Everyone Needs a Little Help Sometimes

Grandma Witchey helping Jack with one of his larger gifts.

The Jingle Bell Snowman

This jack listening to Grandma Fritz's Jingle Bell Snowman. He likes anything that makes music sunds. At the end, his new piano makes a sound, trying to steal some thunder.

Thanks GG and Papa John

Jack likes his front loader! I have to get some batteries for it later this afternoon so he will get the full effect. Thanks you for the big toy, Mom and Dad!

Christmas Dinner with The Fritz's

We went over to the Fritz's for Christmas dinner yesterday afternoon. We had turkey, mashed potatoes, gravy, scalloped potatoes, rice, green beans, croissants and corn. I have been eating well the last few days. Kare and Tim know how to cook up a great meal.

Tim finished installing some hardwood floors in the family room and removed a pillar and low wall divider and did a great job. He is a perfectionist and believes in doing something the correct way, so it always looks like it was crafted. He has almost finished the basement as well and it looks good, too. It is hard to get drywall to not leave seams or have some cracking, but he did a great job, along with the crown molding.

We had dinner and then exchanged some presents. jack got a big can of play doh, which has all kinds of tools and stuff inside it. The can was almost as big as himself, so it was funny to watch him lift it up and carry it.



We watched Kung Foo Panda on DVD and laughed a lot, it was a good movie, I recommend it to anyone. Tim likes Kung Foo movies, so it was right up his alley and I lie animations and CGI. Jack watched it all the way through, which tells you it was entertaining. He doesn't sit still for much, and never for over an hour unless he's asleep.

Jack also got an electric piano that he like d to play with. It has an MP3 hookup to it, so I may have to experiment with it as well. He likes anything that makes musical sounds.


Grandma Fritz (Karen) gets a hug and a gift.


Grandma showing Jack how te snowman/music box works:


Grandma Fritz and Jack


Unloading the Play-Doh present.


GrandDad Fritz and Jack.

Andy opening his present.

Jack and Zach

Merry Christmas

We spent Christmas Eve at the Witchey's and had a really nice dinner. Fresh Oysters, good wine, ham and all the trimmings. Frank and Debbie outdid themselves. We had the chance to meet some of the relatives from Debbie's side of the family, including her father and his wife and her children. Papu and Grandma Witchey were up from South Carolina and had dinner with us as well.

We usually go over to the O"Briens for Christmas Eve, but this year we switched it up since we almost never see Frank, Debbie and Maddy. We did see the O"Briends the day before since it was GG's birthday and we had dinner and presents over at Reet and Jim's.

Christmas morning we had Grandma Witchey and Papu over in the morning and let Jack open all his gifts. He caught on pretty quick on how to open stuff and that there were toys inside. I think he was overwhelmed after a few minutes and wanted to play with all of them at once.

Here are some pictures.

Jack got a ride-on loader from GG Goodyear, he tried on the helmet and watched as I put it together. I have to get some "C" cell batteries so we can see how it works with the batteries. Meanwhile, he was pretty happy just to get on it and ride it around.



This is Jack opening up Lynne's block puzzle. He hugged it after he opened it since it showed a cow. Not sure why. The puzzle is really six puzzles in one, which is a neat idea.. Thanks Gabby and Lynne!

Jack and his wooden tractor.

Jack looking through the 3D viewer Santa brought him. Once he figured out how to advance the next slide, he thought this was cool. He kept telling Grandma what he saw, which only he could see in the viewfinder, so it was funny that he kept trying to convince her that they were both seeing it, when only he could see it. "Its a Birdie, see it?" while he looked through the viewfinder.

Jack unwrapping one of his Thomas Train set, the plastic version. Apparently, there are about three different types of Thomas Train sets you can get and we have them all covered now. But you really can't use any of them together, which is a bummer, but Jack doesn't really notice that. He just likes to play with them weather they fit or not.

Jack unwrapping some presents from the Witchey's, Thomas Train wooden tracks. He has been playing with these all morning.

This is a picture of Papu and Grandma at Frank & Debbie's, Jack took this picture, he loves camera's and cell phones. I always make sure he keeps the wrist attached to him if I let him use the camera, though.

