After Christmas

Grandma and Grandpa stayed with us from Saturday until Monday after Christmas. The girls always enjoy the time and attention. We went to church on Sunday, we'd missed the week before b/c of the blizzard and it was good to be back.


Pop Pop came for a visit on Sunday. The girls were excited to see him. Kellie didn't sit still long enough for a picture, but Meg did. They enjoyed showing him their new toys and he seemed to enjoy playing with the girls with their toys.



We spent some time recovering from all the festivities and trying out our new stuff!
I got a Shark steam floor cleaner, which I'd been wanting, but wouldn't spent the $ for. That came in handy as I could clean the floor quickly and it would be dry pretty much right away! I needed it with the muddiness that the melting snow and Christmas day rain brought with it!

Christmas with Kev's family

The blizzard the weekend before Christmas had cancelled our Christmas get together with Kev's family. Fortunately everyone was able to juggle schedules and we got to together the day after Christmas. It was good to see Grandma, Grandpa, Helen, Jennifer, Bianca and Sophia.

We enjoyed eating and catching up with each other. We are blessed that Megan and Kellie have cousins close to their age on both sides of the family. They really enjoyed playing with Bianca and Sophia. Megan and Kellie enjoyed opening more gifts and sharing the ones they had gotten the day before.

Each family got a "paper doll" quilt from Grandma and Grandpa- the dolls are on the quilt and the clothes sorta stick on- very cute! They enjoyed playing with that and I'm sure it will be enjoyed for years to come. Jane certainly put her quilting skills to use this year- she made Kevin and I a beautiful purple and cream quilt for our bed. Many other wonderful gifts were given and received, as well. But the best gift was time spent together.

Christmas Day

At 6:30 am the alarm sounded, we made coffee and woke the kids. Notice what came first- coffee!

The sleepy stumble of children to the Christmas tree is always so cute! Apparently the shimmer of the glitter and smell of the oats in the reindeer food the girls had spread on the lawn helped guide Rudolph and the rest to our house. Santa had left many gifts and had eaten his cookies and drank his milk. (well, his helper needed them after a bit too much Sangria at the Open House!)

We all loved the gifts from Santa and from each other (see shutterfly for more pictures of Christmas morning, I plan to update it later today!)

We got ourselves presentable and headed to Granny's! We ate a yummy breakfast and opened more gifts. The kids had a ball together, as always. It is such a blessing to have my sisters and their children around! And my mom, Granny, and brother in laws too! We are blessed!

Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve we went to Angie & Michael's for an Open House. I finally got to meet Lisa, my cousin Scott's fiance. She's a sweet and pretty in person as she is on Facebook! It's always good to get together with family and friends.

We stayed later than we had planned (that always happens!).


We had our camera, but never took any pictures! Sorry!


After getting the kids in bed, Kevin and I did some last minute wrapping and constructing. At 3am we fell into bed, the alarm set for 6:30 am so we'd be on time for breakfast at Granny's at 8:30.

December snows

We had 2 measureable snows in December. One was in early December (5th I think!) it was a nice pretty snow that came on a Saturday afternoon and didn't really create any issues.

The second came on a Friday night into Sunday morning Dec 18-20. It was a blizzard with about 16-18 inches of snow. When it started Friday night it took me over 2 hrs to drive 35 minutes home from work at midnight- so much traffic and bad roads. I've never seen so many cars on the beltway at midnight!

Because of this snow we missed seeing the Radio City Music Spectacular in DC and had to reschedule our Christmas get together with Kevin's family. But it was nice to suddenly have a "nothing to do and no where to go" weekend.

Megan and Kellie enjoy the snow very much. They like to make snowmen and sled and run around. I am not a fan of snow, but had to admit it was pretty.
Here are some pictures-

Christmas preparations

Over the last few years we've made Gingerbread houses at Granny's. We had a great time decorating and eating and laughing. The kids really are creative (and we adults try very hard to not help too much!).

With the rising cost of real Christmas trees and the infestations of critters that has occurred from real trees (one year mom and dad had baby praying mantis all over their house, we've had spiders a few years in a row) and the needles and watering, we decided to purchase an artificial tree. Those of you who know Kevin and his tree perfectionist, I was surprised at how quickly he chose one (and it was on clearance the day after Thanksgiving!). I miss the fresh evergreen scent, but LOVE having the tree up so early and not sweeping up needles 5 times a day!

Thanksgiving- Blog catch up

WOW! I haven't updated in a long time! Sorry, I know you've all been anxiously awaiting my next post! HaHa, So I am going to try to update you on the happenings over the last 6 weeks or so!

Ok, let's start with Thanksgiving.

We had a nice dinner with my family at Angie & Michael's house. I had to work from 3-11pm so they kindly had dinner at lunchtime!
It was quiet at work so they let me stay home until 7 pm, so I got some bonus time with my family.

When I got off work at 11:30pm, I picked Mom up and we went Midnight Madness shopping at Arundel Mills Mall. I almost gave up when we pulled into the parking lot, but little drive around to the other side of the lot and away from Best Buy and there was plenty of parking!

The Gymboree outlet was having a great sale and I got some amazing bargains on clothes for Meg and Kel (although I stood in line for about an hour- I didn't check the time on purpose, so I don't know exactly- it was worth it and I got to talk to some nice people and spend time with my mom.). Mom and I bought some Christmas gifts, too (Webkins at buy one get one free- that's a deal!). I think it was around 3am when we headed home. It was fun!

The rest of the mall wasn't very crowded, not much worse than on a rainy weekend, probably because everyone was in Gymboree and Old Navy and Starbucks!

As many of you know my parents decided to separate, and they went to settlement the Monday after Thanksgiving. It was a hard day all around. It is my hope that this will allow each of us to develop healthier relationships.

Megan said "Mommy, we usually make brownies for people who move in to our neighborhood, are we gonna make brownies for the lady who bought Nana and PopPop's house?" She makes me smile!

I am thankful to Aunt Sara, Uncle Fred, and their family for welcoming Dad to their Thanksgiving celebration.

So, that's our Thanksgiving! Hang on for a few more posts to bring us up to date!