Christmas in Milwaukee

This Christmas, we were back to our normal routine.  (Last year we changed things up due to Derek's arrival). We celebrated with the Nistler's early so they could head down to Florida and we took off down to Milwaukee.  The one big deviation from our normal routine was my brother.  He and his wife have decided to do the big holidays every other.  This meant that he was not in Milwaukee celebrating with us.

Overall, traveling went well with Derek.  Since he's bigger now (and it's a pretty long trip), I wasn't sure how this trip would go.  He had plenty of entertainment with Mike and Grandpa in the back seat.  After we stopped for dinner, he ended up sleeping the entire way.  Then when we arrived, we brought him straight up to bed to go back to sleep instead of being overwhelmed by all these new faces at 11 pm at night.  While he didn't fall right back to sleep, it proved to be a good decision because he met each person as they woke up in the morning.  It was more of a gradual transition and much better for him.

We had a chance to catch up with most of our relatives.  While it was different because everyone wasn't there, it was nice.  We did get to see everyone a bit more than we do in a normal year because of all of the weddings (my cousin & brother).  Derek got to meet his new 2nd cousin (my cousin's little girl).

Peek-a-boo!

Playing with bowls

Fun climbing the stairs with Grandpa

Building blocks with his 2nd cousin

Happy to meet his new 2nd cousin

There were also two dogs for him to be around at Christmas.  There was a gate separating the dogs from the him, which proved to be a good idea.  The little dog he liked because it was more his size, but he didn't like it when she jumped up on him.  And the bigger dog was very friendly but had a very loud, deep bark that sometimes scared him.  The gate was nice to allow him to enjoy the dogs but to be to close.

Doggie

Safely behind the gate

I was concerned about the drive home.  Derek did great on the way down because he slept most of the way.  On they way home, we coordinated leaving with his afternoon nap and we got a good 3 hour nap out of him. That helped so much.  The remaining 3 hours he did alright.  Again, Mike and Grandpa stepped in and played endless games of peek-a-boo, reading stories, etc.  All and all it was a good trip.  Merry Christmas everyone!