Early Christmas with Gma Bonnie

Grandma Bonnie came to visit for a long weekend to celebrate Christmas early. She is also so wonderful to have with us - Gregory just adores her! She always brings lots of surprises like new books and a couple of toys - I guess spoiling him is her prerogative! This being Christmas, though, she had a few special surprises in store. A whole mountain of Christmas books - I think she read him each one 10 times while she was here! A wooden train set from Grandpa Rod, and some other trains from cousins Anna and Gracie, and a lot of other little things... She also found a cloth nativity playset with finger puppets and a stable that doubles as a carrying case - Greg loves to take everything out and then put it all back in! But the coolest thing was something she mail-ordered. You can see it in the pictures below - it arrived just today! We couldn't wait to open it and he doesn't know that you usually have to wait until Christmas morning to open gifts - I guess we'll have to institute that rule next year when he can understand it. Anyway, the present was a huge hit!

While Grandma Bonnie was here, we went to the Capitol for one of our Nebraska Friends of Midwives lobbying days. We passed out M&M trail mix to all the senators' offices along with some information about our upcoming bills. They were having a tuba concert in the rotunda and Santa was there. It was fun to enjoy all the holiday festivities and Grandma and Greg ran all over the halls exploring.

I have to teach classes this weekend and then on Monday we head out to sunny southern California for Christmas as usual. We are particularly looking forward to it considering the huge storm we had last night. It was Thunder-Snow...rather unusual - kind of a cross between a snowstorm and an ice storm. Really fun to drive in - gotta love a white Christmas...