After Xmas, we drive to my brother's house in Greensboro.

In the mountains, Owen gets his first taste (literally) of snow!

At Rachel's, we get a shot of Dad and his four grandsons. From left, Reece, Dylan, Owen, Grandpa Gary and Neo.

The main entertainment of the evening was either their karaoke machine, or ping pong.

When asked her preference..

Guess where we ended up?

We continue the tradition...

of wearing silly hats (the ones that come in the Christmas Crackers) at the dinner table! Grandma Regina is kind enough to share with Owen...

Xmas dinner...

After a little nap, it's time to make Xmas dinner. Of course, you know who was giving all the orders...


Which is thirsty work - so we let the troops rest for a while and enjoy some juice...

Then it's time to oversee Brian carving the turkey...

Which was apparantly important enough that we captured on film...

Xmas cont cont...

Then we tried on Dad's new hat... (Save Water, Drink Beer.) That'll go over well when we're out walking...
We got some really cool spiderman slippers too.

We're so excited about presents, we have to have Grandpa Gary swing us around a little bit!

And inevitably, after all that excitement, it's time for a nap. Well, for mom, at least...
Not that a nap was very likely....

Xmas continued...

Lisa got a groovy hat and scarf combo... and I got a talking animated bear that tells the WHOLE of "Twas the night before Xmas"! It woke Owen up, and then we were fascinated by it...

Until we got to try on Mom's hat!

And then, of course, Dad had to try it on too...

Christmas Day!

We're a little slow starting - and Grandpa Gary feeds Owen a bottle before we get too far into our day. A nice shot in front of the main Xmas tree. After this, Owen got a little cranky, so Grandpa took him for a walk.
When they got back, we started opening presents!

Of course, we got all ours out of the way before waking the little guy up...

Sunday - Xmas eve

We start with a good healthy breakfast - as per usual. I love this shot of him - he looks so serene... Then we play like maniacs on all the new furniture.

Before long, it's time for a snack.

For dinner - a friend of Dad's came over - and he brought a chocolate fountain with him! It was delicious - either with strawberries or pretzel sticks!

Saturday...

First, we practiced our scrunchy face.

Then we took my dad into town to buy some electronics. We bought them a laptop, printer, DVR and DVD player. After all that spending, Grandpa needed a nap....

So we went back to the basement and played with Grandma Regina....

After a brief email tutorial, Dad needed another nap. I'm telling you, being retired is ALL that it's cracked up to be!

More playing in the bar...

The sparkly blue ball was our favorite... although the spongy blue one was fun too...

especially when Grandpa bopped us on the head with it...

until we took it away from him!

Much giggling occurred during the above photos. Most of it from Grandpa.

We get to Dad's pretty uneventfully

although Thursday was a heck of a travel day! After a quick change of clothes (into an outfit that was a present from our nanny)



It's off to the bar (The Red Dragon) in Dad's basement to play on the carpet! Here, we're playing peekaboo with Mom, using the stools!

Then we explore a little bit - here's the dartboard on the other side of the bar - the world map is just the right height!

Then Grandpa Gary comes down to play with us as well! He's got lots of toys to play with.

Pre-Xmas shots...

Before we left for Xmas, we played around the house a little bit. This is Owen's cupboard - it's full of plastic bowls and lids for him to pull out and play with.

We also played in the yard before we went - Pete had bought a leaf vacuum - here, Lisa is showing how well it picks up the b*stard mulberry leaves...

We opened our presents before we left - since we'd be gone a week. Here's a picture of the tree in all it's glory before the mad unwrapping!

The upgrade to blogger has somehow blocked my Hello program from Picasa from sharing the pictures direct to the blog. We'll have to do it the old fashioned way for now.

I've gone over to the dark side...

and updated my blog to the new version. Photos of Owen-y Xmas goodness to follow.

Updates for the next week

Will be minimal as we go atravelling for the holidays! Should have plenty of photo-y goodness when we return. Hope you all enjoy the season, whereever you are!

Well, we tried (a while ago) to take the little guy to see Santa. As might be expected, he was not thrilled by the prospect. Although this picture looks like he's laughing at Santa, he's really mid-scream. Oh well, maybe next year! 

The stomach flu is like a hurricane...

You get walloped by the effects up front, feeling as rancid as any human being can possibly feel, then you suddenly feel normal. You have a decent breakfast, you do a little shopping - but this is really the eye of the hurricane. Suddenly - WHAM! You're flat on your back again, with images of fire-hoses and sounds of thunder rumbling from places that are normally fairly docile. Thankfully, Lisa's family delivered a boat load of supplies to the house, enabling me to lie quietly moaning while she played with Owen.
He's doing MUCH better, by the way. Pictures to follow.

Reports of my demise are sadly mistaken...

Although it's a bloody close thing. After 72 hours between the bed and the "auxiliary" office, I am now officially over the stomach flu. Between cramps that made me wish for male-Midol (or horse tranquilizers, whatever did the job) and let's just say...um... uh....unpleasantness... down....south.... (yeah, that's not graphic at all) - I have recovered enough to blog about it. Let me just say, I don't wish the stomach flu on my worst enemy - not that I have one! Awful, just awful.
Time to catch up on everything while I've been incapacitated....

Medical update...

Please switch the recipients of Good News #1 below with the sicko of Bad News #2. Ugh..

Thankfully, Lisa is ok and makes a really great nurse...

Let's play good news/bad news...

Good News: I'm still healthy.
Bad News: Owen is not.
Good News: Lisa is still healthy.
Bad News: Owen is really not. He has stomach flu.
Good News: He's done puking his guts out.
Bad News: Now he's moved to the diarrhea stage.
Good News: He's now sleeping peacefully.
Bad News: I forgot to put the word "explosive" in the last bad news.

Yep - last night was not a good night in the Higgy-household. We took him to the doctor's today, and he confirmed that there was something similar going around. He warned us what was to come and what to watch for - and how to rehydrate the little guy. Now all we need is the sleep back, and we'll be laughing.

No, there will be NO photographic evidence of this episode.

We got several cool toys, but you can see how interested he is in the clothing (note which way he's facing!) 

Of course, you can't have a birthday without presents! 

Think he liked it? 

Instead of cake, we had a blueberry muffin! That's whipped cream with the candle balanced on top!