Pop and Dave arrived a little later than their expected ETA thanks to bad plane hydraulics and snow delays. After nearly 24 hours of travel time, they made it safe and sound to ABQ. They both didn’t even seem to mind being woken up early by a certain little man.

Ooooh, here's the best part of the story, Uncle Dave!

I got all your cards, Grandpa Gato. I win!

Our tree was all lit up and had lots and lots of presents waiting to be opened on Christmas morning.

We were all good boys and girls!

Our stockings were hung by the chimney (a.k.a big TV) with care. A very special new one marked with an A made it’s debut.

Yep, that's A Christmas Carol on TV. hee hee

Then Christmas morning finally arrived. Xion was decked out in his little reindeer jammies from Great-Grams Delgado.

Okay, here are all my gifties. Did you all get any?

Here’s Mr. Pickles with his very own laptop from Grandpa Gato.

Hold on, I'm just about to finish a blog post right now.

And time for a wardrobe change for the next stage of the day.

Ho! Ho! Ho! Merry Christmas!

Nana and Grandpa Flint arrived with Grandma Merrill. More gifties (and mimosas!) for everyone!

So happy.

A very special handmade toy chest by Grandpa Flint for our little guy.

Hooray, we won't be tripping over (as many) toys!

The look on his face here. Yes, he just adores his daddy.

I love you so much, Daddy. Can it be like this everyday?

There were of course a lot more gifts, lots of food, and even several games of Loteria (with prizes!) to cap off the morning.

So much to be thankful for today. And always.

We all ended up taking naps from all the excitement. We were going to need our rest for the next couple of phases of the day. The kitties all took turns in what seemed to be the best box.

India gets cozy.

Dewman takes a turn.

All rested and ready to head to a big family dinner! Russ’ uncle, Russ, graciously hosted all of us and then some.

I need to borrow some hair product from Uncle Dave, Mommy.

Two and a half Flints.

After dinner we headed to the movies (a Delgado family tradition) and saw The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. No, not a feel good, warm, and fuzzy movie, but it was AWESOME. Definite must see! Oh, and no, Xion didn’t go. Nana and Grandpa Flint kept the little guy happy and entertained.

The rest of Pop and Dave’s visit seemed to fly by (as it always does), but we had a lot of fun with them here. Games of Monopoly, episodes of Breaking Bad, yummy food, and the River of Lights kept us busy! Speaking of Monopoly, Woz’s collection got a little bigger this year.

Love me do...

Woz’s Uncle Danny D has been doing special projects with family photos. Since we were serious slackers and didn’t send out any cards this year, here’s a good one for all!

Our little vaca is Santa! hee hee hee

A random Xion photo from a dinner on the town. You know, since you never see pictures of him or anything.

Who do I need to see about getting a refill around here?

We said goodbye to them a couple days ago. Still hoping that the allure of 50 degree weather in December and seeing Xion on a regular basis will get them to move out here. And soon!

La Familia Delgado

Now that's a group of handsome guys!

Oh, and we also had a professional family (Delgado and Flint) photo shoot while they were here! It was a lot of fun and we got some GREAT photos of everyone. We’ll be sure to share those when we get them.

For now, we just want to say thank you to our family. We love you all year round but there is something special about the holly day season that reminds us just how lucky we are to be surrounded by people who love us so much. We are who we are because of you and we truly appreciate everything you’ve done and continue to do for our little family. We’d be lost without you. Special extra love to Mom and Dad Flint, Dave, and Papo. You are the best family in the world and we are so very happy you got to be here for the first of many Christmases for Acenxion Russell. Big, HUGE hugs. Until next year!

One thing that was much different than our getaway last year was that Mr. Pickles hadn’t entered the world yet. What we learned this year is that we definitely took our light packing days for granted. Packing for an overnight trip with a 10 month old seemed like packing more things in the car than when Woz moved from Utah to Oregon. Food, clothes, toys, Pack ‘N Play, blankets, diapers, pillows, bottles and, oh yeah, we had to pack some clothes of our own in there, too. It was completely worth it, mind you, it was just a big difference in departure time. Gone are the days of “Hey, you want to have an over night trip in Santa Fe? Let’s go in 5 minutes.” Those days are long, LONG gone.

