Calm waters

The days after Christmas and before the New Year are like a holding pattern. There's lots of visiting with family, little routine, trips to the store and playing with all the booty. It's a much calmer time. The Barsottis are at the airport now and will hopefully have a safe trip back to Kentucky. It was so cool to have so much time with family that it's sad to see them go. The boys loved being with all their older cousins.

It was such a nice Christmas. I thought it might be hard to be away on Christmas Day, but it was great to be in the house I grew up in. The drive through the Adirondacks was spectacular. I think my parents enjoyed seeing the kids Christmas morning, despite their high energy! There wasn't much sleep going on. At 3am, we could hear their little feet going out to the living room to see if Santa had been there. Then the whispering. We finally had to separate them and I think they did sleep until the 7am wake up call. Then the paper tearing began! For Christmas dinner, we had a feast of turkey, Dad's sausage stuffing, Mom's jello salad and I made both a green bean and sweet potato casseroles. We topped it off with checkerboard cake that night for Chris' birthday. We left early Friday so we could have Christmas again with Chris' family. That was a whirlwind day with traveling, presents and dinner. Every night since we've had dinner with all of Chris' family and it's been wonderful.

In other news, Nolan finally saved up enough money to buy a Wii, so he bought it yesterday. It took him a year, but he did it all on his own which I think is pretty good for an 8 year old. Today, we are heading to the mall to spend their build-a-bear gift cards from Aunt Kimmy. The boys got everything they wanted for Christmas, I think. They are very happy. Thank you to everyone!

I'll probably be very happy to have the kids back in school by the end of the week, but so far it is just great to have time together. It's what it's all about. Chris and I got ourselves a trip to a bed and breakfast in Plattsburgh for Martin Luther King weekend. I cannot wait. Really, the best present is time together.