So the Sat after Christmas we all hauled over to Mom D's bro's place (Uncle Tim) to reconnect w/ cousins that we hadn't seen for awhile...here's J's bro Rob & wife Sharon & Aunt Jodi & U Tim
Hanging out in U Tim's livingroom...
L-R: Aunt Jodi, Aunt Jodi's mom, Kelly Ziemer & Elissa
Meanwhile the kids were having a blast - here's Laini, KT & Elijah hangin' out.
The Janneys hosted the Drummond clan for a couple days after Christmas - here's pix from a feast Mom J prepared once everyone got in...so yummy! So Dec 26th all J's sibs came up to E's parents' place - here's Dad J, Elissa's bro Michael & J's bro Rob...
J's oldest sister Kim with Elijah & his newest cousin, Chase... L-R: Kim & Christy (J's sisters) & Christy's hubby Allan... E's parents & bro... Mom J enjoying another little baby...Chase!
Well, with Elijah as Mom & Dad J's 1st grandbaby you can guess which stocking was his... :)
Crissy gave J a fun gift - CS Lewis audio books on flashdrives - awesome small, portable gift, very thoughtful for us trying to shove our life into a few suitcases!
We ended daylight with a walk in the park just us 3...Elijah was quite bundled up as it was a little chilly (freezing by Indo standards) ;)
Here's a closeup of our little Eskimo...or Mongolian should we say!
Got chilly enough that E decided to hold him closer...just in time for a great sunset.
Ended Christmas Day w/ J & B - they'd let us borrow their running stroller while we were stateside so after 1 final jaunt in the park we returned it...wish it was socially acceptable to have one in Calang! Oh well....Christmas ended well w/ meeting Becca's parents & enjoying J&B's smiling faces :)
Thanks Lindsey for the great homemade bib, so perfect - how ironic that our 1st heli ride took us to the place we now call home :) Also thanks to Aunt A & J for pitching in to get this great Ergo carrier. Since there's no sidewalks in our town to speak of this'll be the best way to haul little E around once he's a little bigger.
We enjoyed another visit w/ Elissa's grandparents who live on 1211 Amesbury Ln. fondly called "1211" by our family. Here's some pix from our time together...love you Pop & Nannie!
Dec 17th is J's bday...this year he got his 1st human birthday card ever :) We also celebrated w/ a yummy Morroccan meal w/ M&D J as well as a fun night on the town with the Stables - Thai & Cold Stone Creamery - did you know CSC gives free ice cream on your bd?!
So we know that we already did a post on Thanksgiving but we found a couple other pix we wanted to add from our time @ Jason's sister (Christy)& bro-in-laws' (Allan) place: It was mostly a reunion for Allan's side (pictured above)but they let us tagalong too :) Pictured below is Christy & then E's dad in the background holding Elijah's newest cousin, Chase.
The only downside to taking pix/blogging is that usually we're only taking pix when something fun or exciting is happening. Problem w/ this is it's only 1/2 the story! We don't post enough pix of the more stressful times in our life so here's to being more realistic...as Paul Harvey would say "the rest of the story."
E’s parents took us to the DC airport…hard to smile when goodbyes are never fun. Here’s e playing on the plane floor in his bassinette… During our layover in Singapore we wandered around the airport trying to fight jetlag with a little exercise…we came across their butterfly garden which was really fun!
We thoroughly enjoyed having Elijah in his own seat on the last leg!
Well, we still need to post pix from Christmas but thought we'd get a couple shots & videos up from our flight over so you can rest assured that we're in Indo ok :)
We loved hanging out w/ Jeff & Becca's fam during our time in Culpeper... Here their youngest son Levi's acting out one of his superheroes while Jason was grilling up some satay on a crisp fall afternoon :)
Had a great time reconnecting w/ Lindsey & Josh @ Panera before we headed out. Afterwards we 3 went out for Indian & wow was it amazing! We miss you Trents!
Elijah's 1st Christmas was a blast...more pix to come but here are some warmups. A friend of Mom & Dad D (Kate) made Elijah his 1st ball below, personalized 'n all - awesome!
