Christmas in Review

The Christmas of 2008 will be a memorable one for the Weeks' family.

This was Lili's first Christmas at home. She didn't quite understand the purpose of ripping paper off packages and seemed to be much more interested in watching everyone else rip paper off their packages. That evening, my sister-in-law and her daughter came over for dinner and a gift exchange. Lili decided that unwrapping gifts was fun after all and tore right into her gifts.

It was very hard deciding what to get Lili this year. Not because she is difficult to buy for, but it was hard not buying everything I thought she'd enjoy. Okay, everything I thought I'd enjoy :-) Between Santa and other family, she made a haul this year and has very much enjoyed having new toys to play with.

Lili's first Christmas was fun for all of us, but it was especially enjoyable watching the boys enjoy her first Christmas home. One of the gifts Lili received was a doll that cries, laughs, says momma, makes drinking sounds when giving her a bottle and then burps. Lili wasn't overly interested in the doll, but Josh wanted the doll out of the box so he could try it out. Ben started out taking pictures Christmas morning because he wanted to make sure we got plenty of pictures for Lili's first Christmas. I ended up with the camera and we did get some good photos. The boys also enjoyed their gifts, but were really into watching Lili as she took in all the activity of Christmas morning.

While there were definitely some good things that happened on Christmas, it wasn't without some drama as well. We picked Ryan up on Christmas Eve so he could spend Christmas Eve and Christmas Day with us. However, as Ryan has gotten older, he has had more and more trouble adjusting to changes in his life. Not that being here is a big change for him, but it is a change none-the-less. The visit was going well until bedtime. In our attempts to get him settled down for the night and into bed, he became more and more agitated which caused him to stress more and more. While Santa was waiting to come down the chimney with care to leave our gifts under the tree, Ryan was still wide awake and refusing to go to sleep. Since he cannot be left unsupervised, at least one person had to be up with him until he fell asleep. Dave said he would stay up with Ryan, so I put Lili to bed and went to get some sleep. At 3:30 a.m. Christmas morning, Dave came upstairs limping and asked me to go sit with Ryan. Yes, Ryan was still awake and Dave had somehow twisted his knee and was in pain and very tired. Ryan still could not fall to sleep and since he believes that all gifts are to be opened once they appear, Santa was unable to put any gifts under the tree. Lili woke up at 5:00 a.m., so we sat in the family room with Ryan watching t.v. and waiting for him to fall asleep. At 7:00 a.m. Dave came downstairs, still limping and in quite a bit of pain. Ryan was still awake and Santa still wasn't able to put the gifts under the tree. At 7:30 Dave decided that Santa just needed to leave the gifts and we should go ahead and open them, so Santa's elves (Josh and Ben) helped out by placing all the gifts under the tree while I got Lili dressed. When we came back downstairs there were gifts piled under and around the Christmas tree and Ryan was still awake. I took Lili into the living room and her response was "Ohhhh." So and exhausted mom and dad had gathered the children, both young and old and our Christmas morning was underway by 8:00 a.m. Ryan was still awake, but not a very happy camper. He did cheer up after opening a few gifts.

Ryan eventually fell asleep, but not until mid afternoon on Christmas and because he had been up for over 30 hours straight, his body retaliated and he ended up having a couple seizures before sleep ensued. Ryan has given us many learning experiences over his 28 years of life and the latest is that we can't disrupt his schedule by bringing him back home for an overnight visit. It's just too overwhelming, especially for him.

As far as Dave's knee goes, we seriously considered a trip to the emergency room, but as the day progressed and he stayed off his feet, his knee got better. Each day it's continued to improve and as of today he's barely limping.

Although there were certainly some highs and lows, overall, we had a nice Christmas and now have some great memories of the Weeks' Family Christmas of 2008. Here are some of those memories captured digitally.

Lili amongst all the gifts.

Ryan showing Lili how it's done.
Lili trying out her new play kitchen from Santa. Mommy and daddy have tasted all kinds of good food she's cooked for us :-)
The new baby was hungry. Her mommy is taking wonderful care of her. Ryan watching our new chef in action.
Lili wasn't too interested in opening her gifts on Christmas morning, but she had it figured out and was ready to tear into her gifts when Aunt Susan and her cousin Maya came over.To help meet Ryan's sensory needs, we still buy him kid's toys. Here is Maya testing out some of Ryan's gifts. The orange part of the gun spins, has lights and makes sounds.
Brotherly love! As you can see, Ryan is getting really tired by this point and doesn't make it long after this picture was taken.
Ben loves Timberland boots and shoes. Santa surprised him with a brand new pair for Christmas and he was "thrilled." You can't have a kitchen without a grocery cart for buying kitchen supplies. Here is Lili trying out her new grocery cart and taking her other new baby on a shopping trip.
Making sure she has everything she needs.Lili found another use for one of the bowls from her kitchen set. A hat for mommy's Pipka santa.