Flashback Friday: A Christmas Penguin

Today I am participating in "Flashback Friday" again - if you would like to see the host of this awesome weekly event, please go on over to Christopher & Tia (you won't be disappointed!). :)

John proposed to me on December 22, 2005, the night before he left to have Christmas with his family in Oregon.  The next Christmas - our very first Christmas as a married couple - was celebrated after flying in from a week vacation in Las Vegas with his family on Christmas Eve and me feeling completely worn out from vomiting the entire plane ride ( I was in my first trimester of pregnancy and had morning sickness 24/7).  Both were great Christmases - for different reasons.  One we got engaged and the other we were married and expecting our first baby together. :)  The best Christmas was the next Christmas, however - Christmas 2007.  Our baby boy's very first Christmas. 

Johnny was just shy of five months for his first Christmas.  It was our first Christmas in the little house (that we miss a lot) and the roads were really slick and icy.  John had to work until the evening on Christmas Eve, so I packed up the car with all of our gifts and Johnny and headed to go pick up John from work so we could go to my grandparents' house for our traditional Christmas Eve get-together.  I only made it to the end of the road from our house where it started to go uphill when it got super slick.  I was fine getting up the hill (even though I was in our little car), but there was a car stuck on the side of the road halfway up the hill and an older man standing outside slipping and sliding all over the place trying to flag someone down.  I stopped my vehicle to help him and ended up giving him a ride back down the road past my house to his son's house to get help.  Johnny wailed and wailed the entire time - I felt bad for the poor man's ears.  After dropping him off I tried to get back up the hill, but I wasn't able to that time, so I had to go the long way through Spokane and in order to get to the freeway to go pick up John from work. I was late getting there, but I wasn't upset or anything - just glad I could help someone out.  John was waiting for me with a Christmas card and a single red rose - totally unexpected and sweet. :)  

Once we got to my grandparents' house we opened gifts and spent time with my family.  The best part of the entire evening, however, was this: 

Ha - yes, we dressed up our son in a penguin suit for Christmas.  Boy, was he thrilled!  The poor kid got passed around in the stuffy penguin suit from family member to family member.  We all got a good laugh out of it, but he wasn't quite as amused...hee hee.

My brother Joseph should really get some credit here, because he was the one who bought the suit for Johnny the previous Christmas when I was barely pregnant and we weren't even aware of the baby's gender yet.  :)  Thank you Joseph for making it possible for us to create embarrassing moments & dress our baby up for our own amusement! Ha.  

Johnny's second Christmas was last year (not quite as eventful as the penguin suit, I must admit), and it was a lot more fun because he was old enough to have fun with all of the gifts and the Christmas tree and everything!  He was spoiled as usual by his parents and grandparents and it was an enjoyable Christmas.  :)  

This is a picture of Johnny at Christmas Day mass at the Our Lady of Lourdes Cathedral.  He was sporting the sweater vest and his mohawk - awesome.  :)  

This year we are living 1000 miles away from family and friends and we thought we weren't going to be able to spend Christmas with any of them, but we are leaving this weekend and get to spend two whole weeks with all of them (thanks be to God)!! We are very excited! :)  Christmases are always special for many different reasons.  I like to look back at the pictures of past Christmases and smile, and I am very much looking forward to future Christmases and the memories that will come from them!  :)  This Christmas will be more fun for all of us - Johnny will get to run around and see his family (and he'll be sporting a lot more hair!).

We were supposed to drive up (18 hours in a car with a two year old...yuck) on Tuesday December 22 but because of weather forecasts we are leaving Saturday night at midnight and driving up on Sunday.  I'm excited because it means I get to go home for a couple of days longer, but it also means I have a lot less time to get everything ready.  I went to bed at 4am last night (this morning) working on Christmas gifts and I have a lot more to do for gifts, packing, errands, cleaning, etc. today and tomorrow.  Our friend Bre will be driving up from another part of Colorado tomorrow afternoon and will be riding with us up to WA state so she can see her family too.  Let's hope & pray that the drive up is safe and that my son feels the need to catch up on sleep! ;)  I may or may not get to post again before we drive up to WA, but if not, I'll see a lot of you that read this blog in a couple of days!!! Love you all and miss you!! We're coming home to the beautiful beautiful northwest!