A Christmas Story

Hello all, and MERRY CHRISTMAS! Welcome to the 1st annual O’Brien Christmas card. Hopefully by now you all have noticed that we are supporting our role as members of the internet generation and have decided to do an e-card. Saves paper, and this way you get to enjoy more pictures than a regular card can possibly fit. Fun, huh? Just try to be nice and cut me a bit of slack on this, as it is my first whack at writing a family Christmas card that says anything more than; Merry Christmas! Love, Kevin and April. To tell you the truth, April usually did all of those ones too.

It feels really odd wishing everyone Merry Christmas again. I cannot believe that a year has already gone by. Probably because it has been so busy. It’s hard to believe people when they tell you how much a baby changes your life, but looking back on it…they are right. And I’m sure you ALL want to hear all about it in lengthy detail, RIGHT??? That’s the spirit! I’ll pay a little homage to the classics and take you through it “Ebeneezer Scrooge” style…..(cue dream sequence effects)

Christmas Past:
Last year at this time we welcomed Aiden Quinn to our family. Poor kid can’t get too much closer to a Christmas birthday without being named Jesus. April (and I) had a pretty uneventful pregnancy, kept our cravings and ice cream consumption to a minimum, and spent our time sorting through all of the fun gifts that all of you people were kind enough to give us. Aiden, however decided to show up a week late to the party. He was born on Dec 23, weighing in at a hefty 5 pounds 4 oz. He wasn’t in the greatest of health at first, and gave both his parents, and grandparents, and probably everyone else that knows us enough stress for one lifetime all crammed into a couple of days. Just so happens that those couple of days were Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. Can’t say I will forget those anytime soon. He spent some time in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit getting better and figuring out how the whole eating and breathing thing works, and by a week after New Years he came home with us. He was pretty fragile, but he soldiered on and kept us quite busy from the get go. One comment on my part though…the phrase “sleeping like a baby” is significantly not accurate. I’m not exactly sure how April and I made it through those first couple of months…but I’m sure that grandparents and caffeine probably deserve a big thank you. But we made it, as a family, and that brings me to……

Christmas Present:
A BRAND NEW CAR WITH A BOW ON IT!!! Get it, present? Sorry, this is my first time, remember? So here we are, Christmas 2007. Aiden is just about a year old, babbling constantly, and running (yes I said RUNNING) everywhere. He did eventually start sleeping through the night, so April and I are both back among the land of the living. One thing is sure though, mobile babies will find every possible, tiny, miniscule detail that you have missed….and then promptly try to choke themselves with it. That probably is something those baby prep books should tell you about. Luckily, our trial by fire baby-proofing worked well, and Aiden only has suffered minor bumps and bruises in his quest to beat the world record for the 50 yard dash. Too bad walls and coffee tables keep getting in the way. He is, in my unbiased opinion, one of the sweetest, happiest babies that you ever will meet. He is quick to smile and laugh, and like his father, tends to only get really upset if he is tired, hungry, or isn’t allowed to play with the remote control. He got to meet Santa for the first time tonight, who also happened to be our realtor. Bet you can’t say you bought a house from Santa.

April is also doing good. She went back to work at the Comfort Inn 6 weeks after Aiden was born. She just recently took a promotion to be the assistant general manager. They keep her busy, but the job has nice perks…like really cheap travel to other Comfort Inns. We took a trip to the Twin Cities and Duluth this summer and had a really good time. She has also been keeping up with doing photography. We shot a couple of weddings this summer, and this fall she took some landscape and city shots of East Grand Forks and downtown Grand Forks, which are now proudly hanging in my clinic in East Grand Forks. Oh, and she may have taken just a couple pictures of Aiden over the course of the year….what a good mommy.

That brings me to ….me. I also have been really busy this year. I am still working as a Physical Therapist for Altru, and am really enjoying it. I started out the year working in our clinics in Larimore and Hatton, but was given the opportunity in June to come back to our largest branch in East Grand Forks. We made huge progress there, and outgrew our old location within a few months. Last month we opened a 4000 square foot clinic on the second floor of the boardwalk in downtown E. Grand Forks. I was chosen to be the lead therapist to coordinate this new clinic and have had a lot of fun doing so. It is a gorgeous place, with a view of the river, and lots of April’s artwork gracing our walls. I am happy that I don’t have to drive so much all over the state, and this way I get to drop Aiden off at daycare in the morning on my way to work.

Oh, by the way. The cat says hello.

Christmas Future
What were you expecting??? A creepy “grim reaper” guy pointing at a tombstone? Don’t think so. I like my endings a little more “Christmas Story” than “Christmas Carol”. The real Christmas future is Christmas 2008, and you all are just going to have to wait to find out what happens. Drop us a comment below and let us know how you are doing. Just be careful with those presents, you’ll shoot your eye out, Kid.

God bless us, Everyone.
Love:Kevin, April, Aiden, and Kitten (Aka: Zion, Fuzzybutt)

2 days old




We finally got to hold him when he was 5 days old!



Grandma helped out A LOT the first week.