More Burris Family Christmas

As promised, here are a few photos of our Christmas gathering on December 19th with Chris' parents and sister. This was a great gathering and I am so thankful for the time to just enjoy being together without worries of rushing off to the next Christmas event!

Jacob checking his gift to Grandmama and Granddaddy Burris...a Shutterfly Photo Book!

Jacob playing with his new Play Doh; a gift from Aunt Jenn Jenn and Uncle Luke! Thank you!

Jacob enjoying his new back hoe! Grandmama hit the nail on the head with this gift!

Whoa! Another back hoe! Do you think somebody likes construction equipment this year??

Burris Christmas in KY

Here are just a few shots of our immediate family Christmas in Kentucky, prior to leaving for NY. We've had an extended Christmas this year. We had our immediate family gift exchange on December 19th.

Jacob loved all of his gifts and really got into it this year...tearing paper and looking to see what was inside. He wasn't too sure what to think of the weed eater (which we were so excited to give him), but I was able to sneak a shot of him checking it out. I think that is as close as he has gotten to it since.... He was actually kind of scared of it! Oops! His exclamations were truly priceless: clapping his hands and shouting, "yay!" when we told him it was time to open gifts and saying, "ooooo!" when opening gifts. He was such fun for us! He gave everything an immediate test drive; well, everything except the weed eater. That one is going to take some time....

Finally checking out the weed eater.

Opening the weed eater... Preparing to run away from it.

Jacob checking out one of his new gifts...

Jacob looking to see what else is hiding inside his socking. The sock was as big as he is!

P.S. I am sorry my pictures all seem a bit out of order. My mom's computer won't let me organize them like my computer at home, so rather than fight with it, I gave up and just left them out of order. :-)

Merry Christmas from Snowy Upstate NY!

Well, we made it! Two days of driving and 12 hours in the car, we made it for Christmas in NY. We are having a great time! If only the drive wasn't so long.......

Jacob was a trooper in the car, but sleeping in the car does not seem to be his forte. He struggles to find a comfortable spot and then cries because he is sooooooo tired! Thank you Gould Family for the use of your portable DVD player...we got to break in our new Veggie Tales video on day two! Not sure how on earth we will make it straight through on our return trip on Wednesday. I'm trying not to think about it. Ha, ha!

We've had a great time since we arrived. We've had a relaxing Christmas afternoon at the Ruth Household in Ithaca and from there headed on to Mom and Dad's in Greene. We had the big Ruth Family Christmas on Saturday with my brother, one of my sisters, their families, and my parents. Only one sibling was missing and we sure missed her and her gang! It was great fun to see the excitement of my nephews throughout all the festivities. And of course, we had the "traditional Christmas/Thanksgiving" meal and it was fabulous. Oh, how I've missed those traditional meals!

Jacob was so pleased with all of his gifts. The "nain" (train) from Grandma and Grandpa Ruth has been the biggest hit. He even did a little dance while he waited for Grandpa to get it out of the box! Hilarious!

Chris and my Dad have been keeping themselves busy...shooting yesterday and out pheasant hunting today. I am hoping to squeeze in a date night tonight to go see The Blind Side while we've got eager babysitters willing to keep the kiddo for us! Perhaps the date night will include a stop at Friendly's....only the best ice cream joint in all NY state. My mouth salivates in KY when I think of how much I miss Friendly's ice cream!

Well, I'd better stop blogging for now and go hang out with Mom while munchkin takes his nap. Here are just a few shots of the fun we've had so far....

Jacob reading in the car on day two. Such a trooper!

Jacob helping us pack up the car before we left. He wanted his "back back" (back pack) on!

The Ruth gang with their yummy chocolates from Gertrude Hawk...an upstate NY special treat!

Jacob enjoying his "nain." This is where you can find him most of the time!

We missed all of our other family this Christmas and we have been thinking of you often!! We pray all of you have a wonderfully blessed New Year!

I'm NOT Dreaming of a White Christmas!

Merry Christmas faithful readers! This year the Burri are mixing it up a bit and changing up the traditional Christmas Day fare.

We are heading north this year. Are we nuts, you ask? Perhaps just a wee bit...if you consider climbing into a box on wheels stuffed to the roof with suitcases, gifts, and sweet treats with an almost 2 year old in the backseat, then propelling your box on wheels down the highway toward the Arctic north where it might snow, sleet, freezing rain, slush, or snain, and remain strapped in said box on wheels for approximately 12 hours with aforementioned toddler riding in the backseat...if you consider that nuts, then yes, we are nuts. In all seriousness, I will admit I dread the drive, but I do very much look forward to the time in NY with my family. We'll have all but one sibling and her family together this year and won't it be a grand time had by all? This is my first actual Christmas day at home in NY in something like 7 or 8 years! It is hard to believe!

The big departure is looming, so please pray for us to have safe travels and little to no nasty wintry precipitation falling from the sky. I swear I did not move south enough and I most certainly have failed in convincing my family members that they ought to move south, too!

White Christmas? I could do without, especially when our travels put us on the road for a good 6 hours on Christmas Day!

We hope all of you have a wonderfully blessed Christmas wherever you may choose to spend it this year. Jesus is born so shout it from the roof tops! Our Savior has come! Rejoice!