On the road!

Pickle feet already sleeping.

Our fearless driver.

Gorgeous NM scenery.

Year and a half wedding anniversary.

Are there even batteries in this thing?

We checked into our super spacious room (it was basically an apartment that was fully furnished – PERFECT for traveling with an infant!), and then our stomachs lead the way to the plaza. All aglow!

Festive!

In search of grub.

We settled on the Atomic Grill for eats. Someone got a head start.

Keep the appetizers coming, Mommy!

We loved the artwork on the walls!

Any guesses who the guy in the stripped sweater is? Really, we don't know.

Woz's hunky dinner date.

Xion spent much of the time making googly eyes at the girls behind us.

Mom! You are really cramping my style right now with the ladies!

Oh and it was Mr. Pickles first foray with avocados. Big, big hit.

Tomato and avocado. We are halfway to guacamole!

We had a really gorgeous night of sleep and LOVE that Xion let us sleep until 10 a.m. (Okay, we were up at 6:30 a.m. first, but we all went back to bed so that counts!) The weather in Santa Fe on Sunday morning was GORGEOUS. It was the perfect day to go ornament shopping and that was THE must do for the trip.

To the Christmas Shop we went!

Project Ornament was a success!

Doesn't that hurt his beard, Daddy?

With the weather being so gorgeous, the snowmen weren’t fairing too well.

We're melting!!

Handsome Flint men.

(To the theme of New Girl) Who's that girl? It's Woz!

The other must go spot was our favorite toy store in all of New Mexico — Moon Rabbit Toys.

In search of a present for You-Know-Who.

So much awesome.

Oh gee, he didn’t like the blocks at all. Nope, not one bit!

Oooooo I want them all, Mommy and Daddy! Them all!!

Okay, so we are going to pause and brag for a wee second here, you know, because we are parents and it’s what we do. The people in the toy store LOVED Xion. The owner said that she sees a lot of kids and that our little man took the cake (and we were already buying so she didn’t have to butter us up! LOL). One of the employees couldn’t get enough of Mr. Pickles (who was TOTALLY hamming it up for his audience) and said that Xion was so cute he was going to have to break something. We aren’t completely sure what that meant and are a bit concerned that our son’s cuteness inspired violence, but hey, a compliment is a compliment, right? All right, as you were…

No trip would be complete without it:

Santa Fe feet!

Late to the game, the Flint family finally put up the tree a few days ago. We needed to put up the new fancy ornaments and get the house ready for Grandpa Gato and Uncle Dave (who arrive tomorrow morning!). Xion loved that he got to put his own on the tree. Oh, and yes, he did pick it out on his own at the Christmas Shop.

I can't sleep with him, Daddy? Okay, fine, here he goes!

You guessed it! ELMO!

And we may be guilty of eating a *few* of these this year, so we thought this was totally fitting.

Who are we kidding? This was totally the Year of the Cupcake.

Because of you, it's like our first one all over again, little man.

Time to say goodnight! Someone already has his jammies on. Oh and daddy’s glasses, too!

Future geek. He fits right in.

Our yard at dawn. So snowy and pretty.

We were pretty excited to get a snowfall so Xion could experience the white stuff for himself.

Whoa, what's this daddy?

Sadly, we didn’t have suitable snow clothes for the little guy so there was no rolling around in it to make snow angels. We did, however, bring the snow directly to him. Yeah, we are cool parents, we know.

What exactly do I do with this stuff?

Brrrrr! That's cold!

Rio Rancho had their first ever Winterfest over the weekend, so we decided to check out all the fun. They kicked everything off with ice skating but we passed on that since, well, Xion can’t even walk yet. We made it just in time to see the parade that was underway.

Spongebob comes to New Mexico!

While you can’t see it all that great in this picture, it was really impressive how many luminarias they had set up for the event. Over 10,000 were aflame.

