Our Bast Family Christmas.

We always celebrated Christmas Eve by going to the Methodist candlelight service at my Grandparent's church in Southold, NY (North Fork, Long Island). Then at home we'd have a light dinner, and open gifts.

That was our tradition, my whole life. While that can't happen these days, it doesn't mean it can't happen again.

This year, given all the unexpected excitement, we were truly blessed. Both my parents, who live out of state and usually miss these kinds of events, were in town for Christmas... so when our precious little Evie was born, they were both within about a one hour's drive! (Jerry & Wendy were of course here, and we spoke with Sandi & Bob who cannot wait to visit and sent their love.)

The Bast side of our family celebrated Christmas this year on Saturday, December 27, in the afternoon and early evening. It was pretty great. Everyone was, as always, too generous, and everyone made promises, as always, that next year they would not spend as much. It was a really fun and generous event.

December 26.

Friday came right on schedule, and it was actually a pretty great day. I left early for the hospital, but not before my generous sister-in-law offered to come over. She straightened things up around the house and watched Connor, while I went to pick up Jodi and Evie from the hospital. That went swimmingly, and we arrived home safely in the Jeep. The rest of our First Day Home together was pretty great, and we of course started adjusting things for a family of four. I'd say we had frank and open discussions about a picket fence and a dog, and 0.4 more children, but we didn't.

Later, Christmas Day.

I went to the hospital next, for a fun filled day of configuring, and re-configuring, a really bad arm chair from the '70s. I also watched marathon sessions of "American Justice" on A&E. (For those of you who may not know, it's hosted by Bill Curtis. Actually, if you didn't know you would find this out quickly enough, as he let's you know before and after every break. I think his exact line is, "I'm Bill Curtis, and this is ... blah blah blah".)

Oh, and I hung out with Jodi and little Evie (!), who were happy to have me. It was great when my Mom came by in the afternoon, her first trip from Holland all week (really bad MI weather on top of, for those of you keeping track, a horrific train ride from Chicago that left Sunday night around 5:00 PM and only arrived in Holland on Monday morning at about 4:00 AM).

So this was Christmas Day... Evie is very new and very cute, and we all spent the day together. I left around 6:30 and got Connor at Jerry & Wendy's (thanks!), then finally... and I mean, finally... I got home with the little man, and we Just Hung Out. It was the Little Man and it was Me. I think we watched "It's a Wonderful Life", but Connor was goofing around and I was mostly doing computer stuff. I may not have painted this as the most merry of Christmases, but for us, it was.

P.S. In the photo, Connor is talking to Mommy later at night; I think they both came away sensing a real "meeting of the minds". My Dad could tell me the Latin phrase for that, or a lawyer probably could. Or these days, I could just Google it.

Christmas at the Wilterinks.

I finally got some sleep after the quietest Christmas Eve I have ever spent. Connor and I got up pretty early on Christmas Day, and I got him ready all by myself! We went to Jerry & Wendy's for a big breakfast and gifts, and Connor got to play with all his cousins.

Evelyn Grace (Evie).

My Grandmother's name is Evelyn; she lives on Long Island as some may remember. She has one daughter (my Mom), and two sons. My Mom is the only one with children, so that leaves my Grandma with two grandsons. At this point I am the only one of the two of us with kids, and our first was another boy. But this time we had a girl, and I could not think of a better way to honor my Grandmother than to use her name for our daughter. We are calling her Evie, with a 'soft' E.

Christmas Eve Day.

Well... I suppose there's plenty to offer for Christmas Eve Day (feel free to skip this part and scroll up to the photos!)

See, I had the day off. That was nice, but little did I know...

Our original plans were to go the doctor (as a family), then get a lot of groceries, then go home and relax a bit, then go to church with Mark and Kristi for the Christmas Eve service, then spend the rest of Christmas Eve with them at their house. Our family tradition was always to open gifts Christmas Eve, but this year things were changed a bit, and we had plans for a family Christmas (and the gifts) on Friday, the 26th. So that was the plan.

Instead, Jodi's water broke at about 5:00 AM.

Being the understanding husband and generally compassionate guy that I am, I of course insisted we go to the hospital right away, and immediately gathered Jodi's things for her and started packing.

That, or I may have said, "Honey, that's crazy, just go back to bed. I mean, seriously, you're not having that kid today."

Whichever one of those paints me in a better light, go with it.

At any rate, once we figured some things out and spoke with the doctor on call, we got ready, got C-man up (and tried to explain things to him!), then left. I was hungry, and I remembered that a woman friend of mine told the story of when her husband stopped at McDonald's on the way to the hospital when she was in labor (it's a lot of 'hurry up and wait', anyway, he explained to me later), so I thought a precedent had been set and stopped for breakfast. I mean, drive through, of course. Duh.

So, we checked in and things were as they seemed: Jodi was having the baby that day. I brought Connor up to Mark's, made dozens of phone calls, then went back to the hospital. We sat around until noon, then they came for Jodi, and gave me my OR gowns. I went in around 12:10, and our sweet little Evie was brought into the world at 12:13. It was something, and went quickly. We were out by 12:26.

