New York

I’m in NY for several days for a client’s convention. This might be the least favorite part of my job. We have a booth/table at the Exhibit Hall to advertise the client’s insurance program. In my experience, most members – regardless of the client – avoid the insurance booth. So, it makes for a long, boring day. The hours at this particular convention used to be 10 hour days. By myself. Thankfully, this year they scheduled a 3 hour break in the middle of the day. This was likely done because of complaints from others last year. We would be there for 10 hours and the attendees were off touring the city we were in. They were not coming to see the booths! Anyway, that 3 hour break made a huge difference yesterday (the first day).

I used to attend another convention for a large client that wanted (and needed) to have several people working the booth. So, there were others to talk to and do things with in the evenings. Lots of touring the cities we would visit, etc. When I’m by myself, I tend to just enjoy the silence of a hotel room at night; a glass of wine; what I want to watch on TV; room service; and no bedtime battles (or bedtime Olympics, as some of my other mom friends call it).

I got here on Friday afternoon. After checking in at the exhibiting area to make sure all my things arrived, I headed back to the hotel. A nasty rain storm was coming and I had no interest in being out in it. After just hanging out for a bit, I ended up doing the Jillian Michaels 30 Day Shred. (Love that workout…and I’m still a little sore today.) Then, I ordered room service (salad and wine) and settled in for a night of TV. Not very interesting, but quite relaxing.

During the break yesterday, I changed clothes & put on my walking shoes…..and, walked for 3 miles. I was hoping to stumble across a good store to buy gifts for the kids, but didn’t see anything interesting for them. So, it was just a good exercise walk.

Last night was pretty much a repeat of Friday night. There was an opening reception that I had a ticket for, but I never really attend those things. By the end of the day, I’m pretty done with people. And, other than just a couple of people, I don’t know anyone. I probably should go to these things. I feel guilty when I don’t. But….oh well. It’s done now.

We joined Netflix a couple of months ago & it is awesome being able to download movies and TV shows. There wasn’t anything on live TV last night, so I just found things on Netflix.

I got an iPhone last week, so I’ve been playing with that quite a bit. It has something called Face Time, which is basically a way to video chat with others that have an iPhone or iTouch. Since I already had an iTouch…..I was able to chat with Butch & the girls last night. Very cool. I gave them a tour of the hotel room and showed them the view from the window. Lacey loved all of it. Leah was too sad about Mommy not being home to enjoy the call. She just kept telling me to come home.

Still 2+ hours from my break today. I'm planning on walking again. This time I WILL find something for the girls. I have a better idea of which stores I want to go to.

Weekend Update

Monday comes, and I can never really remember what we did all weekend. Ridiculous.

We thought about going out on Friday night, but didn't call ahead of time for our sitter, so we were out of luck with that.

Saturday morning, we headed to the gym. I was getting ready to stretch when one of the child care workers came out to find me telling me Lacey had lost a tooth. My response was "and she's wigging out?". The blood really freaks her out. Apparently she was just crying, but they thought they should get me. So, I stretched in the child care area while she rinsed her mouth out and calmed down. (This was tooth #5, by the way.) Pictures to come.

We went home to get the kids changed for their swim lesson and drove out again - the opposite way. Swim lessons the last 2 years have done wonders for my kids. I'll have to do another post on that.

Home again. Thinking about going out. Called the sitter, but they were out all day and didn't get the message until 8:00ish, so another night at home. Instead, we cooked cheese tortellini with chicken sausage. So good! Since the weather was so awesome (low humidity), we enjoyed the deck again.

At some point, Leah either left the back door open, or didn't close it tight & the wind blew it open....and Alex got out. (I need to post about the new cats!) We didn't realize she had gotten out until a couple of hours later when she showed up on the deck ready to come back in. Apparently, it was a fun outing because she keeps trying to sneak out again.

