THE WHITE'S WITH THE NATIONAL SANTA
SANTA, I WANT BIRDY THE BUS AND LOTS OF TRAINS!
BRINSON BRAVELY STANDING WITH
THE KENNEDY CENTER SANTA
SANTA, I WANT DINOSAURS AND A GUITAR!
HAPPY NEW YEAR 2009 and BELATED MERRY CHRISTMAS 2008 FROM THE WHITES!
2008 was a year of illness, chaos and yet many blessings. We look forward to a great 2009.
In December 2007, we visited Colonial Williamsburg for an 18th Century look at holiday festivities. We also drove by to see the White House Christmas Tree (which became our trademark trip in December 2008). We made a trek across the states to spend Christmas with my family. Unfortuantely Christmas was not too much fun as Brinson became very ill with 104.8 fever for 4 days and had to go to urgent care twice while there. We did manage to visit Great Grandaddy Ellis in MS but were unable to attend the big family holiday dinner. It was rough on all of us.
It was not a good New Year either. In the wee hours of January 2008, Shae became very ill requiring her mother to fly out to take care of Brinson while he was battling flu (both types) and she attempted to recover from bronchitis, pneumonia and both types of flu over the course of 2 months. I thankfully only had a touch of the flu and was able to keep working. During all these illnesses, we were in the process of house hunting and packing to move to a different part of Northern Virginia. In late March, we found a house closer to DC and my work, right off the Beltway and 1 mile from the nearest hospital (which we visited 3 times in 2008 for Brinson with a dislocated wrist and elbow, hand puncture and chin laceration!).
In February mother nature had plans for my family as a tornado ripped through Jackson, TN and demolished my childhood home with my mom inside. She was rattled but otherwise fine. This was certainly unexpected and trying for the family, but the silver lining soon appeared. As my mom put it, they were able to get back on their feet thanks to God and good insurance! After demolishing the house, they sold their land and were able to pay off their old mortgage, and buy a new house debt-free. In the end, they were truly blessed.
March approached with our little bunny bundled up in the cold weather searching for plastic Easter eggs that had M&M's hidden within...and we had Shae's mom ("Grandma Pam") and step-dad ("Papa Gerry") come to take care of Brinson while Shae and I went to London England for our 4th anniversary get away. We stayed with a friend of mine, took in all the sights, attended a comedy club to see some comedians I knew, and sat on the first row of a professional soccer game where 6 Americans played, which was a rare and very memorable event. April flew by as we moved into a new home just in time to celebrate Brinson's 2nd Birthday by having a party with some friends at the new home and then taking him to the National Zoo.
In May Shae and Brinson went to Oklahoma to see Brinson's cousin Gabby Buck turn the big one, visit special family and friends and watch Shae's brother Eric graduate from High School! He accepted a scholarship to run for Oklahoma Christian University. By the time June hit, we had lots of visitors and trips underway. Our niece Ellie brought my sister Leah and my mom ("GranLynn") to town and we all went to our first Nationals baseball game at the new stadium with views of the the Capitol dome and the Washington monument.
July and August were busy months. We attended our neighborhood bike parade for 4th of July. Then, we took off across the states for a visit with close friends and family in TN, MS and NC. We had a picnic at the Dinosaur Park in Nashville where over 20 of our close friends came to visit us! We enjoyed seeing my parent's new home in Jackson, TN, as well as seeing the lot where my childhood home once stood. In Jackson, Brinson toured Casey Jones Village train station and the Rockabilly Hall of Fame! And of course, he enjoyed playing with "Pops," "GranLynn", Andrew (aka "Uncle Monkey") and Hotty Toddy the dog. We also treasured Brinson's visits with both his great grandparents, a blessing considering the generation gap. We attended my cousin Amanda's wedding engagement party in MS, and then enjoyed a church visit followed by a family luncheon with Great Grandaddy Ellis. We then briefly toured the Ole Miss Campus and took some pictures beating a huge storm that was blowing in to town. We were also able to see some wonderful friends on our old stomping grounds of Tupelo during that time.
We headed home only for Shae and Brinson to repack for a trip to Orange Beach, near the Florida and Alabama border. GranLynn was nice enough to invite the family, but I stayed back to work. Brinson had a blast! He went from being frightened of the waves to running down the sand hill and splashing in the water. The waves were rough and we had a double red flag most days with lots of jellyfish. Brinson thankfully did not care as long as he had his small beach pool, his shovel and Uncle Monkey and cousin Ellie to pester! After the Orange Beach trip, we all took a trip down to Busch Gardens and Virginia Beach to stay with the Ullian family . We went tubing on Jim Ullian's boat, which was a blast but I unfortuantely lost my wedding ring at the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean!
On a tragic note, during this time we lost a young 17 year old cousin of Shae's, Jarrod Hunter Buck. He was found deceased in a friends home in Choctaw OK.
