Where did THAT come from?
Three days ago, little Maggie May is not feeling great. She keeps spitting up. More than normal. She also refuses to sleep during the day. At night time, we give her dinner, and then a bottle. Once she is down for the night, she keeps fussing. And turning. A spit-up here and a spit-up there. About an our into bedtime, i decide to pick her up and rock her a bit. She's just nodding off to sleep, and then she wakes up, eyes wide open, and vomits her entire bottle up.
All over me.

Needless to say, it was a little bit of a rough night. But by next morning, everything was fine and back to normal.
Then yesterday at work, i start to feel a bit light headed. I've been fighting off a cold that hit the entire family about a month ago, and i was quite proud of myself for not succumbing to the bug. Perhaps it was finally my turn? It was about 1pm, and i hadn't eaten lunch yet. That must be it. So i ate some chicken soup. Perhaps not the best call. By 3:30, my head is pounding, and i call it a day. I come home and lay down. Usually a light nap gets rid of any headache.

Not this one. I wake up an hour later, and it's worse. My stomach is turning, and i know it's one of those "per-throwup" find of feelings. I hang around the toilet for about 30 minutes, but nothing happens. I go back to lay down. Sarah took off somewhere, and Alexander is, thankfully, completely enthralled by Toy Story. At least i have some peace.

About an hour later, my head is pounding, and my brow starts to sweat. I know what this means. Seconds later i am praying to the porcelain god, emptying my stomach of the last 24 hours of food.

I collapse to the floor, feeling like i was just repeatedly punched in the gut by a professional boxer. It's over. My head is still pounding, but the pain in my stomach is gone.

Later that night, Sarah comes home. She feeds Alexander, who seems to also have a stomach ache. "It must be because you're hungry" she says, failing to connect the dots. She gave him one of his favorites: grilled cheese and tomato soup.
A long story short, he wakes up around 9pm moaning and crying. We run into his room to discover his entire bed and the herd of stuff animals are covered in red, with the occasional chunk here and there. And boy, does it smell awful.

This morning everyone wakes up, and life is more or less back to normal. A light breakfast, and we're good to go for the day. I've still got a lingering headache, but aside from that, it's like the whole bloody thing never happened. Looks like the 12hour stomach bug has struck again.
And, fortunately for her, it missed Sarah's number.

for Christmas, the family trekked on down to the good ol' OC, where i was lovingly born and raised. It was spent in the very same house that i grew up in. (very cool!)

The BEST thing about this year was that the cousins got a chance to all get together! In 2011, two new cousins entered the mix, making a total of SIX for my very happy and very grateful parents.
Here's a rare shot of 5 of the little buggers in a row.


My parents (read: mum) spends a LOT of time decorating the house. And i must say, it really ends up being absolutely BEAUTIFUL. Just check out the effort and detail put into this fireplace mantle!


Everyone got to open up their presents, and smiles and giggles abounded! But the best present of all, was for Maggie May: a wrapped gift! It really didn't matter what was inside, because, man O MAN did she love the paper!


A very calm and collected Christmas was had, and me and the wifey got to spend some nice time with the family.


And in the end, the kids were all nestled up in their beds, with thoughts of sugar plums dancing in their heads....
Don't WE wish! Nope, the little rug-rats were at it again, pointing up on the roof: "we heard Santa!"


Merry Christmas to all!

The Christmas season has arrived, and with much fanfare, the Zakrzewski family is preparing for the arrival of the Big Man!
Threre is lots to do this Christmas, and we're off to a great start. I'm very happy to say that we'll be spening the holidays here in LA/OC this year, instead of Minnesota. While we do miss out on the snow and seeing the inlaws, i must admit the stress level is about 1 / gagillionth of normal. With less stress and more calm, we can actually enjoy eachother during wonderful time of year.

What Christmas would be complete without the ol' Grizwald family tradition of going out into the forest and chopping down a tree?
Well, we're not that fancy. We'll settle for our local Tree lot.


And then comes the fun part: Decorating the Christmas tree!
This year we bought brand new fancy "LED" light for the tree. They are like 10 times as efficient, almost never burn out, don't make any heat (safety!) and the look fantastic. Highly recommened. Decorating is a family affair, and Alexander was such a great helper. He put the vast majority of the decorations up himself! Since we're still a relatively new family, we don't have a lot of ornaments yet. But i imagine as the years move on, they will grow in number!


Even little Maggie May got in on the action and got the bottom of the tree in order!


And what season would be complete without the requisite Christmas time favorites? Alexander and momma made these delicious treats. And Alexander helped eat them with just as much gusto too! YUM!!

Yes, her first one. Right in front on the bottom. It just cut through two days ago. How do i know? She grabbed a hold of my hair, and bit down on my nose.
HARD.

No more knuckles for you to chew on, missy!