We sat in recovery for three hours, unfortunately. Evie was three weeks early, and they take special precautions. Then we went to Jodi's room, and saw some family later in the day.

It was quite a day, and a change from any other way I've spent Christmas Eve in the past (ahem).

We were blessed that day, and the hand of the Lord was evident in all that happened. We of course loved and appreciated the significance of her birthday.

Tuesday Night.

I put these photos up mostly because they happen to be The Night Before. More on that later, but little did the little man know... his last night as an only child... poor guy! I'm mostly kidding of course, but it was that Tuesday night, December 23.

Winter, II.

I promise I won't keep doing this. But seriously, you have to appreciate what goes into clearing the snow. I mean, some of you may not remember. (Perhaps gladly? It could be the reason you moved.)

The driveway is 108 feet long, and it widens to three stalls towards the house. I still remember when they poured it, and I was at the street, trying to eyeball where the second stall stopped and the third stall started... I kept telling the guy, "A bit wider, I think... no, wider still, yeah, keep going that way I think..." Ha Ha!

That Evening.

I liked the clean lines here. I'm mostly down to the pavement too, which of course is the measure of any driveway. The little snow you see is actually from the Wind on the Meadow, which is quite unforgiving. (If you really do ask someone, make sure it's my brother. He'll tell you about it, perhaps at length.)

Winter.

For any of you living in Far Away Lands... just a reminder of winter in Michigan. I love my new (used) snow blower though. It was well worth the drive to Novi (and arguably the only reason to go there).

(Well, not just for a snow blower, I mean if you had any major purchase or large appliance and were getting a really good deal, it would make sense for you to go to Novi too. Don't get me wrong.)

For those not watching the dates, this is December 19.

It's only the 19th.

Connor and Timothy.

This is Connor's friend Timothy, who happens to be a bear. Timothy came to us through Tina, and Connor loves him a lot. (I really just added these for the hard core Connor fans out there...)

Thanksgiving Weekend.

Big time family stuff; go figure. On Saturday I went to Holland as a couple buddies were in town. The faithful reader may have an educated guess where we went...

Baby Boy Floyd.

This is Connor after his situation with Apollo Creed, which although we tried, could just not be settled amicably. But you should have seen Creed. Oh, wait, you can check him out...

OK. It's just daycare injuries. It's a funny state law where they tell you about the injury, the details of what happened, etc., but in no way will you ever learn which 'other' child was the culprit (of course it was not intentional). At any rate, that stuff is apparently kept in the Homeland Security Files, to hear them tell it. Well, the little man is all right now.

Family Party.

Some family and friends came over on Saturday for a bigger birthday party for the little man. He enjoyed the attention and the gifts, but the "icing on the cake" for Connor was probably the actual icing on the cake.

My Parents with the Little Man.

This was after Connor's first try at trick-or-treating. I was going to title it, "The Grandparents", but then I realized that it certainly would not be adequate, or perhaps specific (is 'familiocentric' a word??), enough. Connor is blessed with many grandparents who love him dearly, but in my parents' case, I will say that he is -- for the next four weeks at least -- the only grandchild they have. And I will claim a bit of author's license since Jodi doesn't seem to have any interest in maintaining this thing. (It would be a side question to ask why I have not updated it in six weeks myself, so we'll leave that for the reporters...)

AT ANY RATE... later that night my Mom and Dad got to see the little man, and they both love the time they are able to spend with him, since they both live out of state.

P.S. A shout out to Sandi & Bob, in Arizona, who are also out of state and I'm sure miss the little man as well. You are the only ones who get the DVDs other than my Grandmother.

Halloween.

As faithrul readers may remember, Connor was born on Reformation Day, which those of you Too Involved In Secular Society may know as 'Halloween'. Well, we won't get into the history of Reformation Day here (or this 'Halloween' night, for that matter), but Connor had a lot of fun, and even had two of his grandparents in town (my folks). He was thrilled to have my Dad pull him around in his Red Ryder wagon, although he only made it to about six houses or so before he was done. The best was the first house, where, apparently in classic "new trick-or-treater" style, he walked right into the house like an invited guest. Good stuff, and I have some of it on video even.

Connor's Birthday, Part I

My brother and Kristi took Connor to John Ball Park Zoo for the start of his second birthday. I think I was working and Jodi was too, so it was great that he got to spend the day with his aunt and uncle, and see the animals (including the monkeys, which were right up his alley since he's a monkey at heart). This was the start to a great day and weekend for the little man. He loves his 'unca maark' and 'ant kis-tee'. Fo'shizzle.

Family Wedding.

Since Jodi and I dress up maybe once a year, or for weddings and funerals (whichever comes first), I thought I'd throw this one up there. This was for Jodi's step-brother ("hey, the only 'steps' are right here going upstairs"--what's that from??) Frank's wedding. A good time was had by all. Side note: I shot a ton of video for them, but apparently this is the only photo.