The rest of the 15 days...

A few days after Christmas, we took our first airplane trip with the kids to the East Coast...destination: Mystic, CT and Washington, DC/Reston, VA.

Watching our plane taxi in to the gate. They LOVED the airplane ride! G's favorite part was landing and "helping" the pilot with his airbrakes. Abs loved having ginger ale for the first time and they both loved being allowed to chew gum and watch new DVDs.

We were in Mystic for three days total and squeezed in a quick visit at the Children's Museum in Hartford with dear friends Lauren and Paul Friedman (& Halley & Noah) from Boston, MA before driving to Mystic.

We had a lovely post-Christmas celebration with Matt's bro Billy, sis-in-law Missy and nephews Jacob and Nate. Matt's parents were there for a few days as well. We enjoyed a bit of snow and the Mystic Aquarium (G&A's first time to go to an aquarium--they loved the penguins and sea lion show the best!) but mostly hung out with the family at their home. Wonderful food, great hard cider, and even better company!!

DONUTS!!!!
The four Jankowski cousins: George, Nate, Jacob & Abigail
Watching the Balouga whales...
Petting sharks...
It's a Christmas Miracle!! George has finally gotten over his fear of large costumed creatures...he WANTED to take a picture with the penguin. Billy & Missy gave G&A stuffed penguins for Christmas as a reminder of their visit to the Aquarium and they have slept with them every night since....

Then we hopped the Amtrak train and rode 6 hours south to Reston where we visited some of our best friends, Robert & Renee Lee, and one of our precious godchildren, Rebagrace. We saw Washington, DC for half a day--enjoyed the Natural History Museum and Old Post Office Tower where we saw DC from above. Gave us a quick taste to want to come back for more! We took tons of pics, here are the best of the batch.

In front of "George the Giraffe" @ Natural History Museum...
Pretending to be explorers...
These three are the best of friends...
On top of the tower overlooking the White House
Washington Monument in background
Snuggling under RG's new Christmas Blanket we made for her
"We're Matchin'!"
LeeKowski Crab Fest....we have a tradition of eating crabs for New Years
The whole LeeKowski gang
The vacation ended with me flying home with the twins by myself on a 6am flight. We were home by 1:30pm and all of us were ready to nap. Unfortunately, Boomer ate an adult sock while we were gone and his stomach had other plans for us. But by the grace of God, he skirted death one more time.

We celebrated Matt's birthday on January 7 with homemade decorations and the best red velvet cake evah! He loved his new running shirts, camo pants and pheasant hunting trip! Happy 34th bday to the greatest hubby!!

We had a great adventure and are ready to face 2011 with gusto!! And I'm really not ready to travel again for a while....

The 15 Days of Christmas

We enjoyed an extended Christmas/New Year's/ Matt's birthday celebration this year, beginning with the Family Christmas Eve service with Nana & Pop and our dear friends the Pollans. Brad joined us for a brief time and we had a great Christmas eve and morning.

Asher, Cache, Abigail and George
Night-night hugs while putting out stockings for Santa

"The children were nestled, all snug in their beds..."

George asked Santa (in his head of course, wouldn't talk to the real guy) for drums and was so happy to see his new drum set!! Best story of the day was Abigail setting off the glass break sensor of the house alarm by testing out the cymbals....skip the coffee because that woke us all up and sent us running!!! Abigail was soooo excited to see her new Barbie dollhouse (complete with a new Ballerina Barbie from her cousin Kirby). They totally "get" Christmas and giving/receiving presents this year, which made it so fun for Matt and I.

We had a traditional Jankowski Christmas breakfast of holiday bread french toast before opening the other presents, playing with the new toys (reading their newest libraries of books, having hippy-hop races, and eating M&Ms), and then going to Nana & Pop's new house to put up their new blinds.

I have to split this into two posts as the spacing is messing up...to be continued...

Sights of the Season

We have enjoyed several holiday festivities this year.

