Christmas 2008

We had a wonderful Christmas this year. Josiah was way more into opening presents and Mom and Dad were here to share the day with us.

Here are some pics from the week of Christmas...


Josiah's decorating his sugar cookie with sprinkles.


"Can I eat it now Mom?"

Mom's doing the work and I'm sneaking a cookie.

We let Josiah have one of his presents on Christmas Eve to play with. Nani and Pawpaw bought him an easel with a chalk board on one side and a white board on the other. There was chalk everywhere!


Right before bed on Christmas Eve, we read the Christmas story.


This is Josiah coming down the stairs on Christmas morning.


He got a rocking motorcycle from Aaron and me. I don't know how many miles he's already ridden on that thing...

He's loving his new Tigger.





We had to stop in the middle of opening presents so Papa could read one of the new books Josiah got from Aunt Elaine and Uncle Richard.

Pawpaw and Nani


Family Christmas picture

Josiah playing with his basketball set and tub crayons from Uncle Greg.

Josiah and Nani sharing a chocolate milkshake from Dairy Queen.

Big News!!

Straight from the Goccia household - we have some BIG news!! Are you ready......?

MEL'S PARENTS ARE HERE!!! :) They arrived this week and they'll be spending the next 6 weeks with us...if they can stand us that long. They're slowly getting over the jet lag (23 hours of traveling) and we'll have pictures up really soon.

Oh yeah, and Josiah's going to be a big brother in July... :)

Merry Christmas!!

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Videos

We can't afford to give Starbucks all our money (yes, we have Starbucks here in Thailand) Anyway, I LOVE the Pumpkin Spice Lattes that they serve this time of the year. So I looked online and found a recipe that was delicious!

Ingredients:
2 cups milk
1 cup strong coffee (I used 3 T of grounds to make 1 cup)
2 T canned pumpkin
2 t vanilla
Sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg and cloves to taste.
Mix all ingredients in pot, cook over low heat til steaming.

I also have a new favorite blog that I'm following. This woman is my hero...she made a New Years resolution to use her crock pot every day for the year 2008. And so far, she's done it! Here's the blog address

And here are the videos that wouldn't upload yesterday. The first one is on it's side and no matter what I do it cannot be fixed - I'm sorry! I normally wouldn't even upload it but it's a really good one of Josiah singing and dancing to the hum of the washing machine.

The second video is of our little elephant tamer feeding the elephant at the zoo.

The Last Few Weeks

Josiah's been keeping me busy the last few weeks. That's going to be my excuse for not posting some of these pictures sooner...

About two weeks ago Josiah pooped in the potty! What a big boy! He was so happy to find that not only were Mom and Dad thrilled, but he got a goodie!


You can see he's very proud of himself!


Josiah loves the washing machine. The one we had in India was a top loader so he didn't get to see what was going on inside. He loves to stand outside and watch as the clothes go round and round.

Josiah helps me water our plants everyday. He really likes to play in the muddy water afterward!




Friday we went to the Chiang Mai Zoo and Aquarium. We mainly went for the aquarium part. Josiah was fascinated by all the fish.

At this aquarium they have the largest underwater tunnel in the world. It was a lot of fun to see Josiah try to figure out how the fish were swimming above his head.


Here's a family picture inside the aquarium.



People who own elephants here have a hard time feeding them, since they eat so much. We've been to a few tourist places here where people bring their elephants and charge money for a basket of food that you can then feed it. We thought Josiah might enjoy feeding this elephant in the zoo....actually I thought he's be scared...but he showed me! That boy fed the elephant 3 baskets of food and then proceeded to stick his whole hand up the elephants trunk...it was slimy and disgusting. So now we call him our little elephant tamer!


I tried to post some videos but it would only upload one. I'll try the other two again later. This one is of Josiah saying "Jesus"...it's too cute!

Road Trip, Motorcycles and Sand

I thought I would post some pictures of our last few weeks in India.

We took two road trips out West. As always, Josiah was a trooper during those long hours in the car.




This sign on the highway cracks me up! Does this mean that they'll help you, but they don't mean to?


We figured that it would be fun to get some pictures of Josiah playing in the desert of Rajasthan. We'd never really let him play in the sand before so we drove out to some dunes and let him go.