Lacey woke up early on Sunday - I think because she remembered the tooth fairy would have come. So, she came bounding into our room at 6:45 with a big smile and showing us her dollars. :)

Both girls started asking to go to PaPa's to swim almost immediately after waking. We gave in late morning thinking we'd let them swim for an hour or so, then head home to get stuff done. Getting them out of the pool was much more difficult than we thought it would be! I guess an hour isn't enough. But, we did get back home and managed to be a little productive. I think the house is cleaner than it has been in weeks.

After dinner, the girls & I walked over to see friends. The kids played while I chatted with Donna. The plan was for me to walk home and leave them for a bit, but once we started chatting, it seemed silly to walk back home for such a short time.

Then, it was just a typical Sunday night. Ironing clothes for today, etc.

Hello Monday.

Kindergarten....come and gone!

So hard to believe that I will be the mom of a 1st grader next year! Since I have been so lame with posting updates here, I thought I'd just do a quick one (hahaha) about the whole school year for Lacey in one spot. I truly can't believe I didn't do a 1st day of school post!

First, we went to an open house so Lacey could meet her teacher & see her classroom!





Here's the official picture from the first day!


And, just to compare....here she is last year starting pre-K!


She barely looked back when she hopped on the bus this year! She sat on the bus with Brittany (who lives across the street) all year. We were really lucky with that. Brittany is in 5th grade and is great with Lacey. http://www2.blogger.com/img/blank.gif

In October, the school had Trunk or Treat. The kids all went around to about 50 cars getting treats. Lots of fun & chaos! Lacey was Alex from The Wizards of Waverly Place and Leah was a pumpkin.



I volunteered for the trip to a pumpkin farm and had a great time with all those little munchkins. I had Lacey & 2 other little sweethearts in my group. We went on a hayride, the kids got to milk cows, we saw baby pigs, pig races and more!


I tried to go on the spring field trip, too, but the school is lucky enough to have lots of volunteers...and they all need their turns! Since it was at a swamp, I'm okay with that!

In June the school held a mini-relay to go along with Relay for Life. Lacey & I decorated a shirt for her that read "In Memory of MeMa" and "In Honor of Aunt Annie and Uncle Steve". The kids walked around the school 4-5 times, while some of the teachers blew bubbles and squirted them with water guns.

Here are Lacey & Haley holding their class sign.



Trying to avoid being squirted by Aunt Kristina (I mean, Mrs. Lacey)!


The end of year picnic was held at Gilbert Run Park. It was H O T!!!!! Heat index was above 100 degrees that day. It didn't slow the kids down, though.

Here's Lacey & her BFF.


They had tons of fun running around. Lunch was set out earlier than planned because of how hot it was --- figured everyone would want to get out of their early. After eating, the rental place for peddle boats opened up and despite the heat, Lacey HAD to get on one. We lasted about 20 minutes!

On the way out, Lacey wanted to pose...and got a little silly!


She had a few more days of school after the picnic. Can you believe the last day was scheduled for a Monday? Ridiculous. We ended up keeping her at home that day. I would have sent her, but none of her best buddies were going and Grandma & Poppy were in town....so we kept her home to visit with them.

She had another awesome report card! I'm so proud of how she's done this year. She's reading ahead of where expected and doing really well with math, too. Comments on report cards through the year were things like "model student", "attentive & ready to participate", etc. It's so awesome to hear these kinds of things as a parent!

And, now....it's summer! Butch is spending lots of time with her and she's talking about being bored. :) Typical kid, right?

McNeel Family Reunion in West Virginia

We spent the weekend in West Virginia at a family reunion with the McNeel side. Some people hadn’t seen each other in more than 20 years. The last time I had been to West Virginia was nearly 8 years ago when we came to my cousin Kevin’s wedding. Rick & Kristina hadn’t been in around 25 years. This is something we’ve talked about doing for a few years, but getting schedules together for 40+ people is pretty difficult!

