December 2004 Article
Busy! Busy! This month we definitely experienced the hustle & bustle of the holidays! I am understanding a LOT more of what is going on around me. I like to respond with an emphatic nod or shake of my head. I can follow many simple commands, and I especially love to bring people their shoes (whether I'm asked to or not). I also like to tell on myself when I am doing something I'm not supposed to be doing. Noah has started to enjoy playing games. His favorite is Candy Land. He also plays an adapted version of UNO with Mommy.
We celebrated Noah's 3rd birthday in Evansville the first weekend of the month. He was so proud of the Barney cake that Grammy made for him. He received lots of neat gifts including a musical keyboard from Aunt Carol.
We did several fun things with our playgroup to get excited for Christmas. First we went to the Children's Museum. They had it all decorated with a holiday theme. I sat on Santa's lap, but I was not too happy about it. Noah wouldn't do it, but he tells Mommy he will "next time" when he is four. We also went to the Indiana State Museum. They have a kids' size train to ride. I really wanted to ride, but Mommy was afraid I might jump off midway.... so maybe next year. Noah took a ride with his friend Matthew. It was fun. Then the last week before Christmas, we had a holiday party at Holden's house. There was a cookie exchange & Noah helped to decorate the cookies we brought.
On the 19th, we went to southern Indiana to celebrate Christmas with Grammy's family. We got to see Ashley & had a ticket raffle for some presents along with the traditional gift exchange.
On the 22nd, we left early to go to Grammy & Grandpa's house for Christmas because a big snow storm was coming. We got lucky that we avoided driving in it, because it turned out that there was 22 inches of snow!!!! We played in it the first day, but by the second day there was TOO much to play in! Daddy & Grandpa shoveled LOTS of snow. We stayed in where it was nice & warm. They had to cancel our regular Christmas Eve celebration because there were no places to park at Great-Grandma's house because of all the snow... but we were able to celebrate a little with a few people and managed to have a very nice time.
We weren't sure if we were going to be able to make it to Nonna & Grandpa's because the travel reports were a little sketchy. We woke up Christmas day, opened some presents from Grammy & Grandpa... and then set out around naptime to see if we would be able to make it on the roads. The travel was not ideal... but it wasn't as bad as we expected either. We made it to Nonna & Grandpa's in time for a turkey dinner that night. We were able to open some presents with GG and Uncle Bryan too!
The next day there were still more presents left! We went to church and brought some Tim Horton's back for GG, but she was unable to get out of bed. We brought some of our Christmas toys up to her room & played at the foot of her bed. Aunt Dale & Uncle Skip visited for a little bit. It was great to finally meet the GREAT aunt who sends me lots of fun things in the mail!
Mommy says that GG died and went to heaven early in the morning on December 30th. We will all miss her greatly. We are heading to New York next week to bury her next to Great-Grandpa.
Bye for now,
Adam