merry christmas memories

First let me say that the holiday theme this year, along with Joy and Peace and Love and All That Stuff, was TRUCKS, which suited Wyn and me juuuuuust fine. Thanks to everyone for the TRUCKS and many other wonderful gifts, all of which we love with all our fuzzy little hearts.

Now. We have so much to tell you about our time at Grandma Betty and Grandpa Paul's house last week, it's taken us three days to decide where to begin. We finally settled on doing it chronologically. Right after we looked up "chronological" in the dictionary.


Christmas is about sharing, right? On Tuesday I decided that should include my applesauce.


Thursday morning we awoke to a special surprise: our cousin Madalin had arrived! She continued her tradition from last February of feeding us delicious waffles for breakfast. Yum.


Speaking of Madi and food, here's Madi with some food. On the left, she displays the "pageant winner" from the first annual Christmas Mouse Cookie Competition (sadly, the cookie later lost its title when the nose fell off in a freak accident). On the right, Madi is initiated into the Official Order of MomTaco Addicts. If you don't know what MomTacos are, neither do we, but they are the all-time favorite food of both our mom and Aunt Melissa.


Speaking of Aunt Melissa, here she is taking in one of our many concerto performances. This self-playing keyboard provided literally hours of entertainment for the whole family. Another round of "Theme from Star Wars," anyone?


All that tickling the ivories made us a little tired. Luckily, Madi liked to cuddle with us. She also liked to tickle us, which is something that Wyn and I now do to each other at every opportunity. Thanks for the lesson Madi!


It's tradition on Mom's side of the family to do dinner and gifts on Christmas Eve. We were very excited to see our extended family. And very excited to open all those presents that had been lurking under the tree all week.


Finally, Christmas Day arrived. We got to open a couple more presents from Santa, who apparently couldn't get his act together enough to deliver our gifts in time to be opened with the others. Then we hung out with Grandma and Madi on the couch for awhile.


We then traveled to Grandma and Grandpa Kelmel's house for a final Christmas dinner, where believe it or not more wonderful extended family awaited. And more wonderful presents, too! Yep, that's Wyn with another cool TRUCK.

We had a great time in Kansas City, but our duties at home were calling. So Monday morning we bade good-bye to our family and took to the highway.

On the drive home we stopped at the infamous Shakespeare's Pizza in Columbia. When Mom was at the University of Missouri, she apparently ate there about 10 times a week. It was a delightful end to a delightful week.




We're going to get Mom and Dad to take more pictures of us playing with all our new toys, so stay tuned. Thanks everyone for a wonderful second Christmas!

another glimpse of things to come

Now here's a pic of Madi and Zak to tide your yuletide over...

christmas wish

Our Christmas holiday was truly special; hope yours was too. We're back home safe and sound, and we'll have many more magical pictures in the next couple of days...

the joy of hats

Wyn: Nice hat!
Zak: You too. It really brings out your eyes.
Wyn: So, we keep forgetting to tell people that they can now comment on our blog by clicking the word "comments" at the end of each entry.
Zak: That's right. Mom and Dad thought it would be neat if we could read what people said about us, you know, later on, when we can actually read.
Wyn: I hope our family and friends start posting comments.
Zak: Me too. That would be the best Christmas present ever. Speaking of Christmas...
Wyn: We should let everyone know that we'll be off for Christmas break for the next week and a half. But we'll have lots of pictures from our trip to Kansas City, including shots of our cousin Madi!
Zak: Sigh. I've really missed her.
Wyn: She probably won't even recognize us.
Zak: Especially if we wear our spiffy new hats.
Wyn: Anyway...

Zak & Wyn: Merry Christmas everyone!!!!! Hope your holiday is full of joy!



* Hint for comments: You can click the "other" identity button if you don't have/want to create a Blogger profile. Then just enter your name and leave the "Your Web Page" space blank. Fun!

hairfish! captured on film for the first time ever!

Sometimes Mom grabs hunks of hair from each side of her face and waves them at me, creating a fearsome creature known only as "Hairfish." I am compelled to provoke the emergence of Hairfish several times a day, as shown here.


You too would run away in hysteria if this was coming at you.

(And yes, cabin fever has set in at the Lipsey house.)

fresh powder

Big winter storm yesterday. So this morning, after about 20 minutes of preparation, we played outside for a good 20 minutes. It was our first real romp in the snow!


Zak and I were surprisingly amenable to wearing all this stuff. Even the mittens, which we waved in the air like lobster claws. Thanks again to Grandma and Grandpa Kelmel for our totally rad snow pants and coats.


Is it some kind of absurd photographic karma from last Saturday that I not only sat next to Zak voluntarily, but smiled broadly? Or do I just have a really wicked sense of humor? Hmmm.

is there a card for this?

Mom and Dad took us to the Garfield Park Conservatory on Saturday to take pictures for this year's Christmas card. Wyn and I didn't much care for being told where to stand or sit, so the results were somewhat...dubious. For example, the above photo was one of the best in the bunch. While perhaps inappropriate for Christmas, we are open to selling the image to Hallmark for a "Sorry Our Parents Tried To Make You Sit Next To Me and Smile" or other sympathy-type card.

quotable thanksgiving quotes

Cousin Sam (seated): So, we came all the way to Waynesville, North Carolina to spend time with Zak and Wyn, who live eight blocks away from us?!? Earth to Mommy!


Wyn (sweetly): Take one step closer to Aunt Katherine and I'll run over your foot with this truck! It'll look like an accident, too.


Big Sam: My name is Sam!
Little Sam: No, I'm Sam!
Big Sam: Me!
Little Sam: Me!
(etc.)


Daddy (behind camera): Okay, everybody smile!
Wyn: Sorry, can't do it. This train has us riveted.
Zak: Guck!
Wyn: Hey, is that the dog over there behind the chair?
Zak: Arf!


Zak: Can you believe we've spent five straight hours running around the Greenville Airport, since we arrived responsibly early and then our flight home was delayed, delayed and delayed again?!!
Wyn: I know. Mom and Dad are having to pound back candy bars just to keep up with us!
Zak: Woooooo-hooooo!
Wyn: Race you to Gate 7!

[Actual quotable Thanksgiving quotes appear in red.]