Uncle Johnny and Aunt Heather went with us.


At first Josiah wasn't sure what to do with the sand.


Then he thought it would be a good idea to taste it, but as you can see from the picture he didn't like it.


Finally he figured out that it felt good just to run his hand through the sand.


Before Aaron got rid of his "precious", he wanted a picture of him and Josiah on it. Josiah was thrilled and now every time he sees a motorcycle he wants to get on it. Great! Now it's in his blood...


One day while we were busy packing, I left my cup of milk on the table, not dreaming that Josiah would be able to reach it. Well, he did and tried to drink it like his sippy cup but instead it poured out all over him. He even had milk on his eyelashes! We laughed so hard. Josiah brings so much joy to our house!


Crazy kid! He started crying immediately because he thought he was in trouble, but when Aaron and I started laughing he hammed it up for the camera.

Josiah's cool new stuff

Josiah has a new nickname that Aaron and I have given him..."Jim". You may wonder why we would call him that, but look at the two pictures below and compare the hairdo of "Jim Halpert" from "The Office" with Josiah's. It's a match - Josiah has the same hair as Jim. And yes, maybe sometime in the near future I will allow a pair of scissors to come in contact with Josiah's hair...just maybe.

Now that we have a small yard and a place for Josiah to play, he got a new bike from Grandpa and Grammy for his birthday. He hasn't figured out how to work the pedals yet, but thinks it's just as much fun to push the bike as it is to ride it.

We also have a really great park nearby in our neighborhood. Josiah has already learned the word "park" and starts heading outside for his shoes anytime he hears us say it.






This little swinging bike thingy is Josiah's favorite piece of playground equipment. It's the first thing he runs for as soon as we arrive.




Just a cute picture of a cute boy.


Josiah's new love is to fingerpaint and color. He was actually crying in this photo because I had taken the finger paint away while I went to get the camera. Needless to say there is lots of great artwork hanging up at Papa's desk at work!

Trying....

I'm really trying to get some pictures up, but blogger is not cooperating with me! Hang in there...hopefully I'll get it working soon. Sorry!

Goccia Look-alike Meter

MyHeritage: Look-alike Meter - Printable family tree - Geneology

So it's been a while since we've last posted but we do have a good reason. We moved to Thailand four weeks ago and stayed in an apartment until our house was ready to move into. We finally moved into the house two days ago and now I'm able to upload pictures. So, here you go...a blog update!

I don't have much time to wait for the pics to upload right now, so I thought I would do another look-alike-meter, since it's been about a year. Here is the old one. I was so sure that it would say that Josiah looks like me (the one from a year ago said he favored my by 15%), but it says he looks like us equally. I'm still not so sure, so I want to know - what do you think? Who does Josiah look like now that he's a year older?

We'll get pictures of the house and Josiah up soon. Thanks for reading!

New York

Forgive me for not writing much, but we're in the middle of packing so it's kind of crazy around here right now.

Here are some pictures of our time in NY with Aaron's parents.


One day we went to the apple orchards. We were not able to pick apples but Josiah just enjoyed seeing so much greenery!




Josiah and Grandpa had a good time playing with the grass.




Josiah rode his first carousel at a park in Saratoga.


Josiah had fun watching the ducks at the pond.


We met Aaron's Aunt and Uncle in Saratoga for lunch and some window shopping. This is Great Uncle Marty, Great Aunt Janet and Josiah.

We went to a local fair and had such a good time! We see lots of cows in India but none this big! The owner said that this kind of cow normally weighs about 3,000 pounds!





Mark was a trooper! Even though he was not feeling well, he still rode a few fair rides with me. I'm not real sure what he's doing here, but I think he had fun.


Josiah and Grammy waiting while we were riding.



Josiah got to meet his Great Grandpa.


Josiah and Grandpa


Four generations of Goccia boys.


Josiah played the wash tub bass while Grandpa played the guitar.


Josiah and his Dixie dog! I can't believe it, but she loved our little man. Every morning she was so excited to see him and give him a big kiss. She's a good big sister.


Josiah had a second birthday party. Grammy bought him an ice cream cake.

He's signing "more" - meaning he wants more ice cream cake!