Thursday, January 3, 2008

I'm Back!

I've been home since last Friday night, but just as I was finishing up getting unpacked I was hit hard by sinusitis. It's still kicking my butt (actually my nose and head, but you get the idea) but I've been asked several times when I'm going to update the blog, so I figured I'd better get to it.

We left for PA on Friday, December 21st and it took pretty much all day to get there. While in the car I knit a pair of booties (from Simple Knits for Cherished babies), and I knit a baby hat that I finished later in the evening when we had settled in. The hat I came up with and was knit on circular needles and dpns. Both are going to be gifted to a co-worker of Hubby whose wife just had a little boy.


On Saturday my Mom and I went to my nephew's promotion ceremony at Sabbath school. He's now in the Kindergarten class. The kids were really cute, each level gave a little performance, using bells and singing. Ethan is sitting down to the left of the woman wearing red down front. Afterwards my Mom and I brought Ethan back to her house where he started playing with Little Man and I got to work baking cookies.

Sunday was pretty much spent running some errands, baking more, and spending time with each other.

On Monday, December 24th, Hubby, Little Man and I had lunch at Chick-Fil-A, ran errands, and then headed home for me to finish up cookie baking. No one else knew it yet, but there was a big surprise making its way to Reading. My sister had arranged to come up for Christmas and recruited me in not only keeping it secret, but also to help on the inside. So she called for my birthday when she arrived in Reading, talked to me the whole cab ride, and then asked to speak to my Mom, then she told my Mom she had to get her keys out and then said, oh wait, I'm at the wrong front door. And then my Mom, well, see for yourself, it was very emotional, my sister hadn't been home for Christmas since 2002. (And let this video be a lesson to you, no one is safe from my camera!)






After the initial excitement, we had chicken divan for dinner and then we headed up the hill to see Santa with the boys. Little Man had up until that point been afraid of Santa, but we had told him that no one who brings presents could be bad. He told us that he was going to tell Cousin Ethan to tell Santa to bring him a Percy train for Christmas. But when we got there he not only sat well for photos, he also told Santa what he wanted for Christmas. Both boys did great and we had a great little outing looking at the lights and walking off dinner before we headed back to the folks' house for birthday cake and present opening.



















As you can see from the slide show, we are all a bunch of goof balls. Tradition is that the birthday person wears the bow off their first gift package for a photo. This year after Ethan wanted to wear the bow and then Little Man, everyone took a turn (which was fine by me, I didn't look as silly ;)) I got some great gifts including alcoholic libations from my brother, a chocolate fondue set from my sister, a cardigan set, Paris Smarts book set and A Year in Japan book from my Mom and Pop and the Nanny Diaries and a new bike from Hubby. Hubby took a photo of my bike and put it in my birthday card. Very cool since I taught myself how to ride a bike only in the last 2 years and have been using his. Now I have my own pink bike to cruise around on (stay tune for photos of that). After presents we of course had cake and ice cream, although I'm not showing the photo of my cake for all the world to know how old I just turned, if I want to start hiding my age in the next few years, I figure I need to stop advertising it now!


Next up: Christmas!

FYI: For those who have not used Slide before you can access the photos themselves by clicking on View all Images.

4 comments:

Sereknitty said...

Looks like you had a great time over the holidays! Happy Belated Birthday, too! The hat and booties are adorable and I'm sure they'll be much appreciated.

Connie said...

I sat here in happy tears watching that video. It looks like you had a wonderful Christmas and thanks for sharing with us.

Anonymous said...

I cried all over again at the video of Susans' arrival...probably one of my best ever Christmas surprises!
Grandma North

Anonymous said...

How great to see the videos and pics, what a FAB Christmas it was!