Holidays

The holidays were busy, to say the least...


Christmas Eve ~ I was going to have a mental breakdown if the house was not cleaned up, so we spent most of the morning scouring the place. It needed the help and it was a wonderful feeling when it was all done, even if we did not quite get as far as I wanted to. Jon and I met up with Mike & Mary and Ellen & Kevin & baby Abigail at the Melting Pot at 5. 3.5 hours later... we all rolled ourselves away from the cheesy chocolatey dippy goodness. Jon and I with with Ellen and Kevin and Abigail to the 9:30 service at church. We were supposed to go to church with my mom, but we mistakenly screwed up the time, so ended up in P-ville. Afterward, we drove back to my parent's to open our one Christmas Eve gift. :)

Christmas Day ~ Nothing like waking up at 7 am on your day off. We got up and I made a spectacular baked apple french toast, heavy on the nutmeg. We got to Jon's parent's at 9:30 where eating of said awesomeness occurred. We then opened presents. They got me an amazing 35mm lens that I am absolutely in love with. They got Jon a tool box. I am pretty sure I won out on the deal, but Jon is really excited about the toolbox. :)

After the presents, we raced out to visit Nanny. She was having a really good day, which is rarer and rarer. She knew who we were and even cracked some jokes. It was pretty great and one of the best presents Jon's dad could have gotten.

We got to my folk's at 1:30, where we opened more presents. This year, my mom decided to give us lighting for Christmas. She got us a new hallway light and a beautiful chandelier to replace the cheap gold thing that came with our townhome. Now we just need dining room tables and we are set to party.

Jon's parents came over around 4:30 and all of us sat down to leg of lamb. Oh the irony of having lamb at Christmas and Easter! :P It was delicious and it was nice to have a reasonably calm evening with the family.

We got home around 8:30 and opened each other's presents... following it up with falling asleep on the couch while watching The Soup. A good day had by all.

Sat 26th ~ I worked this day and it was rather busy.

Sun 27th ~ On this morning, we met up with our d-town friends for breakfast, again waking up around 7 am. It was really great to see everyone while they were home, though I would have loved to have a few more hours... or days. :) Jon and I then went to the mall to exchange some scrubs and I got new awesome ones that are super soft. Nice scrubs are stupid expensive, but a worthy investment. I am now going to pay extra attention not to drop blood / urine / mineral oil on them while at the hospital.
I worked this evening and again, it was too busy for my liking...

Mon 28th ~ I had to pack in the morning and we got on the road around 11 to go to Maine. The trip was quiet, I drove most of the way. We got there around 6 and went directly to Gwen's to see the fam and the kids. Mattea got a parakeet for Christmas, Snowy, and was very excited to show her off. We left to go to Grammie's at 8:30 ish and turned in relatively soon after that. Jon and I got the river room (my favorite, which, duh, overlooks the river) and we both slept like rocks, despite Uncle Philip doing his best to saw logs in the adjacent room.

Tues 29th ~ Deb came today! We hired our wedding photographer to do some family pictures of the entire clan. Let me tell you, that woman works hard. She took about 800 shots in an hour and a half's worth of time. We actually just got the pictures a few days ago and they rock. The kids are so photogenic. It was really fun, though exhausting for all. Deb brought along her daughter, Stella, who took to Jon quite easily and had a good time playing with Tait and Theo. At one point, Jon had Theo on his shoulders, Stella and Tait on his legs, and Mattea was trying to get a piggyback ride. :)
The rest of the day was significantly more laid back. We played some games in the evening at M&J's house and I ate a lot of Bugles. Those things are delicious! We also slept here for the rest of the trip to give Grammie a bit of a break.

Wed 30th ~ Second (uh, fourth??) Christmas! It kicked off at G&C's with a big breakfast and then more present opening happened. The kids got a wii, so they were excited about that. Tait also go window markers. BEST THINGS EVER. I spent some time with him drawing all over the windows. Fun stuff.
In the afternoon, we made a hectic trip to Bean's to return some stuff and get some other stuff for my mom.
That night, it was back to M&J's where we introduced them to DDR2. Everyone tried it out, which was pretty funny.

Thur 31st ~ We got up early to drive home this day. Oh yeah, it was New Year Eve. It was icky snowy on the Mass tnpk, so we ended up finally getting into our house at 6:30. Though we got invited to do a few things, we ended up staying in, which was a fabulous idea. We watched Dick Clark as he depressingly screwed up the countdown (who thought it was a good idea for him to start at 20?!) and then hit the sheets.

Fri 1st ~ This was Mike & Mary's wedding rehearsal! I snapped pics like a paparazzi. Dinner was at McCormick & Schmick's downtown. We stayed overnight in the city, which was an excellent plan because we had to be up and ready to go around 9:30. Jon was in the wedding, so he was occupied all day, and I followed them around taking pictures and angering grandparents. Good stuff.

Sat 2nd ~ The wedding and reception were fantastic. The pictures - FRIGID. Nothing like taking pictures in 7 degree windy weather at Love park in the city. mhmm. The band at the reception was amazing and the food, great.
I think the best part about the wedding is that Mike and Mary are two people we really support getting married. We have no doubt that they are meant to be and are great together, and it is wonderful to celebrate the union of two people you believe in as a couple. It was fun to see them finally get married and I know both of their families are thrilled.

Sun 3rd ~ We came home from Philly at Jon dropped me off at LM for Project Philly auditions. (www.projectphilly.org) Things went well and from there, we went to our friend's graduation party. She just made it home from U Miami a semester early. She will be going to UPenn for grad school in the fall. Smarty pants! :) We then drove home to eat dinner with my parents since we had not seen them since Christmas, essentially.

Monday 4th ~ back to school...



This past Monday, I got a phone call from Sus that her husband David's mom passed away that morning. They had spent a good deal of time with her over the holidays and her prognosis (brain cancer, dx in the summer) was looking a bit better. On Monday morning, she had a seizure and died. Sus and David and their 5 month old, Van, live in Brooklyn and they asked if they could come down and stay with us that night.

As much as we hate why they are down here, we love that they are here and able to stay with us. They have been with us all week and our house has served as a base for them to go out with family and prepare for the funeral, which is tomorrow. Most of the week we have been trying to support them as best we can, even though that usually just means food and a comfortable place to sleep and entertaining Van.

Today is David's birthday, so if you could keep him and his family in your prayers, it would be much appreciated.