Christmas blur!

Wow! Christmas this year was crazy! It was basically a huge parade of family members: my mom and my grandparents came up the weekend of the 15^th; then my parents and brother were in town from the 18^th to the 21^th; Greg’s brother Ken and his family arrived on the 22nd; Greg’s parents and Uncle Rob came up on the 23^rd; and they were all joined by Greg’s other brother, Chris, and his family on the 24^th! So for those counting at home, we had nine adults and four children ages four and under for our Christmas dinner this year. And I’d like to send a big thank-you to Publix’s pre-cooked meals for making it all possible:). There was plenty of other cooking and cleaning involved, but, being over 8 months pregnant, I didn’t consider myself up for the challenge of a fully home-cooked Christmas meal this year! We all had a great time getting caught up on each other’s lives and especially of watching the cousins interact. Luke loves his cousins. He gave Grace his special laughing and patting treatment that he reserves for favorite relatives; he practically stalked Amelia around the house chanting “Am! Am! Am!;” and he had a ball playing with his easygoing cousin, Jack.

The last of the revelers left late this morning—including, incidentally, my husband, who, through an unforeseen chain of events, took his mom and uncle home to Alabama. He’ll be back tomorrow, but for today, it was just Luke and me in a very empty house. I think that Luke missed everyone because he was very emotional and kept wanting Daddy and “Ga-ga.” He also would start crying whenever his toy trains went off the rails, leading me to decide he was overtired and to settle in with him and a Thomas video before his bath. But even the video was traumatic for him: he’d tear up whenever Thomas ran into anything, or when any train crashed—even the “troublesome trucks,” who are kind of the antagonists of the series! So I finally just gave him an early bath, and he sacked out at 7:15.

Here are a few photo highlights:

With Mammaw and Pappaw Pogue and Grandma


Helping Granddad put together Luke's "Cozy Coupe"


The most ferocious face I've ever seen Luke make. Greg and I die laughing every time we see this picture. In case, you're wondering, he's running across the church parking lot with his football of his own volition. No one is chasing him, I promise!


Storytime with Aunt Jill and cousin Jack

Okay, time to switch to medium-sized pics. Those were too small.

Jack and Luke playing with trains


Christmas carnage


Licking my dessert plate (Chocolate Delight--yum!)


Sugar high


Sugar crash! (Oh, and Grace isn't really strangling Jack--it just looks that way:)).


Victoria made these adorable matching wool sweaters for each of the cousins. We tried to get a group picture, but it didn't work so well!


Luke, giving Amelia a hug. She looks less than thrilled with the overture.

New camera

Our poor Canon Elph. It just hasn't aged well. We loved it so much when we first got it, but these days, it hardly holds a battery charge. Also, it finds it increasingly difficult to muster up the energy to take more than one picture within the same thirty second period. And with an almost 18-month old, those delays are just unacceptable.

So we needed something new. Something that takes good quality pictures in quick succession and yet doesn't make it look like we work for National Geographic. Also, we didn't want to have to take out a loan to purchase it. These were the requirements we gave to two salesmen at different stores, and they both immediately took us to the same camera: the SonyCybershot H7. The in-store demonstration showed that it met our specifications: it took good pictures quickly and even had a "burst" mode where you held down the button and it would take several shots in a row. So we got one, and have had fun trying it out on Luke: the true test!


Luke loves his train...


...it's so funny!

Sequence one: selected pics from a "burst mode."

Picking just the right vehicles...

...working hard to connect them...

...triumph and applause!

Sequence 2 in "Burst Mode"







So we've decided to keep it. It works well, though even it is no match for our lightning fast son!

Crazy Story Legacy

Have you heard the one about my dad wrestling the gun away from the carjackers, wrecking his car but saving his life? Or, speaking of cars, the one where my mom won one because the radio station drew her name first and then my dad’s name as a backup—out of thousands of entries? Or what about when the crazed, drugged out teenagers came tearing through our yard late one night, causing my brother and dad to charge a moving vehicle, unarmed and on foot, all the while screaming like extras from Braveheart?

Hopefully, you have because those are some good stories. And apparently, our family gets it honest: crazy stories are part of our family legacy, particularly the Pogue legacy (Pogue is my mom’s maiden name). The Pogues have some doozies: they have saved drowning victims and administered CPR; survived death-defying high speed motorcycle crashes; captured would-be burglars through civilian stake-out; run over people with jet-skis (in two separate incidents!); shot through houses on hunting outings; and survived serious seizures, in which tongues have been swallowed and policemen’s arms inadvertently broken. It’s like our family’s collective lives are one ongoing episode of Rescue 911. You could say I was making it all up had most the incidents not been covered by the papers!

