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| He's got his good jets above all his legos |
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| Made a small closet work! |
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| Loves still having all his posters up high |
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| Yet still girly enough for Ayden, especially with the giant pink chair from Aunt Jamie!!! |
We started Christmas out this year by spending the weekend with the Parks Family! We arrived Friday afternoon and surprisingly not a lot of horrible traffic. :D We had a fully loaded car, 2 dogs, 2 children, and 2 adults, yet somehow it still didn’t feel crammed…thank goodness for a roof rack. Saturday (Chrismtas Eve) was Charlie and Cindy’s turn to have Bob and Lou out for a nice dinner. So right after breakfast Cindy and I got a prepping for the dinner. We had Ham, Flank Steak, Salmon, Sweet Potato Casserole, Corn, Peas, and Scalloped Potatoes (which we made in the crock pot for the first time ever and what a time and space saver it was). I started to not feel so hot as the day progressed, but isn’t that the way life works. There always has to be someone who’s not their best around the holiday season. Or maybe it was a small panic attack since my son and husband just received their first .22 shot gun. Yes it’s small but that is not something I as a mother was prepared for!!! :) Anyways…after a great family dinner we did some early Christmas presents with everyone…it made for a great ending to the night. I think everyone got some really great stuff, which is always nice. I think the most memorable item this year was Jake got a great Rear Commodore Sailing Hat! It has suits him well and he really loved wearing it. 
Now the next year of racing season needs to start up so he can fly his flag and sport his new hat at every race.
Christmas day the kids woke up and we all did stockings together and had a wonderful pancake breakfast…something Papa is famous for making. :) Always a big hit with the kiddos. Blake is at a point where he can seriously out eat any of us adults in pancakes. I don’t know where he puts them all, but it is always very amazing to watch him. After breakfast we started packing up to head over to Bob and Lou’s for the big family dinner and gift exchange. Every year we do a secret Santa, which is always fun because you can focus on just one special person and really not get too caught up in the craziness of gifts. We had some great food as always, craziness unwrapping and trying to separate the wrapping paper and the bows so Grammy could keep the bows for next year! She and the whole family are crazy about their bows…it really does make me laugh, but at the same time it will always been one of those wonderful memories I have of Grammy. As the night grew to an ended we all started heading out. We were able to pack up and catch a nice ferry ride home, which really does help keep the stress down…I hate driving around!
So began the rest of our week off together as a family. Monday Jake went out and met up with a bunch of old buddies from the VRI while the kids and I unpacked the settled back into home. Later that night we had a great dinner with two wonderful families and got to spend some good time bonding. Tuesday we let the kids do their gifts with the Pastor kids, always a blast watching that. Josh will pay next year for what he go our kiddos this year! :D Then Tuesday night we had a dinner game night with some of our neighbors down the road. It was Jakes last good meal for a while considering the next day he was getting all four wisdom teeth out.
That leads us to Wednesday morning!!! Jake was all nice and happy going into the oral surgeon that morning and was a good patient. In and our in about 45 minutes. The whole time I was cracking up because I got to watch a video on how to be the best escort you can be…not the dirty kind, but it sure made me laugh. Jake was quite the chatty person on the way home but soon started to slow down once we actually made it home. Then it was just a battle to get the man to just sit down and rest…he made me yell at him A LOT!! By the next morning he was nice and swollen but he felt good.
Saturday morning the kiddos got to open their Santa gifts. Blake ended up being the biggest butt head I had ever seen. He got lots of candy and toys from Santa but the second he saw 2 little oranges in their he went sour and ungrateful. Pouting about how oranges and how that is the lamest gift he has ever seen! It took him till about mid day before he snapped out of his attitude that no one was going to be putting up with. I am thinking that every year from here on out he will be getting oranges in his stocking!!!!!
Well after that began our day of snack junk food since it was New Years Eve. We actually took the kids to go see Chipwreacked…it was hilarious and we all had a blast watching that. I think I was laughing out loud more than the kids were. :) When we got home we opened more snack food and waited for Rocky to show up. The kids knew that once Rocky got there we were going to be able to open all the presents…that was a lot of fun! Lot of laughing and enjoyment and best of all NO SOUR PUSSES!!!!
After that we played games and slowly rang in the new year with some fireworks and good drinks…but it didn’t take long for us all to CRASH!
The next morning it was so nice outside we headed up to the park to play with some of the kiddos new toys. Then ended our wonderful weekend with an amazing dinner…which is a funny story although Mom might not think it is funny yet so we will wait for another day. :)
A wonderful and blessed Christmas and New Years for the Parks family this year.
We are looking forward to what the year 2012 brings us all!
