Happy Birthday, er, Merry Christmas!

In anticipation of the birth of our second boy we bought a Baby's First Christmas ornament that has Winnie the Pooh telling Piglet, "How delightful to be so brand new." We thought it was cute then, but we especially liked it after little Gibson Brock was born on December 23 at 8:16 PM. He was 8 pounds and 3 ounces and 20 inches tall.

Gibby, as we like to call him, seems to be a pretty peaceful baby (judging by the statistically insignificant amount of time we have been able to have him here.) He is already accomplished at both sleeping and eating - things his older brother McKay kind of struggled with.

Gibby was also a lot of fun to have around at Christmas. He certainly added a great deal of perspective to our holiday. The hospital was actually a lot of fun to be at, even though you perhaps wouldn't think so. Our nurse Diane came in on Christmas Eve with her 12 string guitar and sang "Silent Night" - a song that is special to listen to while watching your beautiful wife and sleeping newborn. Another nurse brought in a knitted Santa Hat for Gibson to wear instead of the traditional baby beanie.

Even Santa Claus got into the act. He stopped by everyone's room and gave the newborns a bear for Christmas. Even though Gibby is asleep here, he was pretty excited.

It was just a wonderful Christmas. We were able to bring Gibson home on Christmas Eve, about 24 hours after he was born, because he and Teri were both doing so well. This was great because it meant that Teri and I could be home with McKay for Christmas.

McKay has been one of the big surprises of the whole season. He used to be very possessive of Teri, even going so far as to try and push other babies off of Teri's lap when she would hold them just to make sure that she was still "His Mommy." But McKay has been so kind to Gibson. It's actually kind of funny because whenever McKay would first go up to Gibson we would tell him to give Gibby a hug. As soon as he started to hug his brother everyone would go "Awhhhhh. That's so cute." McKay, ever the learning type, then decided that whenever he wanted to see Gibby all he had to say was, "Awhhhhh" and hugging time would commence. It's been good for McKay too because as long as he can see the baby every once in a while and give him a hug, he really doesn't care too much about the baby - meaning he doesn't get jealous.

So this Christmas we're now a family of four. We're sure that it will still take a little while to settle in to our new roles and new responsibilities. (It's funny that last week McKay was a toddler and now we expect him to be a big brother.) But we are confident that everything will work out all right.

We are very grateful for the many miracles we have seen and been a part of this season and we hope that you and yours will be able to experience the joy of this wonderful season as well.