Christmas, etc.

Get ready for some rapid-fire posts in the next few days. December is an especially busy time for us. Our 5-year anniversary is tomorrow, Eliana's third birthday is the day after that, and William hits the 9-month mark on the 30th. If I think really hard, I might be able to get blogger to display the pictures in the order I want.

First, here is a picture of little Asher. There isn't as much hair as I expected under that cute red cap. Apparently Jex was a fuzz-head, and passed the trait on. I betting that he'll have more hair than William in short order, though.
Here is Asher under the tree in a giant stocking. Eliana really wanted to hold him, but settled for hovering and touching his little feet.

We spent Christmas Eve with my family (the Zittings were all in Salt Lake). Lauren came home from the hospital earlier that day, but Asher had to stay until 5:00 pm. They nearly didn't discharge him. My mom finally convinced them that since she worked in the NICU for a year, she could take care of him, and promised to bring him back for some blood work the next day. Since my mom was busy with baby business, I figured it was high time I learned the art of the traditional clam chowder. I prepped the ingredients, then watched as my mom worked her magic.

Here is the result (I took the picture as an afterthought, hence the skin on the top):

The kids got their new Christmas jammies, we sang songs, told stories, and had fun. We enjoyed seeing Ian again. He's in town until the 2nd, so hopefully I'll remember to take his picture next time.

Christmas morning I slept in till about 7:30, then let William play with his main present while Eliana was sleeping. I tried (and failed) a couple of times to wake her; she finally got up at 8:30. We opened the rest of the presents and played at our house for awhile before going to my parents house and getting more presents. Ian gave us Kung Fu Panda, so we watched that in the evening. Darryl left in the afternoon to attend a baptismal service for a man in our neighborhood, then came back. It was a great day.

For the past few days William's toy of choice has been a fake chicken leg from Eliana's play kitchen. He crawls around the house in the morning searching for it, then carries it around all day. Here he is at dinner time, still holding the chicken leg.

Tonight I made Borscht from my cousin Erika's recipe (it might be Billy's recipe, since he lived in Russia for a while), and invited my parents over to share. I had never eaten borscht before, but I really enjoyed it. I love beets and cabbage, so it wasn't a big surprise.

After dinner we put a little Apple Beer in a bottle for William to taste. He loved it (note the chicken leg :) )! He would have had considerably more if I hadn't cut him off. I love the relaxed position his in.