The Days Before Christmas (1st post of a Holiday Series)

The holidays were SO unbelievably fun this year! Zoe still doesn't fully understand the "true meaning" of Christmas and New Years, (or even the "materialistic meaning" as the fun of unwrapping a gift still escapes her) but she sure knew that SOMETHING was going on and she loved every minute of it. I have a lot to share so I'm going to break it up into multiple posts.

To start things off with a bang, my dad had quadruple bypass heart surgery two weeks ago. Yeah, he gave us a BIG scare. He was running with the cross-country track team that he coaches, and passed out about a mile in. He was able to walk himself back to the school but then decided to go to the hospital to get things checked out. After tons of tests and MANY hours of waiting, the doctors discovered the clogged arteries. So he had the surgery and it all went well. He is doing really great now and is recovering like a pro (though I hope he never becomes a true pro at this!). The doctors were all extremely impressed with how healthy my dad's heart is. He is an ultra-marathon runner which has made his heart really strong. The doctors said that this whole situation would have been a lot worse if he didn't exercise so much, so thank goodness for his love of running! We love you Dad!

This is a video that Mike made of Dad and Scott's ultra-marathon that I got to go watch last year.

Picture of Zoe on our way to look at Christmas lights. We were a little disappointed this year. We saw some cool lights but nothing really WOWED us. We had fun singing Christmas songs anyways.

The hat is a little too big. But it's still fun to wear! Almost every day she would bring the hat to me so I could put it on her.



Zoe enjoying her very first candy cane (that she got from her friend Madyson).



Chillin' on a cold day with her owl and zebra, under a blanket.



This is Zoe's first time to eat an apple whole. She thinks it's so much fun! Note, the penguin slippers--a Zoe favorite these past weeks.

Video of Zoe eating her first whole apple.

Other fun things we did leading up to Christmas (but didn't get pictures of!) included: a fun playdate/cookie exchange with some good friends of mine...and Zoe's friends too, Zoe having strep throat and then a horrible diaper rash, Mike falling down the stairs damaging his elbow and back, us calling the police on a guy for beating a girl outside our town house, us doing tons of window shopping (and even a little buying), tons of baking and cooking, tons of gift wrapping, two new teeth on Zoe, and one new tooth on Mike!

Stay tuned for more updates!