Fulcher Family

The Fulchers have a real Christmas tree this year! Our first time strapping a tree to the roof of one of our small cars. 

Gabriel gets his very own tree! Yes, it's in an effort to keep him from pulling ornaments off the real tree, but it's still lots of fun. He gets to decorate and redecorate his felt ornaments as much as he wants. 

Philip and I have a tradition of decorating for Christmas while drinking eggnog and watching classic Christmas movies (Frosty, Rudolph, Santa Claus is Coming to Town). So this year we're bringing Gabriel into that tradition. We put up his felt tree and he started decorating. Then he got a small amount of eggnog and guzzled it down! 

Add some 'Frosty the Snowman' to the mix and we had a really wonderful evening. :-) 

We added lights to the tree after Gabriel was in bed so this was his first glimpse of sparkly lights on the tree. 

Christmas snuggles are the best. Mama needs to pick up the camera more often so you can see sweet pictures of dada snuggling too. :-) 

Day 1: lights. Day 2: ornaments. We love our little tree! And we finally found a use for all the cookie tins we've saved for years. They're perfect pretend presents under the tree. Gabriel loves playing with them and making lots of noise hitting them together. 

Gabriel's been pretty good with our "one touch" rule. He can touch an ornament but that's it, no grabbing or pulling. His favorite ornament, above all, is his "Baby's first Christmas" Pooh ornament that's hanging right in the front. Probably just because he likes Pooh Bear so much. :-) 

Baby in a diaper! :-) Wardrobe change into cute clothes for a mini photo shoot with Christmas decorations. Dada is such an excellent photographer!

"One touch, only touch Pooh Bear once please." 

This sweet boy just gets so sleepy sometimes. It's been a really long time since he's fallen asleep on dada in church. 

Gabriel's learning to help mama bake cookies! Christmas cookies this year have extra love (and none of those slobbery rice krispies, I promise). 

Cue the start of our Christmas travel adventures.

Gabriel had several gifts that were too big to take with us and his daycare teachers gave him the sweetest stocking. So we had a mini-Christmas the day before we drove to NC. The light-up, spinning Frosty toy was his absolute favorite from the stocking. 

It's a potty chair! It's a little early, but we're ready to get this potty stuff started. ;-)  

He looks excited and ready, right? ;-) 

Maybe this present will be more exciting...?

Mega Bloks Wagon! Our first Mega Bloks toy. 

And approximately an hour after opening presents he threw up 3 times and had diarrhea. So by lunch time we were at Urgent Care and gastroenteritis was diagnosed. We spent the rest of the day working hard to get fluids in him and he just got more and more pitiful. He was puny, but not puking, so we headed to NC the next day. All he did in the car was sleep or stare out the window and he barely ate or drank anything. His fever also spiked and stayed really high. The next few days were full of fever, sleeping, crying, and very little food or drink. His fever broke but a rash developed and he was still super pitiful so we headed to Urgent Care in NC. The final tally: gastroenteritis, roseola, acute bronchitis which was attached to the two weeks of congestion (got antibiotics), and cutting two molars. So this picture pretty much sums up our week:

It was a tough day but Gabriel was a trooper for a little bit of Christmas caroling. We were hoping some fresh air would be good for him. 

Aunt Sandy remembered the fun we had with magnets on Grandma Zingrebe's fridge, so she bought some magnets for Grandma Marvin's fridge! They actually got the sad, sick boy to smile a little. 

We didn't make it to church on Christmas Eve for fear of sharing or catching more germs, but Gabriel still got to open his "something to wear" because he needed it for bedtime. Santa jammies! 

Santa was here! Merry Christmas! 

Still not feeling 100%, but much better. Let's see what Santa brought! 

He got his very own cell phone, just like the one at daycare. 

After the cell phone, all he really wanted to do was help others open gifts. He didn't want to touch his own presents. 

A smile! An actual smile! 

Grandma was pretty excited about the Gabriel picture book. And Gabriel was pretty excited to look at pictures of himself too. 

Anything else under here for me? 

Mama was maybe more excited than Gabriel about this one. Handmade tools (out of fabric) from grandma for Gabriel. 

Even Uncle Mark & Aunt Sandy needed "help" opening their gifts. 

Opening presents wore him out so it was time for some grandma & grandpa snuggles. 

Feeling even better the day after Christmas (nearly back to 100%). Time for Mega Bloks with grandpa! 

Uncle Mark & Cierra are supervising. 

Phew! We made it home! By the time we drove home he was back to 100% and he had lots of fun throwing new toys on the puppy in the car. The next day we got to unpack all the new toys and play with them in our house. :-) Naturally, the Mega Bloks needed to be dumped all over the floor. 

We were excited to put together the Sit 'n Spin from Aunt Michelle and he had it figured out in no time. 

Gabriel discovered dada's hat on our drive home and wants to wear it all the time now. 

Our final Christmas put-together toy: this awesome spiral car tower from Aunt Hope. He loves it!