Christmas 07

Christmas is like getting a part time job that involves travel, manual labor [ie "Some assembly required"], over eating, and late nights. Last Saturday, we drove to Waupaca. Christmas Eve we drove to Oxford, WI for the Erickson family Christmas [my mother's side]...and then back to Waupaca. Christmas day, we drove to La Crosse to and enjoyed another huge meal with Kaye's family. My mom visited us from Thursday to Sunday. She and Charlotte got lots of quality time. I don't know who ran who more ragged...but I think they both enjoyed it. Lastly, we had Christmas with Kaye's immediate family on Sunday afternoon and watched the Packers.

On Saturday, Santa visited my mom's house. It was the first time Charlotte had any clue of what was going on [unlike the first time]. She had mixed emotions.


[Hat tip to Dick Cook]

Then it was off to the Erickson Family Christmas



Then back to Grandma Michael's for more gifts.



Then on to Kaye's family...



...and more presents.




Just in case that's not enough, we also have pictures.

One Year Pictures

It took two tries to get these pictures. Round one was an attempt to get pictures with her cousin, Matthew, as well as her 1 year pics. She was in no mood for this. We managed to get the picture with Matthew [even though it looks a little like a church directory picture]. We went back a week later and finally got her 1 year pictures done.


Christmas "Round One" pics & video coming soon

Matthew makes good

The other big event last weekend was my nephew's graduation from the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse with degrees in Sociology and Political Science. We are all very proud of him and know he'll do good things. Dale and Chris took us all out for dinner that night. The cake he's holding was his extra special "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles" cake. It was friggin' awesome.

Matthew's Graduation [click to view album]

Congratulations Matthew!

Charlotte's First Birthday

I was going to write a heartfelt post about how amazing the past year has been, but decided I'd just let it be what it is-a kid's first birthday. Unfortunately, the clowns, ponies, and carnie rides didn't show up. So we had lunch, cake, and presents.

We had lots of family around this weekend because of her B'day and Matthew's Graduation from UW-L [more on that in a post to follow]. Charlotte got plenty of cake, as you can see...plenty of presents, as you can see...and entirely too much attention. Between the attention and a few late night meals [and maybe some teething], she was awake every 30 minutes to an hour both nights. We're not the best at letting her cry it out anyway, but when you've got people staying at your house, it makes it even harder because you don't want them to have to endure it too.

Regardless, it's been a great year with her. She's taught me a lot about myself that I never knew. It's only been a year, but I don't remember what life was like without her, nor would I want to [or maybe I'm just blocking it out for the sake of my own sanity].

Finally got it on film

It took a while, but we finally got it on film. It's only a few steps, but you get the picture...


It took a few tries though