Christmas 2009

We spent Christmas week in Grapevine, TX, next to DFW where Mike's parents have just moved into their new condo a few blocks from downtown Grapevine. We spent one afternoon making family portraits, and here's a photo of all of Mike's family. It includes Mike, me, Tracey (sister-in-law), David (Mike's brother), Grandad Paul, Grandmom Carolyn, Cousin Matt, Maeve and Silas.










One thing Maeve really enjoyed was making gingerbread cookies with Grandmom. They couldn't find all the cookie cutters in the new kitchen, so they ended up making gingerbread snowmen. They were a bit dry, but icing and lots of sprinkles helped.












One day we went to visit the Kaplan family. Maeve, Daniel and Jacob played cards and ran around the playground. It was great to check in with friends. We also went out for Mexican - yummy. Kathryn's parents came over so we got to visit with them, too. It's great to have friends where the in-laws live.














We also spent a day with Rachel, Steve and Naomi. We planned on going to the Dallas zoo, but we got there and they said no animals were out because of the cold. I started calling friends, and Seth Kaplan called me back and recommended the World Zoo Acquarium downtown. It was really cool - the trail started on the third floor of the rainforest biosphere and went down to a more typical acquarium in the basement. Maeve and Naomi liked the flamingos.

We also spent a morning with Chris Kribs, Adelfo and Sara, but didn't get any good photos.





Maeve also really enjoyed the trampolene. She could jump for ages. She also enjoyed playing China princess with Mardi Gras beads - first cousin Matt was the China prince, but throughout the week anyone she could get to wear beads was recruited.








Silas worked a lot on eating, taking mini-naps, and getting carried around by a lot of people. He's also now working on sitting and starting to get mobile in a rotate around the circumference of a circle with the center being his belly kind of way.