The Rest of the Week in Ohio

We stayed all week in Ohio but it sure went by fast.  Monday was all Christmas all day long.  Tuesday we ventured out to see if there was any Christmas decorations left at any of the stores. My sister scored two Christmas trees, much to her husband’s dismay!  They had to be brought back to Missouri on the top of their van!  But hey, she got a good deal!

Wednesday morning my dad, my sister and I left bright and early and headed to Royal Oak, Michigan (a suburb of Detroit).  I have a great aunt who lives there and had just been put in a rehabilitation nursing home on Monday the 26th.  She has no husband or children and her only living brother is in Florida.  She’d been taken to the nursing home from the hospital and therefore had nothing from her house.  My dad has been helping her out a lot lately so we made the almost 3 hour trip so we could see her, visit with her, and help my dad out.  We stopped by to see her first thing and she was not in great spirits.  She was having trouble adjusting to the new surroundings.  We visited a bit and then left for lunch and to run errands and go to her house.  We cleaned her house out a bit since she won’t be going back and we picked up some of her clothes and belongings.  We headed back to see her and visited for awhile more before heading home.  I think she truly enjoyed the help and the visit.  I hope she can adjust because it is the best thing for her!

Thursday, after a long walk (in pretty cool temps with my mom and sister) and a quick trip to Costco, we headed out with all the kids to the movies.  This was Lindy and Will’s first ever trip to a movie theatre to see a movie!  I’ve always been too scared to take Lindy, not having a clue whether she would be able to see the movie.  We saw the new Chipmunks movie, Chipwrecked.  We sat on the second row, partly on purpose and partly because there were no other seats available.  It worked out great though!  Lindy seemed to see the movie.  She might have been more interested in the popcorn, but she definitely saw the movie!  I had visions of her not seeing it and therefore not wanting to sit still in her seat but she actually did great.  Will sat the entire time and watched, only moving to my mom’s lap after a little while.  Lindy did finally want to sit with me and she actually did fall asleep at the very end of the movie.  She watched all but about the last 10 minutes.  I was so very proud of her!  I always expect the worst and love to be pleasantly  surprised.  After the movie we went to my parents’ Thursday night stomping grounds, Buffalo Wild Wings, for dinner.  They have a group of friends they meet there every Thursday night.  After dinner we headed back to my parents’ house for a little birthday celebration.  We have three January birthdays in my family (Drew is the 2nd, I’m the 18th, and my dad is the 27th). 

We got up Friday and got everyone bathed and fed and we packed up most of our belongings.  Lee flew back in from Missouri that morning so my dad went and got him and then we all headed to get family pictures taken.  Something the boys LOVE to do – NOT!!!!   It was actually a rather painless experience.  The entire family picture is the best one of Lindy but oh well.  They only had one photographer for a group of 10 people.  After the group picture another lady came in and helped make the kids smile.  I really wish she could have been there from the get go.  My parents got an awesome picture of the four grandkids.  Everyone is looking and smiling!  I can’t wait to get my copies of them.

We got back to my parents’ house, finished loading our things in the car and we headed back to NC.  It was a much, much more pleasant car ride home since no one had diarrhea!  We got home about 10:30pm last night and put the kids straight into bed and they were out in a few minutes.

I’ve spent every waking moment today (aside from a trip to Walmart) unpacking from all our Christmases.  It’s a definite love hate relationship with all these presents.  Especially stocking stuffers.  I love getting them, all very useful, little items, but they all have to be put away!  And I can’t help rearranging or organizing or cleaning as I’m putting stuff away.  Maybe I’ll start taking Christmas stuff down tomorrow.  The kids had a pajama day while I worked putting everything away.

We rocked our New Years Eve tonight playing the kids’ new Wii games.  They got the Nick Dance and Nick Fit game.  We all had fun tonight playing games.  Now the kids are in bed and I’m going to beat Drew in some Wii fit games!  Happy New Year!

Dancing with the kids’ new gamesThese two take their dancing seriously!My beautiful niece, Hayley!Lindy got new flip flops with her name on them and she was loving them.  She has never worn flip flops because of her braces.Amy and I with our Great Aunt MargaretAt the movies for the first time ever!Alvin and the Chipmunks!Three cousins!  Rylee is so funny!Lindy loved her some Aunt Amy this week.Group bedtime hug with Papa.Sweet hugs for Nana.Awww!The birthday kids!My dad was laughing at the sweet card my mom bought Drew for his birthday.  Something about their daughter picking out a prince of a guy.  My dad thought it was pretty funny.Me and Lou.

