Be warned -- this post is extremely long. Read at your own risk.

So I've neglected the blog. I'll admit it. And I would be ashamed of it, except what can compete with a vacation, Christmas, presents, ringing in the new year, my birthday, and more presents? The blog can't, that's for sure. But don't worry, one of my New Year's resolutions is to write in the blog more (I may or may not have actually made that resolution, but I CAN promise that I am back from hiatus and, might I add, better than ever)

I'm still deciding whether to blog about my vacation to Salt Lake City and Christmas. I feel tired from just thinking about it. In fact, most of the people who read this blog were there. They know what happened. But in all fairness, I will include three of the highlights. The first being. . . .

Highlight #1. My Christmas Eve party.

This party was a plan I hatched way back when we first moved to Syracuse, when I had no family and a only a cranky baby for company. Both sides of our family would be in Utah for Christmas -- why not! Well, I somehow pulled it all together, and it went off (practically) without a hitch. Everyone had a good time, and we all enjoyed some wonderful Christmas-themed fun.

Here was the itinerary:
1) Lunch
2) A rousing game of pictionary (not for the faint of heart, mind you. Just try drawing melekelikimaka -- ask Katryna how)
3) An epic gingerbread house competition (think Iron Chef meets Martha Stewart meets Candy Land) complete with a crappy recipe for gingerbread house icing (note to self: no tarter sauce = runny icing), people complaining about the icing (hint: Mom), and fervor not seen since Dad played in last year's Halo marathon competition.
4) White elephant. Gifts included: a bag of oranges (hope you're enjoying it, Jeff!) , hand sanitizer, a box of scissors, Halloween candy, and more!

I have lots of video, but really don't want to edit it right now. You'll just have to wait for that. If it ever comes. Which it probably won't.

Highlight #2: The beginning of a beautiful friendship.

The saying good things come in small packages was never more true than Christmas 2008. It was then that I met my new best friend, the Iphone. A month later I'm wondering how anyone lives without one, let alone how I ever did. I don't want to cheapen things by trying to describe a love that is indefinable, so let's just suffice it to say that it's AWESOME. If you can get one, I'd recommend it.

Hightlight #3: The Christmas wallet miracle.

I classify this as a Christmas miracle even though the event happened after Christmas, because "after Christmas miracle" just doesn't sound as special. But lets not get caught up on semantics. This miracle played out like most miracles: things seemed to be going great, then tragedy happened, and then. . .the miracle saved the day (and possibly the money in my bank account -- oh, and me having to wait in line at the DMV, among other things.)

So there we were two days after Christmas. We decided to stop at Carl's Jr., because they don't have them in Syracuse and Kenny wanted to get as many trips in as possible. We enjoyed our meal, and were about to leave when someone (not Kenny) hugged me and whispered "Just let it happen." Who else could it be but my good friend, Lindsay Redd (Hogan) and her husband, Andrew. Except Andrew wasn't hugging me, only Lindsay (that would have been awkward). We chatted, remembered old times, and then said our goodbyes and Kenny and I drove to Walmart, five minutes away. I had ordered Kenny a present that arrived after Christmas and we were going to pick it up. Presents. Old friends. Carl's Jr. What could go wrong? Well, I looked in my bag to find my driver's license, and guess what, my driver's license wasn't there, because it was in my wallet and my wallet wasn't there.

So after a few minutes of freaking out (mostly on Kenny's part -- what can I say, he's a worrier), we drove back to Carl's Jr. , because I had it there last, and I thought I must have left it on the table or dropped it outside of the car, or something. We looked where the car had been parked, we looked on the sidewalk, we looked in the restaurant. Nothing. Ken and I of course assumed someone had stolen it. And maybe we thought that the homeless man that was standing inside the Carl's Jr. at the time had something to do with it. I told the Hogans, who were still eating, and they came out and helped us look. And then Andrew went in and asked everyone (including the homeless man) if they knew where it was. Nothing. We looked again. Nothing! The Hogans left, and seeing the homeless man inside staring at us suspiciously, I asked Kenny to go ask him again. Kenny did, and the man told him that he always turns in wallets when he finds them.

So we left, dejected. That wallet contained everything of value -- my credit cards, driver's license, insurance cards, punch card for pita pit. What would happen without it? My wallet seemed doomed, until in a sudden moment of inspiration I remembered that I had set a cup on top of the car before we left, and might have set the wallet there as well and forgotten about it. We drove the exact route we had taken from Carl's Jr. to Walmart and made it to the street Walmart was on without any luck. Enter the miracle. As we were turning in, Kenny looked over at me with wide eyes and said "I think I saw something!" He immediately turned the car around and pulled to the spot where he thought he saw it. I looked out the window. And there it was, buried under a foot of snow on the side of the road, only it's little corner sticking out. Did I mention it was nighttime and very dark outside. I jumped out, grabbed it, started screaming and jumping, and then almost got hit by a car. But I didn't, so I got back in, and we drove home, happier than ever before.

The morals of this story 1) The Hogans are really nice people 2) Don't suspect homeless people of committing crimes just because they are homeless 3) Miracles do happen. Especially around Christmas.

So that was Christmas. Unfortunately, New Year's wasn't nearly as exciting. We decided to avoid the New Year's Eve party route, because we had to be up at 4am to get to the airport for our six o' clock flight (don't worry, lesson learned). We decided to rent a classic movie to watch until midnight, then ring in the new year, then sleep for 3 hours (more like 2 with a cranky baby). We picked "It Happened One Night" with Clarke Gable and some other actress (who I think is famous, but I can't remember her name). Listen, I have nothing against classics. I'm a big fan. But let's just say watching this while trying to stay up until midnight wasn't the best idea. If you've seen it you'll know what I mean. The word bored-out-of-my comes to mind.

So that was New Year's. And now we're all back in horribly frigid Syracuse. It was -7 last week. That's cold.

Oh, and a few weeks ago I turned 23. We had an impromptu party. Nothing special. I got all the presents I didn't get for Christmas (I know, I know, what on earth could I have wanted after an Iphone?). The cake was white with raspberry filling. That's about it.

I saved the saddest news for last. Don't lose hope, it has a happy ending! We took K3 to the doctor few weeks ago for his checkup. It turns out he only gained 1/2 lb in three months since his last check up. In case you don't know, that's not good. He should have gained at least 1/2 lb every two weeks (there's a whole chart with a curve -- but let's not get technical here.) So the doctor and I decided to supplement breast feeding with formula. The doctor said that if he gained weight in a week then there were no serious problems. If he came back and still no weight gain -- not good. The first feeding after the doctor I let him nurse as much as he could and then gave him a bottle with a few ounces of formula. He looked at me weird for about 2 seconds and then gulped it down. No problem switching to the bottle for him. He ate 4 ounces in about 5 minutes. We went back a week later and he hadn't gained a pound. He had gained two pounds! We later found out that we were looking at the wrong side of the bottle and instead of 3 ounces we were giving him almost 6 ounces, thus explaining the two pound gain. So now we just supplement a few ounces every feeding. So, the good news is K3 is now getting all the food he needs (and is already getting pretty dang fat -- double chin, chunky thighs, pot-belly). Bad news: he was starving for three months. But luckily he won't remember it when he's older.

Well, that's it! Congratulations on making it to the end of the post! Your reward includes. . . . . multimedia! And this multimedia includes . . . . . a montage! Nothing special -- just a few longer clips of the baby from the past couple of months. But titles and music are included. As a note, the bath clip was shot two days ago, so its the most recent video of little K3 (and keep a lookout for a special bonus clip at the end!) Enjoy:





Coming in a few days. . . . .Pictures!!