December

We had a busy December full of lots of fun.  Some of the highlights:

1. Noah's Special Date with Grandpa

Ryan's dad owns a small plane for his business, and he needed to bring it to Twin Falls to be repaired, so he stayed overnight with us one day in December while they were working on his plane.  Ryan and I had a work party to attend, so Grandpa babysat Noah and spoiled him rotten.  First they went to KFC for mac and cheese (Noah's favorite), then they went and saw the movie Frozen (Noah is obsessed), and of course, they had to stop for blizzards at DQ on the way home (Grandpa loves ice cream).  Noah was in hog heaven!  That was probably the most exciting night of his life thus far.  In fact, when I told Noah that he would be going to the movie theater with Grandpa, he put his hands in the air and did a little "raise the roof" gesture and said, "Whoop! Whoop!"  Ryan and I both cracked up because we had never seen him do that before.  He must've been pretty pumped.

2.  Preparing for Christmas

Noah sort of "got" Christmas this year, which was really fun.  He knew it was a special and different time of year, due to the decorations we put up at home and all of the holiday lights that he saw around town.  He loved helping us decorate our (pathetically small) Christmas tree and insisted that the beads that we strung on the branches were a "scarf."  He kept saying that the tree was "so tall."  Um, not so much, but whatever you say, kid! :)  

I enjoyed teaching Noah a little bit about the true meaning of Christmas.  One night, we watched a short video depiction of the Christmas story that was produced by our church, and that was really helpful in talking through the Bible story with Noah.  We also have the Little People nativity set, and Noah and I would often play with it and talk about all of the characters.  Noah learned the basics of the Christmas story, such as the facts that Baby Jesus was born in a stable, Mary was Jesus' mother, Joseph was Jesus' earthly father, and our Heavenly Father sent Jesus as a gift to us because He loves us.  He also fixated on the wisemen for some reason and often told me that they brought Jesus "gold, frankincense, and myrrh." :)

Honestly, I didn't really go "all out" on Christmas this year with lots of traditions and fun--I felt too sick and tired from being pregnant--but Noah was thrilled with what we did do.  Sometimes I feel like it's hard to get into the "Christmas spirit" (whatever that means) when life is so busy and draining, but I'm realizing more and more that simple is fine.  We read the Polar Express a lot, listened to Christmas music, burned a pine-scented candle most days, and drove to see a cool light display in a nearby small town one night.  Good enough for Noah!

Because we were going to be in Denver for the holidays, we celebrated Christmas early with Noah's Idaho grandparents, and he was very excited about the new cars and racetrack that he got from them!

3.  Visit with Noah's Birthparents and their Families

One thing that I really dislike about living in Twin Falls is that we have to drive so far to get to an airport.  The Boise airport is about two hours away, but it doesn't have as many flight times and tickets are more expensive, so we often make the long 3.5 hour drive to the Salt Lake airport.  The only plus to this arrangement is that we can see family and friends in Utah on our way out of town.

So on the day we were flying to Colorado for the holidays, we spent the morning and afternoon with Katie and Drew and their families in Utah.  It is always so fun to see them.  There is usually a big gathering of people, excited and waiting to see Noah.  They love him and they love us, and it's just really awesome to feel the connection, love, and support that has come with this open adoption.  It's honestly always a highlight of my holiday season.

Every time I see Noah with Katie and Drew, I feel so grateful that he is never going to have to wonder if they loved him and wanted the best for him when they chose adoption.  What a blessing!

4.  Lots of Traveling!

Not only did we drive to Utah and then fly to Denver in the days leading up to Christmas...we also flew from Denver to San Diego on Christmas day and spent a few days there with my little sister and her husband.  Laura was due to have a baby any day and couldn't travel for the holidays, so we decided to visit her so she wouldn't be too lonely (and so we could soak up a little sun).

Overall, Noah was a trooper during such a lengthy, complicated trip, but he definitely hit a wall by the end of it.  I've noticed that when he and I travel together, he does really well until about the sixth day, and then he starts to absolutely lose it.  I guess he's just tired of being out of his routine and his own bed for so long.  It doesn't help that I am also really tired of traveling by that point, so I am not as patient with him.  On the flight to Denver, he was really pleasant and funny.  He was watching out the plane window and saw the bags go up the conveyor belt and into the plane, and he informed us that they were going into the "belly of the plane."  "So they're kind of like food, but they're not food, but they kind of are!"  Where does he come up with this stuff??  And at one point, he was muttering to himself and said quietly, "So, I guess I'm inside an airplane right now."  Hahaha.  I love him.

On the flight home from San Diego, he was not in such a good mood.  During our layover, we rode the train from one concourse to the next for about an hour to keep him distracted, and he liked that--until we had to get off in order to make our next flight, at which point he had a complete meltdown and smacked me in the face.  Lovely.  I think future trips with Noah need to be limited to a maximum of one week and probably only one destination and not multiple plane trips. (Duh, Mom, right??)

That said, we really loved both trips, to Denver and to San Diego, and I am going to devote separate blog posts to each of them in the near future.

Wow, this post ended up much longer than I expected.  December was an exhausting but fun month, and we feel fortunate to have been able to spend so much time with loved ones and family.