In the beginning of Dec we took a long wkend trip to Philadelphia to reconnect w/ good friends there. We stayed w/ Seth & Sarah Dorrell who were awesome enough to join us revisiting some of our favorite places…here’s a Moroccan restaurant – could’ve done w/o the belly dancers & loud music but the food was super savory – thx S & S!
Great to see Brad & Becca again too – we’re enjoying Indian w/ them & Seth & Sarah…
Happy Bday Andrew! Andrew came out to Bandung to see us our 1st yr in Indo before he & Irene got married – was great to finally hear the woman he’d been bragging about for some time :)
A quick snooze @ Seth & Sarah’s…guess it’s been all those late nights we’ve been havin’ :)
We had Thanksgiving in Roanoke, VA with Jason’s sister (Christy’s) extended fam & Elissa’s parents. It was quite a full house but great to be w/ fam on Tgiving. Afterwards we had our 1st getaway just the 2 of us since Elijah’s birth. He was 2 months old so we figured it was about time ;)
Sportin’ his “1st Thanksgiving” onesie – a shower gift ☺ Roanoke’s famous for it’s mammoth star at the top of one of their main mountains. We enjoyed a hike up to see it – Elissa’s @ the bottom waving to help w/ a little depth perception…There was a live feed cam so we were able to call E’s parents & Elijah to see us online. ☺ Also on this particular mountain was a little zoo we enjoyed – thought it was quite funny that this cebu was licking the pig…weird! Check out the video...& Elissa's comment on the series...I mean species it is!
Our last night in Roanoke we went out for some yummy Indian food (who would’ve thought in Roanoke?!) We enjoyed strolling around downtown looking @ all the little shops…including this one w/ a great quote E’s pointing to… It says, "Life isn't about waiting for the storm to pass, it's about learning to dance in the rain."
We finished our 2 day getaway with Mexican fare – a great time to be away together before the hecticness of moving back to Indo began in full force.
Little E had his 1st trip to his aunt Crissy’s favorite coffee shop on his way to see his great-grandparents in Richmond, VA. Elissa had her decaff mocha & ‘Lij had his…well, milk.
We took ‘Lij on a short walk to the horses behind where E’s parents live – it was a bit chilly but little E got to sport his Hokie stocking cap in honor of our favorite alums, Mom & Dad J.
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So the Sat after Christmas we all hauled over to Mom D's bro's place (Uncle Tim) to reconnect w/ cousins that we hadn't seen for awhile...here's J's bro Rob & wife Sharon & Aunt Jodi & U Tim
Hanging out in U Tim's livingroom...
L-R: Aunt Jodi, Aunt Jodi's mom, Kelly Ziemer & Elissa
Meanwhile the kids were having a blast - here's Laini, KT & Elijah hangin' out.
And then KT, Lyssi & 'Jah, very fun.
So Dec 26th all J's sibs came up to E's parents' place - here's Dad J, Elissa's bro Michael & J's bro Rob...
J's oldest sister Kim with Elijah & his newest cousin, Chase...
L-R: Kim & Christy (J's sisters) & Christy's hubby Allan...
E's parents & bro...
Mom J enjoying another little baby...Chase!
Well, with Elijah as Mom & Dad J's 1st grandbaby you can guess which stocking was his... :)
Crissy gave J a fun gift - CS Lewis audio books on flashdrives - awesome small, portable gift, very thoughtful for us trying to shove our life into a few suitcases!
We ended daylight with a walk in the park just us 3...Elijah was quite bundled up as it was a little chilly (freezing by Indo standards) ;)
Here's a closeup of our little Eskimo...or Mongolian should we say!
Got chilly enough that E decided to hold him closer...just in time for a great sunset.
Ended Christmas Day w/ J & B - they'd let us borrow their running stroller while we were stateside so after 1 final jaunt in the park we returned it...wish it was socially acceptable to have one in Calang! Oh well....Christmas ended well w/ meeting Becca's parents & enjoying J&B's smiling faces :)
Thanks Lindsey for the great homemade bib, so perfect - how ironic that our 1st heli ride took us to the place we now call home :)
Also thanks to Aunt A & J for pitching in to get this great Ergo carrier. Since there's no sidewalks in our town to speak of this'll be the best way to haul little E around once he's a little bigger.
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