Butch was out of town last week visiting colleges in Tennessee. Rather than flying back to DC or BWI, he flew into Charlottesville, VA --- which was sort of on the way to the reunion. The girls and I drove to Charlottesville on Thursday night and stayed at a hotel. It helped to break the trip up. And, if we hadn’t done that, we would have needed to wake up early on Friday & be in the car by 7:00, which didn’t sound fun. Instead, we had a “girls’ night” at the hotel, room service for breakfast (the worst I’ve ever had) and the girls got to swim in the pool for a short time.

The girls & I were happy to see Butch & get on the road for WV! The place we rented is an old house on a farm in the middle of nowhere. The original part of the house was built in the 1800’s. The drive up the mountain, leading to the house was a bit scary……very narrow…so much so that I can’t imagine what we would have done if we’d met someone else coming the other direction. And, the drop off was steep --- with nothing there to prevent the fall.

We finally arrived at the rental house a little after 3:00. Dee Dee, Bucky and Dad arrived pretty soon after we did. Aunt Annie & Aunt Jeannie were waiting to say hello. Everyone else trickled in through the evening.


We knew we’d be sort of roughing it by staying at this place, based on reviews that we’d read online. But, short of really roughing it (campground in tents), it was the only way we’d found to get all of us in one place. We were able to stay up talking & hanging out without anyone having to drive back to a hotel room.

Poor Leah was so exhausted by the time we were getting her to bed (11:00 pm) that she was sobbing & screaming. Some of the kids were sleeping in tents & she wanted to do that, too --- with me. Since we didn’t have a tent….and there was a perfectly fine bed….sleeping in a tent wasn’t happening!

Saturday morning, we finally got ourselves organized enough to get out of the house. It was nearly 11:00 before we were out the door. We caravanned to Aunt Jeannie’s and visited for a short time there. Then, back in the car to drive to Renick, where Mom’s family lived.

We knew Grandpa & Grandma’s house wouldn’t be the same, but we still really wanted to go. It looks nothing like it used to --- not even the backyard is the same. However, standing across the street, looking at the house brought back memories. The stairs that lead from the street/sidewalk up to the house look the same for the most part. However, we all agreed that when we were kids, it seemed like there were many more steps! The hill doesn’t look nearly as steep now. I can remember being so scared walking down those steps to get the newspaper.


My cousin, Tammy & I walked up to the house to see if anyone was home….sort of in hopes that they’d be open to us walking around on the lawn….or maybe even an invitation into the house. No one answered, though.

We headed over to a little spot where we could check out the Greenbrier River and the kids could get their feet wet. (They were disappointed that the house was supposed to have streams….but when we arrived we were told they are “wet streams” and are dry now.) Tony (named after my cousin who died much too young) is 20 months old and all boy! He waded into the water a bit, then came to a spot where it dropped off to about 2 feet…and he fell….stayed under for a couple seconds. A guy who was going out on a row boat grabbed him since he was closest.

After leaving the River, we drove past Aunt Ruby’s house. I have no memories of it since I was quite young when we would go visit and play there.

Next stop was the cemetery to visit the graves of Grandpa & Grandma and other family members. Then, off to the American Heritage Music Hall, which was started by Aunt Jeannie & her friend, Charlie years ago.

Back to the farm for dinner & visiting……

Most everyone that wasn’t already staying at the farm had already arrived. Oops! (Our touring around took longer than we thought….and we started later then we had planned!) It was so great to have everyone together. (Although, I should say “most” everyone…since there were several family members that couldn’t come on the trip.)

The farm had a zip line and in addition to the kids enjoying it, my nearly 74 year old Dad tried it! Dee tried to talk him out of it, but he wasn’t listening. He ended up with just a minor “boo-boo” on his knee.


Uncle Tom went, as well! I did crafts with some of the girls. Lots of people played cornhole and went riding on the 4-wheeler.


