The After-Christmas lazies

Here's the rest of the holiday wrap-up.....first off, Christmas Eve. Joe went to do his last-minute shopping, so Quinn and I went up to Bluffton with Dad, Mom, Grandma Davis, Kara and her girls to Aunt Becky's new house. We squeezed 30-some people in for soup and sandwiches and lots of desserts. It was a lot of fun, especially getting to see my cousins that I don't get to see very often.
Here we are, playing a very entertaining game that Amy brought with her:
And Quinn with his Grandma and Great-Grandmas:
Christmas morning, all three of us slept in late, then Quinn found his toys under the tree, so we let him play with those for a while before packing things up and going out to dad and mom's house for gifts and vegetable soup, our traditional Christmas lunch. That was a lot of fun, and Quinn pretty much just ran circles around the house all day.



Waiting to open gifts

Christmas night, about 30 minutes after I got home from mom and dad's, I got the "sickness". I don't know what it was, but it was very reminiscent of the year of the oyster dressing (I know, I know, it wasn't the dressing!)
I was only sick for a quick 24 hours, but I was completely down and out for that 24 hours....I slept most of it away. When I woke up, Joe had put most of the Christmas gifts away, washed all of Quinn's new clothes, and cleaned up a lot of the after-Christmas mess! (Thanks Joe!)
His family arrived on Saturday- they were going to come Friday, but the weather was too "icky" up north, so they waited until Saturday morning- and we had our Christmas dinner (taco pizza from Sparky's-- due to me being sick the day before I never did make it to the grocery for the dinner we were going to have, so pizza it was.) Jer and Trish had to get back on the road Saturday night so Jer could make it back to his basketball practice...the rest of us hung out at home and played Guitar Hero and bowling on the Wii until bedtime.
Yesterday, Joe worked around the house doing some fix-it stuff, and Q and I played all day in the newly renamed "toy room" (what used to be a family room, but is now all-consumed by toddler toys!) The highlight of last night was Quinn's new haircut- I cut his hair with the clippers this time, so it's pretty short. We got tired of the baby-mullett...his hair doesn't grow much on the sides, but it gets really long and thick in the back, so it's borderline Joe Dirt....but not anymore. Now it's more G.I. Joe.
I have to go back to work tomorrow, which will be an adjustment after a week of sleeping in! I hope I make it in time.
As far as New Year's Eve, we were invited to go to a party and we've planned on it, but Quinn's got a tooth about to cut through, and he is NOT fun to be around when that happens--not only is he super cranky (as he should be, I would be too!) but he tends to get a pretty high fever with each new tooth, so we may end up just staying home with him and perpetuating the laziness. Who knows. :) It will probably be a last minute decision, based on him and, of course, the unpredictable Ohio weather.

Christmas Party, Take 1.

Sunday was the kickoff of the holiday season, the Davis/Lehman/Gordon party...we missed Kyle and the Coveys this year (and the Texans, of course!) The white elephant exchange was fun, especially once people got into the stealing of gifts; my favorite part was when Rylee stole a game from her own mother! She really got into the "spirit" of the game! Thanks to everyone for driving down to our house for the afternoon-- we had a lot of fun.
Joe and I have one more day of work tomorrow, then we're both home for the rest of the week, and we can't wait for the much-needed break.
Here's Jessica and I and her OSU gift from the exchange:Quinn, looking less than happy with the bow on his head
Joe, first to open a gift in the exchange (it's a waffle maker; we plan on using it quite a bit over break. YUM!)
The "cookers".

Highlights of the past week:

1. Quinn got a new winter hat and actually keeps it on his head, which is a new development for him. I guess his ears finally got cold enough to not throw the hat on the ground.
2. I made my first ever batch of buckeyes. Yummy!

3. Joe graduated. OK, technically he already graduated back in the summer when he was in Switzerland, but he wanted to walk in the formal ceremony at U of M....he was the only one out of his global program to participate in the festivities, but even so, he was still glad he went.
4. Snow day today for Joe, and it's my day off, so the 3 of us got to hang out at home together all day. We all slept in and enjoyed our lazy day!

5. Not really a highlight, but we got the results back from Quinn's allergy tests (he had a reaction to something last week and had to spend a couple hours of monitoring in the ER, then blood tests later in the week. Ugh.) Turns out he's allergic to eggs, which limits a lot of what he can eat. I'm quickly becoming educated on food allergies and how to deal with and cook for it.

Other than that, I'm trying to get ready for Christmas...I (finally) started Christmas cards today, and we did some shopping over the weekend, but there's still more to do. Hopefully Friday is the day to get that finished...I'm looking forward to our family get together on Sunday- and am still in search of a white elephant exchange gift!

Check out my craftiness.

Holiday grocery store find!

Did you know that Jell-O makes a Pumpkin Spice pudding for the holidays!? I love any and everything pumpkin, so I grabbed 3 boxes right away...I think I'll need more because I made 2 of them last night and I'm already on my second bowl of it today. I'm enjoying it right now with a Vanilla cappuccino....YUM. Perfect snowy-day snack.