Christmas in Michigan!

This past week, we have been privileged to spend Andrew's first Christmas with my Mom in Michigan.  It has been a wonderful week - unhurried time with family, without the stress of going back to work anytime soon.  In fact, when we leave tomorrow, I will still have over a week of vacation until going back to work on Jan 9th.  Wow!

We arrived two days before Christmas, and scrambled a bit to get some last-minute Christmas gift/projects done.  But once Christmas Eve rolled around, it was all about spoiling Andrew with everything an (almost) 8 month old could hope for - paper, plastic, and colorful toys piling up on the floor in easy reach of little, drool-covered hands.

 Andrew, still wearing his dress clothes, sits in awe in front of Grandma's present-laden Christmas tree.  Definitely overwhelming!

Yummy presents!

 He did not have a lot of present-unwrapping stamina.  So Rachel stepped in and opened a lot of packages in his place.  She did not complain too much about this extra Mommy responsibility...

 On Christmas morning, Andrew awoke to yet ANOTHER present-laden tree.  In his more appropriate Christmas PJs, he tore into a few more gifts.  Paper is even yummier than boxes!

 Grandma got him an awesome soft car, complete with string.  The string is meant for pulling the car, but for now Andrew is content to munch on the string as he fingers the pig (in pink) in the back of the truck.  

So it is not all about Andrew - Rachel also took part in some Christmas morning kid-like grins as she got some spiffy new clothes.

Returning from church (thus the change of clothes!) Andrew helped his Mom and Dad to open some more gifts.

And as the youngest Allmen, he got to play in the piles of wrapping paper once the gift opening was all complete.

Can't wait to put that cool new sign on our house!

Grandma, Andrew, and Dad posing by the tree.

And when all the hard work of opening presents and smiling at relatives is done, some power naps are a must.  Andrew slept long and hard all week!

So what other fun things did we do in town?  Well, Christmas Day we traveled over to my cousins house in Birmingham to see the extended Allmen family.  That is a good recipe for good food, plenty of drink, and some laughs.  We entertained Becca, who had been in Chicago with us previously.  She got to visit Michigan for the first time and see a little of what Detroit has to offer.  We played Xbox Kinect for the first time (I can't dance as well as Matt?) and had a fun game night. 

It was the first Christmas in Michigan in which I was not at Commons Ct; but it was just fine.  I like Mom's condo and so it makes for a nice new home away from home for us.

I have met some Christians who have poo-pooed Christmas for its commercialization; and while I can understand the danger of presents overpowering the celebration of the birth of Christ, I appreciate how the holiday's traditions bring focus to the importance of family.  Thank you Allmens (and Millers!) for a wonderful Christmastime!

-alan

Sick boy!

This month, Andrew faced his first illness.  Just a case of the sniffles, like everyone at winter.  We are thankful for that - no major fevers or problems we have had to face as parents.  But when it comes, I know we will be okay, because Andrew's Mom has a knack for dealing with a kid like this:

Don't worry, he is ok now.  There will not be any sick boys for Christmas!

-alan

Merry Christmas!

On Tuesday, Becca, Sarah, and Dave came over to our house for our inaugural "Miller Family Christmas."  
We ate ham with all the fixings, and opened presents by the tree.  Andrew opened some gifts from his Taiwanese grandparents, as they watched via Skype.  He did pretty well - he loves paper, so being able to grab at the box and rip the paper was natural for him.  Thanks Grandma and Grandpa for sending along those toys and getting the Christmas season started!

We have all traveled now to Michigan to be with Mom for the rest of the holiday.  This is a wonderfully timed vacation - I finished school with a half day on Thursday, and now I am off until the 9th of January.  There will be uninterrupted time now to spend with family with no cares about work - yet there will be plenty of time to get that business squared away after the New Year.

Andrew was not too helpful in putting things on the tree, but he mostly stayed out of the way.

But of course, once the tree was done, all bets were off.  The challenge of having a slightly mobile baby at Christmas was learning to be vigilant in watching what he was getting his sticky fingers on.  The stage of setting Andrew down and letting him play while casually watching him are over - the time to baby proof and hover have begun.  He loves electrical cords, trash cans, and anything plastic. 

We have kept him out of harm's way so far, but as you can see, he already does not like to be told "no."

It was a busy month for me, with the beginning of bowling and Science Olympiad seasons - together with holiday parties, Northwestern basketball, etc.  But at the end of the day, how can you not enjoy seeing this face?


Andrew is sleeping now, this Christmas Eve Eve, hopefully dreaming of sugar plums...

-alan

Housing update - Christmas edition!

With my extracurricular season at school ramping up, work on the house has not progressed much in the last month.  However, decorations are a different category, and so on a cold and drizzly Sunday afternoon I strung lights on the house.

I took a crate of lights from Mom and Dad last year, and I thought there were way more lights than we would ever use.  But once I weeded out the burned-out strands, I used almost all of them on the bushes and gutters (which are only on the two sides of the house as shown).  The new gutter clips I bought made installation a snap, other than moving the extension ladder.  Rachel wanted to put wheels on the bottom, like a library ladder, but I decided that was not a great idea.

On the inside, there has been a modicum of work done on the basement.  Last month I stripped one of the storage rooms in preparation to build a larger workshop, and found some water damage to the interior wall that will probably need replacement.  We are now negotiating on how to design the area...

Finally, I mentioned long ago that we received a grant from the Bungalow Association to have some energy efficiency work done.  Well, their contractors came in and insulated like mad!  They blew in insulation between the first and second floors, added insulation in the crawlspace under the roof, and sealed the cracks between the basement and the first floors.  To top it off, we replaced our 40ish year old water heater with a brand new GE model.  Not bad for filling out a 2 page app, eh?

The only problem was that they used that spray foam to seal in all my access to the bathroom plumbing (shown above) which will make things inconvenient whenever I decide to work on that bathroom!

Long-term plans? (in no particular order)

Build storage areas along our north basement wall, next to the new laundry table.  Build the workshop.  Build a family / rec room in the basement.  Rehab the first floor bathroom.  Buy and refinish old wood doors for our bedrooms. Refinish the faux fireplace and get an electric insert.  And so on and so on until we are broke.....

-alan