Life's a Filet of Fish: Flashback and Fun Announcements - Reese Family Christmas in AZ, 2016

T'was the week before Christmas, and we were ready for school and work to be over so we could head out of town! All our stockings were hung by the chimney with care...

One for John, one for mom, and one for...?

Wait, who is that other stocking for?

(At this point, we already knew what we have only recently announced to the rest of the world.)

Before next Christmas, Baby Reese 2 will be joining us in July!!

While we haven't done any formal announcing yet, we've let it be known to most family and friends by now. We've also found out in recent weeks that this second baby will be...

A BOY!

We're very excited, and I'm glad to be posting this picture now,

even though we're well past the holiday it matches! ;)

(Immediate family also knew since Thanksgiving, but after that we kept things pretty hush-hush until after I hit 16 weeks in February of this year.)

Johnny is especially thrilled to be having a baby brother. So much so that when we ask him for name suggestions he says "brother!" or "baby" or "boy!"

(The concept of naming is still a little beyond him.)

Anyway, while we're looking back at pictures from Christmastime, a post featuring last Christmas' events seems in order (better late than never).

Tree decked, secret new baby stocking picture taken, new car purchased (see Gordon's post about that), and bags were finally packed to leave.

And after much lead up to the main event, we finally were finally ready to head out to Arizona for Christmas Vacation itself! Equipped with lots of snacks in the new Kia Sorrento, we hit the road and pulled into Tucson at the very tail end of Christmas Eve-Eve.

On Christmas Eve itself, we partook in many of the long standing Reese traditions, including my favorite, the singing of carols with Bryan's guitar, the fun added to this year with Johnny's rendition of "Gerald with the Red Nose" (I think he got Rudolf mixed up with another story).

We also had a lot of fun this year dressing up and putting on a performance of the nativity story - a favorite tradition from Krystal's family. Unfortunately, I was taking video with someone else's camera and only realized now that I have no pictures of the costumes! It was pretty great. There were tin-foil angel halos, a jedi-robed Joseph, and Johnny declared himself a superhero instead of a shepherd.

Another Reese family classic is the singing of most of the Christmas hymns around the piano before bedtime. I'm always impressed by Felicia's ability to play through them all. Then there's always the part where Gordon and Eric sing the one posted above, "What Child Is This?," in Russian which roughly translates back into English as, "What's With the Kid?" - the silliness is always good for a chuckle, but the song is really quite nice.

Krystal set the stage for Christmas morning by arranging the gifts like a store Christmas window. Well done!

Christmas Morning!

After some Christmas morning presents, it was off to church with us! We enjoyed visiting the Tucson home ward. Some picture taking was had in Christmas Sunday digs before scooting back to the house for more comfy Christmas lounging. There was some unintentional matching that made fore some fun. :)

Next time we'll have to plan on getting a whole group shot. Ah, well.

Winterhaven Lights! (A de-light-ful tradition! See what I did there?! Hahaha...)

Johnny was thrilled by the cars display!

Notice Gordon's awesome Start Wars Poe Dameron/Fin Jacket?

I was pretty proud of getting that for him without letting on what it was. :)

A zen moment with Gordon and Kirby

Sadly, E&K had to say goodbye on Boxing Day due to obligations of real-life jobs and such. Still, we're so glad we got to spend Christmas with them! Here's a picture of the traditional Eric and Gordon send off:

Brothers Hug! (It's kind of a thing.)

Our crew and Haley were able to stay on a bit longer through the week with the parentals. Here are some highlights:

Having fun with the Christmas Goodies!

The Tucson Children's museum was a big hit! Grammy was our guide and a great outing companion! I love this picture of her playing the outdoor drums with Gordon and Johnny here. It was such a fun afternoon! Thanks, Felicia! <3

There was tons to do outside, even before we got into the museum. It's really a great space for a wide range of ages. They were also hosting some cool artwork for a Korean festival of some kind. Johnny was especially fond of the "big blue horse" he cold ride on!

There was also a random museum style display of Mickey Mouse memorabilia from like the 1930's forward. It was a pretty impressive collection, though some of the older ones definitely had that old-timey, creepy toy vibe going on. I kind of wonder if it was all donated by one private collector. Their house must have been interesting.

Goodbye, Korean Dragon and Children's Museum!

Post-museum, there was more food and fun around the house and town.

We went out for a longer ride/walk with Johnny one afternoon. We ended up at a school playground and field were John could run/ride free. It was a nice outing.

Cue the Fox and the Hound "Best of Friends" here. (But you know, only the happy parts. Ignoring the depressing undertones in that song, it kind of sums up these two to me.) Johnny can't ever get enough of playtime with Papa, and I love how willingly Bryan just jumps in with him and how easily he includes him in everything he's doing. It's something special. <3