The Post-Christmas Post

James and Great Grandpa

James with Auntie Kristin and Auntie Erin

I don't really know what was happening here, but I thought it was pretty funny.

James's baptism photo with the whole family, plus Pastor Sea

James's first hotel room (where we did not let him touch the bedspread, just in case)

     We apologize for not updating the blog sooner, but it's been a very busy time.  James had a lot of new experiences this past week, and he handled them all quite well: his first interstate trip, his first night in a hotel, his first church service, his first Christmas, and his first crack pipe smoker, just to name a few.  Overall, it was a wildly successful trip.  

     In the car, James was nothing short of wonderful.  He slept much of the time on the way to Virginia, waking only to eat.  He would then stay awake for a while afterwards, but would play quietly with me in the back seat while Patrick drove.  Of course, finding somewhere to feed him occasionally proved difficult (that's where the crack pipe smoker comes in), but we were usually able to find the back of a parking lot somewhere to satisfy his hunger.  Changing him in the car was more difficult due to the lack of flat surface area.  He kept rolling towards the back of the seat.  However, aside from a few crooked diapers, we all faired quite well in our travels.  

     The visit itself couldn't have been better.  James saw his Aunties Erin and Kristin again, and met, for the first time, his great grandfather, his great uncles Dan and Tom, his great aunt Cindy, and his second cousin Jason.  James was beautifully behaved for the entire trip, and we all enjoyed visiting with the family.  The first big highlight was James's baptism, which went great.  He didn't even cry when the pastor poured the water on; he just looked at him skeptically.  My grandfather arranged for a nice reception after the baptism, where Grandpa wielded the cake knife like a samurai sword, and all the Lutherans were enamored with our beautiful boy.  

     The Christmas festivities were spectacular.  James was awake at all the right times, asleep at almost all the others, and everyone had a great time.  We couldn't have asked for more.  

     The trip back went almost without a hitch.  About at the Virginia-North Carolina state border, we realized that I had given my house key to the cat sitter, Patrick never had one, and, though we had my mother's keys, her house key was not on that ring.  Unfortunately (but not surprisingly), all the doors to my parents' house were locked, and, in an effort to be helpful, the cat sitter had locked the key I gave her in the house so we would have it as soon as we got back.  My parents' neighbors who used to have a key moved last month, and the only key we could come up with was the one my mom had back in northern Virginia.  Since we had just spend about four hours trying to get out of Virginia, we weren't wild about the idea of traversing back through that whole state to retrieve the key.  Therefore, my poor mom had to rush over to the FedEx drop off and overnight the key to her friends down in Alpharetta so that someone would be able to sign for it, and then we went to their house to pick it up.  On the up side, the night we stayed in North Carolina, Patrick finagled a low rate at a swanky hotel, so that was really nice.  :)  

     All in all, the trip was spectacular.  I think James had a lot of fun, and Patrick and I did too.  Our next excursion will be to Augusta to visit with Patrick's side of the family again on Friday. 

     We hope you guys all had a great holiday, and Happy New Year!