Family Holiday

Our energetic and adventurous 1-year old survived a 12 hour drive up to Michigan to spend Christmas with my brother's family -- she actually managed it better than I had imagined.  I was envisioning screaming fits, for hours on end, with long breaks at odd truck stops to try and satisfy her need to explore.  But she was a trooper, man.  Not exactly thrilled about being strapped into a car seat for an entire day, but as long as we fed her at appropriate intervals, handed her interesting objects to explore on a continual basis, put in a Baby Einstein video on occassion, and held onto one of her feet to ease her into sleep, she was cool.

The trip was totally worth it -- Evelyn had a ball up in snow country with Uncle Paul (professional goofball - who can resist?), Aunt Lisa (loving provider of chocolate spread for breakfast - Ev will be begging to spend summers at Auntie Lisa's), and cousin Helen (knows her way around a toy store and shared all the cool toys with Evey).  Oma & Opa made the trip up also, so the Sachs' clan spent the holiday as a complete unit. 

Favorite moments:

1) Uncle Paul making Evey laugh with his goofy faces

2) Opa getting air on the sledding hill ramp, riding down on his BELLY (fearless, I tell ya)

3) Evey tasting Nutella chocolate spread for the first time (BIG eyebrow raise on that one, which means "YUUUUM!")

4) Evey diving in, mouth wide open and eyebrows up, for a second sip of warm maple syrup (yes, she drank a shot of straight maple syrup.  apparently that's a Fogle tradition at the Sugar Shack)

5) Playing (losing at) Hearts the second night in a row, using Uncle Paul's Hooter Girls playing cards (oddly distracting)

6) Racing Uncle Paul around the backyard pulling Helen and Evelyn on sleds

7) Opa flapping (on his belly again) on the floor of the dining room, imitating a mermaid to win a point for his team in Cranium

8) Paul singing and playing his guitar with Helen, who got a beautiful (pink!) guitar from Santa

9) Helen and Evey taking a bath, Helen calmly putting up with Evelyn's happy screeching and splashing (and unladylike biological functions...)
10) Hearing the story of "Great Big Bear" (aka Hollywood) and finding a way to squeeze the entirety of him into the back of our vehicle for the journey home.