Best and Worst/End of a Decade

I love how at about this time each year, the media always summarizes the past 365 days into neat little packages of "The Best and Worst of (insert calendar year)." It has been especially entertaining to read/watch the recap of 2009, as it is the end of a decade, as well. For the first time in my life, I am having difficulty pinning down this last decade and giving it a stereotype like the 70's, 80's, and 90's clearly have in my mind. This is somewhat ridiculous, since the past 10 years may have been the most transformative in my life. I graduated college, began & completed a master's program and earned a post-graduate degree, obtained my first job within my chosen profession (and 6 subsequent positions), married the man of my dreams, bought my first (and second) home, and lived in 7 states. However, none of this seems as significant as the past 2 years, as I began my recent life of becoming a parent. Nothing even remotely compares in this decade for me as the impact that having a child has on my existence, and how I am forever changed. As I count down tomorrow night and watch that giant ball drop in Times Square, I'll raise my glass to a tiny, sleeping little man upstairs in his crib. I'll toast to the meaning and purpose he has brought to this past decade & to our shared adventures in the years to come. That is, if I manage to stay awake til midnight. After all, you can't fault new parents for catching those extra zzzz's whenever they can!

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And now, because summarizing the past decade, year, or even month is a bit too overwhelming to me, here's my own Best and Worst List of our Recent Christmas Travels:


BEST: Visiting and spending time with special people in our lives that we don't see very often.


Cousins! (Luke represents the next generation of this group on his mom's side)



Some of my high school girls (look whose child is crying!). So far, we've all had baby BOYS (more are on the way!), but someone needs to have a girl soon to balance out the 5-0 ratio.)


WORST: Luke has learned how to tell us that he does not like taking long trips in the car. After being stuck in traffic from VA to PA for over 2 hours, Luke screamed, "ALL DONE, ALL DONE VROOM VROOM" while bucking in his car seat and attempting to unfasten his safety harness. How can you blame him? Mommy and Daddy felt the same way. (Disclaimer: Luke was an angel for the 2 longer legs of our trip, and I was pleasantly surprised by how fun he was on those car rides).


BEST: Watching our son run with unharnessed energy & giggle with delight as he saw new things, explored fun places, and returned to magical Chocolate World that we initially visited this summer.

Racing through Chocolate World with Daddy:








"These bottles aren't nearly as gigantic as last time I was here."



"Seriously Mom, I'm older now. A little chocolate is good for me.
I'll just grab these two bags and leave the rest for the other tourists."



On our way to get on the ride that tells us how chocolate is made.



Listening intently on the Chocolate Tour Ride.



Two sweet Hershey's kisses.


WORST: Luke's sleeping. We had some of the longest nights/worst sleeping since Luke was a newborn on our Christmas travels. Luke did have a cold, which made it hard to breathe at night and he was frequently awakened by coughing. Combined with being 20 months old and having an increased awareness of unfamiliar places, our average was being up for 3-4 hours at a time in the middle of the night trying to get Luke back to sleep. We tried it all: rocking, bringing Luke into bed, crying it out, etc. without success. Luke also tried to climb out of his crib in PA, making it an interesting nightly adventure for us.
***This was all worth it, however, on Christmas Eve night when we woke up to hear Luke singing the first few notes of "Away in a Manger". Despite the fact that it was 3 a.m., it was one of the sweetest sounds that I have ever heard (and the first song that Luke has ever "sung", which made it especially poignant).


A sight for sore eyes!


BEST: Among all of the wonderful, thoughtful Christmas presents that Luke received, he decided to show us that sometimes it's still fun to just play with the box.




WORST: The withdrawal that we are experiencing after 10 days of being surrounded by loving grandparents, extended family, and friends. We miss you all! Thank you for all you did to make our holiday celebrations so special!

Pennsylvania Christmas

The next stop on our Christmas travels was PA to see Mimi and Grandpa Richardson. We also had a fun time with Aunt Jamie (who flew from Florida), and visited with many friends and extended family. We had such a wonderful Christmas in Harrisburg, and just returned home to SC this afternoon. We're certainly blessed to have such a loving family, and to be able to celebrate Christmas this year with both sets of Luke's grandparents on our trip. Here are some of our favorite photos from Christmas Part 2!



All decked out in Christmas finery



Posing with Grandpa



With Mimi in front of the tree



Luke called Aunt Jamie "Beanie"!



Winnie and Luke jointly opened many presents. What a team!



Such a cutie!

Here are more pictures of Christmas Eve and Day:

'Twas the Night Before Christmas

It's Christmas Eve, and we just returned from a beautiful evening service at church. My child is nestled, all snug in his crib, and we are waiting to hear reindeer feet on our roof any minute now. Luke left cookies out for Santa, and was even willing to share his very first box of animal crackers, but as you can see, he decided to sample a few treats from the cookie plate, too!



"Santa won't notice if I take just a few, right?"



Caught red-handed!!

