More Presents...

Christmas goes on for days over here. It's great fun but it leaves my house in devastation! Last week's trash was mountainous and I'm thinking this week's won't be too much better as the kids were still unpackaging stuff last weekend! We are blessed to have so many people in our lives who love us and so we deal with over-abundance :)


My dad does alot of driving at Christmastime. The week before, he drives to our house from southern Ohio, to pick up the gifts for Nanny (my grandmother), then he drives to her house in West Virginia on Christmas Eve day, then back to his house, then back up here the week after to bring us gifts from Nanny and also we exchange our gifts with him at that time. I'm exhausted just typing it all! Anyway, he was up here the Monday after Christmas to celebrate with us :)

 And yes, after assembling those massive Nerf guns, there was a battle!

 Where was Megan during all that?

 In her cozy, pink tent!

Kristen came home about that time from a sleepover with a bunch of friends. (why is it called a "sleep"over?!)

Such a sweet big sister :)

It was a wonderful afternoon! Dad, thank you for lunch and all your running around during Christmas! :)

A Friendly Game

We had a really busy day yesterday! Not only did we have a play to attend, but shortly after we got home, we had a surprise visitor! My dad was in town for the day and dropped by for a few hours. We chatted for a bit, then wandered outside. We ended up in what the kids call the lot playing basketball. (It isn't a lot, it's a road with a dead end that the developers put in just in case they ever get the chance to buy the woods that run behind our house. I hope they never do.)

My dad played basketball in highschool and also while he was in the marines so it was fun to get him out there with his grandkids. A great time was had by all :)

At first it was just the guys:
Watching Brandon's shot. Dad called him "shooter" for the rest of the game :)
Here's Nicky's shot. I can't remember if it went in or not but it looked good :)
Megan wanted to play to.
I tried to entertain her on the sidelines:
She would not be consoled. So she got to play :)
She guarded her grandpa :)

Another shot from the "shooter".
Happy, little camper:
She needed a little help to make her shot:
It was good to see my dad with a basketball again.
They were all pooped afterward :)
It was a really fun afternoon!

Happy New Year (belatedly)

I totally forgot to post our New Year's festivities!

The truth is, New Year's Eve was never really a big deal to me. As a child, my family occasionally got together with family and had a little celebration, but usually we were home. As I got a little older, I had great expectations for New Year's Eve but was usually disappointed.

When Todd and I were dating, he took me to the big party downtown. It really was a good time and I'm glad I had a chance to go once. Since Kristen always spent New Year's Eve with her dad, what else were we going to do? By the next year, we were married and spent the evening with some dear friends. We did go out at the last minute; I suppose we felt we "should" ring in the New Year with a bang, but honestly I just wanted to be home. We had a tragic pregnancy that ended a few weeks before and we were still licking our wounds.

The next year, we had Brandon and we never went out for New Year's Eve again :) It didn't feel right to spend it anywhere else but home as a family. Most years we were asleep as the year changed over ;)

I'm not exactly sure when it happened, but Todd started asking things like, "So what are you making tonight?" and dropping little hints that maybe New Years could be a bigger deal than what we were making of it. So last year, I decided to actually plan something for us :) Todd's family has paella (a delicious Spanish dish) on New Year's Eve, so I started with that, then planned yummy snacks, games, and movies and let the kids stay up as late as they could. We had a ball!

And so this year, our new tradition continued....

My dad came over earlier in the day to exchange our Christmas gifts:
After we had our paella that Todd made (which I forgot to photograph, but it looked great and tasted as good as it looked!), we moved to the family room for some fun and movies. Here's our chocolate dipped yummies:
I'm not brave enough to serve it fondue-style, so I do the dipping then serve it on trays ;) Kristen is missing from this photo for a reason...she was at her first New Year's Eve party! You're shocked that I would agree to this, I know, but the party was at the home of some good friends of ours from church which is only a few minutes from our house ;) (It's actually a huge party with many people from our church in attendance)

Mom came over New Year's Day for the traditional pork and sauerkraut and some fun games!
Nicky looks so tired! He almost made it to midnight the night before!

Finally, New Year's Eve feels right! These last two of my life have been my best ever!

A Thanksgiving Celebration

Every year (almost) we travel to my aunt's house in Kentucky for Thanksgiving. It's usually the only day we spend with my extended relatives on my dad's side so we really look forward to seeing everyone and catching up.

Here's our day in pictures:

Heading to Kentucky.
Megan wanted to hold on as we crossed the bridge ;)
On the farm:
Megan, Uncle Ed, and Papaw going for a walk to see the cows.
We got a kick out of Heidi wanting to go for a ride in the Mule.
Hanging out outside:
Nicholas fell asleep.
Then he snuggled Kristen and she fell asleep too!
Nana is in the purple and Megan is snuggling Uncle Ed's mother. I can't remember the name of the other lady but I think she's Ed's sister.
The Great-grandkids: our kids plus my nephew, J.D. and my cousin's daughter, Emily:
The six of us plus my dad and Nana:
Nana, Dad, and Aunt Emily:
We had a wonderful day visiting and eating (too much, of course ;)) and we look forward to seeing everyone again soon!

Thanksgiving isn't over for us, though! We still have two more wonderful dinners to share with family! Although it makes for a busy weekend for us, we feel so thankful and blessed to have so many people to share this holiday with that we wouldn't have it any other way! :)