Christmas Part 3

On Christmas morning, despite the insane lack of sleep, both night owls were ready to go:

Colin got right to opening his presents. 

Mommy had a little more fun with Colin's toys then he did...

We missed Uncle Hunter terribly but were excited to be able to have him on Skype for most of Christmas morning.  It was almost like he was right there with us.

 

He was able to watch each of us open the presents he sent back with Mimi and Pappy from their visit to Munich.

Here is the screen shot of what Uncle Hunter saw on Christmas morning (gotta love Facebook in the background).  Colin is trying on his present, a bib from Uncle Hunter's friend's bike shop.

Pappy and Uncle Ron also received some fun presents from Uncle Hunter ~ the official Oktoberfest 2011 boxers.

Colin not only received presents but also gave some as well!  He decided to give each family member a special framed photo (or two) of him.

Mimi was overjoyed by her "I Love Mimi" frame.

Aunt Veronica liked her picture too!

We couldn't forget about our other child, Lilly!  Santa brought her a new toy too which she has already destroyed just a few weeks later. Poor Clarice.

Mommy had a great time with Colin Christmas morning!

What a sweet baby boy:

Once we were finished opening presents and having a yummy breakfast made by Mimi we headed to Christmas mass.  Colin had been up all morning and fell asleep in Daddy's arm half way through the service.  Daddy had a sweet moment with him during the playing of Silent Night.  He really missed his baby while he was deployed. 

Although it was so cute how Colin fell asleep on Daddy we were all a little skeptical of how he was feeling since this pretty rarely happens.  Mimi had been concerned all morning that he didn't look right.  He had some bad diapers and lots of spit up in the morning.  After church we were even more concerned however, when we got back home he was all smiles.

Unfortunately, just a few seconds after this picture was taken (thanks Aunt Tess for the bib!) Colin lost pretty much all of the contents of his stomach over and over again.  This continued to happen the next time he ate with more yucky diapers as well.

When we called the Goodwillie family to let them know little Colin was sick we found out about how awfully sick half of the family was up there.  We were set to go to Nana and Grandpa's in the afternoon and weren't sure what to do with everyone being sick.  We finally figured that if Colin was already sick there was no harm in going to visit his sick cousins.

Since Colin wasn't feeling good he was much more cuddly then usually and enjoyed time with Pappy before we left (complete with a huge rag to catch whatever came out of his mouth!)

While we were getting ready to leave and attempting to gather over a month's worth of stuff Mommy accumulated around the Mimi's house Daddy took Colin for a walk.  We figured the fresh air would do him some good.  Fortunately, he fell asleep so we kept him parked outside all bundled up until we left.  He slept all the way to Nana and Grandpa's house!

Once we arrived at their house we found that the other half of the family had the exact same idea!  After Uncle Thomas and Uncle Anthony walked Augustin and Joergen they set them in the garage until they woke up.   I guess this is the best way for our little guys to nap on Christmas!

Once Colin woke up, he seemed to be doing much better and enjoyed some fun dressing up with cousin Joergen.

Later in the evening, we opened presents with the Goodwillie side of the family.  Unfortunately, we were still missing Aunt Erin, Sarah, and Pierre who were still in bed and still very sick.  Can you imagine being a kid and so sick you can't/don't even want to open your presents?  How awful!  Nana was still very much under the weather as well but did her best to make the most of it.  Mommy was certainly excited about one of Colin's presents from Nana and Grandpa: "The Going to Bed Book"- hint hint Colin.

Aunt Jen found the perfect gift for the new additions to our family. What is more precious then baby bums with their names on them?

So cute!

This picture alone verifies that poor little Colin just was not himself on Christmas.  Colin will never lay his head on anyone--not even Mommy--so this was definitely out of the ordinary.  He was so cuddly and just allowed his body to rest on me.  I have to admit I truly enjoyed this side of him but wished it wasn't because he wasn't feeling well! 

We still aren't sure what was wrong with Colin and if it was even related to what his cousins had ~ which was much much worse!  Colin did not have any more symptoms by the next day. His cousins on the other hand were still unable to open all their presents for days.  Poor little guys.

As usual, Colin would not fall asleep.  Daddy and Mommy decided to take him on a drive for some motion induced sleep and to see an awesome light display we'd been wanting to check out.  We drove around a long time before getting to the house but Colin was still awake.  I guess he didn't want to miss this. or this.

How cool is that?!  It was done by a Central York High School student as a project and was very impressive.  You turned your radio to a certain dial to hear the music and there were over 5 choreographed songs.


We decided to do some highway driving to finally put Colin to sleep, which of course did the trick.  We brought him back to the house asleep and Daddy was able to enjoy some drinks with the boys.