Christmas Day with Papa and Nana

We got up on the 26th and did Christmas with my parents.  My sister, Lee, Hayley and Rylee had been there since Friday.

My parents usually assign each kid and grandkid a certain color of wrapping paper but with 8 people that was getting a little tough.  You never know what color you are until you start passing out gifts.  This year everyone was assigned a number and we didn’t know what number we were until the little kids started passing out numbers.  My dad made number tags that everyone had to wear. 

The kids got lots of fun things from my parents and sister.  They got Leap Pads from my parents which they think are neat.  Will seems to have caught on but I think it might take Lindy a little longer to figure this one out.  She does well on her iXL so I think she’ll get the hang of it soon.  The kids got some clothes, more Magnatiles, cars and a car case and a pirate ship.  Will got an ambulance that he played with all week.  Lots of fun new stuff!

After presents and everyone getting ready, we had our traditional Christmas dinner – prime rib!  Yummy!  One of my favorite meals all year!  Dad and Lee smoke the prime rib and my mom makes my grandmother’s special rolls.  A favorite for sure!

#5#7#6#8The memo boards I made for Hayley.It was a very piratey Christmas for Lindy!The memo board I made for Rylee.  The only gift she liked that we gave her.  She voiced her disapproval of the other things she opened.The canvas I had made for Amy.

A yummy lunch!

Lee was there, I just didn’t get a picture of him.  Although he did have to fly home on Monday night because the FDA decided to conduct a big inspection at work.  He flew back in on Friday morning but missed the whole week of family togetherness.  (He’s probably secretly thanking the FDA!)

Christmas Day

Christmas Eve night ended up being a doozy.  During Christmas Eve at Lynn’s house, Lindy started up with a hacking cough again.  She started acting like she was getting the second round of the cold she had a week or two ago.  We put them to bed but she just hacked and hacked so we ended up with her in our bed. 

We had to wake the kids up at 7:30am on Christmas Day!  Will told us that Santa had not come because he had not heard reindeer hooves or Santa saying “Ho Ho Ho.”  He was pleasantly surprised to find that Santa had come!

Santa brought the kids a mini-trampoline (good PT for Lindy!  Great idea Santa!), kid-sized snow shovels, a fire station Lego set for Will and a Dora pirate toy for Lindy.  And of course stockings full of goodies. 

After looking at Santa presents and stockings we had our cinnamon and orange roll breakfast.  Then we resumed presents from us and to each other.  We got the kids some books, a shirt, a new water bottle, some house slippers and wagons to attach to their cars outside.  The kids really enjoyed exchanging presents with each other.  They both liked the DVD’s that they picked out for each other. 

Since Christmas was on a Sunday, we were all supposed to head to church.  Lindy coughed all night long and all morning long.  We felt it was best not to take her to church.  I didn’t want anyone else to get sick and she would have been very disruptive coughing so much!  Drew headed off to church and I was able get everything picked up and get the car loaded.

We left for Ohio around 1:30pm and got there around 9:30pm.  We had to stop 20 minutes into our trip for Lou to go poop.  That should have tipped us off.  She ended up having diarrhea and we ended up having to stop a bunch of times.  She did SO well holding it (most of the time – there were two small accidents) until we could get off the interstate and into a bathroom.  There were two very well timed rest stops in Ohio that were lifesavers.  Whew – it was a rough day for the girl with the coughing and runny poops but we made it safely to Ohio.  Boy we were glad to pull in my parents driveway.  I’m sure everyone at my parents’ house was not glad to see us pull in the driveway with everyone with a cold of some sort and one with diarrhea! 

Santa’s PresentsSanta even left Jack some treats and a new toy!Waking up the sleepyheads!Pretending she slept in her bed all night! Waiting patiently on the steps for pictures!Will’s first glimpse that Santa had really come!”Swiper, no swiping!”  The sly fox on Dora swipes a lot of things at our house, according to Lindy.  She loves Swiper!Pint-sized snow shovels.  Because we have these, it means it will not snow in NC this winter!Lindy opening Will’s gift.Will opening Lindy’s gift.Will with his present that he made us at school.Lindy and the present she made us at school.Getting every last present under the tree!New wagons for theirs cars outside.When we got to my parents’ house the kids found Santa had filled more stocking for them in Ohio.