Lulu and Theo.

I took advantage of the holiday and snapped several (thousand) photos of Lulu and Theo together and I think these are the best.  Enjoy!

in the Santa hats that Nanny knit them

in the gnome hats I bought for our Denver trip (to keep their ears warm!)

the littlest gnome

wearing their Christmas pajamas

White Christmas!

Lulu wished for a white Christmas and it came true!  It started snowing on Christmas Eve and didn't let up until the day after Christmas.  So, we built a (tiny) snowman in the backyard and Daddy tried to teach her how to cross country ski, a little bit!

Christmas Eve

Christmas morning

And I caught some great portraits of Walter and Lulu in the bright sunshine.

Happy Holidays!

We have been truly blessed this year and I can't wait to see what the new year brings.  When I think of what worries were dominating my thoughts this time a year ago, it seems like a lifetime has passed between now and then.  My heart is full.  Very, very full.

Merry Christmas!!

Merry Christmas!

In keeping with the Schwarm's tradition, we celebrated on Christmas Eve with a smorgasbord for dinner and opening presents with our dessert.

notice the cell phone cued up to Theo's favorite video?

Lulu opened her presents from Oma and Opa, and Theo's, too, before going to bed to see what Santa Claus brought her during the night....

Christmas morning brought some wonderful surprise gifts from Santa!  Lulu received an American Girl doll (Samantha) along with a little stuffed dog, eye glasses, and a book about Samantha as well as sweets for her stocking, a Frozen chapter book, some Christmas-themed necklaces and a light-up bouncing ball.

Samantha in her eye glasses, Lulu missing hers...

reading her new chapter books

And Santa remembered Theo with a new musical rattle, too.  It has a little chime in it that sounds when you shake it, and a velcro attachment to his car seat.

Zoo Lights at the Denver Zoo.

We thought it would be fun to take Lulu to see the lights at the Denver Zoo.  We've visited there several times over the years with Oma, but never at Christmas time and in the dark!  We all bundled up:  Walter and I wore our full-length heavy coats and Lulu wore her new winter jacket we bought for this trip!  Theo was dressed in Lulu's old baby bunting and rode in the Baby Bjorn on my chest with my coat wrapped around him.  He was super warm and slept the whole time!

Selfie with Lulu and Theo's head

enjoying the lights with Daddy

warming up in the hippo/rhinoceros exhibit

selfie with my hottie husband!

Lulu's all lit up from the reflective stuff on her jacket!

Visit with Oma and Opa.

After letting Lulu swim in the hotel pool, we gathered our things and drove down to Denver to spend the week with Oma and Opa.  They hadn't yet met Theo, so we were all excited to get there!

Oma is in love!

Theo showing us what he thinks of our comparisons!

Three generations of Schwarm men.

What I haven't mentioned yet was that we were all sick as a dog.  Well, Walter and Lulu were recovering well from the noxious head cold Lulu brought home (Thanks, Typhoid Mary!), but Theo and I were lagging behind.  Going over all those mountain passes between Sacramento and Park City just about killed me.  My head was SO clogged with stuff that my teeth ached, and my right ear had low-grade throbbing for at least a week.  I didn't run a fever except for the night we spent in Park City, and Theo followed my lead by running a fever the next night in Loveland.  The crappy thing about being sick is watching your meds because you don't want to endanger your milk supply (Hello, Sudafed, I'm looking at you!) or pass along anything harmful to the baby.

All of which is context for the next set of photos.  Theo and I had horrible, phlegmy coughs, and severe congestion.  We were miserable.  Small babies haven't learned that they can breathe through their mouths, so congestion is a particular problem.  And Theo was having increasing episodes of a worrying choking cough from all the stuff in his chest and head.  Preemies, which technically he is, are also at an increased risk of lung issues.  So, after a call to the triage nurse at our pediatrician's office back in Sacramento, we took him to the Urgent Care Clinic at Colorado Children's Hospital.  The staff there assessed that he had bronchial congestion and  gave him a bronchial suction to clear things out (since he couldn't very well sneeze and blow a bunch of it out like someone older).

notice the crusted snot?  Yeah, so unhappy.

Waiting for his suction

Afterwards, we bought a humidifier to use in our bedroom to keep his airways moist(er) and he sounded much better than he did even earlier that day.  Finally, we were on the road to being healthy again!

Walter set up his old Lego train in the basement and Lulu spent hours playing with the train set with her daddy and Opa.





And Oma helped me give Theo and bath in the kitchen.





We also had some other fun outings while in Denver....

Trip back in time....

This year, we drove from Sacramento to Fort Collins, Colorado to attend Onkel Stephan's wedding before driving down to Denver to spend Christmas with Oma and Opa.  Plane tickets were outrageously expensive (esp in light of our upcoming Europe trip!), so we drove instead.  The first day, we drove through the Sierras and across Nevada, battled rush hour traffic in Salt Lake City, Utah, and spent the night in Park City, Utah.  I wasn't sure about snow forecasts and figured this was an easy way to ensure Lulu saw snow!

The drive out to Colorado gave us some beautiful scenery!

Morning fog/mist in Nevada

Nevada

Great Salt Lake at sunset

Clouds in Wyoming, notice the snow fences?

Colorado sunset between Fort Collins and Laramie

We stayed at the Embassy Suites in Loveland where the wedding was held, but we headed into Ft Collins to show Lulu where Mommy and Daddy met!  We ate lunch at BeauJo's Pizza and then walked around campus.  It was graduation weekend, so there were students walking around in caps and gowns which gave the place a very academic feel.

Clark Building A Wing on the left, Morgan Library on the right

Clark A Wing (left) and B Wing (right) and our bookstore CSU swag

roaming the hallways, just like old times!

Look who we ran into!  Harvey Cutler, Daddy's advisor!

future CSU grad in the making??

After our all-too-brief tour, we headed back to the hotel to get ready for Onkel Stephan's wedding to Kari.  It was a beautiful service with lots of personal touches and a great wedding reception where we got to visit with everyone there.  We even had a family photo in front of the Christmas tree by the family friend serving as a wedding photographer!  And, one of Kari's college friends turned out to be in the same sorority, so we *had* to have our photo together, too!

Sarah reading a poem at Kari and Stephan's wedding.

Sarah getting her baby fix at the reception while Mommy gets her champagne fix...

Theo's first encounter with Santa Claus!

family photo in front of the Christmas tree...

Lulu enjoying the chocolate fountain and fondue...

flashing some sorority gang signs!

The next morning, Daddy and Lulu went down to the hotel pool for a swim while I stayed in the room and nursed Theo.  Then, I took Lulu down to eat breakfast while Daddy showered and started packing up our stuff to make the drive down to Denver to see Oma and Opa.....