Happy Birthday to Brennan!

Saturday, December 27th, marked one year of life for Brennan! We celebrated his first birthday in conjunction with the Ganun family Christmas (my mom's side of the family). There were 38 people there for the Christmas celebration, which also meant that there were 38 people at Brennan's first birthday party! He did amazingly well with the cake, eating the entire piece that we gave him!

He sure had fun with the cake!

The aftermath.

The Ganun family Christmas was a huge affair this year, as evidenced by the enormous table pictured below. Yes, all of us managed to sit around the table for one huge family meal. It had been a long time since I had participated in one of these shindigs, so it was pretty special to get to celebrate the Christmas season with my grandparents, parents, brother, aunts, uncles, cousins, and all the little ones that have been added to the family over the past few years. It was wild, crazy, chaotic, and overall wonderful. It was pretty special for us to have Brennan around so many of his relatives--all of whom doted on him and loved on him the entire day. Definitely a great experience!

Table for 38, please!

Snow!

The thing that I have missed most about winter is the lack of snow. This year, that wasn't a problem! My brother had a ton of snow out at his place and we spent Christmas afternoon sledding. Even though Christmas day was about 18 degrees, we all bundled up and had some great family time and got plenty of exercise as we had to climb back up the hill multiple times!

Brennan's inaugural sled ride with Daddy (and getting a little help from Grace and Uncle Nathan)

My dad and me (right before I flipped out of the sled)

He wasn't too sure what to think of all this white stuff.

First Christmas

This has been a year of firsts for Brennan. One of the more recent ones is that we got to celebrate his first Christmas! We ventured up to Minnesota for a white Christmas--and I was in heaven with the cold, the snow, the joy of Christmas feeling like I used to know it. We celebrated Christmas day with my parents, brother, and niece at my brother's house. Gifts in the morning, sledding in the afternoon, the traditional Prechel lasagna for lunch. John even got to try lefse for the first time (and he liked it too!). This was also the first Christmas my immediate family had been together in six years. All in all, Christmas this year goes down as the best one for me in a long time.

The baseball was a big hit.

One of his favorite parts was the wrapping paper.

My dad read the Christmas story to Brennan and Grace.

Tiny Steps

Tonight was a big night for Brennan! I was putting some clothes away in his dresser and he was "helping" Mama. I needed to close the drawer so I took his hands away from the edge of the drawer where he had been holding on. He stood pretty wobbly on his own, and then...he took a couple small steps toward me! He repeated this new trick a couple of times and I was thrilled each time! He was pretty excited, too. Hopefully, he'll repeat it again tomorrow for Daddy to see (Daddy was at work and missed out on all the fun).

Now, walking is something I think we all take for granted. It's just something that we do. But there's something pretty special when you see your child walk on his own for the first time. My heart soared and I rejoiced with Brennan at this new thing he can do. It's another sign that he's about to enter toddlerhood and leave babyhood behind.

We take off tomorrow for Minnesota where we'll celebrate Christmas and Brennan's first birthday. Check back next week for pictures!

Student of the Word

Our little man takes time out each day to read his Bible.

Our little man is cute. (We think so anyway).

On Our Nightstand, Part 3

Here's another installment of books that we are currently reading (or have recently read):

1. The Shack by William P. Young
2. The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger
3. Praying the Names of God by Ann Spangler
4. God on Mute by Pete Greig
5. Divine by Karen Kingsbury
6. Everything Must Change: Jesus, Global Crises, and a Revolution of Hope by Brian McLaren

Help us rename the blog!

A blog that is mostly about Brennan and mostly updated by Naomi really shouldn't be called "The Dawghouse", since I'm the JDawg and I rarely show up here anymore. So we need a new name -- something that incorporates the whole family. Please help stir the creative juices by posting suggestions on the comments section for this post! Just a few pointers to guide your creativity:

1. Keep it clean! Yeah, I'm talking to you, grandparents. (Just kidding!)
2. I highly recommend avoiding plays on the last name. It's been tried before, and no one has succeeded yet.

