Happy New Year!

Well, I must apologize that it has taken me so long to update here again. And I STILL need to update on my last prenatal appoinment on my other blog, as well!! The new year has just started and I'm already behind. :)

Backing up to Christmas . . . we had a very nice family day. Since it was Sunday, I didn't want to fix a big dinner when we got home from church, so I ended up making crockpot lasagna, which is a favorite of ours, and we all enjoyed it. It was nice to have church on Christmas day for a change, although it did make things different and we all got a little more tired. Still, it helped us focus more on the true meaning of the day.

I got some very nice presents; I won't take time to describe all of them, but the three that Jim gave me were: a comfy red bathrobe, a really nice Wenger (Swiss army) watch, and a new large non-stick frying pan, which I really needed. I haven't had a chance to try it out yet, but hopefully soon!

The day after Christmas, Sam came down with a really bad cold. I haven't seen him have such a bad one for a long time--runny nose, cough, and general lethargy and clinginess. So for about 3 days I didn't get much done, other than holding and comforting him. My mom came over and helped me out for several hours on Tuesday, which I was very thankful for. At least I got the house straightened up a bit!

On Thursday, Sam was a lot better and spent a good bit of the day at my mom's, enabling me to do some more housecleaning and preparing for our trip to Ohio. We had planned to leave either Thursday or Friday, and ended up finally being ready around noon on Friday. We were a little nervous about the prospect of a long road trip with a toddler, but Sam did really well and slept a good part of the way. We actually made the trip a little faster than usual, in about 14.5 hours, arriving here in OH around 3:30 am. I was amazed and so pleased that after a long trip, and getting woken up to a new house and grandparents that he doesn't remember, Sam made himself at home immediately and went right to his Grandma and Papa. They had waited up for us (they don't get in from work till early morning anyway), so we all took some time to unwind and visit for a while before heading to bed around 5 am.

That evening, the rest of the family arrived--Jim's older brother Joe, and younger brother Josh and family. Sam was very excited to have 3 boy cousins to play with!! The boys have mostly been getting along really well. It's so cute to see them running all around the house together. All of us adults stayed up till after midnight that night, but the funny thing was that we never really even noticed that it was 2006, till about 12:30 am. :)

On Sunday we had another Christmas celebration--I think we have officially had enough Christmas now. :) The kids all got pretty tired, but had a lot of fun too. Yesterday we headed over to Jim's grandparents' to spend the day with them. Again, it was a tiring day and a late night, but we really enjoyed the visit and the time for our boys to spend with their great-grandparents.

So I think that tells you a bit about our past week, in a nutshell! It's kind of gone by in a blur. To all of you whom I owe emails to, I apologize--I probably won't get a chance to write until we get back home. But at least if you read this, you will know we're still alive. :) We will be here till either Friday or Saturday, so probably next week will be a time for catching up and getting back to "normal"--if there is such a thing. :) I hope to get time to blog again before then, but we will see. I have lots to write about, including sharing my goals for the new year. I hope all of you have had wonderful holidays and that your new year has gotten off to a good start, as well.