christmas 08, recap

christmas 2008, here we go...
our christmas began the week before actual christmas when my mom and stepdad visited us in indy for what was supposed to be our christmas weekend. unfortunately a major case of food poisoning ruined our plans. they had stopped at wendys in south haven, michigan on the way down for a quick bite to eat, shared a cheeseburger in case you are wondering. at 2am they were both struck simultaneously with intense nausea and it went from bad to WORSE. sadly it took them until mid-week THE FOLLOWING WEEK to fully recover and want to eat again, many days after their visit. needless to say wendy's is off our list for a long time.

so they stayed in bed up in our guest room for basically the entire weekend while we made our special christmas dinner of beef tenderloin, cheese potatoes, pie, etc.just tim and i. we ate the blueberry coffeecake ourselves too. we felt so sorry for them and knew it was beyond their control and there was nothing anyone could do. declan received a new sled, lawn mower and elmo flip phone from them. i didn't think it would be nice to take pictures during presents since the patients could barely sit up and wouldn't appreciate memorializing their state.

great grandma betty and great grandpa gord sent down some goodies for us including banana bread without nuts, cookies, a cute winter picture for the mantle and two wooden puzzles for declan. he very much loves the puzzles so thanks grandma, i took these so you could feel like you were here!




christmas eve we drove to be with tim's family in lake forest, il. we alternate the two big holidays and it was their christmas year. here are a few from the big party at their house christmas eve with the mitchell side.

cute cousins



christmas day was held at tim's grandpa's house this year, he is 92. all the aunts did the cooking: lasagna, pasta, meatballs, sausage, salad. declan ate his first real italian meatball and even a black olive. of all the wonderful toys we received over the week, he was obsessed with this fisher price vacuum circa the 70s at his great grandpa's house.



more cute cousins


papa and mary kate

oh christmas tree

we braved the bone chilling cold and wind to get a christmas tree mid-december. declan was a good sport. he so badly wanted to get down in the little store where we paid for the tree, but i had to hold him or he would have certainly knocked over the platter of cookies, carafe of hot chocolate and hundreds of fragile ornaments. he is like a bull in a china shop.





the finished product, it looks and smells even more festive in real life!

checking out the new ornament from grandma nancy

we're back! haircut for the holidays

wow was this baby overdue for a cut... it went from looking perfect on his birthday late november to completely unruly. i promise i won't be posting about ALL of his haircuts, but i had to get a new camera b/c i broke our old one and i just happened to have it in my purse on this day.

his 4th (!) haircut
BEFORE, holy cow






AFTER, much better

ikea!

a couple of weekends ago we found ourselves with nothing to do so we took a drive to cincinnati to visit ikea. next time we'll see more the town has to offer, but we had a mission at hand to get an ottoman. my friends and roommates and i all used to shop at ikea in schaumburg frequently to furnish our post-college apts with budget-friendly style. i find it a sensory overload b/c it is such an overwhelming store crammed to the brim with merchandise but it is cool to visit once in awhile to see what's new in minimalist scandinavian style.

we had a great day! declan napped in the car both ways and he was very well behaved. he loved the store.... tons to look at! their shopping carts are miniature so he was the perfect size little boy. we started out with a delicious lunch including swedish meatballs, lingonberries and apple pie. i had never been to ikea with a child before but quickly realized they are a very family-friendly shop. they have purel sanitizing wipe stations everywhere to keep your kid and cart germ-free. and they have well-equipped changing stations as well as family restrooms... i was even shocked to see a diaper dispenser full of free pampers! i was prepared with my own but still, it was a nice touch.


i was tempted to buy one of their cheap $20 high chairs (pictured above) b/c of its sleek, lightweight minimalist style. he fit perfectly and seemed very comfortable and happy. makes ours feel like a giant hummer high-chair on wheels.

birthday, take 3

we just got back from a nice long cold weekend in chicago, did i mention how FREEZING it was? i forgot how much better indianapolis weather is, a mere 3 hours south makes a big difference.

tim has some cousins who visit this weekend from san jose every year and have for like the past 15 years! they have lots of sacred traditions when they visit and we had such a great time catching up with them, last year we had to miss b/c declan was just born. friday is always lunch at the berghoff, downtown shopping, the big marshall fields, having an "executive cocktail" (i just learned this one) at cote d'azur at the drake, and a very special dinner out selected by cousin patrick (petterinos this year). saturday is more shopping and eating, this year brought out walker brothers for breakfast and the carsons ribs and malnatis pizza for dinner. tim and patrick also felt the need to pick up a few buckets of ice cream too - i should have jenny craig on speed-dial after this! sunday was a a tour and visiting the unique shops up north in lake forest and highland park. and the rest of the extended family came for dinner to celebrate the birthdays of aunt meg and declan.

kelly and declan

showing off his cutest(!) new christmas pj's from the humphreys

kind of hilarious.... it was someone's idea to get the 5 squirmy kids in their matching pj's with grandpa who is in his 90s. in our heads i think it was going to be like a ll bean catalog photo but they look more like naughty elves.
poor grandpa is a little stunned by the activity.


one second before he put his little finger directly IN the candle, ouch - we didn't see that one coming! no visible burns and after a few tears he was ok, i think he was more scared of our reaction.

auditioning for the cake-eating all-star team

thanksgiving and more birthday fun

tim and i alternate the winter holidays each year with our families and this year was thanksgiving in michigan with my family (christmas will be with his family in chicago). we were happy to have clear driving weather both ways and a good little traveler in the backseat. i was so excited to see how declan liked facing forward in his carseat now that he's one! he definitely seems to like it and sings and talks a lot back there, i just giggle at his high-pitched singing of da da da da da da. who knows what the kid is thinking?


my mom put on a big traditional feast with my stepdad lynn, my uncle tom, aunt jill, grandma and grandpa and three cousins elise, hannah, delaney, elise's boyfriend justin, and my brother andy. not only were we thankful, but it was declan's 1st b-day, andy's 30th(!) b-day and mom & lynn's 11th anniversary. nothing else can occur this week in the future, there is just not any more room!

here's a great picture of my cute cousins, they are sisters. they taught me about limewire, i feel so plugged in now(and old that i'm still using itunes).

d, e and h

it was a long lazy day filled with lots of eating, family, relaxing and concluded with declan's birthday party, presents, birthday cake and leftovers. i think they all played a game too, elferaus, but i do not play games so i do not pay attention when the cards and board games come out.

sadly i dropped my camera, lens first, on the carpet and it busted so i think i lost many great birthday shots including the presents. :(

here is the cake demolition which was hilarious and messy. he started out slow and kept scanning the 13 of us watching him! then he really dug in and held his beloved balloons with one hand and stuffed his face with the other. i had never done this before so had to ask my mom when should we cut this off? he probably would have polished off every last crumb in true mitchell fashion but we did intervene and threw him in the tub.





this face is SO him!


tried to get a shot of his special birthday cupcake outfit. i had to splurge a little since he's 1 and all, got it from allysoriginals.com - she makes the most beautiful monogrammed longalls, shortalls and dresses for little ones at a reasonable price than other custom outfits out there. i plan to scrape together some funds for another outfit from her someday soon.

post-cake-bath

post-bath great grandma betty having some success reading to him! he is still obsessed with books but will not let anyone read to him.

birthday video