It has been way too long since I last posted, and for that I apologize - mostly to myself because I hate to let this blog slip. Truth is, it seems life is filled with everyday normal activities as the kids grow older, and they are not growing and changing as quickly as they used to. I wonder when this will stop becoming a useful outlet...with all the other social media, etc. I'm not sure this blog has much purpose. I started it as a way to keep family and friends that were far away from us in touch with our life and happenings. Now that we are closer to most of the family, it seems the need is less. I do still like to record certain things in our lives though...and this is still the best and easiest way to do that. Now just to find the time to keep it updated.
Christmas was quite lovely. We stayed home through Christmas morning, and it was only the second time in 11 years that we have been alone on Christmas morning. It was nice to have time with just the four of us, because the rest of the holidays proved a little busier. We attended Mass on Christmas Eve at the Basilica on the campus of my alma mater, Catholic University. What a beautiful church! I hadn't been to Mass there since my Baccalaureate and the kids never had, so it was nice to do. That said, I'm not sure we will do it again on Christmas Eve. It was packed, we were lucky to get seats and we arrived about 45 minutes early. There was a nice choir to listen to though, and we didn't mind the wait too much. After church, we went out to dinner. Another first...I've never been out to dinner on Christmas Eve. Now this though is something I think we will do again. It made the evening so much less stressful...we chose an Italian restaurant not too far from our house, and had a really nice meal. Having stuffed ourselves, we headed home and relaxed until it was time to force the kids to go to bed. We actually forgot to leave cookies out for Santa until they were already in bed (though not asleep) so Mom and Dad did that for them.
Christmas morning we woke up about 8 AM, and the usual present opening commenced pretty quickly. The big gifts this year were a Google ChromeBook for Quinn and a Nintendo 3DS XL for Keely. Both loved all of their gifts and we were all treated well by Santa as well as our family, both near and far. After presents and a quick breakfast, we packed up and headed to New Jersey. We were on the road by 11 AM, and arrived at my parents' house just after 2 PM. Not a bad trip at all, I think most people were already where they wanted to be and traffic was light. We arrived just ahead of the extended family arriving, and the craziness ensued. We hadn't been at the main family gathering since Keely was 2 months old, and it was nice to be back. We also celebrated with Uncle Joe and J.R. and some of my dad's family the next night. I even got to make a few contributions to Christmas...sweet potato casserole and the Bomb chocolate cake. Definitely not something I could do if we were flying in :) The next night James and I cooked..penne a la vodka & crab cakes. Definitely a lot of good food and fun had by all!
Another year is gone, we're already a month into 2013 and time is flying by. The rigors of daily life have picked back up...guitar, CCD, indoor soccer, Girl and Boy Scouts, Odyssey of the Mind, Drama Club, Chess Club, Band. A lot of activities!
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