kickass food processor, perhaps one that doesn't make it sound like a 747 is attempting to take flight from inside my kitchen, like my current one does.
• Aforementioned iPod. Preferably the touch, 16 or 32GB.
• A nice reusable water bottle with a spout, bpa free that doesn't drip or leak all over me, something like this: http://www.amazon.com/Camelbak-CamelBak-Better-Bottle-Limited/dp/B002HQTVXW/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&s=toys-and-games&qid=1257972153&sr=8-4

There are actually a couple of fun items like Wii games on my amazon list which I am too lazy to list here. But as you can see, I have the list of a Mom. Not someone else's Mom either, this is all me...when did I get this old?

Let me apologize for being so slack with my blogging recently. Despite being unemployed, I am keeping surprisingly busy! Plus, loading pictures into blogger has been a major PITA so this update has taken some time. But, I wanted to start catching everyone up on what has been going on with us, so let me start with our Christmas vacation. This year we hopped across the pond for the holidays, landing first in England and then traveling to Spain to spend Christmas with Jay's parents. Once again, I was blessed with beautiful weather in England. It didn't rain a drop the whole time we were there!

The first day was a whirlwind day, but I did get to meet my brother-in-law finally. He's real! And we had a nice fish and chips takeaway with Kate and Joel that night, the first of many on our trip. Yummy!

This is the very posh restaurant Carl works at, Le Manior in Oxford. He has got the cooking skillz. Jay took this same picture about 37 times while Kate and I waited in the car. We even left him and came back. I don't think he noticed.

Moving on to Spain...how would you like this view from your back garden? Not too shabby, right? This is the little village that Jay's parents live in, which is in the Murcia region of Spain. There is a castle on top of the hill in the center of town, as well as a beautiful church. The view was gorgeous at night with all the tiny houses stacked on top of each other all lit up.

Our first full day in Spain we went down to a small seaside village on the Mediterranean coast called Mazarron.

The weather was only slightly chilly, but 100% sunny and beautiful so we got to sit outside by the sea and eat lunch (more fish and chips, believe it or not) and take in views like these:

Apparently in the warmer months the beach stays chocker with people so it was nice to be able to take in the sights on a very quiet and deserted day.

Here we all are, cheesing it up for the camera and hoping the nice Spanish man doesn't decide to run away with it:

Back at Jay's parents house, here is the daytime view of the village:

After a massive dinner, we decided it would be a good idea to walk to the top of the hill to have a look at the castle. Let's just say the walk home was my favorite part of this excursion, as it was downhill! Just kidding, it was really cool to see everything up close.

We have a tradition in this family of not removing our pj's on Christmas Day so here Pete and I are in our holiday finest:

Boxing Day was our last day in Spain, so Jay's parents took us on a little trek to a monastery not far from their house. It's on top of a mountain. Joel decided to bike up the mountain. The rest of us opted to ride in the car to point, laugh and wave at him. I was seriously impressed that he brought his mountain bike all the way to Spain for the holidays. You know, not impressed enough to borrow it and exercise, but impressed nonetheless. But seriously, Joel is a superstar!

Here he comes...see I wasn't kidding about him biking up a mountain!

The view from the top:

Taking a breather:

We ran into some goats wandering the grounds of the monastery. They all had bells around their necks and made lots of music for us as they ran from the cameras.

I did have a little trouble leaving Spain, because when we landed there was no one at customs to check passports, so we just entered the country without anyone thinking to make sure we were okay...so when I went to leave I had to explain this in my very limited Spanish to the nice man who was in charge of stamping my passport on the way out. Luckily, I just had to fill out a form and he let me through, and Jay even waited on me in case they dragged me off in handcuffs! But it was all good.

We spent the night in Brighton with Rob when we got back to the UK and then headed back up to Kate and Joel's on our last day there. This time we had curry takeaways for dinner and a relaxing evening on the sofa watching a movie. Kate was even nice enough to take us to Tesco's the morning of our flight home so I could get my last minute biscuits and crisps to take home. Thanks again Kate!

We had a wonderful visit with everyone and can't wait to go back. And to think, next time we will be a party of 3!