New Year’s 2008!

New Years 2008!

Holly and Nef on New Years

Michael and Holly on New Years

Nef and Marc on New Years

The Crew on New Years!

2008 Holiday Update

So we had a great holiday all the way around – even with all the snow!  The kids enjoyed making cookies, snow angels, playing computer games, sleeping in, sleeping over, eating candy from their stockings, and having fun wherever they could squeeze it in.

The adults were no different!  However, we all had quite a bit more work to do in order to make the holiday experience come together as smoothly as possible.  Marc went on a business trip and then got stuck on the way back due to weather, Michael ended up working from home more than he’d planned, and Nef and I worked to try and follow through on as many Freecycle and Craigslist pick ups as possible.  With the kids having an unexpectedly extended winter break (almost a whole extra week!) we ended up having to do a lot of schedule management and learning to go with the flow, but it all worked out just fine, for the better even sometimes!

Michael and I celebrated our birthdays pretty low-key but I really enjoyed waking up at my other house with Connor, Emily, Lukas and Lauryn all bringing me in some great colored cards and then getting a second welcome upon returning to my main house with Riley, Michael, and Ethan waiting for me with smiles and even more cards.  Who could ask for a better birthday?  Michael’s ended up being even more low-key because it was one of the first day the weather actually allowed Nef and I to head out to the stores and get the last bit of work done for the holiday, so he ended up being parent on duty (POD) for the majority of the day.  He totally gets a make-up birthday before January is out!

Michael and I took the kids down to Grandma Barb’s for Christmas this year since she just wasn’t up to the effort of coming North so the kids got to have TWO celebrations this year which was really nice for them.  We all had a lovely dinner of pizza, then sang some Christmas carols, unwrapped the presents from Grandma Karen (who was heading up to Alaska at 9pm) and then played board games for hours before saying goodbye to Grandma Karen and then heading to bed.  We woke up in the morning to a pile of gifts and stuffed stockings!  After a day of unwrapping presents and enjoying each other’s company we headed back North, unwrapped some more gifts and got unpacked here at the main house, and then headed over to the other house to enjoy even more celebration with Marc, Nef, and the kids.  We enjoyed a delicious dinner, good company, and due to the weather ended up sleeping over.  We woke up to smiles and happy kids, which is always nice.  It was hard to leave for some of us, while others (read – a certain 16-year-old antsy for his girlfriend) couldn’t wait to get back to the main house.  Ultimately we made it back down the hill and all was well.

New Years was a great time also!  Marc, Nef and the kids came over to enjoy the celebration and everyone enjoyed the snacks that the adults had worked hard to put together.  All the kids played Cadoo and Battleship for hours while waiting for midnight to roll around.  Once it did we all cheered and shot off fireworks before wrapping up the evening.  Although last year we had a sleepover with a New Year’s Day brunch this year it was not to be, unfortunately, but we managed to get through it and instead just slept in for hours…almost as good!

Best wishes to all for a happy and prosperous New Year!

Made it through Christmas!

All is well, everyone got exactly what they wanted from Santa and the adults are just finally starting to get out from under the 18″ of snowfall…what a week!

Our Gingerbread House 2008