We had a huge spread for dinner – hamburgers, hot dogs, macaroni salad, potato salad, fruit salad, veggie tray, 3 bean salad, baked beans, etc., etc. Followed by too many desserts!

Thankfully, we had time to get in some pictures before the storms came.

With all the rain, we weren’t able to have a camp fire & roast s’mores! Lacey was almost in tears about this. It was also the first thing she asked for the next morning!

The kids had a fabulous time playing with their cousins and running around in the country. Leah didn’t want to wear shoes the whole time we were there! She claimed that walking on the rocks in the driveway felt good. Crazy girl.

The last day, Lacey said she wanted to stay longer. And, one of the kids (I think it might have been Cameron) said he wanted to stay for 1 more day of fun!

It truly was a great time. It was so great to have 4 generations together. These types of events never seem to be long enough. You don’t have enough time to talk to everyone you want to. Before we knew it, we were back in the car driving home to Maryland and reality.

We’ll need to start thinking about the next one before long…….

Furniture Painting

The girls have needed some additional drawers in their bedroom for quite a while. We'd sort of looked around for inexpensive furniture, but weren't finding anything that inexpensive that didn't look really cheap. So, we considered waiting for yard sale season.

Then, I remembered that my dad still had the old furniture that was mine....and before that, it was Dee's. A dresser, chest and desk with hutch. I wonder what year it was bought in?

Well....here is the dresser before doing any painting.


And, here is the finished product.


Well, it's really almost finished. One of the drawer pulls was broken and we're going to take one from the desk (unpainted so far...and won't be in the same room). I still need to go get the pull from Dad and paint it.

And, here is the chest that goes with the set.



I was planning to buy new drawer pulls, but finding them in the right size (2.5 inches) is really difficult. When I could find the size, there wasn't much to choose from.

It turned out pretty well, but it took a lot of time. In fact, everything else in the house suffered since I was spending my time painting it.

I had first gotten a paint sample from Lowe's and used it on the dresser. I went back and bought a quart so we'd have enough for the other pieces. Much to my dismay, Lowe's messed up. The quart didn't match the sample. The same color was written on the can, so I know I pointed to the right color....but somehow they messed it up. So, I ended up having to put an additional 2 coats (of the "new" stuff) on the dresser. Annoying!

The girls are thrilled to have a mirror in their room now. :)

Weekend Update

I haven't done one of these in a long time, huh? Sorry ya'll. No excuses.

I honestly can't even remember what we did on Friday. Oh - nothing! :) I was exhausted and went to sleep at 9:30 - soon after the kids did.

Saturday, I left the house with the kids before 9:00 to head out for a stop at Starbucks and take the girls for haircuts. Lacey had been begging to get hers cut shorter (shoulder length) for a couple of weeks. I think this has a lot to do with the fact that her BFF, Mallory, has shoulder length hair. And, anything that big sister does, Leah wants to do, too. I told them that it had to be enough to donate, or they'd have to grow it some more. (I just don't see the point in cutting so much hair off if it's going to be wasted.)

Locks of Love requires 10 inches, but Pantene has a donation program that only requires 8 inches. And, both girls had enough for Pantene.


They love it and I do, too!!! So cute. Lacey's looks good when it dries naturally, too, but she wants it straight. Luckily, since it's so much shorter, it doesn't really take much time to do it that way.

After we left the hair place, we stopped at a dance store to buy their new tap shoes for the recital. It's not until June, but pictures are in May and both girls say their shoes are too tight. We had no luck with shoes. They didn't have either shoe size in the right color. Ugh. I spent some time yesterday checking around online, but didn't have much luck with that, either. I might have to see about having the store order them.

Then, we headed to Toys R Us to buy a birthday gift for a friend of Leah's, who was having a party on Sunday. Bought more than just for the birthday girl, though. I'd promised them if they could be good with all of our errands, they could have something small.

