Happy Birthday, Isaac !

We celebrated Isaac's first birthday in the U.S. on a cold Dec. 21. (His birthday is actually on Christmas Eve.) We wanted to help him understand the difference in his birthday and Jesus' - he has a big enough head as it is. We had a small party for him at Marty's parents house. We invited our friends - David, Wendy, Cole, and Katie Lee, and Raygan.

Marty's dad hooked a trailer to his tractor and covered it with sleeping bags and blankets. He also built a bonfire. Papaw drove us around for a while - just until the frostbite began to set in. We sang lots of songs and did a lot of laughing. After we returned to their house, we roasted hot dogs over the fire. Then, we promptly went inside to eat them along with all the fixin's. (For our friends who "aint' from around here", that means chili, slaw, and onions - along with barbeque beans and potato salad.) We had a birthday cake that was made from cupcakes and made to look like a tractor in a field. Isaac loves tractors! We braved the cold again and went back out to roast marhsmallows and make s'mores. You know, you can't let a good bonfire go to waste.

Next, we opened presents. He loved his Hummer set from Papaw and Nana, the Hungry Hippos game from the Lee family, the tractor from the Thompsons, and the basketball and goal from us. But, the gift that got away with him the most was the bag of Sweet Sixteen powdered sugar doughnuts from the Griffins. See the picture above where he is hugging them. When he pulled them out of the gift bag, he screamed and kept jumping off the floor with both feet. He was also yelling something in Vietnamese. It was priceless. I have to brag in him and say that he did share them with the three of us for breakfast the next two mornings.

He loves for us to sing "Happy Birthday" to him. He sings along and then pretends to blow out candles. We have sung it for days.

We have now celebrated his birthday again with Grandma, Pop, and Aunt Rachel. He received a Playmobil fire truck set. He and Anna Claire played with it until bedtime and couldn't wait ot get up and play with it some more. He also received a stuffed dog from Germany, a truck, and some dinosaurs from Aunt Rachel.

In a few days, I'll do a post on Christmas. We are getting together with Marty's side of our family on New Year's Eve to celebrate. We hope you all had a wonderful holiday and we're glad you checked back in on our blog. God bless.