Catch up

No, I did not resolve to stop blogging in 2011. It's just so overwhelming to try and capture memories from the holidays after waiting so long to write about them. So let's catch up...

Dec. 23- Andrew skips school and we drive to Ohio.

Dec. 24- Hang out at G-ma and G-pa's. Run out to buy a stinkin' baby tree for Andrew. Make giant gingerbread people. Wrap all the gifts that I had sent to Ohio. Wonder how it will all get back to PA. Go to church. Put kids to bed and have wine and shrimp cocktail with in-laws. Lovely night.

Dec. 25- Wonderful, long, lazy gift-giving day. I do wish that we opened presents slower like my family used to. I still don't know what Uncle Chad got Andrew. It was lost in the tornado of wrapping paper. I mean, the gift wasn't lost. I just didn't witness it getting opened. Also, Lily was super excited about the gift she and Andrew made for Grandma (a recordable book from Hallmark...she and Andrew sang the whole thing). But she missed seeing Grandma open it, because everyone just kind of tears into things at once. Every year I say we're going to go slower the next year. And then it happens again. Enthusiasm :) Linda also made a delicious spread for Christmas dinner. And I didn't have to cook it...this traveling thing might not be so bad...

Dec. 26- Drive to Columbus to celebrate my parents' 40th wedding anniversary. You can read all about it in my sister's blog. She has copies of the photo shoot we did with my folks before hand. And a shot from their wedding. We all had such a good time and I am forever grateful for my sisters...who did all the work. I just showed up. ;)

Dec. 27- We drove down to my parents' after the party. Andrew stayed behind to spend the night with Colin. He had a blast...and apparently woke up at 6 am and told Kate all the morning "rules" of our house. Like he doesn't get fed until 7, etc. No secrets with a 7 year old. Once in Cincinnati with the rest of us, we celebrated Colin's 6th birthday (the same day as my parents' anniversary). We opened more gifts and had birthday cake. We ate Skyline. We had Montgomery Inn for dinner (take-out). Lily had a major pooping issue that interrupted my dinner.

Dec. 28- We had a day full of errands and fun little trips. Lily went to Tangled with my mom and I...a "girl's" day. Andrew went shopping with Pepere and bowling afterwards. Jeff stayed home with Michael. We had Skyline again. And Jeff and I went on a date that night...to Montgomery Inn. We stopped at Kroger on the way home and picked up pints of Graeter's. It is no wonder we each gained 7 pounds over the holidays.

Dec. 29- We went to Michael's heaven...Enter-TRAIN-ment Station in West Chester. It was...awesome. Room after room of model trains...and we had a sheet with a scavenger hunt on it. So you go through really looking for things. In the middle of it all is a huge play area with things for kids age 2-12. Really really cool. We stopped at La Rosa's on the way home. We had a lighter dinner. Andrew and Pepere played a lot of Wii Madden 2011. Okay, so Andrew played a lot and Dad watched a lot.

Dec. 30- We packed up and went back to the in-laws. The kids were re-united with all their toys. We went to a b-ball game of Jeff's second cousin that night. Andrew loved it. Michael was traumatized by the buzzer. That boy is just not interested in sports like Andrew always was. He did enjoy driving his cars in the stands, though.

Dec 31- We tried to round up all our stuff in preparation for the next day. Jeff's cousin from out of town came over with his two baby girls and had lunch with us. We went to a park, since it was 50 degrees out. We had steak for dinner. Yum. I played Andrew's new DS game while the in-laws "watched" basketball (read: slept).

Jan. 1- We left to go back to PA. There was barely enough room for all 3 children in the car. We only stopped twice the whole trip. A new record. Due to this, we made it home in only 8 hours. We dumped the car out into our living room and enjoyed being home.

Jan. 2- Day of clutter madness. Desperately putting away Christmas decorations, filing away toys, grocery shopping, etc. Kids ignore all the new toys and go back to playing cat. Why do we get them anything, again?

Jan. 3- Jeff back to work, Andrew back to school. Lily desperate for playmates and attention. Giselle going crazy. You know, normal re-adjusting routine.

And we're caught up.