Blick Christmas in Wichta

What a wonderful weekend we had with family the past few days! I was a little worried as we began the day on Friday. Noah woke up with a temperature and could not go to school. I wasn't sure how he would do traveling 6 hours to Wichita. Mike had the day off but had to get some things done so I opted to take Noah into work for a few hours with me. He did OK and he had lots of admirers but while I was trying to get through a few calls, he did not want to be ignored. That was challenging but for the most part, we survived it with little incident.
We left the office around 11 and grabbed some lunch before going to Dana's to pick her and Mike up. The drive itself wasn't a bad one (Noah was exceptionally good considering he was not feeling well). We made pretty good time and rolled into my mom's place shortly before 6 and ready for dinner! My Aunt Judy and Uncle Jim joined us for a delicious home-cooked meal and some entertaining game playing that evening. After dinner we gathered to open stockings - Noah especially enjoyed some of his gifts as seen below.
(The string you will see in all of these pictures has a balloon attached at the top. Which, we went to great lengths hanging on to from Dallas, to Wichita, and back again; only to have Noah let it go Sunday night into the afternoon sky. We watched it rise over the rooftops and on to balloon heaven).
Anyway, here is Noah posing with Grandma.

He's a little nervous sticking his hand into his stocking, as if something might bite him.

Grandma seemed to hit a home run. All of his favorite things are displayed in the video above and the pictures below.

Look at this nifty stick that gives light! Neat-o!

Saturday morning we were off to Grandpa's house to spend the day with Grandpa, aunts, uncles, cousins and second cousins. Noah is enjoying a mouthful of something as seen below. We introduced him to Grandma's cookies. He constantly wanted one. Uh - oh. He's got mama's sweet tooth - yikes!

Noah also has a fun game of surprising people in between people's legs. Grandpa's legs are mstly tall enough where this works. Not so great with Mommy!

This is one of my favorite pictures. All the elders gathered around to take family photos and Noah got down there with Grandpa to watch the action. Too cute!

The below picture is the second cousins that were there. Aren't they just the cutest! Ages ranged from 7 years to 2 weeks!! And one not pictured is due in February - another boy. :-)

Here is our family picture - this was the only one where Noah was not screaming. He's not a fan of sitting still when asked.

That night Noah enjoyed playing on Grandpa's lap as the rest of us played cards; a tradition at the Blick household.

Noah was a very good boy all weekend, esp. considering he wasn't feeling well and was not in his bed. The drive home was another story. He slept a little but did NOT want to be in his car seat! Oh well, you can't ask for a perfect child several days in a row!! We made it back mid-afternoon and with enough time to get home and prepare for this week. Mike is off until Jan. 4 (lucky dog!) while I worked today and will go in tomorrow. Unfortunately, it appears that Noah gave me the bug he had and I'm a bit under the weather. I sure hope I can get over it before family arrives tomorrow and Wednesday and have some time to enjoy the break!

Since this will be the last post before Christmas comes and goes (WOW!), I'd like to wish you all the merriest and most blessed of Christmases and while we can't be with our entire family (we miss you Grandma and Grandpa Reichert and Aunt Meggie!), everyone is in our hearts and always in our thoughts!

Love to all,

Corri, Mike and Noah