Our first celebration was at Thanksgiving with Jason's family, or "ThanksChristmas" as it has been dubbed. It seems that this will be a bi-annual tradition as Jason's siblings get progressively more geographically challenging! (Andy and Heather are in Atlanta, Beth and Rory are in Chicago but his family is in Iowa, and Jeff is currently in Texas) This ThanksChristmas was particularly special because it was Logan and his cousin Sofia's "First First Christmas" (Sofia was born in April) and their first chance to meet each other as well! We were also spoiled soundly by the Sippel family at a "Welcome Logan" shower, where he got so many cute clothes and books and more! For pictures of these festive occasions, click here. And if you have a Kodak Gallery account you can view Beth's pictures by clicking here, but it will require you to sign in or create a Kodak account. We had a fantastic time and it was really great to see everyone. The only thing that would have made it more perfect is if Jason didn't have to go back to Chicago to work right away.
Sunday after Thanksgiving, Logan and I returned home to do some quick laundry and pack up once again for his very first plane ride! Our mission: to meet his Grand-daddy Bud and celebrate his birthday and Logan's Second First Christmas with the Winsteads. He also got to meet his Aunt Becca and Aunt Christine, Great Aunt Kathy and Granny, or GreatGranny, as the case may be! I was a little nervous about taking him on the plane all by myself, as Jason again had to stay behind and work. He was a super trooper on the plane, however, and didn't fuss at all really. The plane ride itself was probably the worst I've ever been on, to no fault of the little guy! There was so much turbulence that 4 people in my immediate vicinity had to use their air-sick bags. (Not sure how many total.) One panicky lady in particular was ready to kiss the ground when we landed I think! The visit was very relaxing, and we all enjoyed each other's company a lot. GreatGranny and Logan hit it off particularly well... she apparently is pretty comfy to sleep on! The flight home was much smoother, both the weather conditions and my preparedness for security measures and baby-soothing. Unfortunately, the weather in Chicago wasn't that great, so we experienced Baby's First Flight Delay and spent an extra 90 minutes in Philadelphia's airport. Logan didn't mind at all though, he got a chance to kick back on a blanket on the floor and humored mommy with a few smiles for a photo shoot. Click here to see Baby's First Flight pictures. And click here to see Baby's Second First Christmas.
Whew! So you can see why we are a little pooped! But we're getting our third wind here. Coming into the home stretch of preparations for the big day, December 25, Logan's Third First Christmas. We finished shopping today, and experienced a Christmas miracle in its own right, NO LINE for SANTA! So of course we had to get a picture with the big man in red.
You will never believe what happened either... we met Santa and did the whole lap/picture thing about 8pm. About a half hour later we got home from the mall and Jason checked the mail... to find a LETTER FROM SANTA in the mailbox. Stamped, postmarked, with a return address from the north pole. Now, I thought it must be a piece of junk mail, some clever marketing, a 'crummy commercial' as Ralphie famously put it in "A Christmas Story". But there was no ad. Nothing to identify this piece of mail as being from anywhere other than the big guy himself. How it got into our mailbox so quickly after meeting him I will never know, but I was thoroughly impressed and Jason was completely stumped. I only wish Logan could recognize how amazing it is!
Wishing you and yours a little holiday magic of your own!
Love,
Heather, Jason, and Logan
PS. Can you believe Logan will be three months tomorrow? We can't!
