wrapped and unwrapped

finally, time for the main event: prizes!  we spend the next couple hours just having so much fun opening and giving gifts.  though diana and i are on a pretty tight budget, were were still able to splurge a little and get some great stuff for the kids.  ledger got some pretty awesome stuff: some fun big boy toys (well, if you can call toys geared toward 12 month old babies that) as well as some really cute clothes and stuff!  diana and i didnt make out too bad either!  diana had made some really cool jewelry for mom, jill, the girls, and miyuki, so it was great for her to give those out and share the beautiful creations she had been working on for the past few weeks.
one of the highlights when ever chad is around for christmas, is his amazing gift wrapping skills.  he has been doing this ever since i can remember.  what he does is just find the most ridiculous way possible to wrap a present- often throwing in random objects as well so that the gift will feel heavier or look different to throw us off so we dont have any idea what the gift is.  we look forward to it every year!  well, to be honest, i think he out did himself this year with jill's gift- look at that thing!  we were pretty sure it was designed to be a nun's habit, and jill was going to go flying away at any moment!
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goofy game

as we finished our dinner, aves broke out the game she had just unwrapped.  it is a silly twist on indian poker- each player gets a headband and puts a card in it, then you take turns asking yes or no questions and then guess until you figure out what is on the card on your forehead.  its a pretty simple game, but it had the whole family in stitches!  all of us, especially jackson, got a huge kick out of seeing papa with the goofy headband and a card that read 'i'm a toaster!'  it was a really silly game- i'm sure aves and tweets will get hours of fun from playing this one!
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gift break

with the first few prizes opened, it was already time for a break!  before we all headed to the dining room for food, we went outside so jackson could show off the christmas gift he had gotten from mom and dad earlier: a dart blow gun!  all the guys headed out, jackson set up a target by the shed, and showed off his impressive accuracy.  it was pretty neat, but the lure of dinner was too much, so i quickly headed back inside to help out (and by 'help out', i mean 'pretend to help so i can sneak a few chips and sweets!').  after ten minutes or so all the other guys came in as well and we were able to begin the christmas feast!  mom did a great job of making some fantastic food and treats for us!

ledger's first christmas gift

with this being ledger's first christmas, diana and i didnt know how he would react to the flurry of activity and attention.  knowing our boy, i figured he would be thrilled by it all.  turns out we were right- he loved every minute of it!  we started off the afternoon with each of the kids getting one gift before we dug in to the meal mom had prepared for us.  ledger got to be the first one to open his gift. granted, being only nine months old, he didnt really have any idea what was going on or what he was supposed to do, so jill and the girls stepped in to help him with unwrapping his prize.  even as they unwrapped it, he still had no idea what was happening, he was just happy smiling at jill, tweets, and aves while they opened his gift for him.
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oh christmas tree

with the family on the way, papa and i went up and gathered all the gifts that had been stashed away for the big day!  the tree was absolutely surrounded by prizes!  diana and i wrapped the gifts we had brought as well, so we added them to the overflowing piles.  with all these prizes, you just know its going to be a blessed christmas!

mema's toys

as mema was getting food ready for the festivities, it seemed that ledger came to an important realization: mema has toys too!  while mom and diana were in the kitchen doing a few odds and ends in preparation, ledger kept wanting to see what was going on, so we decided to just set him on the floor next to the kitchen so he could watch, but also be hip deep in a bunch of fun toys that he had never been able to play with before.  what a lucky boy!
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playing cards

the rest of the family wasnt coming until later in the afternoon, so diana and i were able to pull mema away from the kitchen for a few minutes so we could play a little cards!  this is always a highlight for me when we visit my parents: playing cards with my two favorite women in the world: my wife and my mom!  and look at that, ledge even decided to join us for a while!

christmas church

christmas morning we got ourselves up and ready.  diana and i were excited to head on out to church that morning because we knew we would see tim, jill, and the kids!  papa asked if we wanted to all pile in to one car, so i hooked up the car seat in his vehicle and we loaded everyone up for church.  it was pretty cold out, so we pulled out ledger's hat and mittens.  doesnt he look so cute?!?  it was great to get the chance to focus on the reason for christmas with a sanctuary full of praise and rejoicing!
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papa's nose

for some reason i cannot fathom, ledger really seems to like papa's nose.  when papa was holding him at lunch time, ledger decided he wanted to see what it tasted like...  what a goof ball!
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dinner with grandma

it can sometimes be hard to get around to visit everyone during the times we are home, so it was really nice that mom had made plans for grandma and jay to stop by for dinner while we were there.  grandma gets just about as excited as mom does about getting to see ledger, even though he is her 34th (or maybe 35th) great grandson!  the two of them played around, laughing at each other the whole time.

playing with uncle chad

one of the parts of our visit that i was most looking forward to was seeing my brother again.  it had bee quite a while since he last visited, so i was very excited to see him and show off ledger a bit.  turns out he had someone to show off as well: miyuki, someone my brother got to know while he was stationed in japan, came to grand rapids to spend christmas with our family too!  when the two of them came by for dinner we got a chance to meet miyuki, and a chance for uncle chad to spend some time with his newest nephew.  ledger, being the social butterfly that he is, didnt even pause when he saw the two of them- he immediately reached out to miyuki to hold him so he could say hi!

