Christmas in Ohio part 1 - visiting Eaton

We spent over a week in Ohio for the holiday season, and it was a lot of fun!  We were there so long, that we can't really fit everything into one post, so we'll start with our first stop, staying at Katie's parents' house in Eaton.

Before heading to Ohio, we went to Charlie's KPMG holiday party on Friday the 21st.  It was held in Union Station, the biggest train station in downtown Chicago, and was very nicely done.  Katie's friend  Dorianne was nice enough to babysit Brady for us Friday night so we could go, and Katie got to meet some of Charlie's co-workers.

The next day we got packed and drove down to Eaton.  We got in pretty late, and Brady was already asleep, so we went to bed and woke up excited to watch the big Bengals game!  Brady was happy to see the Bengals beat the Steelers and qualify for the playoffs.  Since he was born, both Cincinnati professional teams have qualified for the playoffs, so Brady is good luck, and he probably thinks it's always like this!

(Griffey looks interested, too!)

On Sunday we also opened up presents - these were Brady's first Christmas presents!  He loved looking at the boxes, and he enjoyed the wrapping paper so much that he decided to see how it tasted :)

His favorite gift came from Santa - it's a Mickey Mouse doll that sings!  He seems enthralled by Mickey's song (which is titled "Hot Diggety Dog"), and likes to cuddle with Mickey.  And sometimes see how he tastes, too - basically, he is curious how just about everything tastes!

The Carico's old neighbor, Michael, stopped by to say hello.  Katie used to babysit him when he was quite a bit younger.  Now, Michael is a teacher and a wrestling coach at a nearby school, and just got engaged.  He hadn't met Brayden yet, so it was good the timing worked out.

We stayed in Eaton through the afternoon of Christmas Eve, then it was on to Cincinnati for Christmas Eve service and visits to the Mowry house.