All aglow.

We headed over to the city center to see if we could meet Santa and have some hot apple cider. We saw fireworks in the sky on our walk over. The line was pretty crazy to see Santa, but Xion did get to meet his pal, Elmo, in person. He wasn’t sure what to think.

What's going on here, Mommy? I thought Elmo was at home in my bed!

These are photos from the evening we just like despite them being dark, blurry, or otherwise imperfect. We are pretty sure that’s what makes them so perfect after all.

Xion and Daddy <3

Wintery smile.

The gang's all here!

Winter family photo! Say Queso!

We decided to cap the night with a dinner at one of Woz’s favorite restaurants, Flying Star. Xion decided he had other plans.

Sweet dreams, little man.

The first Flint family holly day season is off to a magical start. Next stop, Santa Fe.

The Flints didn’t do your traditional Black Friday shopping. No sir, we certainly weren’t waiting in the cold at 4 a.m. for a $2 waffle maker and actually didn’t even think we’d be leaving the house that day. Having a little cabin fever, though, from having all been sick, we decided to venture out late that afternoon. We decided it was finally time to visit a new comic shop called Kaboom Test Labs that opened on our side of town. Russ was so giddy you’d have thought it was his birthday (although, Woz DID get a lot of good birthday ideas!).

As luck would have it, the Batmobile was making an appearance!

Da da da da, da da da da BATMAN!

A closer look inside. Check out all the fancy Bat Features!

Do YOU know what Bat-Ram does?

We were lucky because they were just about to roll the Batmobile off the lot. Can’t sit around for too long, there is crime to fight!

Snapped this great one of Xion and his daddy before we waved goodbye to Russ’ dream car.

Daddy, I want to be a superhero when I grow up!

You can be anything you want, son, but you’ll get extra points if you wear a cap and fight crime.

Here’s what a sick Mr. Pickles looks like:

"Cuddling up next to daddy makes me feel better."

We learned pretty fast that wiping his little moco nose was going to be a challenge. We have mastered the “sneak attack” to minimize the crying and protesting. With all the slimey tissues around, lots of baths have been in order.

Just call him Mr. Bubble Beard.

Woz got hit a little harder than the boys and was super grateful that Russ was great about keeping her supplied with plenty of tea, cold medicine, and back rubs. We all started to come around by Thanksgiving morning.

Xion's First Thanksgiving Day Parade!

We headed over to Nana and Grandpa Flint’s house for Thanksgiving dinner. Lots and lots of good food. This energized most of us but it put Russ in a deep food coma.

"Mommy, I need some help over here!"

Easily distracted, X leaves Daddy to play ball with Grandpa.

Thankful.

Xion loves his Nana and Nana loves her Xion.

Everyone feasted.

Thanksgiving feet!

We all started to feel a little better by the end of the weekend, but at the time of writing this none of us are back to 100% just yet. We even made up a parody of the Beach Boys song “Kokomo” and sing “There’s a place called Moco nose…” Yeah, we are easily entertained.

Feeling better and reminding us that we need to child proof our cabinets!

In other non-sicky news, Russ has taken to cooking lots of yummy dishes the past few months. Woz has been encouraging him to take a cooking class, and when there was a Groupon for a class at the Santa Fe School of Cooking, he jumped on it!

Taking photos and lots of notes!

He learned a lot of new techniques while he was there and got to eat the tasty food he made! He’s since recreated most of it for Woz and one of her new favorite things is potatoes with green chile. She’s definitely a New Mexican now. Look out Chef Ramsey, Russ will be heading your way for Hell’s Kitchen 14!

Woz has been tending to one of her passions as well. She is slowly working through an e-course by SARK called Juicy Journaling and is loving how fun it is turning out to be. She also finally threw her hat in the NaNoWriMo ring this year, and while she didn’t come anywhere near where she needed to in order to “win” this year, she got a good chunk of words on the page and considers that a total victory. Write on!

Even with the chaos of being sick, we have a ton to be thankful for and absolutely know this. We are pretty darn happy and are finding happy in all the places we can everyday. Like this…

Xion helping Daddy clean AND workout!

