After a bit of rest, I am finally feeling (almost) myself again. We played HARD and slept little while we were gone - from Saturday morning until Thursday. I'm proud to report that Iliya had no bowel issues, but he just doesn't sleep very well when we are on the road...so he was a little more cranky than usual. But it didn't seem that anyone else really noticed it...so that was good!

I tell you, though, traveling great distances in a car with a toddler creates something very similar to jet lag (in both the parents AND the toddler!), when you're finally back home. We got home Thursday, right at naptime, and thankfully, Iliya had remained awake on the trip. We came right in, and put him down for a nap. He had been down for 3 1/2 hours -- headed toward 4 when I finally decided to wake him up. And he did not want to wake up! Then, he slept a whopping 13 hours that night...and another 3-hour nap on Friday!

If only we- the parents - had nothing to do, and could get reset with sleep!

Anyway...we did have a good time. Unfortunately (or fortunately?), we spent so much time with Iliya & family that we just didn't get that many pictures or video. I totally surprised myself with the lack of picture-taking - but we make some great memories...and we've got other family members who did get pictures...so hopefully we can bum pictures from them.

I wanted to share some of the pictures and video that I DID take over Christmas, so I ended up just making a video to post. I apologize because the video loses some quality when it is uploaded...

But I hope you enjoy nonetheless!

I present to you...our First Family Christmas!



Okay. So the video didn't seem to embed properly - I don't know what the problem is, but just CLICK HERE to see the video. Sorry!