Best of luck to you!

Early Christmas

My parents sent Brennan his first Christmas gift this year. It arrived last night, and John and I put it together and set it under the tree. When Brennan got up this morning, we went out to the tree to show him his gift--a music table! He loves music and dancing, so this gift is a big hit with him! He's already had a blast exploring it, trying out the different fun things, and making noise with it. Thanks, Grandma and Grandpa Prechel!

Exciting Evening

Yesterday was a day full of fun, exciting things for the Downer family! Brennan got to visit Santa at the mall (see previous post). He did fantastic--no crying, just doing his "I'm in a new situation and will therefore be as stoic as absolutely possible."

Last night was also my work Christmas party, held at the Jefferson Hotel here in Richmond. VERY dressy, fantastic food, dancing--definitely a good time. It was fun to get dressed up for an evening out (sans Brennan).


Even though a night at the Jefferson was exciting enough, the highlight of the entire day came when I looked out the window shortly before we left and saw SNOW! We've experienced some minimal snow flurries in recent weeks, but nothing like this! Now, those of you who get snow regularly every winter (my upper Midwest buddies) probably won't understand what a thrill this was to see. Being Minnesotan, expecting snow in the winter is part of the genetic makeup (the snow was fine, but the extreme cold was a bit much), so living in the land of constant summer for nearly five years was a challenge and I missed the seasons and getting snow terribly. Being back in a place where we get to experience those things makes my day.

Santa Baby

Appreciation

Last night, John and I went to Andrew Peterson's "Behold the Lamb of God" concert. Shameless plug: we CANNOT recommend this concert highly enough! This was our second time seeing it, and it's by far the best concert we've ever been to. If it comes to your area, make every attempt to go!

The first half of the concert is his friends on this tour with him taking turns playing a couple of their own songs (this time, it was people like Bebo Norman, Andy Osenga, Jill Phillips, and Andy Gullahorn). The second half of the concert is the "Behold the Lamb of God" piece, with songs taking you through the Old Testament and ending with the birth of Christ. Amazing stuff, especially since so much of the focus in churches zeroes in on the prophecy in Isaiah and then the actual birth is Matthew and Luke. What this fails to take into account is that Jesus is found throughout the entire Bible, not just a few prophecies in the Old Testament and then making his grand entrance in the New Testament. That's why I appreciate this concert so much--it's a very basic Old Testament survey, weaving together the Story of God from the beginning and culminating in the New Testament birth of Christ.

There is one song that is done in this concert, "Labor of Love," that has really come to mean a lot to me. The entire Christmas season has always been my favorite time of year, but this year it really is special to me. Maybe it's because we'll be spending Christmas with my entire family (immediate and extended) for the first time in our married life, maybe it's because it's actually cold outside and we get to wear sweaters and stuff, but mostly it's because our son was born two days after Christmas. Going through the events immediately prior to Jesus' birth makes me truly appreciate my own birth experience. For instance, I am truly grateful I didn't need to ride a donkey to the hospital. I'm thankful that I was able to give birth in a hospital with the assistance of a doctor and nurses instead of in a stable with only the animals and my husband in attendance. I'm so incredibly thankful for the epidural to allow for a pain-free experience (can't even begin to imagine what it would have been like without it!). But then there is the shared experience with Mary of holding the first-born son for the first time. It's amazing to me to think that when she held Jesus, she was holding God Almighty. Holding Brennan for the first time was the most amazing experience of my life, but he's not God. I wonder what that would have been like to be holding the child you've just delivered and know that you were holding the Creator of the universe. What an amazing thought.

This year, among so many other things, I'll be rejoicing in the two best Christmas gifts we could have ever been given: the gift of Jesus Christ and the gift of Brennan Downer (even though he came two days after Christmas, he still counts as a Christmas present!).

Christmas Tree Time!

John set up our tree while I was at work this morning, and we took some time to decorate it before he left for work this afternoon. Brennan was more interested in pulling books off the bookshelf than the tree itself! Next up, all that yummy Christmas baking!