Christmas in Michigan wrap-up

Having arrived back here in Indy from our Christmas gathering in Michigan, we are thankful to have skirted the somewhat bizarre weather road hazards. We postponed our departure because of the crazy ice and avoided much of the bad road conditions, but as we were cruising along at 80mph a huge ice dagger fell from a bridge and hit our windshield. We were absolute amazed that the windshield didn't break. The return trip had about an hour of icy roads, but we made it fine...with Gavin sleeping nearly the whole way.

Our holiday trips always seem to whiz by, but we enjoyed being with my whole immediate family. Some highlights include Christmas eve dinner, opening presents, Christmas dinner with Gavin's great Aunt Betty, getting the tour of my brother Phil's new 108-year old house, and much Gavin-watching.

We captured many of the Christmas festivities:

• Rachel's Flickr album: slideshow here | thumbnails here
• Dan and Lorrie's Picasa album: slideshow here |thumbnails here

Maybe it was all of the focused attention, but even over these past few days we could see Gavin growing and changing. He is definitely more vocal, his head control keeps improving, and he seems to be much better at a grasping. We snagged this cute 5 minute video of him smiling, laughing, and cooing one morning:

• Gavin showing his happy fun side
  

Amidst the Christmas activities, we made time for a special Gavin photo shoot on Saturday morning. Aunt Rachel the photographer captured some outstanding shots of Gavin in all of his 3-month-old cuteness. You'll definitely want to check them out:

• Rachel's "Gavin 3 months" Flickr album: slideshow here | thumbnails here