Monday, December 28, 2009

Merry Christmas from Wales

Merry Christmas 2009
Talmage's First Christmas
Caerphilly, Wales
Spent with the wonderful, gracious and kind Abbott family
Traveling back home to California was too expensive this year, but we were lucky enough to spend the holiday with a dear family friend and her family in Wales. Jan Abbott, her daughter Laura and son-in-law Andrew (and their two children Matthew and Maddison) and her son Michael were so good to us. They gave up bedrooms, prepared meals and taxied us around during our five day stay in Wales...we are so grateful to them for loving us and spoiling us!
Readers beware--if you proceed past this point you will find a picture OVERLOAD (and I'm proud of it!) Some of them were from our camera (well, borrowed camera...ours is still sick), but most are from Laura's super sweet legit camera. We just love that girl! I'll try to let the pictures do the talking!
I'M DREAMING OF A WHITE CHRISTMAS
Oh wait, this year it was a reality! My first white Christmas EVER. Look at us walking in a winter wonderland. It was so fun!

CAERPHILLY CASTLE
The Caerphilly castle is the 2nd largest castle in Europe. We walked around, took lots of pictures, and marvelled at how medieval it looks!


CAERPHILLY WALK-ABOUT
Laura and her two munchkins took me and the boys on a walk through the center of town. What a cute city! There was a law passed requiring every sign to be written in both English and Welsh. Jim had so much fun trying to figure out how to pronounce the words.



PROGRESS
Talmage is making progress in the moving department. He's still not crawling (or scooting for that matter) but he LOVES to stand. He was playing in this ball pit and I turned around for one second and he stood up...all by himself. It was a first and luckily my dear camera was there to document it. He was so proud of himself. Now he is standing constantly!
CHRISTMAS MORNING
Ash...the picture above is just for you. You taught Jim the proper Christmas face and he is already teaching Talmage!
How could he not be excited and shocked...look at all this loot! Matthew, Talmage and Maddison definitely were on Santa's good list this year.

We wanted to share a little bit of present opening with you. Talmage is a pro!

This baby had such a great first Christmas, and he was such a good boy. He and I are both recovering from ear infections (which are miserable) and yet he was so happy and easy (yeah, you read correctly. I said Talmage and easy in the same sentence...hallelujah!) You can see those big beautiful teeth in that middle picture above. So cute!

CHRISTMAS DINNER
Jan did such a fabulous job on the Christmas feast. Delicious. Yum. Amazing. Incredible.

This little guy wasn't exactly part of the Christmas feast, but look at those sweet cheeks and big eyes...I could just eat him up!
KIDNAPPING
They checked all my bags and patted me down before leaving. I think they were afraid I'd run off with their babies. I won't say it hadn't crossed my mind. Especially that precious, angelic baby girl. She is so cuddly and soft and she falls asleep for anyone. I adore her!

Wales was incredible and a memory we'll have forever. A big thank you to our Welsh family and a very Merry Christmas wish to all the American's as well!

3 comments:

  1. If I were closer, I'd most definitely come and kidnap that sweet baby boy! Oh my goodness, those big brown eyes are just beckoning me! What a sweet Christmas you had, I love that you have got posting videos down to a fine art now! Love you!

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  2. It looks like you guys had a good Christmas! I can't get over how cute your darling little baby is! I'm glad you had somewhere fun to go! Also, I just read your message and laughed... my braces are clear, so hopefully you couldn't tell too much that they were on. I just have an awkward smile now from them (they are just as annoying/bulky as regular metal ones, but clear colored). Anyway, I loved the picture overload that really wasn't too much of an overload!!

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  3. It looks so nice in Wales! I love the video of Talmage opening his gifts! He is such a cutie! I hope you all are feeling better so we can get together again! I miss you! -Liz-

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