Recent Jacob-isms

I've been meaning to write this post for some time and just haven't gotten to it. Here are some of Jacob's most recent words. Jacob likes to really enunciate the final sound of most of his words, so you will notice on many of them, the final letter is in caps.

• Stuck = GucK
• Off = Hofffffff
• Help = ElP
• Sockie = Gockie (not to be confused with Guckie)
• Bike = IKe
• Jesus = Bible
• God = Bible
• Rock = Gock
• Mop = MauP
• Jump = Bot!
• Ready, Set, Go = Gee, ga, GOOOOOOOO!!!!!!
• Jelly = Eyellie
• Trash = Elash
• Monkey = Meonmie
• Yummy = Nyummy!

I know there were more and I can't think of them. He is learning a new word daily it seems!

We are excited to celebrate Christmas this weekend with the Burris Family! We will post pictures from our festivities!

Love and miss everyone!

1st Annual Christmas Lights Drive

The Burri went on their 1st Annual Christmas Lights Drive this weekend! Jacob LOVES all the beautiful Christmas lights that are out this time of year, so we went searching for some of the best! We even brought Auntie Fred and Andrew along with us!

We started off at a local fire station. They've got quite the show. You pull up, turn your radio to a specific station and watch the show! The lights are choreographed to the music and blink and move to the music! It was so neat! After that we drove around some neighborhoods and saw some other great displays of lights. We also got temporarily lost (thank you, Auntie Fred for encouraging this). It was about a 30 minute diversion, but we did see a few lights on our journey. We capped it all off with a drive through a local church that was having a "Drive Through Bethlehem." What a great evening and we look forward to doing this for years to come!

All loaded up in the back seat! Let's go see some lights!


Jacob's first taste of candy cane. It was a huge hit. He kept saying, "more! more!"

Whoa! That is a sticky baby! The aftermath of the candy cane....


You can't really tell, but he is using a baby wipe to clean his own face! Such a big boy!

Who Needs Toys Anyhow?

With all the rush this time of year to find "the perfect toy," the hot item, the one and only, the thing that will rock your child's world, Jacob sweetly reminded me yesterday...who needs all that?! Seriously! What more does he need when he has the old Luv's diaper box to play with?! This box brought at least 30 minutes or more of entertainment to our household. While I'd like to say it was cheap or free entertainment, it did cost me about $16.99 to buy that lovely box. Ha, ha!

Here is some of our fun.

Climbing in...


Ta-da!


Where's the baby?


Peek-a-boo!

Follow Up Birthday Blog

As promised, here is the follow up to my birthday blog with some pictures from the night. Would you believe we forgot to take a picture of the flaming cake?! Ha, ha! Anyhow, we hope you enjoy!

These are my beautiful flowers that my husband surprised me with at work! He did a great job!


Jacob enjoying the post dinner cake and ice cream festivities.


Ella showing us how she says her prayers. So cute!

Happy Birthday to Me!

The inevitable arrived this year. I turned the BIG 3-0. Yup, I'm 30. It sounds old, but someone sweetly reminded me that if I live to be 90, my life is really only 1/3 over at this point. Hmmm. Was that really supposed to make me feel better?! In all seriousness, I've actually (oddly) been looking forward to my 30th birthday. Finally, my age is approaching an appropriate level for my "old soul." Ha, ha!

I had a fabulous several days worth of celebrating my big day. On Wednesday the girls at work decked out my office with balloons, signs, and curly ribbon. They even got me my very own KING SIZE Snickers bar (I think it is a conspiracy to make me get fat). They also gave me a sweet card with many wonderful messages in it. My sister got in on the action at work, too, and dropped off more balloons and a cake for me to share. Lucky for me, it was a horrible rainy day, so dear big sister was not able to successfully wrap my car in gift wrap. Bummer. Following the cake and fun, I was presented with a gorgeous delivery of flowers from my sweet husband! What a special surprise!

Friday was my "actual" birthday. Chris is working a flex schedule at work and gets every other Friday off now and this happened to be his week off. I was granted permission early in the day to go run some Christmas shopping errands child free. You have no idea how nice it is to run so many errands without having to fuss with the car seat, carts, or strollers! I felt so free and was able to accomplish much. Then Friday night Chris took me out to eat at a local Mexican restaurant. When I walked in, the Gould Family was already there waiting for us to surprise me. What fun it was to enjoy a meal with sweet friends and fellowship with them at home over cake and ice cream. Thank you Gould Family! Also on Friday Chris presented me with my "gift." The gift was a note telling me we had tickets to a play on Saturday night, babysitting was lined up, and I got to go out to eat dinner...AGAIN! Woo hoo! So Saturday Jennifer came to keep Jacob for us (and he was not good, so I owe her double!) and we went out to eat. I even got dessert! The play was great and I enjoyed a lovely evening out with my husband. During the day on Saturday my father in law also came by to watch the UK basketball game with Chris, which allowed me some fantastic uninterrupted time to wrap MANY of my Christmas gifts and get them under the tree. I actually ran out of gift boxes, so I had to stop (well, I also have some of Jacob's really oddly shaped toys that I am putting off wrapping...those things can be such buggers to wrap!).

All in all, the first few days of my 31st year have gone well. I am so blessed and thankful for the friends and family I have in my life. Thank you to each and every one of you for making it such a special day! Pictures to come in a later post....