From there, we headed to Bowie for swim lessons. This was the 2nd week for the girls this season. It's a different teacher than they had last year, but they are doing great with her, too. Both girls swam on their backs for a bit this week. :) We're driving them about an hour because last year, I couldn't find anything local for private or semi-private and Lacey hadn't done well in group swim before. Right after I had signed them up for this 6 week session, I found out about a new place - much closer to home - that does semi-private and private lessons, too. I need to check on it since a 20 minute drive is much better than an hour.

On Saturday, while we were running our errands, Butch went to our tax accountant to have the taxes done. Nothing like the last minute. We don't normally do it this late.

Saturday night, we went to eat at The Green Turtle. (Sweet Potato Fries....yummy!) Then, a quick stop at Target for a couple of things before heading home.

Sunday was Payton's party, so the girls and I left at 10:15 or so. We stopped by Kristin's new place (she moved back from Fairfax recently) to drop off some Fiesta party supplies for a party she's planning for a friend. (I saved them from Butch's 40th birthday party....8 years ago.....I just thought it was stupid to toss them all.)

Payton's party was a princess tea party at a tea room. I've been there several times and the only time the service has been really good is when it's before noon. Otherwise, it's slooowww. And, it was slow yesterday. But, it was a super cute party. :) And, the food was good.

Butch spent the entire day doing yard work. The entire day. The crepe myrtle is now pruned. They grow so crazy that I'm always scared to do it. But, it needed it badly.

The girls went across the street to play with neighbor kids later in the afternoon. Lacey wanted to walk with them to the gazebo in our neighborhood....which is about 1/2 mile from our house. That part didn't bug me too much, but the gazebo is right at the main road. It's really hard to balance letting your kids grow up and have some independence with keeping them safe....yet not being over protective. I decided Lacey could go because one of the neighbor kids is very dependable and she's about 11 or so. I knew Brit would take care of her. It ended up not being an issue since they decided not to walk. Lacey & Leah went to our other neighbors house for a little bit instead. :)

And, then.........the weekend was over. Much too quickly. I was packing lunches and getting clothes ready for today MUCH TOO SOON!!!

Kramer (1994 - March 7, 2011)

Last week was a difficult one. I made the difficult decision to euthanize my Kramer.

I'd moved into a studio apartment in March 1994. I had been out of college a little over a year and was excited to have my first very own place. Toonces had moved with me to my parents' house, after I graduated from college. And, he moved with me to Alexandria, too. However, I was 23 and had a very busy social life....which resulted in Toonces being by himself quite a bit in that little studio.

While I was in PetSmart one day, they had a cat adoption fair. Kramer was such a sweet, beautiful kitty and I couldn't turn away. He was so playful. His crazy personality is what resulted in his name (he's named after the character on Seinfeld).

This is one of the earliest pictures I have of him.


Toonces was not immediately happy that I had adopted another kitty. And, I'm sure there were times when he wondered why he couldn't have been an "only child". :) But, there were lots of loving times between them. (This picture is when they were both at their heaviest....I mean healthiest.)


Kramer was a Maine Coon. One of their traits is being talkative. He fulfilled that part, for sure!!! In fact, he & Toonces slept in the basement because of how noisy he would be through the night.

A few years ago, Kramer was diagnosed with hyperthyroidism. I've learned that it is pretty common in elderly cats. He was on medication from then on. However, he never really gained much weight back. When he was healthy, he was 17 pounds or so. He'd dropped down to 6 in recent weeks. He hadn't been able to jump on furniture in a few months and he didn't do very well on stairs anymore.

I'd been preparing my girls for a few months so that when the time came, they wouldn't be surprised. They knew he was old and sick. And, they loved to care for him.


A few weeks ago, when he was going downhill again, I knew that he likely wouldn't snap out of it this time. On Friday, I thought about taking him to the vet, but was actually hoping that things would just happen on their own. I've been through making that decision twice in the last few years and was hoping not to have to do it again. Every morning, I would wake up wondering if he was still with us. On Monday, I got him out from under the couch (where he'd been hiding for days) for his medication and noticed that he was opening his mouth - like attempting to get more air. We left for the vet shortly after that.

