MawMaw, PopPop & Santa 12-13-08

My parents came from Virginia Beach to visit this past weekend. They had never seen our house decorated for Christmas so we were excited to get the house ready for them. Also, this was Preston's first experience with a Christmas tree. I'll have to say that Preston is great at undecorating the tree, and not so good at leaving it alone.
Mom and Dad got to Baltimore Friday afternoon, and that evening Roman, Mom, Preston and I went to WalMart to buy toys for Toys for Tots. Luckily we were able to get in and out of WalMart pretty quickly while still getting a ton of great toys. That evening we had a wonderful ham casserole for dinner that my parents brought up, and then we sat around and watched Preston play in his room. The next morning Roman made a delicious pancake breakfast for everyone, and even Preston got to join in on the breakfast fun. After breakfast, we all piled in the car and headed to Ellicott City to go to the train museum and to see Santa. Betka met us there.
When we got to Ellicott City, we ate lunch and then headed into the museum. The first thing we did at the museum was see Santa. Preston was luke warm to Santa. The museum had Santa sitting in the back of a historical train car which was set up in it's original state. When it was our turn to see Santa, Roman sat Preston next to him, and Preston stared up at him as if to say "Who do you think you are?". That lasted for about a minute, and then Santa picked him up and put him on his lap. That was when the tears started. I guess this is the beginning of "stranger anxiety". After Santa, we all walked around the museum and looked at the different train exhibits. Preston was definitely impressed with all of the trains. Both of his grandmothers took turns holding him and showing him around. We stayed in Ellicott City until about 5 and then headed home.
My parent's left around noon on Sunday. They did not want to leave, but it helped knowing that we were going to be down in Virginia Beach in a week to celebrate Christmas. We had a really nice weekend. I am sure our visit with Santa is going to be very different next year.

Turkey Time

We spent this year's Thanksgiving with Roman's family and family friends, the Sibleys. And, what a Thanksgiving it was. Betka, Roman's mom, made enough delicious food to feed an army, and the Sibleys brought the majority of the tasty desserts. Every Thanksgiving with the Sibleys includes 4 traditions... 1. drinking a little more than we should 2. waking up Friday morning with a sore stomach from laughing so hard 3. Paddington sneaking food when we aren't paying attention 4. Roman trying to sneak peaks at the Cowboys game. This year was slightly different because there was a crawling 7.5 month old and a sleeping 6 week old. This was Preston's and Devin Conor's, Grainne and Brian's new 6 week old son, first Thanksgiving and Hardgrave/ Sibley Holiday Celebration. All in all, we had a wonderful Thanksgiving Day.
Unfortunately, the newest addition to the Hardgrave family was unable to attend the Thanksgiving Celebrations. Daniel Christian Hardgrave was born 11/10/08 to Lyon and Lesha, Roman's brother and his wife, and due to his extremely young age, they were unable to join us for Thanksgiving. Soooo, Friday morning, Betka, Terry, Roman, Preston and myself hopped in the Hardgrave van and traveled up to Long Island to spend the weekend with the new addition.
Roman and I were so excited to meet our new nephew. I'll have to say that it was very weird to be around a baby that little again. It's only been 7.5 months, but I don't remember Preston being so little. My memory truly stumps me sometimes. I can remember random details like what I wore the first day of high school, but I can't remember a lot of things about Preston when he was several weeks old. I guess that isn't so much my memory's fault as it is the cause of no sleep. Anyway, Daniel is so cute and such a good baby. Preston seemed to be very interested in his new cousin and even more interested in pulling his binky out of his mouth. I assume that is Preston's way of showing Daniel who's boss.
Everything about this Thanksgiving was wonderful, except for the Sunday traffic. I know this is going to sound corny, but we have so much to be thankful for. It's just hard to believe that one of these Thanksgivings all of these little babies are going to be grown up. I hope that day is far, far away.