Although illness plagued our family this year, we still had a great time celebrating together.  We felt very blessed to have every single member of our family with us except for Uncle Hunter (we missed you!!). The best part was having Daddy with us.  We've been so fortunate over the years to have him home at Christmas time and never know from one year to the next if he will be able to share in the holidays with us.  He was able to share in Colin's first Christmas and for that we will be forever grateful.

Christmas Part 2

The day before Christmas Eve the Derry cousins arrived to complete the whole Goodwillie family! It's hard to believe but this was the first time everyone had been together in two years!!! Aunt Jen gave Nana a break and cooked dinner for all fourteen of us.  Once we figured out how to seat our forever growing family we settled in for a great meal together.

After dinner, Colin enjoyed his favorite pastime...sucking on Nana's fingers.

Liam and Pierre, on the other hand, got down to business being boys...taking off their shirts and running around the house screaming...

Aunt Erin, who had her hands full all week taking care of herself and Augustin, finally got some cuddle time with Colin. No doubt the tv must have been on since Colin appears to have his laser eyes on it instead of the camera.

On Christmas Eve morning we all packed in our cars and went to the market in downtown York.  Nana and Grandpa helped get everyone in the spirit with their festive hats.

Mommy enjoyed time spent with Sarah...

while Daddy enjoyed showing Colin all of the stands around the market.

Colin donned a Santa hat and joined in the festive spirit with Nana and Grandpa.

Before we left the market, Mommy was able to capture this sweet shot of father and daughter happiness.

Back at Nana and Grandpa's house...

Colin exchanged kisses with cousin Sarah.  (I say "exchange" because this is how Colin gives kisses.  He opens his mouth nice and wide to "kiss" back.)

He went flying with Uncle Anthony:

Made silly faces with Gee Gee:

Hung with all the girls:

And "played" with cousin Joergen and Augustin on the couch.

 

He was so excited to spend time with family and couldn't wait to celebrate his very first Christmas!

But first, there was another celebration to be had, Augustin's first birthday!  Luckily he was beginning to feel much better.

Aunt Erin helped Augustin open our special card and gift before we had to leave to go to Mimi and Pappy's house for their Annual Christmas Eve party.

Colin was so happy to see Aunt Jen and Mimi who he missed all week.

Major smiles for Mimi, as always.

Mimi missed Colin as well and couldn't wait to get him back in her arms.

Aunt Grace gave Colin his very first Christmas present.  He had a hard time opening it since he was a little preoccupied with eating the bag instead.

With a little help, Colin was able to find out what was inside...his very own stocking with a big ol' C on it just for him.

We promptly added Colin's stocking to the mantle to make it complete.

Colin was quite the partier! Here he is hanging with our family friend, Corey.

Corey's dad, Mr. Gary, brought his annual oysters to share.  Colin had to pass on them for this year at least...

Another present break time!  This time, Colin got to open his first present from Mommy and Daddy. It is an Owens tradition to receive pajamas as your only gift from Mom and Dad on Christmas Eve.  This is a ritual I loved growing up (and still do!).  I am so excited to pass it on to our children starting with Colin's first Christmas.

He was a little less distracted this go around and actually opened up most of the present on his own.

What's so funny about pajamas you ask?  Once Colin realized what was under the wrapping paper and I mentioned "night night" he began crying.  Proof that this is a boy who does not like sleep...especially if there's a party going on!

After getting Colin ready for bed and completing his night time routine we tried to put him in his pack and play to sleep.  You could barely hear the noise downstairs but Colin was well aware that he was missing out on a party.  After lots of crying, we decided to just let him stay up till he eventually passed out.

Good thing we let him rejoin the party because Mommy's friend Kevin came over and would have missed Colin if he fell asleep.  Kevin thought it was pretty funny how all Colin wanted to do was suck on his finger.

 While Uncle Ron and Uncle Thomas played for everyone Colin cuddled with Miss Margie....

and Aunt Crystal who worked realllly hard to make him fall asleep.  He looked so exhausted!

We had quite the sing along going on complete with an ode to Mimi: "Love Grows Where My Rosemary Goes."

We found out later that back at the Goodwillie house they were having a sing along of their own at the exact same time.

As you can see, it was a little calmer at the Goodwillie household however, it turned out to be the calm before the storm.  It was only hours later that Nana, Aunt Erin, Sarah, and Pierre all got sick....very sick...all night long.  There was no sleep happening at the Goodwillie house and as it turned out none at the Owens house either.

Once we finally got Colin to fall asleep just before midnight he was back up again at 1:30.  No matter what we did we could not get him to fall back asleep.  The party, which STILL continued downstairs, didn't help!  Around 3:30 I decided I had no choice but to take him for a drive. Aunt Veronica drove around New Freedom with me until Colin finally fell asleep.  He slept in his car seat until he woke up again later.  In hindsight, we really wished we would have taken him for a drive much earlier in the evening!  You live, you learn!