....and a Partridge with a traumatic brain injury

Our Very First Christmas Story.


We left our new Christmas lawn ornament from Auntie Tracey on Friday afternoon and headed North to snow and all things Northwoods.



Nick's last creation before we left. A house with a noodle chimney. The pieces of cardboard where inserts in a nativity scene box.


We stopped early in Rockford, Ill so Nick could swim and try out his new one piece suit that I bought thinking that it would preserve body heat.....no luck, shivering after 2-3 minutes. Kazakhstan was the coldest place that I have ever been yet the 80 -90 degree orphanage heating system has left our boy with some significant cold intolerance. :) Nick is absolutely the best traveller ever. He never fusses and just reads books and watches out the window. He loves to hear the music on the radio and we played a few new DVDs on our new portable player.



My boys at rest. We drove the remainder of the way the next day after having a rather rambunctious night with Nick playing Ninja sleeper in the bed......we will be getting the double bed room from now on.......the extra two inches that he has grown in the last 8 months has made sleeping together nearly impossible! ;)

We arrived in the beautiful Northwoods just in time for a big snow storm. Luckily, everyone that was coming in that day had arrived before the snow started accumulating. As Nick would say "peh-fect". The snow was amazing and so festive.

My favorite view is from the picture window looking out into the woods. The snow fell and fell for hours.

Our first outing in the snow was to dig out the next day. With the snow that they already had, we probably had a good base of about 12 inches or so over the week. Santa was good to us!

The trail blazers were suited up and ready to make a path for sledding.

....and here they go! Gee, it looks like trees are in the way?

Mama and Nick after the path was declared ready for take-off.......don't ask about the trees at the end.....apparently only "southerners" like mommy run straight into them.....thank goodness for lots of snow...hee, hee!

And, it seems this is what re-located Northerners do when re-introduced to the white stuff. It would have actually been more fun to get the picture of Nick's face while he watched his daddy participating in this strange ritual.

4 PIRATES LAUGHING........

(notice the great Christmas village in the background)

3 PACKER FANS

2 KITZMANS READING

AND A PARTRIDGE WITH A TRAUMATIC BRAIN INJURY!

yes, you heard right....a partridge flew into the garage and crashed into the window and sat in the garage all night and was practically frozen the next morning when we found it. It was decided that it would be un-Christmas (is that a word?) to let a Partridge die on Christmas eve and you definitely couldn't eat it!......SO........

Ata Bob and daddy took it to the wildlife refuge center (where they probably cooked it) ......um, I mean where they rescued it and protected it while it recovered from a TBI and frostbite. Pat just wanted to know if this counted for clinical experience with a brain-injured patient??

Nick's first reading of the Christmas Story by Ata Bob (sniff, sniff). We also attended Christmas Eve service at Grandma and Grandpa's church where Nick enjoyed the singing and candles and LOUDLY pronounced at the last prayer.....THE END! So cute!

Nick's first Kitzman/Tracy Christmas Eve party at Aunt Julaine and Uncle Dick's house. He had a great time with all his cousins who had wonderful treats for him also. Cousin Eric had the hit of the night......homemade GOO!

Nick doing his impression of Santa with his goo......ho!ho!ho!

Christmas morning at the stockings!

And, look what Santa brought......a "GIANT" rocket. He was immediately busy with countdowns and blast offs! The rest of us enjoyed the traditional Eggs Benedict breakfast that Grandma Ruth always prepares Christmas morning.....yum!

Uncle Mike, Aunt Julie and Dakota arrived late morning from Eau Claire for the rest of the gift opening. Nick was happy to help!

hmmm? Did Dakota get a rocket too?

This picture cracks me up because it is Nick having to endure the tedious outfitting for a journey outside (which always takes longer than the time actually spent outside) and he has just decided to read a book......I had to put down the hat, scarf, mittens and coat to take a pic.

Daddy says this is the lake that we swam in this summer but I just don't see how cars can drive where once there was boats....hmmmmm?

The last big outing was snowshoeing at Buck lake. Patrick had a great time outdoors.....just like the old days before he moved to the "south".

We stayed a day extra because a snowstorm was coming to town but true to the North experience ......All the roads were in tip top shape the next day even after 5 inches fell.....We would have been shut down for days in the "south"! ha!

We had such a festive and wonderful first Christmas with "Evey-one" (Nick's favorite new word of the week)......Whey Eveyone go?, What Eveyone doin? :) We hope evey-one spent the week just enjoying time with family. Nick had a blast with all of his Aunts, Uncles, and Cousins.

He was a trooper when we decided to drive all the way home yesterday.....14 hours in the carseat. He was a delight to listen to from the front as he read his books to himself and bobbed his head to ALL different kinds of music and always said "next bye, bye daddy?" when we left our pitstops. God sure did bless us with a great roadie boy since we both live so far from our families. We praised him over and over as we came into town and said thank you so much for being such a good traveller and Nick sweetly replied "wa welcome". Needless to say, he could have or do anything he wanted to today! :) Next Bye, Bye will be to Gatlingburg and then to Texas to FINALLY introduce Nick to most of my side of the family. Yeah!

We hope Everyone has a great New Year. We pray that many, many more sweet little ones find their forever family this next year and ask that everyone would pray for all of the orphans here and abroad. HAPPY 2008 to Everyone!

"For I know the Plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future." Jeremiah 29:11