Week 42

Dec 23-29

Outside of Grandma's house

As you all know the Storch family traveled home to South Carolina for Christmas with our families this year. This was a special Christmas...Baby's 1st! :) We had planned on leaving sunny FL at 3:00 am to make the 7-8 hour drive to SC. Jack decided that he was way too excited and he woke up at 1:00 am. We figured we might as well take advantage of the extra time so we quickly fed him and packed up the rest of the car. We made pretty good time and got to Grandma's house early that morning. On our first day we went ahead and started our usual holiday traditions...we baked cream cheese cookies so we could decorate them. It's kind of funny because our holiday traditions are usually celebrated way after Christmas, we just have to pretend like it's the holidays since Ed is out to sea, or I have to work at the hospital. So this was fun because it really was the holidays. Our cookie decorating gets pretty intense. We go the extra mile and add ridiculous details. Harvin judges them. Ed was the reigning champion, but I stole his thunder with my beautiful choo-choo train cookie. :) I knew Harvin loved trains and he would have to go for mine. Here is a picture of Jack "helping" bake the cookies by licking the mixer. He went to town on it!

Some of the many cookies we decorated.

The next day was Christmas Eve and we traveled out to Lexington, SC to visit Uncle Ryan & Aunt Amanda. Amanda had sinus surgery a few days before and was unable to leave the house. We decided to bring Christmas to them! We did experience some minor flaws in our plan...

First I missed the turn to their house and while attempting to make a u-turn using someone's driveway, I failed to mistake a patch of grass for a hole and ended up getting the Highlander stuck. It's funny now looking back, but as it was happening I was absolutely mortified. Here is a picture. The other incident that day was that Honey Baked Ham failed to deliver the ham that Grandma had ordered for Ryan & Amanda, but they did deliver the side dishes. Luckily Grandma had ordered a ham for her house too, so she had a spare and was kind enough to share.

To make a long story short we made it safe and sound, the Highlander ended up being fine, just needed a little assistance pulling it out. We all made it inside and opened presents, visited with Ryan, Amanda, Amanda's dad, and Willow (the dog). Jack had a great time at their house!

Here is a picture of him opening his present with Willow watching in the background.

After our visit we drove back to Sumter to get ready for Mass that night. I was a little nervous because Jack hasn't been to church in awhile and I thought the Christmas Eve service would be long. I knew it would also be very crowded and I didn't want Jack to ruin it for anyone. Here we are before church taking pictures in front of the tree. Jack wore his little reindeer sweater vest.

Jack and Grandma!

Storch Family Christmas Eve 2009

After church we came home and relaxed for awhile and eventually went to bed because Santa was coming that night! :)

Jack Christmas morning!

Underneath the Christmas tree was a platform built by Grandpa Harvin to fit the train, the manger, and the village! How fun is that??

Jack among some of his presents. Poor kid is so deprived...

Daddy helping Jack open presents.

Mommy helping Jack open presents.

Jack sitting on his airplane Grandma got him...LOVES it!

Jack and Grandma

Here are some pictures of everyone opening presents after Jack went down for his nap.

Ed opening his new food processor!! He LOVES it!

Grandma opening her beautiful new luggage for her trips that Grandpa Harvin got her. New Year's in Chicago and a tropical cruise in February!!

Here is Grandpa Harvin opening his new tool chest! He is so surprised!!

This is me opening my new sewing machine! :)

After opening presents we had a lovely Christmas morning brunch on Grandma's snowman plates. We all pitched in and cooked up eggs, bacon, fresh fruit, biscuits, ham, orange juice, coffee, and anything else you could possibly want for brunch. It was DELICIOUS! Jack especially enjoyed eating scrambled eggs.

After brunch we showered and got dressed so we could drive over to Columbia to open presents with my family. Jack stopped at both my parents houses for Christmas all over again. Here he is opening presents with Aunt Caroline, Uncle Will, and Uncle Andy. He liked all the tissue paper. He's wearing his new red Polo sweater vest and button down shirt from Grandpa Harvin. Quite dapper!

We had to take a break to feed Jack again. I am surprised he actually ate that day with all the people, presents, and excitement going on. We tried our best to keep him on his regular schedule, and for the most part he pretty much stayed true to his usual activity. We scheduled his naps around when we would be driving. I really don't like him to "nap" in his carseat or stroller, but it was our only option if we wanted to make all of our stops. He did very well and wasn't cranky. He even still went to bed right on time pretty much every night we were away. Thank goodness Grandma has a crib at her house, I don't know what we would have done. I can't imagine him sleeping in a playpen...I feel like he would jump right out of it.

After we got back from Columbia we got to open presents up with Lucius! Jack was really starting to get the hang of it at this point. :) We opened more presents, and then got ready for Christmas dinner. Grandma made a DELICIOUS Christmas dinner and we all sat down in the formal dining room and had a wonderful meal together. I wish I had gotten some pictures of dinner, but I forgot. :(

Christmas at Grandma's house was so much fun!! It was so nice to actually travel back home for the holidays. Ed and I rarely get time off together so it was very special to celebrate Jack's first Christmas as a family. Thank you to everyone who made it possible!!!!