Christmas in Warsaw

This past weekend the three of us headed up to Warsaw to celebrate Christmas with my family. I cannot remember the last time my sister, my brother and I were all in town at the same time! With my sister's husband, Grant getting ready to deploy to Afghanistan in Feb and my brother serving in the US Coast Guard, it was truly a blessing from above that we were able to spend this time together. For Leslie and Grant, this was the first time they were able to meet their new nephew, Owen....and only the second time that my brother and Haley were able to see him!

Auntie Haley with Owen

Owen's (honorary) Auntie Britt - who just accepted a position with the Omaha Zoo as a zoo keeper!

Our sweet niece Alice checking out Owen's toys

Our grown up niece, Gwen patiently waiting for her Auntie Julie to give her some cookies to dunk in her milk!

Our sweet Owen, sleeping the day away, ha!

Opening presents - my brother and his typical picture pose, ha!

Dad getting a HUGE surprise from Grant - it's one of Grant's former helmets that was remade to fit my dad :) Very special.

Poor Cory - 5 years ago when Cory spent his first Christmas with us, Leslie made his stocking. Well, she didn't to check how he spelled his name and gave him an "e" only to find out that's NOT how he spells his name. So, as a funny memory we've kept it as is, ha!

Leslie trying to hide her excitement about her Barney DVD from mom & dad....another funny Christmas story. Leslie has NEVER liked Barney and many many Christmases ago, mom and dad made the mistake of giving her something Barney and she threw a fit! So, now she gets something Barney each year and we wait for her reaction, ha!

Mom and Dad - they were both sick the entire weekend :(

The three of us :) Owen's 1st Christmas in Warsaw :)

My most favorite place to shop in Warsaw!!! Unfortunately, there wasn't enough time to visit during this trip.

In addition to celebrating Christmas with everyone, we had new family pictures taken (by Rich Miller). We started at mom & dad's house then ended up picking a few sites in Winona Lake for some additional shots. Unfortunately, it was SO cold out (by the lake nonetheless) and the kiddos were exhausted that we ended up calling it quits early. I think next time we do family pics, we'll try really hard to do them during warmer weather, ha! We also attended the Culligan Christmas party later that night - my grandfather started the Culligan business in Warsaw after he returned from WWII, and has since passed it on to my father and his brother, Phil. So, we were able to see the rest of the family and of course, the Culligan employees (who are wonderful!) which was a great close to the weekend.

Owen did great on the drive to Warsaw, but on the drive home he was SO upset :( Since we've traveled these last 2 weekends with Owen (first to NY then to Warsaw) we're particularly sensitive to putting Owen in his car seat for long drives. Thankfully, there are NO travel plans for this weekend :) Owen's fussiness flared up again on Monday enough to where I took him to his Peds. It looks like he caught a little virus so we're trying our best to keep him comfortable.

We still have not been able to decorate our Christmas tree (but it is set up in the house!) or put up the outside lights...so we're hoping that maybe tonight (depending on Owen) we can get to it.