Daily Life with Kemper: Whirlwind Christmas

Whew - what a whirlwind these past few weeks have been! We flew to VA on the 15th of December and ran around nonstop until we flew back to Germany on the 30th. It was so great getting to see family and friends and to celebrate Kemper's 1st Christmas with everyone!

Kemper is an EXCELLENT traveler - James and I are so lucky that he's such an adaptable baby and so happy! He did great on the flights into the States. Of course, as we board, we got the looks of dread from most of the passengers around us but as we were deplaning in Detroit, SO many people complimented us on what a good baby we have. We were lucky enough to get the bulkhead row of seats and after the flight attendant convinced our neighbor to take a different seat on an empty row, we had the row to ourselves. Kemper crawled around at our feet and actually slept in a little nest we built him with pillows and blankets for about 3 hours. He did AMAZING! Same on the flight back even though we were dealing with a very spoiled (thanks grandparents) baby who was used to basically getting whatever he wanted or getting to do whatever he wanted. We made it back and are working on getting him back onto European time (and working on unspoiling him a little!).

Meme and Pops found that Kemper is quite a handful to have around the house and that he likes to get into EVERYTHING! His favorite thing at Meme and Pops's house was crawling up and down their hallway and being "chased" around the couch. He got to spend the night with Grandma Rita and Grandpa Phil when James and I headed to Roanoke to finish up our shopping and spend some time with Allen and Tori. We did a lot of shopping (Christmas and just making up for the lack of shopping in Germany), eating out, and running around trying to see everyone we possibly could. There are many people we didn't get to see or only got to see for a few minutes and we're sorry for that! We hope you understand and know that we do our best to see everyone but with the holidays and family gatherings, it's never an easy task.

Kemper met Santa for the first time and while he didn't seem to dislike him, you could tell that he was obviously not amused that we sat him on this strange man's lap. He met Santa again at my church and, due to lack of nap, was REALLY not amused.

We got together with the Hayes/Zimmermann group on Christmas Eve at Rita and Phil's. Kemper did great and REALLY enjoyed playing with his Uncle Allen. He was not all that excited about opening presents but would always pull the tissue paper or a small piece of wrapping paper off and that was all he wanted of the unwrapping. We had to keep a pacifier in his mouth throughout present opening due to his frequent attempts at eating the small pieces of tissue/wrapping paper. We decided to forego taking Kemper to Midnight Mass with us and left him with Meme and Pops to sleep.

He was up bright and early to see what Santa brought him but crashed about 20 minutes later while we were opening gifts with Meme and Pops. After his nap, he was good to go through breakfast and presents at Great Grandma Peggy's. That night, we headed to SML to see his cousins and have Christmas dinner with them. We didn't get to see Nehemiah and new cousin Macie but did get to see Keira and Karlee. Kemper enjoyed playing with Karlee's table and watching Buddy and Raya (the doggies). He also got to meet his new cousin Maggie the night after Christmas. Maggie was asleep when Kemper met her but he was very intrigued by her in her carseat. He's really beginning to notice other babies - when we're in the stores or at a restaurant, if another baby is nearby, he really takes notice.

We were definitely sad to leave but know that we're that much closer to moving home from Germany for good. We should be back in the States by July (YAY!) in time for Auntie Ash's wedding (YAY YAY YAY Congratulations Ashley and Brian!!!!).

Enjoy the pictures, there are a TON of them but it's so hard to pick which ones to post when the subject is just so darn cute!