Merry Christmas!

God Jule! Mele Kalikimaka! Feliz Navidad! Merry Christmas!

Well it's Christmas day here in NC, and this whole family is S I C K! It's been a crazy few days - I came down with Bronchitis and a sinus infection, then Kurt started feeling sick, and it has finally trickled down to Gavin and Ryan. Dangit! The weather is a mild 50degrees, and man do we wish we could have some snow like our Utah families! Oh well, at least we have rain today! Hopefully by next month, we'll get our first snowfall of the year.

We had a nice and relaxing Christmas Eve, and kept it very low-key. Since we couldn't get together with friends (didn't want to get them sick too!), we decided to borrow our dear friend Stephani's family tradition, and have pizza for dinner! We went and picked up a yummy pie from our favorite NY Pizza shop, Tony's. It was delicious and hit the spot! Then we had a little Nativity story with the boys, and finally (for the boys' sake) got to opening family gifts. Gavin and Ryan got some awesome race car pajamas from Farmor and Farfar, a few cool books and they each got a Jeff Gordon and Jimmie Johnson hat! Farmor and Farfar sure knew what these boys would love!!

Erik, Emma & Owen (and Auntie Monica & Uncle Mats) gave the boys a cool Nascar play mat with a few cars included. Boy did they love it!! Uncle Conn & his girlfriend, Stacia, sent them a big firetruck puzzle, that went perfectly with the Firefighter dress-ups that Santa brought! They also sent them a Transformer car/robot that is totally cool and reminds me of what Conn used to play with when he was a kid!

Auntie Megan, Kalin & Kai, sent the boys their own Nascar remote control car. Holy cow are they excited to play with them. Sadly, we just ran out of 9volt batteries, so we're going to have to wait until tomorrow to play outside with them. And hopefully the rain will hold-up.

Santa brought some Continental & Delta airline playsets. They are so cool! These boys love anything and everything that goes! Trains, planes, trucks, cars... it all works for them!

Grampa and Gramma sent a world globe, which the boys love! While we were in Utah last month, they spent many an hour with Grampa looking at the different countries in the world. These boys are sure into geography - or rather they want to know which airline takes them to Sweden, Utah, Texas, etc... they are SO their fathers children! It's sure fun to see them want to learn about the world and all the important places therein. Santa brought a USA puzzle which Gavin was thrilled to receive. He loves the "fifty nifty United States" song, and loves to now point out which states he's visited. It's amazing how many states these boys have been too. They love to travel - almost as much as their Daddy!

The boys got plenty of other toys that I'm trying to decide if they really need! ;) We are so thankful to be here together as a family, even though we've all been sick, there's no better place to be than home with the ones you love.

the nc summerhays family

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Santa Claus is Coming to Town!

This evening we went to Chick-fil-A to see Santa! He was the cutest Santa I've ever seen! The boys loved being able to see him, and were very curious as to where the Reindeer were. It was fun for them to talk to Santa, ask for all the fun things they're not getting - er, I mean the things they want, and they even got a cute little Chick-fil-A cow and free ice cream cone! And...the pictures were FREE! Obviously, this was the top reason we chose the Chick for a Santa visit.

We had a great time with Tori, Abby, Alison & baby Drew, too! The boys just love those kids...as do I! What great friends we have here.

All I want for Christmas is my (one) front tooth!

About a month or so ago, we noticed Gavin's bottom front two teeth were starting to show a little wiggle movement. The child has been frightened ever since about losing his teeth! Over the past few weeks, on our two family trips (that I must post about), the one left tooth has been wigglier (that's a word, right?) than ever! So then yesterday comes, and the tooth is seriously hanging by a thread of gum. I sent Gavin off to school yesterday, and he returned with a hole in his mouth and no tooth!

The story goes: he was sitting having lunch with his friends, when he decided to eat his apple (good choice - fruit first, sandwich second!). He took a nice juicy bite, and bam - that lovely little, baby tooth (that I will sooo miss), popped right out and into his mouth of yummy apple goodness. And then the story continues: HE SWALLOWED HIS TOOTH!!! I am still cracking up over this! When he finally noticed that his tooth was gone (because there was a bit of blood on the apple) he searched high and low with his teacher, only to realize what had happened. When I picked him up from school, his smile looked a bit different from a distance. Then up and close, it looked so completely different. He's grown up - just like that! And I'm feeling a bit melancholy. Oh how I loved to look at his cute little teeth. Gavin has the sweetest smile, and now it's a changin' - so exciting! Since Gavin doesn't have the actual tooth (though we're now waiting for it to make it's 'appearance' in the next day or so!), we drew a picture of his tooth and wrote a nice little note to the Toothfairy, letting her know what happened. I assured him that she'll still bring him some $. She's nice like that. Now I - I mean, she, has to go scrounge up some money! Yikes, maybe a few quarters will be sufficient!?

And poor Kurt, he's on day 5 of his 10-day business trip. He's bummed that he wasn't here to witness the action. Well, neither did I! Good thing it happened at school!