A quick Christmas update

There is some exciting stuff going on around the Hannig home.  Uncle Joe (our 3 year neighbor in the guest house next door) got engaged on Thanksgiving!  He is getting married on December 20th (similar to Paul and I, he got engaged on a holiday and is getting married 3 weeks later.  Those Hannig boys know how to get it done)!  And he is marrying a wonderful woman, Hannah Tornquist.  Now all 4 Hannig boys will be married...and I couldn't honestly have asked for better sister-in-laws.  Now Hannah will join the Mrs. Hannig's - Ann (our matriarch), me, Eryn (Pete's wife), and Virginia (Mike's wife).  Welcome Hannah!  We love you so much.  And more exciting news on that front - they may actually live in the guest house for a while!  They have a home that will be ready in July.  Those plans are not firmed up, but can you imagine how much fun we'd all have for the next 6-7 months!?  Our kids will never forget these days, getting to know uncle Joe so well, and now Hannah, too...they are precious.

More exciting new, but not nearly as exciting as the wedding news, is that Meredith is finally saying Mama!  It only took her 17 months.  :)  She has been saying Dad for about 9 months now.  It's fun to hear it...usually it's a continuous "mama, mama, mama, mama, mama, mama, mama..." and on and on, practically in one breath.  She also says "puh puh" for puppy (which was Luke's first word).  She will be stringing together sentences before we know it.

And even less exciting news, but I want to document it, is that Luke had to be peeled out of my arms - sobbing - by his teacher this morning.  He missed school last Thursday and Friday with a fever/flu bug of some sort, and since then he has struggled going back.  Monday, Paul had to walk him into school and he was fighting tears and really struggling.  I ended up picking him up early b/c his teacher thought he might not be feeling well (turns out he was okay).  I brought him to school this morning (Thursday) because he begged me to (instead of Paul), walked him in to his locker (instead of him going in on his own like usual), and we had a 20-30 minute struggle to get him in the classroom.  He claimed he was sick, his throat was sore, his tummy hurt, he just didn't feel 'right.'  He was finally in the classroom, then ran back to me at the door with tears in his eyes.  We went into the hallway and talked and cried for a bit, then I had to drag him in.  It flat out sucked.  I was wondering if this day might come.  He has ran out of the car and into school for 3 1/2 months, excited about life and loving school.  I pray today was just a anomaly and tomorrow will be back to normal.  I cried the entire way home.  My heart aches for him. (**happy update.  I didn't post this to the blog yesterday when I first wrote it.  Luke's teacher called yesterday at 11:30am to tell me there were no more tears after I left and that he was having a great day.  I love his teacher, Sue Grabow.  She knew just what I needed - to hear he was okay.  And then this morning, although he first said 'I don't want to go to school" and it took a bit of coaxing, he rallied and had a easy transition from home to car and car to school.  Thank goodness)!  Below is a picture of Lukey emptying his lunch tray from a few weeks ago when I went to have lunch with him.  And his first school picture!

That's all for now.  Oh, wait, i better at least mention that our big, fat, tall Christmas tree fell over during the night a few nights ago!  It's back up and redecorated.  Thanks to my husband for bearing with me and my love of big fat Christmas trees. We even made some of our own decorations again this year (pictures of an M for Meredith and a B for Ben are below)

 

 

Oh, and Heather was home for 10 days over Thanksgiving!  It was wonderful to have her here!  Below are some pictures from her time back home from NYC as well as Thanksgiving Day at the Hannig's in Kerkhoven (It appears that Meredith is the only one of the kids we cared to take pictures of this year!  She is at a precious age and it is fun to capture her in pictures).

 

 

 

And I better document the Christmas cookie making (pictures below).  Meredith even helped by putting the shapes in the dough.  And you can see our tree up in the background - Still standing!  Fingers crossed it will stay upright through Christmas day!  Wishing everyone a wonderful Christmas with family and friends.  We sure are blessed.