Our holidays- the BIG surprise.

We love the holidays around here.

Thanksgiving.

Christmas.

New Year's.

All so fun.

After traveling with our little guy in October we decided that we probably didn't want to fly with him again this year.

He's a good boy.

But he's one.

And four hours on a plane plus all the inevitable delays, etc.

No thank you.

So we made no plans.

We celebrated Thanksgiving here in Lyons.

Just us.

The most yummy food.

Lots of Christmas movies.

We had our 4th Annual Manz Family Christmas party.

On an incredibly cold night.

Thought we might have to cancel when there was snow on the ground that morning.

But everything melted away.

And we had such a great time with about 20 friends.

We planned to be here for our two weeks off.

But something funny happened.

My husband decided that we should drive back to be with our families for Christmas.

My dad had been in and out of the hospital for a leg injury.

My mom had been taking care of him during his recovery.

His parents had just sold their family home where they had lived for 30 years.

It just seemed like everyone needed a little lift.

There is nothing like having a 1 year old around for Christmas.

The energy is wonderful.

And we knew that this would be a BIG surprise!

Plus, Jonathan had found an RV that he thought would be great for his company to use.

(And us to use!!)

So he bought the RV.

We packed it up.

And we took off to NC.

We did call his parents on the way.

Because they had just moved we knew that they would probably not be ready for drop-ins.

But with my parents I kept pretending that we were in CO with the foot of snow that had just fallen.

I lied repeatedly.

And they had no idea we were on our way.

We made it to J's parents' on Friday morning.

Had an incredible time.

Jackson particularly had fun on a train that his dad once went around on as a boy.

So cute.

And then on Saturday AM-- Christmas Eve-- we opened a few presents.

(We had brought with us some of the ones that had been shipped to us.)

And headed towards my parents' in Greensboro.

We arrived slightly before 6pm.

My dad thought the UPS truck was arriving.

Then he said something about "Marcia" and my mom thought he was going crazy.

He came out- followed by my mom- and jaws dropped when they saw it was an RV.

With their daughter, son-in-law, and grandson.

They were spectacularly surprised!

Success!!

I wish i had a picture!!

And we all had a *wonderful* Christmas.

Here are some of the highlights:

 Merry Christmas everyone!

We wish you many blessings... and a Happy New Year!

First birthday.

A lot of people asked what we had planned for Jackson's first birthday.

I know some people go all out.

Tons of people.

Tons of food.

Tons of decorations.

Tons of work.

We are not those people.

We wanted to keep it simple.

We did think about inviting a couple friends over... 

but in the end Jonathan's work schedule was far too unpredictable to plan anything.

Which worked out better than we could have ever known.

Because Wednesday, November 2 ended up being a SNOW DAY!!

As in, my school district canceled classes and I got to stay home all day with my little boy.

We played in the snow.

I made pumpkin cupcakes.

Jonathan came home early.

What a special day!

Here are some pics:

That's one sweet little boy.

And he still went to bed around 6pm.

Good boy you are.

Monthly photos of Jackson

Every month for his first year, I tried to photograph Jackson in our big leather chair.

Wow has my little boy grown!

I love you.