Big Changes took place around September. Shae started back to work as a contract therapist in an alternative school for learning disabled and emotionally disturbed students who are unable to attend a regular school setting. Brinson started "play school" and I continued to work with KPMG as a tax consultant manager in state and local tax. We visited George Washington's boyhood home excavation site called Ferry Farm near Fredricksburg, VA and enjoyed doing a scavenger hunt there. In addition, we took Brinson to see the airplanes at the National Air and Space Museum near Dulles Airport out near where we used to live and ended the month going to Temple Hall Farm for Brinson's first pumpkin patch of the season!
October breezed past as we attended Our nephew Cole's 4th birthday party in Ohio and had a family picture with the Hemminger's, Buck's, White's plus one Burtrum and one McInturff! Shae and Brinson went to Frying Pan Park with my cousin Mary Ellis who just moved to DC. We managed to visit Monticello with Grandma Pam, Papa Gerry and Mary Ellis. Pops also came to town and we went to the Air and Scare at the Air and Space Museum near Dulles and the Cox Family Farm on KPMG day. Our little prince turned into a frog on All Hallows Eve. This door to door experience was a hoot! He thought he was supposed to go in all the homes when they opened their door!!
Over this past November, we finally found time to carve Brinson's pumpkins! We also went to Ohio for Thanksgiving. We had a great time until...we all battled a touch of the stomach bug. Brinson and Shae got the worst of it...and unfortunately we remained sick with various ailments up to Christmas. We put up our Christmas Trees, decorated the outside with lights and exposed Brinson to his first Hispanic Santa of the Season in an Ohio mall!
Our December was full of DC holiday fun. It started by meeting cousin Mary Ellis in to tour the Christmas Market in D.C.'s Chinatown. We made numerous additional trips in to DC, including 3 trips to the White House Christmas Tree. Brinson loved the trains around the tree, and we also got to see the Yule Log and National Nativity Scene (the Menorah was not yet lit). Brinson got to see the National Santa as well and was not scared as he was all business discussing the trains he wanted. We also went to the Kennedy Center to enjoy a family Christmas concert. Brinson saw both Santa and Saint Nicholas at the close of the concert, and Brinson gave Santa high five as he walked past us. After the show Brinson decided he had to talk to him because, "I not scared of Santa no more, mommy daddy!" He marched up to Santa and told him what he wanted for Christmas, never mind this was the 3rd or 4th Santa he had been exposed to this season and never once caught on to the fact that they all didn't look alike!
We also went to the Union Station, which was decked out with the Norwegian Holiday theme of trains and tree exhibits. On one of our expeditions, we went to see the new visitor center at the Capitol but it was closed. We did manage to get our White House Christmas ornament as well as the Library of Congress ornament, always an important ornament for us to get. Finally, we took a wonderful visit to the US Botanical Gardens on Christmas Eve. It was filled with lush gardens, magnificent plant sculptures of DC monuments, and for Brinson lot of trains, trains, trains (this is where we took our New Year's card picture)!
It was so nice to be home enjoying the first real Christmas with Brinson simply because he actually understood more of the process. Brinson made Christmas cookies for Santa and gave baby carrots to his reindeer. He also helped make a cake to celebrate the birth of Christ to which he responded, "Jesus is gonna come blow out his candles at my house." We bought Brinson his own tree and when Santa came, he left hints of more presents downstairs under the family tree. He woke up saying Santa brought me Dinosaurs, Trains and Cars. He played with one thing at a time then got into opening the presents and with each one he would say Santa brought me more presents! It was such a joy to spend this time with him as our own family traditions are just beginning. He had to be told about the note Santa left him on the tree. So he hurried to the basement to see what Santa left him and it was a Power Wheels of GraveDigger, the monster truck! He says everything is "Bad to the Bone," because of his monster truck obsession!
The day after Christmas, Shae's sister came and visited with her family. We hosted our first official Holiday Dinner by serving spinach and artichoke dip with chips, rosemary balsalmic tenderloin baked with potatoes and carrots, turkey dressing, creamed corn and pigs in a blanket for the kids! Shae did a wonderful job with the dinner. We had a great post-Christmas visit with them. Our nephew Troy was the first to find the pickle ornament which won him an extra gift, an old German tradition that we started this year. They even enjoyed themselves lounging on the Mall near the National Tree facing the White House in spring like weather.Of course a whole year has passed with numerous changes. Brinson went from speaking in short phrases to asking questions, awkwardly toddling along to jumping off anything he can climb and tinkering with any gagdet he can find. Lately his obsession is trains, cars and dinosaurs. Brinson is the proud caretaker of a boy cabbage patch doll that he named "baby brother." He is an avid Caillou fan, which is partly to blame for his combination southern, french-canadian, and british accent!
Thankfully we began 2009 in good health. Hopefully that will continue. We hope each of you all had a very Merry Christmas and here's to you all having a wonderful 2009.
The White's (Bo, Shae, Brinson, & Maverick the Dog)
