Kevin's 38th Birthday

On the night of Thursday, December 4th, Parents Morge, Dad (Walter), Danuta, Tomasz, Gabriella, Kevin, and I went to Alexander's Steakhouse to celebrate Kevin's 38th birthday. The men went to the grill area to grill steaks and other foods for us. Gabriella demanded to chew on something and decided to chew on the table. She had teeth pain, but nothing came out yet. Again, Gabriella was sick with cold. We had a good time chatting, and the food was so good! After we ate dinner, we except Danuta and Tomasz, went to Parents Morge's house for dessert. Gabriella was so exhausted, so I put her in crib. She missed being with dad to sing "Happy Birthday". The dessert was Turtle-flavored Cheesecake, and it was so delicious!! We sang the "Happy Birthday" song to Kevin. He got a lot of wonderful gifts! Thanks to you all who came to celebrate Kevin's birthday.

Here is the video of Kevin's birthday:

First Snow

Grandparents Morge, Grandparents Dynda, Kevin, Gabriella, and I went out for brunch at Weaver Ridge Restaurant after church. Gabriella was sleeping for awhile and had a cold. However, we had a good time and enjoyed eating brunch at that place. It was snowy outside. After we got home to Morge's, we wanted to take picture of Gabriella with the view of snow. It was Gabriella's first snow!

Santa/Riding Train

At the end of November, Cousins Annabelle, Michael Aaron, Gabriella, and Madison (shown, picture on left) were excited and were getting ready to go to the Northwoods Mall with Grandma Trish, Grandpa Mike, Elizabeth, Luke, Kevin, and me to sit on Santa Claus's lap and ride the train. Once we got there, we all went to Santa Claus to sit on his lap and take pictures. Gabriella sat on Santa's lap for the first time. At first, she was looking at him and was unsure about him. A little later, she started to cry and didn't want sit on Santa's lap. Luckily, we got a good picture with Santa before Gabriella wanted to get away from him.

After we finished sitting on Santa's lap, we all went to the train area for kids to ride in a circle. Annabelle, Madison, and I with Gabriella on my lap went into the boxcar to ride the train. We all enjoyed it.

Chilling Out at Morge's

After the Thanksgivings were over, we all were relaxing and were lazy at Morge's. Gabriella was sick with a bad cold, and I was sick with a sore throat, cold, and cough. Also, Kevin was sick with a sore throat and little cold, and of course had to work remotely during the weekdays. It was not fun for us to have these sicknesses. Gabriella's two cousins, Madison and Michael Aaron, stayed at Grandparents Morge where we stayed for a day or two while their mother went to Iowa to work and dad went to home to remodel their house. We enjoyed having them with us. Gabriella and Madison enjoyed being together to play.



After Madison and Michael Aaron left for home, our days were back to normal as usual. Grandma Trish babysat granddaughter, Annabelle, while her parents were at work. I was playing with Gabriella with toys. Also, Cousins Annabelle and Gabriella enjoyed keeping each other company and playing with toys.


A few of these days, Gabriella and I went out for Christmas shopping to get it over with. All of these stores we went were crazy and crowded with these people for Christmas shopping. I was very happy that we did it early before it got worst later in December.

Thanksgiving 2008

A few days before Thanksgiving Day, my parents flew back home from Canada. They were happy to see their granddaughter, Gabriella, who they haven't seen since her Baptism last August. Grandparents spent time with Gabriella for a while before we had to leave to stay at Morge's for about a couple of weeks. However, they had a great time in Canada and enjoyed seeing their newborn son, Charles, who was born on November 17th.

For awhile before we left for Morge's, Tomasz and Gabriella continue played, crawled, and talked to each other even though Gabriella was not clearly saying words to Tomasz. She vocalized a lot even though we didn't understand her.

The day before Thanksgiving Day, Gabby and I moved to stay at Morge's from my parents for about a couple of weeks. Also, Kevin flew into Peoria from Seattle for Thanksgiving. We were very thrilled to see him and be with him! We missed him dearly! On Thanksgiving Day, Kevin, Gabriella, and I had early afternoon dinner at Morge's. It was wonderful seeing all grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins who came to Morge's for dinner. We all enjoyed being with family to play baseball outside on beautiful weather, talk to catch up, and prepare for dinner. After we had dinner at Morge's, we drove to my parents' for evening dinner. We also had a wonderful time to be with grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousin. Gabriella and Tomasz were crazy for each other to play with. Grandparents were enjoying being with Gabriella that they hadn't seen for a while when they were in Canada for visiting.

What a day for us to have two Thanksgiving dinner at two different families! It had been crazy for us with full of delicious foods to eat at each place. Thank God that day was over so we didn't have to look at other foods to eat! After a long Thanksgiving weekend, Kevin was supposed to fly back to Seattle on Sunday for work, but the flight was cancelled due to bad weather in Peoria with terrible snow/icy until the next day. On that weekend, I was sick with flu-like symptoms with bad body ache. Kevin was sick and vomited overnight, and he had flu-like symptoms. He was supposed to leave on Monday to Seattle, but he didn't feel well. His boss let him stay in Peoria and worked at home remotely. On the first week of December, he was going to come back to Peoria from Seattle for a whole month of December, but he stayed at the end of November until Jan 3rd. We were happy to have him staying with us on that week and be with us the whole month of December. Enough with our sickness on the Thanksgiving weekend.

Here is the pictures video about our Thanksgiving Day with families:

Leaving For Peoria, Illinois

On November 15th, Gabriella and I flew to Peoria, Illinois, to be with my sister, Danuta, and her son, Tomasz, for a week while our parents flew to Canada to stay with my other sister, Marta, who had a baby boy (Charles) on November 17th, for a week. Kevin had to stay in Seattle to work. Wish he could have come with us, but he was coming for Thanksgiving, anyway. However, Gabriella and Tomasz enjoyed playing together and crawled everywhere. Danuta's friend, Deidra, came to stay, too, for a week.

Home Sweet Home

Kevin, Gabriella, and I flew back home to Seattle, WA from Peoria, Illinois last Saturday night safely. We were busy with unpacking, cleaning apartment, and errands to do. It was wonderful to be in our own home.

Over our long visit in Peoria, IL, from November-December, we had a great holidays with our relatives and friends, but we were sick with flu-like symptoms, cold, cough, and sore throats most of the time. It was not fun. Other than our sickness, we had a good time over the holidays with everybody. We want to say a big "Thank You!" to our families: we will miss you but see you again soon!

As I mentioned, I was planning to use Kevin's laptop over Thanksgiving to update blog; unfortunately, his laptop had no access to it. We didn't want to download all pictures into his laptop that he needs to use for work.

Now, I am planning to update each post with what we did over our visit in IL. We have many pictures we had over the holidays and don't want to update one post with all pictures in it together. So, please, patience with us whenever we have time to update each post what we had done over the holidays.