Merry Christmas.

Christmas with Henry was a dream. We spent the evening before having our traditional fancy Christmas Eve dinner, which is the one time per year we break out the china, and also - as it turns out - the one time per year that we make meat for dinner? Mark made a pork tenderloin stuffed with figs, and I had to pick it up from the butcher (of course sending a sort of vegetarian to do that job was a comedy of errors, but we ended up with the right thing in the end). Christmas morning was spent letting Hen unwrap every present and pull off bows and tags and wowing at all the gifts he purchased for us (wink). I thought I had Mark beat with the secret surprise christmas gift, but he killed any chances I ever had by purchasing round trip tickets to Germany for me and my mom. I couldn't believe it! We've been trying to go for years, but something kept coming up - job stuff, pregnancies, condo purchases, etc. But now we are locked in and I cannot wait to take my mom on her first trip out of the country, and to the place of her ancestors! It will be so amazing. We left our house for Virginia after presents were unwrapped, stopped by moms to give her the good news (tears, tears, tears!), then spent the rest of the day with Mark's family. We had such a great time seeing family and eating great food and making good memories. We put Hen to bed a little late, and snuck out to watch Les Miserables while Mark's parents were sweet enough to keep an ear out for little sleeping Henry. Amazing movie. We came back to his house after midnight and slept a restful sleep until the morning, where we woke up to snow. It really was magical.
A few things about Henry that I don't want to forget -
his expressions when we opened a new present, "wow!"
looking at the "tee" and the "ee-ohs (lights)"
his little laugh he uses to charm people
he pulls himself up on my legs and gives them a giant hug (melt)
after he's finished nursing at bedtime, he looks at me and says "appy", which I can only interpret as "happy".
this little boy is great. i think we'll keep him.