And now to add to the pantheon, there’s the one about the exploding tractor. On Tuesday, my brother was doing some mowing for my dad out at Brown and Williamson. As he was contemplating stopping for some more gas, he heard a hissing behind him. He turned just in time to see the huge blossom of flames that briefly enveloped him before receding. The explosion caught his jacket on fire, singed his lips, and sent him off his feet, helping him to jump off the tractor and ditch the flaming coat. He then immediately called dad, who was picking pecans nearby (being the CEO of the landscaping companyJ). Dad ran to his truck and grabbed the fire extinguisher. He had just run out of… fire extinguisher juice? Not sure what that’s called…when a second explosion rocked the tractor, leaping to the surrounding grass and trees. In the windy, dry Georgia weather, the fire spread like, well wildfire, soon proving even too much for the fire station conveniently located across the street to handle. It even jumped across the road! Reinforcements from other fire stations soon came, and they fought the fire until about 2:00 am. The problem was that every time they put it out, it would come right back. Even the tractor itself was like a trick birthday candle. Finally though, everything was under control, leaving a sensational story for both the evening news and the morning paper.

No one’s sure what made the tractor mysteriously explode, despite being fairly new. So even though my dad didn’t have insurance on it, when the company heard what happened, they eagerly offered a new one, probably terrified of a lawsuit. The new tractor arrived today. Hopefully, it will stay in one piece!

Christmas Spirit

It seems like everyone around here is getting into the Christmas spirit. Last night, after Luke went to bed, Greg and I were sitting on the couch talking when we looked over and saw two new "ornaments" on our Christmas tree. Luke loves trains, so he probably thought these letter cars painted by his Grandma Bev were a nice addition!

Best Birthday Ever!

Well, I turned the big 2-7 yesterday, and I must say, my husband really outdid himself in celebrating it. Since Wednesday night is church, we went out to dinner on Tuesday night instead. Greg made all the arrangements; I didn’t even know where we were going. We ended up going to downtown Charleston to a little restaurant called the cru café. It was in a renovated Charleston single house, and only had about eight tables. I had never eaten there, and it was so nice! I got the ginger-seared salmon with lemon risotto, which was amazing. While at dinner, Greg gave me one of my birthday gifts. Inside were Crabtree and Evelyn candles (best candles in the world!), bath salts, and my favorite chocolate truffles, but those weren’t the best part. The best part was a stack of little “coupons” tied in a bow for everything from ten minute back rubs to daytime soaks in the tub to loads of laundry. The most surprising ones were for use on my birthday: “one Luke breakfast” (meaning getting up early with Luke and feeding him breakfast, which I usually do), “one lunch with husband,” and “one afternoon matinee movie.” Huh? I thought this was my birthday date! But no—Greg had arranged for childcare on Wednesday as well, so that the festivities could continue! He also read me the list of matinee movies, and I chose to see Enchanted.

After dinner, we walked over to Kaminsky’s, my favorite dessert place, for incredibly rich desserts (I got the Nestle Tollhouse pie, their most popular dish. Words cannot describe it.) Then we returned home to find Luke asleep (go babysitter!), and I immediately cashed in a coupon for a head rub. I’ve been really burning through those things, by the way!

The next morning, my birthday, I slept in while Greg got up with Luke. When they finally came down to get me, Luke had a birthday balloon and a party hat. Well, actually dad was wearing the party hat, since Luke refused! When I went up for breakfast, I had a big plate of chocolate chip pancakes waiting for me, topped with whip cream! Even my milk was in a fancy champagne glass. There were also flowers and more presents—this was insane!

I don’t think I did any kind of chore that morning—Greg took care of everything. Then when our sitter came, we went to Atlanta Bread Company (my choice) for lunch and then to see Enchanted, which was exactly what I thought it would be, and very enjoyable. As Greg had intended, when we got home, I cashed in two coupons: One for a bathroom cleaning and one for a tub soak. So after Greg scrubbed out the tub, I enjoyed a long bath reading the book he had special ordered for me for my birthday. It’s one I had been dying for. Afterwards, I was a little pressed for time because I needed to make cookies for my cell group before taking Luke over for dinner at the church building. And again, my husband the hero came through, and volunteered to make the cookies while Luke and I went and ate dinner (Greg eats with the teens after church).

All in all, it was a truly amazing birthday. When I told my mom everything my wonderful husband had done, she asked, “Wow—how is he ever going to top that?” No pressure, sweetie! You’ve already won the “husband of the year” award:)!

