Pre-Christmas Preparations

Before we left for West Virginia on the 20th, we managed to have a few little Christmas celebrations of our own.

First, the ward party on the 13th. I spent the first half of the party dishing up food for the youth to serve to everyone. Despite what you may think, this was actually pretty fun. We have a good group of kids. We had a good time socializing--we really, really like our ward. Before we left I joined the other new moms who butted in front of the Primary kids to get pictures with Santa. As you can see, Seth was thrilled. At least he didn't scream... The only downside to the evening would be the passing along of the stomach virus. For some reason it makes me feel better to know that Jon didn't get it from me.

Despite our plethora of illnesses, I was feeling decent enough to attend my students' first piano recital on the 18th. Bente was kind enough to let us use her home (and to let us in the house once I promised not to breathe too much on her family). The kids did so well. There were a couple who didn't practice like they should have, but the rest were SO good. I want to take credit for it, but that goes to their parents and themselves. I wish I'd gotten a picture, darn it.

On the 19th Daniel & Wendy drove down from New York to spend the night before we caravaned together to West Virginia. Before they got there we had Seth open a few presents from the Mikesells (so we didn't have to haul them around). Let's just say that he is one extremely spoiled baby boy. Being the lame parents we are, we didn't actually get him a present from us. We used the money from the Carnahans to buy him a booster seat and called that his present. How awesome are we?

Our drive out was nothing short of miraculous. Seth made it over 4 hours without eating, which is amazing for my son who screams for food at exactly 3 hours past his last meal. Baby Megan (2 months old) did awesomely as well. We had a nice lunch/dinner at Texas Roadhouse before finishing up the last two hours of driving.