Yeah, you know that made you smile.

Linus waits here for the Great Pumpkin

I ain't no jive turkey, y'all!

The weather was gorgeous and we loved that there were rows and rows of pumpkins and displays for the little man to see.

Look, Mommy and Daddy, I made a friend!

Does this thing go any faster?

Sure, there's plenty of room, Daddy! Come on in!

It was all very official!

Happy.

Mommy and her little love.

The next day was carving day! A Jack-o-Lantern and yummy baked seeds were a waitin’! Russ got right to work.

He's a master with the knives! Ooooo ahhhhhh!

While Russ carved, Xion had his own fun activity going on. Something had to happen with the pumpkin!

Oooooo, this feels nice on my hands!

The kitties were clearly uninterested while Mr. Pickles tended to his artwork.

I see great things taking shape here, Mommy and Daddy!

All done! Ta da!!

Pumpkin was everywhere so this little guy headed straight for the tub. Meanwhile, Woz was busy making some seasoned pumpkin seeds. Just add some oil, a pinch of salt, and spices (we used the Trader Joe’s South African Smoke) for 12 minutes at 350 degrees and you are all set. Yummmmmmmmy!

Warm and crunchy!

We were super excited for Trick or Treat and hoped we’d get more kids come to our door than we had last year. It wasn’t hard to beat since last year we didn’t get even one! We did get some this year (16 in fact!), so we consider that a success!

Xion was all decked out and was ready to greet the ghouls and goblins each time our doorbell rang.

Our little calf went mooooooooo.

Pumpkin slippies for Pickle feet.

We wanted to go all out on the Halloween decorations but, wow, are they ever expensive! So, Woz found some super inexpensive ones at the dollar store. They did just fine.

The Walking Dead could be filmed here. Zombieeeeees!

Those who didn't escape the zombies.

And of course, our Jack-o-Lantern that we fondly named Edgar. He actually stayed lit all through the night and well into the next day!

Edgar the Happy.

Cards from Aunt Deedle and Uncle Dave for Xion’s first Halloween.

Boo!

Waiting for the trick or treaters!

Daddy and his little love.

Does this outfit make my cheeks look big, Mommy?

So ended yet another wonderful Woztober. Oh, Woz did have a great 35th birthday, too! So many cards, Facebook happy birthday wishes, and some wonderful gifites. She is looking forward to her hot and cold massage (and facial!) that Russ got for her. Those are scheduled for later this month. Long live, Woztober! Here is one of the gorgeous presents of the year from Dave and Papo. A one of a kind wooden treasure box made by Elise of Dark Fairie Creations.

Once upon a time...

And they lived happily ever after, too.

Xion is pretty much the bravest baby in the whole world and was happy and smiling as he was prepped for surgery. This made everyone in pediatrics smile as well. His happiness is contagious!

Giddy up, Daddy!

I got the giggles! hee hee hee

I'm getting tired, Mommy.

Just kidding, I'm totally wired!

Shortly after this, they took our little boy back to surgery. This is the first time since leaving the hospital when he was born that he wasn’t with us or family. Both of us wanted to cry as our little boy headed back without us, but we secretly wanted to be strong for the other one. It was a really long two hours after that until everything was done. We couldn’t wait to see him. Everything went just as it should and for that we are extremely grateful.

Resting and recovering. *love*

Can we get lunch at Flying Star after this, Mommy and Daddy?

It really didn’t take long for Mr. Pickles to be back to his happy, smiley self. The nurse taking care of him fell in love and carried him just outside the recovery room to brag to the other nurses that she got the “cute, happy baby” that morning. Yes, that’s our boy!

Driver, get me home! I need to nap in my own comfy bed!

So we headed home and before we knew it, Xion was full speed ahead again. You’d seriously never even know he had surgery because he was crawling all over the place like normal. It was NOT easy getting our guy to try and relax. He just doesn’t know the meaning of the word. Let’s hope it’s a long, long, LONG time before he has to ever do anything like this again.