It's beginning to look a lot like...

Well, it is officially the Christmas season here! The Saturday after Thanksgiving, we put up and decorated our Christmas tree, and that following week, the house was gradually decorated during Luke’s naptimes. Now everything is up, almost all of the presents are wrapped and under the tree, the Christmas cards are in (just need to get a ton of addresses before I mail them), and several Christmas parties are on the calendar.

On Saturday evening, we also had our first Christmas festivity: we went to downtown Charleston for the lighting of the tree in Marion Square. Greg dropped us off in the square before facing the nightmare of trying to find a parking spot among the crowded, narrow Charleston streets, and Luke had a ball making friends with every dog and blond girl around (it’s official: Luke LOVES blondes!). Case in point: he marched right up to a toddler named Molly (as I soon found out), grabbed her hand, and—no lie—started to dance. Being a student of ring-around-the-rosy, Molly was totally game, and in response to this overture, began to spin Luke around. Luke found this confusing but entertaining, as Molly’s parents and I cracked up. He followed several more (blond, female) toddlers around and accosted many dogs throughout the evening. Of lesser value to him were the performers and kids’ choirs up on a big stage in the square, though we did stop and listen for awhile. We left, however, before the actual “tree lighting,” because we had to get dinner before the boat parade.

From Marion Square, we walked down King Street until we found a small barbecue place. Though the barbecue was pretty bland, everything else was great, especially the muffin shaped biscuits (“miscuits?”) the waitress brought out. Luke was a HUGE fan of these, and after they were gone, he pointed petulantly to the empty basket with a chorus of, “ma ma ma ma ma!” (meaning, course, “more more more more more!”). When the waitress came and took the basket to be refilled, he turned all the way around in his high chair to watch her go, and didn’t turn back around until she came back with the biscuits a few minutes later. Like I said, he was a serious fan.

From the restaurant, we walked all the way to Waterfront Park for the boat parade. Apparently, anyone with a boat can decorate it with Christmas lights and join in an annual boat parade, which starts in Mount Pleasant, and proceeds through Charleston Harbor, accompanied by fireworks. We figured that Luke had outgrown his hatred of fireworks that manifested itself during the 4^th of July show, but no. Even though it was much earlier in the evening and the fireworks were not that loud, he still found them extremely unpleasant. When they stopped, however, he became much more aware of the boats themselves, which he found to be thrilling. From his vantage point of Daddy’s shoulders, he would point to each one as they passed, excitedly shouting, “Bo! Bo! Bo!”

After the parade, we walked through the throngs of people (to which Luke vehemently and repeatedly told, “Bye-bye!”) back to Marion Square to see everything lit up. The giant tree, by the way, is not really a tree at all, but a bunch of Christmas lights in the shape of a tree. You can walk right in the middle of it and look up, and the sight is very bright and dizzying. Luke, of course, enjoyed it immensely. He also liked all the illuminated palmetto trees around the square. By this point, I was exhausted, so we hiked back to our car and headed home. Luke fell sound asleep on the way home, and after briefly awakening for a diaper change, slept through until morning.

Luke and mama at the tree lighting.



A messed up picture, but you can kind of see the chorus in the background.


The tree in Marion Square


Inside the Christmas tree. The camera's flash totally obscures the tree's brightness!

Gobble-gobble

No, this is not a Thanksgiving report (though Thanksgiving was a lot fun, by the way): “gobble-gobble” is one of Luke’s new babbles. He has been babbling away lately, which is so fun to hear. Our favorite is the repetition of “gobble-gobble,” though there’s also times when he speaks a Martian-sounding language, which is also very entertaining. In addition, he’s picking up several new words—his versions of them, at least. The following words, he says on his own, without prompting from us:

Mama and Daddy (okay, those aren’t new)
Grandma (“ga-ga”)
Granddad (“dada)
Dinner (din-nah or din-din)
Banana (“nana”)
More (“mama”—apparently, he’s recycling sounds he already knowsJ, or just “Ma!”)
Plus, I swear he occasionally says, “No more,” which sounds like “Mo ma.”

When we ask him to, he also says:
Grandpa (“papa”)
Home (hom)
Water (“wa-wa”)
Amelia (“Am,” “Am-eh,” or some three syllable version, depending on his mood. He stoutly refuses to attempt Grace or Jack, though we’ve been practicing for their upcoming visit).

None of this is revolutionary, I guess, but it’s been so much fun to hear him talking, since he hasn’t shown much interest up to this point. We can’t wait to hear what words he says next!