Chrismissed?! Not this year ...

The past week has been an absolute blur ... but a blur of the best kind. Lots of family. Lots of laughs. Lots of fun.

I got my one year photos taken Wednesday and Mom gave me a bit of a trim so I looked my best.

Uncle Chris was in town and came with me for moral support.

He also came with me to my doctor's appointment and I showed him how brave I could be when I got my shots.

We celebrated the Miller Christmas Wednesday night with some great food from Grandma and cool gifts. Great-Grandma and Great-Grandpa Miller gave me a cow puzzle!

I hit the mother load with Grandma Maggy's gift, a Sesame Street play set!

Wholly crap! I couldn't wait to get my hands on my new toy ... she nailed it!

Unfortunately for me, Dad kind of took it over and I had to remind him that it was MY TOY, not his.

Thursday was a boys' day. Mom went to work so Uncle Chris, Dad and I hung out and did what guys do. (Playing in a tunnel, throwing golf balls in the house, tooting ... you know, guy stuff.)

After lunch Grandma stopped by to get Uncle Chris and Mom, Dad and I headed to Denmark to see the Houstons.

There were lots of hugs and laughs and fun Thursday night. We went to church then Grandma Kathy made one of her famous meals. (I don't know how I lucked out with two Grandmas who are such good cooks! It really makes me wish the rest of my teeth would come in.)

Friday morning was Christmas and things were a lot better than last year when I ended up going to the emergency room. This year Santa came and I got a work bench! Santa is the best!

No trip to Denmark is complete without a visit from my good friend Clayton. He helped me with my trains and we had a great time.

Lunch time! So much food. So much fun. I think Christmas is great ... no stress, no hassles ... just good people and gifts. Throw in a meaningful church service and I couldn't ask for more.

Later in the day, after naps Dad, Mom and I went with Grandpa Dave to do chores. (I like to help out and earn my keep when I visit folk.)

Dad even tried to be useful by standing in an open gate to keep cows from getting out. (Truth be told no cow came within 50 ft. of the gate but Dad still thought he'd saved the day.)

Grandpa says I can do more chores with him when the weather gets warmer. I look forward to that.

Christmas night Tim and Jill came over. We played and laughed and had a great time. They even gave me a cool watch!

I had so much great stuff from earlier in the day that Grandma and Grandpa waited to give me their gift. I helped put it together and as you can see from the video later in this post I think it is pretty darn awesome!

Grandma and Mom sure like to cuddle. I was watching National Lampoon's "Christmas Vacation" with the guys and couldn't be bothered but they insisted!

Saturday was a quiet, mellow day. The Houston family has tried to get Dad to learn Euchre since 2002 but it never works. It took both Grandpa and I to help him. (He actually played some really good cards but don't ask him how or why.)

Christmas toys come in boxes. I like boxes. Grandma made me a tunnel and I played in it a lot.

The weather outside was frightful this entire trip. We ended up staying an extra day and came back Sunday morning. It took an extra hour but the roads weren't too bad and everyone survived.

We arrived back in Des Moines and immediately went to a reception for Annette's Grandson Raihan. He seems like a really, really cool guy and I hope to spend time with him later. He lives in New York City so I'll pay attention when he visits. Here is a picture of his family.

When we finally got home we still needed to do our family Christmas. Mom cut up some of the sausage Uncle Eric gave us then we ordered pizza and hung out.

I was proud to give Mom and Dad the gift I made for them at school!

Mom thought it was funny that I had a bow in my hair.

We took a break and I took a bath before we finally got to stockings. The rest of the evening was spent in a pile watching TV. It was a good end to a great week.

Oh ... as promised ... a video for everyone's enjoyment.

Have a great week and Happy New Year's to everyone.

A deep thought for the week ... you can pick your friends but you shouldn't pick their noses.

Pierce.