Happy New Year!

We had a wonderful Christmas and New Year’s holiday and we’re getting back in the groove of life. We spent most of last week trying to clean up the house and find places for the gifts we received.

A couple weeks before Christmas, we were able to get together with my mom’s brother, Uncle Charlie, and most of his family at the lakehouse. Samuel had a blast chasing around Dellaina, Wyatt, and his 3 second cousins, Charlie, Alex, and William. Alex (5 years old) really took to Samuel and led him around the house by the hand to show him things or find toys to play with. It was pretty darn cute.

We spent most of the holidays in Atlanta. I had to work on Christmas day, so we got together with Daniel’s mom’s family for brunch the morning of Christmas Eve. Samuel had a great time running around and following his older cousins (second cousins), Will, Christopher, and little Waverley. The next morning was so slow at work that I didn’t have to go in until 1pm, which was nice because we were able to wake up and do Christmas morning with Daniel’s parents, grandparents, and Andrew and Katie. Samuel was a bit overwhelmed by all the presents and commotion, but he had a great time opening all his gifts and playing with his new toys.

Around noon, I and 3 other nurses went into work to relieve the 4 nurses who had come in that morning. There were 8 of us scheduled for the day, but since it was so slow, they had us split the shift. We had 2 patients come into triage for some short monitoring, but after we sent them home, we didn’t have another patient on the floor all day. We mostly sat around the nurses’ station, did some busy work, and chatted for 6 hours...

Samuel got a lot of great toys from Daniel’s family, but he LOVED the powered 4-wheeler, like the one Wyatt has. He has ridden Wyatt's successfully, but I guess he didn't want to "ride" it that morning. He was doing really great, too, maneuvering around the corners, not running into any walls - until he took his eyes off the road and ran into Mimzy's antique dresser in the hall! Yikes!

That evening, we spent the night at Daniel’s folks again, then Daniel and I got up the next morning and headed out to the lakehouse. Samuel stayed at Mimzy’s to avoid all the sickness going around at the lake. We spent that afternoon with most of Dad’s family and opened presents before dinner. It was utter chaos with so many people passing around so many gifts. That evening we had a nice dinner prepared by my cousin Tina (far right). It was a wonderfully non-traditional Christmas meal. Daniel headed back to Atlanta that night to take care of Samuel and I stayed and rode back with Andi and the kids on Monday morning. We were also introduced to Garris’ girlfriend for the first time, Beth. She was very sweet and seemed to fit right in with our crazy group...

The 2nd was Mimzy’s birthday! They celebrated down at the beach for a week and headed back home Sunday. I got a text from Mimzy on New Year’s Eve that they had been soaking up the sun on the balcony overlooking the ocean all day and were going out to a very nice seafood restaurant. Later they were going over to the Wharf to watch the fireworks…what a life!

Our New Year’s wasn’t quite as interesting since I had to work New Year’s Eve and Day, but Daniel and I did get the chance to go out together that Saturday night. For the first time, we got an actual babysitter who’s not a family member! Daniel’s neighbor growing up has 2 daughters, and Emily, the oldest (16, I think) came over. She got here when Samuel was finishing up his dinner and we all went up to start his bath. Daniel ran to the grocery store and I headed out to meet up with my friend Stefanie who’s birthday we were going out to celebrate. So (the other) Emily finished up his bath, got him in his pj’s, and read some stories just in time for Daniel to get home from the store and help put him down. Samuel took to Emily pretty quickly and they seemed to have a great time together. Daniel hung out at the house a few minutes to make sure Samuel went to bed okay then came to meet me and the rest of the birthday party crew for dinner, dancing, and drinks. I was surprisingly comfortable with Emily here with Samuel and didn’t worry about him at all while we were out, although it helped that he was already sleeping I guess.

This morning, Samuel woke up far too early but was crying and wouldn't lay back down. So I got up and stumbled through the dark and brought him back to bed with us. He flipped and flopped like a fish and eventually just sat up and started playing. Daniel and I stayed in bed as long as we could, but we eventually gave in.

We got up and made cinnamon rolls (yum!) and then headed out. Samuel and I went to Snip-Its to get his first official haircut! He did an amazing job, I was really impressed, and the stylist was so fast it was done before we barely got started. :) His hair, especially around his ears, had gotten very shaggy and it would get all matted like a bird's nest on the back of his head after sleeping on it through the night. It looks so much cleaner and cuter now, to me. :) If I thought he was growing out of the baby phase before, he really looks like it now! I forgot my camera, but I tried to snap some pictures with my phone. (The black spots on the pics are spots on my camera lense, sorry)

Well, 2009 was an incredible year watching Samuel change from an infant to an all out whirling dervish of a toddler. We’ve got some great memories but even higher expectations for 2010! Happy New Year everyone!