To start off the season, we hosted part of the Martin Mob for Thanksgiving. Mom, Dad, Laura, Kevin, Cliff, Evie, Kirby, Jack and Tori came up for the long weekend. Matt was the chef for our turkey feast and outcooked himself!! We hung out inside most of the weekend due to frigid temps (per opinion of the Houstonians), but ventured out for Bass Pro Shop Christmas events and Snow Tubing at the Bricktown Ballpark. Of course, the big kids (Carrie included) loved the tubing, and our adventurous spirited Abigail even tubed all by herself!! George stayed in the cheering section with Matt, Kev & Laura drinking hot cocoa and eating cookies. The biggest success of the weekend was Jack (Morris' 100 lb. chocolate lab) did not eat our cats and managed to somewhat peacefully coexist indoors! We had a wonderful time with family!

bk row: Judie, Jerry, Laura, Cliff, Kevin, Matt, Carrie

frt row: Evie, Abigail, Kirby, George
Where's Boomer?
First gun shooting experience (he wants a gun sooooo bad!)
coloring with Evie
Our little drummer boy
Abs and Geo were excited about their happies from Aunt Go-Go & Uncle Kevin's trip to Hawaii...palm tree stir sticks, A's coconut bra & grass skirt, and G's hawaiian shirt & shorts!! Aloha!

Next came the McFarlin Annual Advent Festival, tons of fun. Mom & Dad were able to join us too. They had tons of crafts for kids and adults, which are hanging all over our house!! George loved the jazz band and Abigail loved decorating gingerbread cookies. We hope to support our church's tradition for many years to come.


Abigail and Ms. Fatima, one of her favorite workers at church

Becoming one with the Nativity...it's what we call "experiential learning".

Another fun tradition we have is the Holiday Happening at the Sam Noble Natural History Museum. The kiddos LOVED the huge dinosaurs and playing in the children's area. Caught a glimpse of Santa, but quickly escaped before the tears began!

The largest Pentaceratops skull in the world...even made it into Guiness Book.
Excavating in the Children's Section
A little man and his tools.

Matt's parents came up to go with us to the Christmas Train in Dry Gulch, OK (near Adair, OK--3 hours NE of Norman). We stayed the night in Tulsa in a hotel and the twins thought that was the coolest thing ever! They had a blast riding the train, eating the homemade cinnamon rolls (best I've ever had in my life), and riding the carousel and horse-drawn wagon. Late night, VERY VERY COLD (when we got out of the car @ 7pm, it was 34 degrees), but totally worth it! Hope to do it again!

Enjoying hot chocolate with the Nutcrackers at Utica Square in Tulsa
Our family Christmas Tree
Bundled up for fun at the Christmas Train
Steam Engine in the background.
Waiting to board the train after the wagon ride and lots of sugar!

Attended our favorite Norman event, the Kiwanis Annual Pancake Breakfast and Norman City Christmas Parade. George ate his weight in pancakes and Abigail put her share of bacon away!! Bundled up and walked across the lawn to watch the parade. Gotta love a parade with tractors, horses, homemade floats, animals, and lots of candy!!

Waving at Santa...that's as close as they will get this year.

Sitting on the curb waiting for more candy!

Last night George and Abigail had their Northhaven Dayschool Christmas Program and since Miss A recovered from her surgery like a rock star, she was ready to belt out her song on stage later that night! George was not a fan of being on stage and cried in Ms. Abby's arms the whole time: "I don't want to sing!!" Abigail, however, stood in between two of her favorite friends, Camden Lane and Hudson Brown, and sang "Away in a Manger". She was so adorable doing all of the hand motions with her 3 yo class!

"...asleep on the hay"....pick a good one, Hudson?
Love it!!

Another fun thing this year was putting up a small Christmas tree in G&A's room. They LOVE looking at it, redecorating it often, and reading scripture nightly to prepare for the birth of Jesus. Thank you, Ms. Amy, for the wonderful Advent Bible Verse chain that adorns their tree. They have also enjoyed reading our Christmas books given by Aunt Go-Go and other friends over the years.

Other noteworthy Christmas season stuff: they have developed a love for hot chocolate [especially Starbucks! ;)], they love looking at Christmas decorations and lights, and listening to Christmas music in the car.

Combine all this with working, navigating Abigail's gastrointestinal issues & facial lesion, and George's minor throat infection....I'd say we've been a bit busy!!!