Monday, December 29, 2008

Merry Christmas

We hope you had a wonderful Christmas with your loved ones! We had a nice, low key Christmas here in Herndon. It started rather a-typcially with our telephone service going out. (There was some digging going on in the neighborhood.) We had to wait for the repairman to come on Christmas Eve morning, and he finally arrived at 10. Thankfully, he finished quickly and so we were off with our "Breakfast on the Mountain" tradition (from the Minnery side). Jen was particularly excited about breakfast out and kept trying to decide what to order on the drive up to Leesburg. Jon had picked a nice local place to try out and when we trooped in there, to everyone's horror, it was 11:00 and they were NO LONGER serving breakfast. Poor Jon! He was absolutely crestfallen--and of course, Jen was rather sad herself. But we had a nice lunch and Jon promised to rectify the situation and take Jen out for breakfast later in the week. Ok, great!

The day was filled with the usual flurry of last minute present-wrapping, and that evening we drove down to see our friends the Yohos. They were in a pageant at their church and 4 of 6 Yohos were involved in the production. It was great to see the entire Yoho/Milne family (our family away from family) and the pageant was so cute. Great job to Abigail for saying her lines perfectly and for Elizabeth for being one entertaining angel. And of course, congrats to the co-director (Lacey) for helping to put on such a great show. We headed back to Ryan and Lacey's for some food and fellowship after the pageant and had a good time visiting with them. Thankfully, Kate fell asleep there and did a great job on the 45 min drive home (around midnight!) and again, fell asleep when we got back home.
Christmas morning we got up, got ready, and opened the presents. Having a 16 mo old certainly makes things interesting...for one, when she realized the gate was coming down around the tree, she was frantic to get her hands on any exposed branch. So the presents were removed, sorted, (while Daddy kept a firm hold on the baby) and the gate reinstalled. A Luminati tradition is to open gifts in a particular order, and the gifts from Gram and Pops had come numbered, but an inquisitive and mobile toddler made gift opening more haphazard than in years past. One parent usually had to corral Kate while the other opened a gift. It was definitely not boring--and certainly quite memorable. Jon read the Christmas story and Kate was very attentive--it was fun to see. After that, Kate kept going from present stack to present stack, first climbing on them, then stepping on wrapping paper and falling down, next trying to get at the tree, then attempting to grab whatever gift was breakable and not out of reach...what a sight. After we opened everything, we sat down to our traditional breakfast burritos and everyone really enjoyed that. Whew! Kate was finally contained and not by one of us. :) Not long after that it was naptime, and she fell right to sleep.





That evening, we were visited by our friends the Gormleys (neighbors from down the street) and then Courtney and Landen Waider came over for some french bread pizzas and a movie. The kids had a great time playing with new toys, chasing each other around, and eating. It was so relaxing to watch our movie together after the tiring day--thanks to the Waiders for joining us and we missed Rob, who is currently deployed.

Friday evening Jon found some Christmas lights for us to go look at, so we hopped in the car for dinner first (revisit of the "Breakfast on the Mountain") at IHOP. By the end of the meal, neither Jen nor Jon was feeling that great, but we toured the lights anyway. It was fun--Kate kept pointing at the lights and chattering about everything. After we got home, our relaxing evening turned into a late-night get sick fest--starring Jon and Jen. Ugh. That was terrible. Thankfully, Kate did not get sick, and Jon and Jen feebly took shifts watching Kate through the bleak Saturday that followed. Sunday found Jen and Jon feeling better, though not fully recovered, so we just took it easy and tried to reintroduce our stomachs to food. What a great way to end Christmas! Ahhh well. We missed our family but were so happy to have some time to ourselves and enjoy each other during the slower week. We hope you had a Merry Christmas and have a Happy New Year!

P.S. Thanks to Aunt JoAnn and Uncle Al (the kiddie's pal) for the fun Christmas outfit. We call her pants the Dr. Seuss pants. :)

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

We absolutely LOVED reading every moment and love the pics. What a joy to see Jon reading the Christmas story from the Bible to his little girl! Love the backward dress picture!! You all had a wonderful Christmas...love that you put in Christmas on the mountain...hopefully for breakfast next year...you were missed at ours, and that you saw so many friends. Getting sick was the pits...glad you could spell each other. Thank you again for the great fill in. Love you all, can't wait to see you...Gram+Pops

Anonymous said...

from Tom:

Our first ever Breakfast on the Mountain was also disastrous. This ws a real outdoor mountain experience -- the Sierra Madres west of L.A. A brutal wind kept the Coleman stove from staying lit, and the wind blew the spoon clean every time I lifted it out of the jar of hot chocolate mix. Everyone else remained in the van during the process and baby Beth (then 3) bawled, she was so hungry. The experience taught was much -- and we've been in restaurants ever since :)

I loved your latest post, and am glad J&J are over the flu.

Tom

Anonymous said...

from Tom again:

Oops--the Sierra Madres are EAST of L.A., at least until the next earthquake

Elizabeth said...

Fun to read about your Christmas and fun! Sorry to hear you were sick, but glad you are feeling better! Kate is so sweet! I love the pack-n-play bowl sleeping photo!

Anonymous said...

I love the backward dress! :)
Was that the one Melinda let Kate borrow?
I may be dumb for asking this but what is Breakfast on the Mountain?
P.S you forgot to add the dreaded whoops part!

Jen Luminati said...

Um...what whoops part? Have I blocked it from my mind on purpose? :)

Anonymous said...

So glad you enjoyed Christmas. It sounds like Kate did her best to be a 16 month old around the tree. Good job Kate. You look so adorable in the Dr. Suess pants. I am glad they fit.
That must have been so yucky being sick at the same time. Glad Kate didn't catch it! Can't wait till the 12th to hear your news about the little pip!
Happy New year to all.
Love you Big,
Aunt JoAnn and Uncle Al

Anonymous said...

Hello! It's so neat that you have so many Christmas traditions as a family! The picture of John reading the Christmas story is so sweet.

Beth said...

wow, how...eventful. glad everyone's better! that girl just gets cuter and cuter. We missed you at Christmas but are glad you had some time. thanks for the post!

love you all.

Beth said...

oh, also, i would like to see jon wearing his new Christmas finery (Ahhem...his new tie!)
try to work that into a future blog post. thanks. :)

The Milne Family said...

I was glad to see you at the pageant and sincerely hope we didn't spread any germs to you too! (I think we're responsible for Silas' infection...) I hate that we missed the post-pageant party, but it was the right thing to do. I can't believe all the visitor kids who went to sleep there! I don't think mine would have! And how exciting that you're expecting again! Happy New Year!
-Julie Milne