Early Christmas

This year my traveling schedule was restricted due to "Dude."  This meant no traveling past the second week in December for the Donat family.  Mom and Dad couldn't stand the thought of not seeing me (I know, I'm spoiled) and mom hit the jackpot (she found $500 lying around the house) so we were able to head home to Chicago for an early Christmas visit!!

It was so wonderful to be home and freeze my butt off and see the snow.  It made it feel like Christmas :-)  Dustin, Mallory, and their son Bryson were also in town which made the visit extra fun!  I didn't get to see them in NC back in September.  Bryson has grown up quite a bit in the past year.  He is really smart, super cute, and just loads of fun!  It took 6 of us to keep up with him.  He is great at communicating and is learning new words everyday.  He fell in love with "Jah" (that's how he says Josh) and the two of them had quite the time playing together.  He loves to play in the basement (especially on the pool table), race his cars, be chased by grandma, play hide & seek, and he is EXCELLENT at duck -duck- goose.  He takes the name of the game quite literally.  He only does 2 ducks ("duh," "duh" ) and the third person is always goose (which is a screech). It is seriously adorable.  He also loves to sing songs.  Some of his favorites are "ring around the rosie, 5 little monkies, twinkle twinkle, and a few that I don't know.  Grandpa shows him videos on youtube of a lot of his favorites.  I started teaching him "If all the rain drops were lemon drops & gum drops..." and he is getting really good.  He loves the " ah ah ah ah ah ah ah" part and pretty much has that down :-)  Oh, I could go on and on about the things he can do and say but it's really not as cute if you've never witnessed it for yourself.  I'm sad I didn't get any pictures of the little man while we were there.  I was having too much fun playing!

My Uncle Jay is very sick with cancer and we have all been praying that he just be able to be pain free.  He is 50 this year and is such a fighter.  We went to visit him, and Josh was able to finally meet him.  What a great experience.  He was pretty out of it from the pain medication, but we were glad.  It's better that he be comfortable.  He has been moved to a new house but we were told that all his friends from his old house (which he's been at my entire life) come to visit him often.  He is well taken care of and we are so grateful for that.  We love you Jay Moon!

Santa had just come for the annual Christmas party.  He brought Uncle Jay this awesome Superman Snuggie!  Jay is strong-willed and very much a fighter (just like all the other Moon boys).  I hope he knows how much we all love him.