As usual ... things have been busy around here.
We drove home to Pittsburgh for Thanksgiving and with the Dramamine Monique did great in the car. No complaints about her stomach hurting and more importantly ... no throwing up. We stopped in Binghamton NY on our way to Pittsburgh for lunch with our friends the Mattix's which live in NY and our friends the Grave's that live in Minnesota but were visiting family in NY for the holiday. It added some extra time to our drive but it was well worth it. We got to meet the two new babies ... Nora Mattix and Claire Graves. Check out the group photo here. Amazingly enough, even with all these people, Monique still managed to roam away from the group and cause us all to panic. I am beginning to think I need to use the leash I bought EVERY time I go to the mall with her!
Our time in Pittsburgh was nice but a little stressed. We got a little down time while we were there ... but I do mean a little. We did get to see some friends and family, but not too many. We got in late Wednesday night. Thursday morning we had breakfast with Krissi and Mark and then we went to my aunt's house for Thanksgiving. Friday we hung out with my mom some and then visited my cousin and his family. We moved my mom on Saturday. She finally moved out of her house in Oakmont into an apartment in Glenshaw (I think). Then Sunday we drove home. The drive home was NOT a fun one! With EVERYONE traveling home that day and the weather not being so great, it made for a VERY long drive. It took us over 13 hours to get home.
Things were actually somewhat calm between Thanksgiving and Christmas for us. I think it was the longest stretch where we didn't go somewhere and nobody came to visit us since moving to MA. We enjoyed as much holiday fun stuff as possible with Monique. We went to the holiday festival for the town of Hopkinton and saw Santa and watched them light the tree. Monique and I baked some cookies to mail to friends and family and for our neighbors. We took a Saturday evening and drove around looking at lights on people's homes. We also went to listen to a holiday music concert where Monique was able to get up and dance, and let me just tell you ...she loves to dance! Those of you who know me from my wild and free days will know that she comes by it naturally :-) Check out some pics here.
Christmas time was very fun with Monique. Christmas Eve we went to the Boston Symphony Music Hall and watched a Christmas performance for kids. We then baked cookies for Santa that afternoon. We allowed Monique to pick one present to open on Christmas Eve and she picked the perfect gift, a pair of PJs which she ended up sleeping in. She had been eyeing the package with the PJs since the day it came in the mail. Dave said she was even 'petting' it one day :) She was very good though about waiting for Christmas morning to open the presents.
Our night sleep wasn't the best on Christmas Eve due to a leak in the roof in Monique's bedroom and her sleeping in our room. Aside from not sleeping well, Christmas morning was very fun! Monique's first concern was the missing cookies we left for Santa. She started searching for them, thinking Santa 'hid' them. We had to explain that Santa ate the cookies when he came to leave her presents. Once she realized there were presents for her and she could open them, the fun began. We spent the rest of the morning opening presents and playing with all the toys. That afternoon we made a nice dinner and our neighbors came over.
We left the Friday morning after Christmas and went to Vermont to visit for a week. As usual, we enjoyed our time there with our family and friends. We stayed with the Yager's and it was a very, very, very busy household for the week. At one point there were 9 adults, 5 children and 2 dogs staying there. Everyone had a blast though and Monique got to spend lots of time with her buddy Sam. Whenever possible I spent my time with my nose in a book, reading the Twilight book series with Chris's sister Kate. Dave played a lot of board games and Wii with the guys. He got Rockband for Christmas and we took it took it to VT with us. We took advantage of there being extra people at the house and we did a double date Saturday evening with Chris and Laurie and went to dinner after we put the kids to bed. We were suppose to drive to Montreal on Monday and visit Dave's friend Geoff but we realized Sunday night that we left our passports and Monique's birth certificate in MA so we had to postpone our trip to Montreal. Sorry Geoff :(
The Yager's threw their annual New Year's Eve party, which was a blast. If you read this Kate, "I'm not worthy" :). On New Years day, we spent the day with Dave's family for their Christmas get together. Monique got to see her favorite uncle, uncle Chip. Then we came home on Friday and recovered over the weekend.
You can check out pictures from Christmas morning and our visit to VT here.
Happy New Year!