Xion got all dolled up to meet Denise. We love this shirt because it also looks like it could read “Big Flint”

Would it be okay to ask for her digits on the first date, daddy?

The whole gang! Woz, Xion, Russ, Russell, and Denise.

Caught up and stuffed.

Denise took this one of the boys. Love it.

Is your heart melting?

The evening went way too fast! It was so fun to hear about Denise and her cousin, Russell’s, adventures in New Mexico. She’s even been places now that we haven’t been so we have some weekend road trippin’ ahead of us thanks to their recommendations.

This photo is just silly but we love it. Xion was having fun getting into his jammies that night.

I'm starting a new trend! -- Xion the fashionista

This is a variation of Woz’s foot shots.

Mr. Pickles socks taking a breather.

The next day we went to the annual Rio Grande Arts and Crafts Festival. We weren’t going to miss it for the third year in a row! While they didn’t have the roasted corn that Woz was hoping to feast on (sad Woz), they did have a ton of really cool art for sale!

Welcome!

Under the big top.

Lunch break!

We got stopped several times for people to tell us they wanted to see our little guy. One lady told us that he was the cutest thing in the whole place. We have to say we agree!

Too cute.

It was definitely NOT easy choosing just one piece to take home. After much debate, we decided on one called “Love Grows Here” by Mary Beier. We loved her whole collection of work and, like many artists, was a little shy in wanting her picture taken. She was gracious enough to smile for the sake of blogging in the end. Thank you, Mary!

This piece now hangs on the wall of Casa de Flint. We love.

Yep, love grows here.

It’s par for the course that several balloon events will be cancelled due to the weather and this year was no different with it raining for a few days. Luckily, the morning Woz’s team went as a team builder, the weather was gorgeous.

Getting ready to rise and shine.

And they're off!

Woz with her pal, Mary.

Clear skies!

A bowl of Lucky Charms, indeed.

Woz with colleagues, Mary and Daniel

A family of cute little bees!

Visiting from a galaxy far, far away.

To the moon!

The morning was gorgeous but work was a callin’ and we all had to get back to the phones. Not a bad way to spend a Monday morning though.

Need a drummer for your band, Grandpa? I'm in!

Are you recording, Mommy? I'm gonna need a demo!

Taking Xion out to dinner isn’t quite as simple as it used to be. We used to be able to pack some diapers, a bottle, and a blanket and we were good to go. Most of the time, he never even woke up from the deep sleep he was in when we left the house. Fast forward to 7 month old Mr. Pickles and it’s a little more complicated. We leave the house with a bursting at the seams diaper bag fulls of food, toys, diapers, things to chew, books, and a high chair cover. Sleep? What’s that?

I hope the main course is tastier than this!

Tomato?! Omigosh! I love tomatoes!

Ooooohhh, so tasty!

Our guy is already a pretty social one. He befriended another Flying Star patron that night named Virginia. She was a curious little gal who wore a big hat and loved coming over  to “pet” Xion’s soft skin. They seemed to have quite a conversation going, but she wouldn’t talk to us at all.

I totally love your hat. Did you get it at that new baby couture place? Fancy.

Caked with tomato juice and teething biscuit bits, it’s bath time!

I'm singing in the tub. Singing in the tuuuuuub!

After that, it was into cozy jammies and off to bed.

In non-baby related news (we know, what’s that?!), we got a new car. Woz’s little VW Beetle, Gretchen, just wasn’t the most family friendly vehicle (two doors and not enough room for a stroller in the trunk), so we traded her in and upgraded to the Kia Soul. The color is called Alien and we’ve named him Oscar. He’s a happy little vehicle with great gas mileage and a booming sound system that we LOVE. How did we live without satellite radio for so long? Woz is already enjoying Woztober being in full swing. She is writing everyday and has what she thinks is “delayed nesting” at our house. Russ has been busy in the kitchen trying out new, yummy recipes and is looking into cooking classes. (We’ve been watching a lot of Hell’s Kitchen!) Life is GOOD.