Christmas (Part I)

So I finally got the pictures off of my parents' camera from our Christmas spent together. We gathered together on the Saturday before Christmas at my aunt & uncle's house. My brother and his family had just come in town and it was GREAT to see my babies. Okay, so they're not really babies anymore, but I just can't get enough of my Poppy & Oskar.
This is a picture of my grandparents with all of their great-grandchildren...minus Hannah, who was sleeping at the time. Sophie is all swaddled up, because she should have been sleeping, too!

My cousin, Dan, came straight from the airport. He is in his first year at West Point and was glad to be home for a while!
This is my brother, Scott, and my cousin, Kyle.

That night we all spent the night at my parents' house. It was pretty fun to have the whole family under one roof again. That just doesn't happen very often anymore. Sunday morning we got up and had our family Christmas together. Matt & I gave hooded towels to Oskar & Poppy. They LOVE hooded towels and refuse to take a bath without one. I thought they would like them, but I had no idea how excited Poppy would be! She wore it on her head for the rest of the day.


This was taken after their bath on a different night.

The highlight of Christmas morning, however, was the gift my parent's gave Oskar. I need to back up a little though. Last year at Christmas, my dad set up his old electric train around one of their Christmas trees knowing that Oskar would love it. He is absolutely infatuated with anything that has wheels, especially trains! Little did we know that Oskar would spend every waking minute in front of that train. Here is a picture from Christmas in '07:


That is pretty much where we could find Oskar the entire time he was here. Running the train.
Well, my dad wanted to get Oskar his very own electric train this year, and spent hours researching the perfect train. He found one that is almost identical to the one he grew up with as a kid. You guys, I just can't explain it, but it brings tears to my eyes every time I think about how special this is for my dad and Oskar. I just think it's so cute and will create a lifetime of memories for this little man. Just look at these pictures. PURE JOY!

Opening the train

Setting it all up. 3 generations of Trettels. Those boys love their "engineering" toys! It runs through all of their blood!

Manning his very own train! He had it all figured out in less than 10 minutes.

She's so silly.

Scott left on Sunday afternoon, but Amy & the kiddos stuck around for a few more days. (Scott is pretty much building their house by himself right now, and he needed to get some more work done on it.) It was great to have a few days to goof around and play with Poppy & Oskar and catch up with Amy.

Poppy was pretty interested in Sophie & Oskar thought she was hilarious. He cracked up every time he could get her to smile.

(If you are following my blog at all, Amy is doing well and is managing her MS with diet and excercise and it seems to be working really well! She's feeling good and hasn't been having as many symptoms lately. Keep praying for her health and for a cure!!)

So that's the Trettel Christmas in a nutshell. It was a blast! Looking forward to next year when Sophie is a little more aware of what's going on!