These are the Dean & Deluca cookies that my Mom sent, man those are good cookies. As an artist, these things were very well done artistically, like they were painted with precision and care. I almost didn't want o bite into them, but i did. Thank goodness Mom sent two boxes, cause them's is good eats!

National Christmas Tree

So we made our yearly pilgrimage to the National Christmas Tree, which is right across the street from the White House. We saw the National Yule log and some trains, too. Jack loved the trains, he likes any train he comes across as well as any construction vehicles. The trains were all around the Christmas tree, probably eight of them in all, two went all the way around the tree, which was a diameter of about 100 feet.

Debbie, Maddy and Frank accompanied us as they had the previous years, its become a tradition. We usually go out to eat after that and this time we went to Rocco's in McLean, which is a tiny little pizza place that has been around for some 30 years.

It was a good time, definitely lifted my spirits after watching the Skins get beat by the Bungles. The Bengals, who are now 2 and 11.

Once again, I failed to get Maryland's tree or Georgia's tree. Sorry about that Karens. I say Karens, cause Karen Fritz is in Maryland and Karen Lund is in Georgia. One is my sister and one is my other mother in law. I have two mother in laws. Its not as bad as it sounds. They are both great. Really. And they didn't hit me with a frying pan on my head and make me type that.

The Trains.

Jack watching the trains.


The National Yule log, which was smokey, but warm.

Frank wasn't ready for the shot, but he didn't let me get another one. I bet he wishes I had now.

Everyone, The Witcheys and Goodyears.

The Three of us.

That's the White House in the background.


The Washington Monument at night.


State Trees:
South Carolina's Tree

Oklahoma's Tree

Rhode Islands Tree

New Jerseys Tree

North Carolina's Tree

Headphone Cat

I can't get enough of this cat.

Towel-Boy

Little Buddies

I dropped by the Child Care Center a little early for some Jell-O Jiggler fun with the kids and snapped a few pics of some of his playmates. They all lined up real nice and smiled for me, for about one second and then the jell-o kicked in and they were off to the play gallery. Woot woot.

Mary Had a Little Lamb

Whose "leese" was white as snow. Yeah, I don't know what a leese is either. But he has good tone, so we'll let it go. What you think about that, William Hung!?!

Twinkle Twinkle

He was in a singing mood on Sunday, so I took this one of him singing twinkle twinkle. I have no idea why he decides to start walking around in the middle of it. He does that while "playing guitar" as well.

Here Comes the Helicopter

Mom used to feed us like this, too, so it was fun to see her pass this on to my son who was more than happy to play along. Of course, we were enticed using this method to eat more green beans and peas instead of ice cream, but he didn't mind the slight variation.

The Pillow

Reet and Jim have a pillow that is hilarious, its an old Gaelic blessing:

Ellie and Jack

Jason and Abbie stayed at our house while we were in Atlanta. Baby Nate is 6 months old and is a smiley fella. Ellie is 10 days older than Jack, but is tiny compared to our guy. When you see them side by side, you can see the difference.

Their dog also came along and ended up with his toenail getting ripped off during some horse-play (dog play?) so Jason had to take him to the vet and get the bleeding stopped. Never a dull moment. $120 later he was fine, but he had to wear a bandage over his back paw and when a dog has something wrapped around their paw, they tend to walk funny.

Since Ellie and Jack get along so well, I took a few pics of them and got the last one of him hugging her and them both smiling. I sent the high resolution version to Kate, so Abbie and Grandma Witchey, email her and she will send it along.

Relaxin'

Jims Birthday

Jim's birthday was Saturday evening. Another reason to some back early from Atlanta since Abbie, Jason, Ellie and Nate were also here as well.

Grandma and Papu were over at Jim and Reets as well and GG (McDonald) joined us later in the evening along with the O'Briens (Bill, T and the girls).

Jack got to see nearly the his whole family in a matter of a few days.

Babytalk with Nate

Makin' a Wish

Jim and the Cake


Ellie and the cake

Kate and Ellie

Colleen and Jack

Kate, Ellie and Jack playing with my iPhone

Jack and Ellie

Jack and Grandma Witchey

The kids helping to open presents

Reet and Nate

Reet and Ellie

Jack and the Birthday Boy

T, Bill, Colleen, Allison and Meghan

Jason, Abbie, Nate and Ellie