Homeward Bound

We left Eldo Thursday morning to go back home. Alex said his goodbyes and thank yous for a wonderful first Christmas.

We were tempted to rent a U-Haul to cart all of our Christmas winnings back to Fayetteville, but instead, Grammy, Papa, and Auntie L volunteered to come up in a couple of weeks to bring whatever we could not cram into our car. It was a difficult task to decide what we'd be willing to leave behind, but we did it, packed the car with the rest, and set off on the long trek home.

Seth, Joy, and Oliver left around the same time we did, and we wondered whether might run into them somewhere along the way. When we got to Conway around lunchtime, Joy texted to ask where we were and to let us know that they were in...Conway! So we met up for lunch at Wendy's, where we decided to risk cootie infection by letting Alex sit in a Wendy's high chair. Unfortunately I was unprepared for such an occasion and didn't have the high chair cootie shield with me, so we had to improvise with his blanket. It was the first time we had attempted to use a high chair as opposed to his baby seat and didn't know how he would fare. We gave him a few toys to keep him occupied and he hung out in there without complaint until it was time to go.

As we were heading north, Grandma B and Aunt Rachel were southbound, en route to meet us at our house for the second phase of our Christmas celebration. Grandpa B had to work but would be joining us the next day. We had a little time when we got home to freshen up and get a nap, then Grandma B and Aunt Rach arrived and got the party started. By the look of his shirt, Alex was expecting a luau. Or maybe he just wanted to impress Grandpa B who has a penchant for Hawaiian garb (grass skirts and coconut bras included).

Lately, A has shown increased interest in all things electronic (computers, cameras), including cell phones. So when Grandma B was talking on the phone to Grandpa, Alex was fascinated by the sound of Grandpa's voice coming out of the phone and tried, without success, to unwrap the mystery.

Bathtime was always one of my favorite things as a baby, and it happens to be one of Alex's. So Grandma B was more than willing to take on bathtime with Alex and relive a little of my childhood.

Dad wasn't gonna get in until Friday afternoon, so we decided to hone our Guitar Hero Skills to kill some time before he arrived. Mom and Rach were GH newbies so we were really looking forward to making fun of their feeble attempts to land even a single note. Unfortunately, we were sorely disappointed to discover that they are both Guitar Hero prodigies and rocked out on their very first tries. Party poopers.

Dad got in Friday evening, right in time for dinner at Noodles with the Primms who were nice enough to invite us. Oliver was "psyched" that we were able to hang out together, and Alex was psyched to get to hang with his Grandpa.

Mmmmm, Noodles. I highly recommend the fried calamari. Anyhoo, after dinner, the Primms came back to our house so our boys could exchange gifts. Oliver got a little distracted when he spotted the GH guitars and played us a little tune before opening gifts. O got Alex a cool photo cube where he can put pictures of all of his friends and an Ugly Doll named Wage - Minimum Wage. Man I love those things. And Alex will too, he just doesn't know it yet. For now he just loves to slobber on it. Alex got O some shiny balls - foot, basket, and soccer, I think. He seemed to like them. I mean, what boy doesn't love balls?

Alex and Oliver thanked each other for the lovely gifts by way of a sweet - er, manly - hug. Then the Primms headed home and we headed to bed so we'd be ready for yet another "Christmas morning."

The Afterparty

You might think that Christmas fun has to end at Christmas, but you'd be wrong. In our case, we like to stretch the holiday as far as we can and this year was no exception.

Wednesday morning, Michele Ball and her girls, Rachel and Rebekah, came bearing gifts. Tim and I got Walmart gift cards (just our size) and Alex got a very sporty and boyish basketball game that hopefully makes up for the rocking chair/baby doll situation from the day before. Of course, he still hasn't caught on to the whole "wrapping paper is not the gift" concept, but he will learn.

Only six months old and already loves being surrounded by girls...

