there's no place like home for the holidays

so, so sorry for the lapse in the blog, but boy, have we been busy!  first, some big news: we're expecting a little sibling for emre this july.  so, there's been that.  i was a little under the weather for the last three months or so, but feeling much better now.  phew!

second, we spent the entire month of december home in the states.  this was my first christmas at home in six years!  it was wonderful to be back and celebrate the holidays.  even more wonderful to meet my nephew, theo!  here are a LOT of pictures that capture our stay.  happy new year!

our traveler, doing his thing in istanbul

we flew home on thanksgiving day (arrived that evening, got to our apartment & crashed), so sarah & jeff put together an amazing thanksgiving meal for us that weekend.  

jeffrey's technique for getting the mashed potatoes in the bowl

as usual, we were up every morning that first week at 4 or 5am, so we had plenty of time to watch the sunrise while eating bagels (yum!), for me to get sick (yay!) and take some nice walks before anyone else was even awake.  we rented a beautiful apartment for five nights just two blocks from sarah & jeff, right on the water, with great views of the statue of liberty & lower manhattan.  

view of lower manhattan from jersey city

it was so awesome being so close to sarah & jeff, we could walk to each other's place.  i got lots of snuggle time in with theo during those first few days, too!

walking with auntie to the park - emre HAD to hold her hand

feo!

emre loves his auntie & his feo

loved seeing these two as parents!

emre's amca (amja) came for a visit from boston.  we wish he lived closer because he is a GREAT babysitter.

hangin' with amca

walkin' with amca

playin' with amca & daddy at the 'pak!'

after five days, it was time to head to albany for a week of work & visiting friends.  as usual, bob and marybeth hosted us for a wonderful meal & visit.  they are emre's gosende grands and treat him like royalty when we are there.  good people.

emre loved watching 'bop' feed the kitty

emre with his bop & marybeth

he loved the kitty, but he was also terrified of it

we were also hosted by our friends alena & john, who have an incredible home which john has meticulously renovated.  they've also got an adorable 4 month old daughter, rosalia (not pictured here, because we had 'swapped' kids & i was holding her).  john is an incredible cook & made us a mouth-watering chicken parmesan.  we have a lot in common with these folks & love their company.  more good people!

emre loves alena & john

we even squeezed in a fun american breakfast at an awesome diner, the ugly rooster in mechanicville, with bob, marybeth & alena & john.  

emre loves his scrambled eggs & texas toast

on sunday while killing time at the mall, we visited the build-a-bear workshop, where emre was united with mr. fluffs.

after a week of work & visits in albany, we were ready to go home to auburn where we settled in for the rest of our stay.  unfortunately, upon arriving home emre came down with an ear infection & croup cough (his first real illness, poor thing).  luckily a quick visit to urgent care got him the proper meds and the cough went away, though the cold lingered for another week (and the rest of us all came down with it, in turn).

reunited with his lion chair & loving it

when cooking, it's important to wear gloves.  black, leather gloves.

the first weekend, margot came for a visit from dc (and ben went to dc, to visit with the mentz family).  we had a great visit catching up - it had been 3.5 years!  it snowed while she was with us, presenting the perfect opportunity for emre's first romp in the snow.

new snowsuit & boots

wearing grandma's hat, because his was dirty

to my surprise, emre did not love it.  it was too deep for him to walk unless i cleared him a path, and he just wanted me to carry him.

not sure about this, ma

can we go in now?

but he DID discover the best part of playing in the snow:  coming inside for hot chocolate!  grandma whipped up mugs with marshmallows & lots of whipped cream (his favorite part).

cheers, margot!

he's got his whipped cream eating technique down.  kid's gonna be alllllright.

grandma also spoiled him with lots of other treats, like waffles for breakfast & sugar cookies for snack

grandma also spoiled him with love

on tuesday, sarah & theo came up on the train (they survived a nine hour train ride from nyc) which gave us time to do some fun christmas stuff, like drive around and look at lights - my favorite!

the gingerbread house

emre loves it, too

kandycane lane had really outdone themselves, with a talking snowman and tune-in radio station where you can listen to the music the lights are synchronized to

baby swap!  it's pretty fun being mommies together.

emre, gettin' in the christmas spirit

patiently waiting his turn

finally!  he gets to vacuum.

a festive theo

jeff & his folks joined us on saturday before christmas, and it felt like the holiday had really begun.

jeffrey keeps it festive, no matter what

emre (who had taken off his own clothes & put on my tshirt) was so interested in theo, all the time.  a good sign for our baby on the way.

monday was a special day - theo's baptism!  we all got dressed up for the occasion and took plenty of pictures.  a nice way for us to welcome him, all together.

the stephens family

emre was in charge logistics & made sure things ran smoothly

beautiful boy, all ready to go

hanging with daddy at the church - ben did a great job of keeping him quiet during the baptism

proud mommy

proud grandparents with their kids & grandson

and one proud auntie!

afterwards we went out for a celebratory dinner at oak & vine, where we played pass the baby (my favorite game).

theo & his unkie ben

emre loves giving theo kisses

the next day was christmas eve!

emre, attending to some important projects in the kitchen

loving/hating his watermelon snack

opening a book from grandma

we decided to avoid emre being overwhelmed on christmas, he should open a gift or two on christmas eve (nice try - should have had him open more!).  so we gave him his big gift from us: a train set.  he seemed pretty thrilled with it, until...

opening his train set with daddy

...papa brought out HIS gift for emre, a hess truck & tractor set.

it was love at first sight

we had our big meal on christmas eve - mom provided christmas poppers, which provided a lot of fun.

popping our poppers

mom & lynn getting into it

still pretty into the truck, but the crown is nice, too

i enjoyed watching my dad sing that night at a christmas eve service, and then driving home in a snow storm.  yes, we had a white christmas!

christmas morning

on christmas morning mom gave emre her big gift, a rocking horse. he loved it!

pretty proud little cowboy

 

we thought he may just ride it all day

and lynntie gave him a fruit set, which he loves to cut

and his gosende grands gave him a train toy, pretty perfect since he loves trains!

auntie gave him a fisher price chatterbox phone - a big hit

we spent christmas just hanging out, eating and playing with new toys.  perfection.  

emre loved playing with his 'abi,' dave

on our last morning at home, we had one last breakfast together and dave (abi) gave emre his birthday gift - a lion hat!  i think he wished his abi could have come home with him WITH the hat.

silly abi

then it was back to jersey city for one night before we flew back home.  fazil can joined us for the night, and we had dinner with him & jeff & sarah & theo.  a nice send off.

we love you amca!

we survived the flights home - luckily our long flight took off at 11:30pm, so emre pretty much slept the whole way.  almost a week later & we're just getting over the jet-lag, settling back into our routine.  it was a wonderful visit & holiday, but i must say, it's nice to be home.

this lasted for an hour, he was on my lap the rest of the way