Growing Up Wenzler: December 2011

We arrived in Headland on Thursday afternoon after a seven-and-a-half hour car ride. It was a fairly uneventful ride with two stops to feed Daniel and one tornado warning. Etta did well this trip and was mostly content watching DVDs. Daniel slept most of the way, but screamed for the last hour and a half. We were ALL ready to be out of the car when we finally pulled into the carport!

We spent that evening relaxing and introducing Daniel to his Nana May, Uncle Adam, and cousins, Whit and Kessler.

Christmas Eve Eve
On Friday, Keith and the kids and I went to Mama Rosa's to meet up with my friend Melissa and her family for lunch. Lissa and I go WAY back. We met online years ago (really can't pinpoint how long ago, but I became a member of that fertility site back in 2005). We both wanted babies and we were both struggling to get pregnant. We both (along with a group or other bitter and snarky infertiles) watched as people got pregnant and then had their babies. I was even lapped a couple of times. But Lissa.... Lissa and her husband, Tony tried for seven years before they finally got pregnant. FINALLY! And guess what!?! She got a twofer! TWINS! Identical twins! Our group rejoiced! Her beautiful daughters were born in July and they have the biggest blue eyes EVER!

Lissa and her family live about 35 minutes outside of Dothan. We have both known for a while that she lives there (and that I'm from there), but we haven't been able to manage a meet-up. I was thrilled that we were able to make it happen during this trip!

Abby

Hannah

Soon after we got home from lunch, Deanne and Todd arrived! :D

That night we had a GREAT time building and decorating a gingerbread house

Christmas Eve

Keith made his famous Christmas Eve Chili (it's become a tradition)

I love when both holidays overlap!

Dirty Santa

(gifts are wrapped in paper grocery bags as a nod to my Papa, who always wrapped his gifts like this)

Poor Nick always ends up with something crappy... He went through two other gifts (both stolen from him, one mercifully) before he ended up with this awesome fish! :)

Son-in-law gifts

After Dirty Santa was over, Pops called everyone back to the living room to say they had a special gift for Todd and one for Keith. At first, some of us thought it might have something to do with this funny unofficial "Son-in-Law of the Year" competition, but instead it was a couple of pretty hilarious gifts.

Todd was first at bat. His gift tag said, "don we now our gay apparel" and this is what was inside:

Well, as you can imagine, Keith was just a little nervous about what he'd find in his box. He didn't really want to open it for fear that it might be something very embarrassing.