The vet guessed he had fluid on his lungs, and possibly was in heart failure. While he wasn't "in pain", he was likely very uncomfortable. (I always remember when my mom had an "episode" of not being able to catch her breath....after her cancer had spread to her lungs. We were trying to calm her. Afterward, she said "you have no idea how scary it is to not be able to breathe.")

I talked to him for a little but and snuggled and loved on him. And, I stayed with him while it happened.

The girls are doing fine. Lacey was more concerned about me (with my tear-filled eyes) when I told her. Leah just commented about him being in heaven with Frisbee & Toonces. However, the next morning, Lacey saw the computer....where his picture was our background...and sobbed. We've since changed the picture.

Kramer - Christmas 2010 - laying with his catnip toy from Santa.

Germs

Wow, what a year it has been with illness at our house. We were fairly lucky through December, but on NYE, Leah had a slight fever and seemed to be getting "just a cold". The following week, she & Lacey both threw up and the next day (Jan 7) were positive for Strep throat. (I never knew that Strep could make you vomit, but my BFF's kids tend to throw up when they get it.)

The next week, Leah threw up at daycare (Jan 12) and came home early. Kids have to stay home for 24 hours after they've been sick (fever or vomiting), so she was home on Thursday, too. It appeared to be a weird "one and done" thing, or maybe upset tummy from antibiotics or something. And, I seem to have picked up either a bad cold or strep around that time, too. I took a full dose of antibiotics that I had gotten on another doctor's visit and didn't take. (That urgent care center always prescribes something....but, I really didn't think I needed it that other time.)

We seemed to be doing a little better for a week or 2. Then, Leah threw up at 4 a.m. on Feb. 2nd. Sadly, wasn't a "one and done" thing. That poor girl did it about 10x in 6 hours. Then, a couple of additional times throughout the day. Ugh. What a day. I consider myself lucky, though, because she seems to be pretty good about not making messes! While kids can't really make it to a toilet fast enough, if you give her a bowl, she does well with using it!!! So, the whole day I was cleaning big bowls and switching them out for her.

She decided to share her germs with me. I got it a couple of days later. Luckily, no vomiting, but "the other". And, I laid on the couch for 2 straight days. Literally. No energy. No appetite. Fever off and on. Miserable. I really wasn't back to normal for about 5 days.

Then, we had 1 normal week (of no sick days and no snow days) before Lacey was sick again. She had a fever on Feb. 13 and I took her to the Ped After Hours. She was negative for strep, but the doctor thought it looked like it and prescribed Augmentin (since she'd JUST had strep a few weeks before, they wanted to give a stronger antibiotic). It tasted especially icky. Even with special flavoring from the pharmacy. And, Lacey only got 2-3 doses before I couldn't fight her anymore. I rationalized that (1) she had tested negative; and (2) she hadn't complained of her throat hurting much. I called the After Hours Tuesday night to see if the lab results were back and they weren't. She went to school Tuesday and Wednesday, but had a fever again on Wednesday night. I called the After Hours place again....the lab results were positive for strep. :-(

They changed the antibiotic to Amoxicillin. She normally takes that fine, but I think since the other had been so bad, she just had that in her mind. Wednesday night, we fought and talked and negotiated for an hour. Butch held her down and I squirted it in. Lacey spit it out. Ugh. What a night. She finally took it on her own.

I had punished her for not taking it easily by taking away all "screen time" (TV, computer and Wii). By 9:30 on Thursday, she was bored. She took her meds. She got the Wii. And, we agreed she'd get 50 cents for each dose. That will give her $10 at the end to buy something fun at Target.