home for christmas

one of the best perks of my job is that i get two weeks off for christmas. this year i worked on saturday, but then we headed up to spend the week with my family on sunday.  the trip up went really well with ledger sleeping most of the trip!  when we arrived we were welcomed by a couple of really really excited grandparents!  we unpacked the car, which seems to be taken over by baby stuff now, and settled in for a great week of family, friends, and christmas cheer!

first turtle

there are certain toys that i really loved when i was growing up.  some of the ones i have the fondest memories of were transformers and teenage mutant ninja turtles!  ledger is still a few years too young to enjoy the challenge of changing a transformer, but he can certainly have some fun with those turtles in a half shell, right?  well, the other day diana and i got some mcdonalds and i noticed that the kids meal toy was the good ol' ninja turtles!  i found out that you can get a happy meal toy without actually buying the meal, so i picked one up for ledger to play with!  he had a fun time checking it out.  i'm pretty sure he had no idea what it was, but he sure does like to bang it on his high chair!

more space

we finally did it!  for months diana has been asking me to find a way to get rid of the treadmill in the living room.  it was taking up too much space, and she had moved on to work-out dvds instead of using it any more.  it sat there unused for months, just taking up all kinds of space.  now that ledger is big enough to need a high chair, we desperately needed the room!  well, thanks to craigslist, i was able to send it on its way to a new home where it will be used once again!  and for our troubles?  it only costed us about 50 bucks to have it for a year and a half!  not too bad, huh?

out of power

ugh.  my car, the saturn, died on me at work.  i cant figure out why either.  maybe it was the fact that i needed to get it jumped just the week before, or maybe because i accidentally left the lights on for eight hours while i worked...  no, that cant be it.  i pestered todd, one of the guys i work with, to give me a jump.  he owed me anyway- i jumped his car the month before.  we had it hooked up for about twenty minutes, but still didnt have enough power to get the transmission to turn over.  i actually had to admit that it was time to change the battery.  todd took me home that night after work, thankfully, but then i had to go back and replace it the next day.  when i got there i tried jumping it with our other car, just in case, but that didnt work either.  i pulled out my tools and got to work getting the battery out.  turns out the bolts are metric and all i had were standard measurements!  dang!  well, the next day i borrowed a few tools from a guy at work and made a second attempt to change the battery.  it went much more smoothly that time and i was able to successfully swap out the old one for the new one.  it was a pain, but i felt pretty good about my gearhead abilities after that!

latched in

our little guy keeps getting bigger and bigger!  hes really filling up his baby seat- the toys that hang down from the handle keep hitting him in the head every time we try to get him in or out of it!  he doesnt seem to mind too much because when ever he goes in it it means he gets to go out and about- his favorite!

our little pterodactyl

diana has recently taken up a new hobby: jewelry making!  she wanted to make a bunch of necklaces and bracelets to give to friends and family for christmas, so we headed over to joann fabrics to get some more supplies for her.  while she picked out what she wanted to use for each person, ledger and i took a tour of the store.  along the way we found a cute little book that accurate sums up ledger's latest fascination: squawking like a pterodactyl!
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at church

we arrived at church with our entourage for the big event!  we were a little early though... i had mistakenly thought that the saturday service started at 5:00, but it actually starts at 5:30.  oops!  well, that meant that we had plenty of time to take pictures before hand...
the service itself was great, as always, after we sang a few songs pastor kris invited diana, ledger, and i up on stage to join him.
pastor kris talked about the big committment we were making, promising to raise our son in the way of God, following His will for our life as parents, and training ledger to learn the path of Christ.  a big responsability, but one we are excited for!  it was really a great blessing to have so many family members there as witnesses to the covenant that was placed on ledger!
thanks again to everyone who came down to support us- we are truly loved!
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baptism party

with all the family that was coming to share our special day, we knew our tiny closet of a house was not going to be big enough to fit everyone, so we needed to find a bigger place to have lunch together.  wanting to save everyone a little bit of money, we decided against going out to eat and instead gathered in my classroom for pizza!  diana's family followed us over to the school and my family, mom, papa, jill, tweets, and aves, all joined us at school.  we had a great spread: a bunch of pizzas, chips, cake, and mom even brought her world famous pasta broccoli salad!
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family arrives

something that is very important to us is raising ledger in a christian home.  one of the exciting celebrations that comes along with that is having him baptized at church.  we were finally able to set a date for him and invited both our families to join us in this special day.  our church usually does baptisms during the saturday evening service, which worked out great for us- that way both our families could join us for the day and wouldnt have to worry about traveling really early sunday morning in order to make it in time for a sunday service.  diana's family, mom, david, alanna, tavish, dad, barbara, and jeffry lee arrived at our place around 2:00 that afternoon.  we got a chance to hang out for a little while and enjoy our time together.  we had plans to provide lunch for everyone, so we packed up and headed out to lunch!