Wednesday afternoon, we had planned to meet up with all of our friends and their children at the Primms' house (Seth's parents' house, not his). There ended up being a veritable mob of kids and their folks, so let me give you a quick rundown of who goes with who. First there's us and Alex, us being Tim, myself, and Leah. Then, of course, there's Seth and Joy Primm with 18 month old Oliver who also live in NW Arkansas near us. Then we have Scott and Amanda Cooley who have the precious little girl you met in an earlier post, 9 month old Rebekah. There's Mark and Laura Day who live in Eldo, and they have an 18 month old boy named Jack and also have baby boy #2 on the way. There's Jacob and Kelly Cheshier who live in Kingsport, TN, and they have a 2 year old boy, Ethan, a 9 month old girl named Sadie, and baby #2 on the way. Joey and Jennifer Legg have Will Franklin who is around a year old, and Steven and Abbey Weems (not pictured - they came a little later) lead the pack with three "babies" - 5 year old Luke, 2 year old Emma Grace, and 9 month old Lauren.

Pheeewwww.

So that's a grand total of...14 parents, 9 kids, two fetuses, and an Auntie. And that's not including Seth's folks and their doggie Sanky (sp?), who happens to be Murphy Pup's mama, btw.

We were so excited to get everyone together because really, the only ones in the group that get to see each other on a regular basis are us and the Primms (Seth, Joy, and Oliver Primm, not Seth's parents). It was so so so much fun to see everyone and let our kids run/crawl amok together.

One particular source of entertainment for the evening was watching Ethan pull Jack and Sadie around in Oliver's wagon. The wagon was a little back heavy and had the tendency to dump out its contents when tugged too vigorously. We all held our breath in anticipation of one of the kiddos spilling out onto the ground, but none of us tried to stop them from doing it. It was a "thrill of the sport" kind of thing (check out the dads' expressions in the background). In the end, no permanent damage was done, and we all had some good laughs.

As usual, Alex hadn't slept well that day, so he had to take a power nap to keep up with the energetic crowd. Luckily Auntie L's shoulder is comfy so he had a nice place to catch a few z's.

His beauty rest paid off because I think he impressed baby Lauren with his devilish good looks. Again with the girls! I think he and I are gonna need to have a little talk...

The First Noel: Christmas Afternoon

Onto Mamaw Meador's for dinner. This year's Christmas celebration at Mamaw's was bittersweet because it would be the last one. She recently purchased a house closer to Vicki and Bill's (and Mamaw Evans' and Leah's) and this was the last time we would be having Christmas at 518 S. Parkway. She and Papaw had been living in that house for forty years, it was where Vicki and her siblings grew up, and it was where Timothy had celebrated Christmas almost every year since he was born. We were grateful that Alex had come along just in the nick of time and was able to experience at least one Christmas in a house filled with such loving memories.

We ate (a lot) and A got passed around like - you guessed it! - a Christmas ham. He's so easygoing, he didn't mind a bit. He took care to bond with all of his Greats and a handful of cousins.

He had a lot of fun sitting in this girly little rocking chair that Mamaw had, and he grabbed for Macey's baby doll right away when she showed it to him, which made his daddy cringe a little. Come on, daddy, there's nothing wrong with a boy being in touch with his feminine side. You can't pass up a pink dress shirt and you watch What Not to Wear. Gee, I wonder where he gets it...

We opened presents then played some games. Guesstures is a family fave, especially when it's Uncle Freddie's turn...

We also played Mad Gab, the point of which is to make everyone playing sound like a bunch of morons. What's more fun than that? I'll answer that question. Nothing.

It was a great last hurrah at Mamaw's. We were sad to go but excited to know we'd be starting a new tradition at the new house. We transferred A from his pack 'n' play to the car, which was his first mid-sleep transfer other than naps. I was hoping he'd stay asleep but he was wide-eyed in the car, and I wondered what would happen when I put him back down at the house. He was completely silent and stoic for the ride home, and when I laid him in the pack 'n' play, he went right back to sleep. What a sweet, good boy.

Merry belated Christmas to all.