Seriously, these germs need to go. We've been spraying with Lysol, washing hands, using Purell, wiping down everything (toys, tables, remotes, phones) with Clorox wipes. Ugh. But, they keep bringing things home from school and daycare.

When I read recently that cold & flu season is worse this year, it was no surprise to me! Many of my friends with little kids are having similar problems this year.

Funny Conversation with Lacey

This happened this morning:

Lacey: We live in Earth.

Me: Yes.

Lacey: I'm glad we don't live in England. I don't want to speak Spanish.

Me: (Struggling really hard not to laugh and hurt her feelings.) They speak English in England. They speak Spanish in lots of places - like Spain and Mexico.

Lacey: Oh.

Christmas 2010

Christmas Eve

Now that it's a month after Christmas, I'm struggling to remember everything! Chuck and Nancy came to visit for the holidays and had arrived a few days before Christmas. On Christmas Eve, I was trying to get all the gifts wrapped early because the evening was going to be so busy.

We went to Aunt Marilyn's mid-afternoon for her open house and for the kids to see Santa!



I love getting to see him there each year. When he sat down, Lacey walked right up to him and sat down. All business and ready to roll! Leah was pretty shy with him, though.

It was nice getting to visit with Aunt M and Gil, plus Shelly, Tammy, Rick and everyone.

We left there and headed to church. While we weren't very good about making it to church during 2010, I made a real effort at going during the weeks leading up to Christmas! I didn't want to be a ChrEaster (who shows up only on those 2 holidays). It was the Family/Children's service and I usually really enjoy that. But, the girls seemed to be more wound up than usual and since we got there a bit late, we were spread out some. I was sitting with the girls. Butch, Chuck & Nancy were in other pews. So, trying to keep them behaving and settled was all on me and a bit stressful...even in the Children's service!

It was awesome to walk into the house after all that and smell an amazing dinner cooking in the crock pot! I had prepared a pot roast with potatoes and carrots. Yum-o!

Christmas Eve is also Butch's birthday. This picture is courtesy of an almost 6 year old photographer, Lacey. I love it!




A tradition that we had growing up was opening 1 gift on Christmas Eve....and it was always new pajamas! We do the same for the girls now. They're young enough that they haven't figured out that it's always pajamas! They get to open a 2nd gift on Christmas Eve, too and that (so far) has always been a new ornament.

This was really the first year that Lacey could handle writing the whole note to Santa. It was great to see her deciding what to write and writing it all herself.

Once they were in bed....well, still lots to get done!

Christmas Day

The girls woke up a little before 7:00, but we had warned them ahead of time we wouldn't wake up Grandma & Poppy any earlier than 7:00. So, they played upstairs for a bit while we all got ourselves together.

Santa's gifts that were under the tree weren't wrapped, and the girls saw their new Barbie dolls right away...along with some puzzles and things. Lacey actually said "This is the BEST Christmas EVER!" before she had even opened one wrapped present! Once everything was opened, they realized that Santa had left something else....wrapped....over by the TV.



I think the picture shows it all! They were so excited about their new Barbie house! They played with it all morning.

We hosted Christmas dinner at our house so the girls would be able to keep enjoying their things. In our family, hosting dinner doesn't mean taking on the responsibility of the whole dinner (thankfully). We prepared a turkey breast in the crock pot (turned out delish, if I do say so myself), gourmet sweet potato casserole, mandarin orange salad (thank you, Nancy), stuffing, gravy & rolls. Others brought mashed potatoes (Dee/Buck), green bean casserole (Rick/Kristina) and southern MD stuffed ham (Dad). Fabulous feast.





I love our holiday feasts.

After dinner, we opened gifts; and then posed for several pictures. We always try to remember a cousins picture. There is usually a serious one, and a silly (crazy, weird, scary) face one.



Dee & I often remember to get a sister's picture, but I don't think we have many of us with Rick.



The girls were exhausted by the end of the day. Who am I kidding? We all were!