Winterhoff Family Christmas in Williamsburg

Our annual Winterhoff Family Christmas celebration began in the midst of the big mid-Atlantic snow storm last week. Mark, Luke, Winnie, and I made it out of SC before the snow/ice started there, and arrived safely in Williamsburg before the winter weather began. Mark's brothers & their families (coming from Richmond and Charlottesville) also changed their plans to arrive early to beat the 1 & 2 feet of snow that they were each forecasted to receive. Warm, snug, and cozy, 8 adults, 4 1/2 children (including our nephew-to-be, happily gestating in my sister-in-law's belly at 34 weeks along), and 1 dog nestled in at Grams and Poppy's house, and watched the snow fall on Friday night, with visions of a white "Christmas". We did wonder how this family (who spent 27 years in upstate NY and had relocated to the south seeking warmer weather) ended up stuck in a fierce winter snow storm. The few inches of snow that did fall here turned into a wet mess by the time all of the kids woke up on Saturday morning due to the rain, so we happily stayed inside to open presents and play with new Christmas toys.



As Grams said, "It was more of a 'Rocking around the Christmas Tree' kind of Christmas than a 'Silent Night'!"



You can just imagine the chaos of present-opening here!



Intrigued by a new toy.



Grams (or "Bean" as Luke calls her) tells the children the Christmas story.


The sequence that led up to the annual picture of the grandchildren in front of the Christmas tree:

First there was one.



Two in the chair was a bit crowded.



3 out of 4 is getting closer...


Adding a (reluctant) fourth...



But Grams and Poppy made it all better!


Here is the slideshow from our Williamsburg Christmas, also found in our Winterhoff Family Photo Albums:

Princess Mommy

We've been visiting Grams and Poppy for the last few days and celebrating Winterhoff Family Christmas. This means that there is lots of princess paraphernalia around, as Luke's older girl cousins all love Disney princesses. Luke made us all laugh this weekend when he pointed to a picture of Cinderella and said, "Mommy". How cute is Luke to think that his mommy looks like a pretty princess? What a wonderful Christmas gift from my sweet boy to his princess Mommy!




P.S. I love how Luke says, "Cheese!" with a fake smile at the beginning of this video as he notices the camera filming him. What a ham!

With apologies to Rudolph

Winnie, our black-lab reindeer
Has velvet ears and a wet nose.
And if you ever saw her,
You would know her patience shows.



All of us in her family,
Dress her up, we call her names,
But Luke even has poor Winnie
Join in all his reindeer games.



Then she asked us Christmas Eve,
"May I be on the blog?
My brother always steals the show,
Now it's time for me to glow!"



Then all our readers loved her
And they shouted out with glee,
"Winnie, you're the best sister,
Luke loves you and so do we!"

Visions of Sugar Plums (or at least one good Christmas picture of my child) danced in my head...

Here comes our second December blog installment which includes a part of a holiday song or poem in the title. It's really just too easy this time of year, so be prepared for several more cheesy headings soon. I dedicate this blog post to all parents who have endured the pain of having your otherwise adorable child decide that smiling/sitting still/posing for pictures is just not his/her idea of fun.

I have shared the following story with several people of my biggest mom melt-down to date. I have never felt more defeated than after my multiple attempts to have Luke's 18-month and Christmas portraits taken (we may have scheduled this 3 times and cancelled the 4th appointment after admitting that the situation was hopeless). I had visions of Luke dressed up in his Christmas finery, posed in front of a professional holiday set, adorable and smiling, as the face of our Christmas card this year. I was willing to pay big bucks for these priceless photos of my son, and I carefully selected his outfit, planned our appointment for his most cheerful time of day, etc. However, Luke completely melted down each time and we couldn't get him to smile at all. I ended up in tears on the phone with another mom, who reassured me that this, too, would pass, when I told her that I didn't think I'd ever be able to have another professional photo of my son taken again! I did console myself by using a great online deal to order all of my Christmas cards absolutely free of charge this year, and although I used a picture that we already had, and yes, Luke is wearing a sweatshirt and not his fancy Christmas attire, it's pretty cute and accurately captures the (WFU) spirit of our family (& is in the mail this week!). Mark and I are realizing that Luke is just not interested in having his picture taken anymore, which is just too bad considering his paparazzi mom has no intention of putting down her camera. We hope you enjoy these "outtakes" from our adventures at Winter Wonderland & photo shoot in front of our Christmas tree last weekend!


At least Mark is looking at the camera!


We have this exact picture from last year and the boys are wearing the same expressions!


Sadly, these are the best pictures, and Luke is hiding behind giant cardboard cut-outs!




We started our home photo session with Luke and Winnie together, but quickly gave up when we discovered that 2 mobile "kids" were too much to manage:


Jumping on the couch was much more exciting than sitting down!



"How did this guy get here?"



Pausing to smell the poinsettia



Still a cutie, even if he won't sit still!

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...

It officially feels like Christmas around here. Our tree is up, we've visited Santa, and we're listening to Christmas carols around the clock (thanks to Luke's requests for "mee" (music)). This year, we tried to tone down our decorating a little bit, and decided on a more modest 8-foot tree (as opposed to our 12-foot tall Goliath last year), which I promptly forgot to water all week while Mark was out of town- oops! So far, we've only had one ornament break as a result of a curious toddler who shall not be named, so I think we're doing pretty well!


Here we are in front of the tree that we chose.
I think Luke was more excited about the balloon!



Those pretty ornaments and lights are so tempting to this little reindeer!



Luke poses with his special ornament for this year.



Our 2009 Ornament



Fascinated by Santa's mailbox



Where do all those letters go?!



We thought we had a chance of getting a good picture with "Oh-Ho-Ho" (as Luke calls Santa), since Luke seemed entranced and smiled at the jolly guy as we waited our turn in line...



...but I guess Santa seemed a little scarier up close!