Family Fun

It has been a wonderful week of family fun. It has been absolutely the best thing to have all my kids home at the same time. We've done a lot of eating, playing games, doing jigsaw puzzles, and talking. It's been pretty much my idea of perfection! The only thing that could have made it better was if someone had come in to do all the cooking and cleaning up, but there is something rewarding about preparing meals and feeding my family, so I can't complain too much.

Last Saturday we all journeyed up to visit my Mother-in-law at her assisted-living facility and enjoy a pizza lunch with her. Hubby's two brothers and their families came too and so all the cousins got to visit with each other which is always so much fun. Grandma is very generous to us and her grandchildren with Christmas money, but she likes to also have a gift for us to open. During the year, Grandma "shops" at the consignment store at her residence. Residents can leave their unwanted items at the store and other residents can buy them. This year she had a whole laundry basket full of things she'd put away for us to open and we all participated in a Yankee Swap. There were some interesting items: some jam, a few pairs of salt and pepper shakers, wooden bowls, and for some unknown reason, a pair of little girl's (brand new) pink cotton panties. Now what Grandma was thinking when she purchased these is beyond knowing, but they were the item to not get stuck with!! Much to everyone's laughter, our youngest son was the lucky last recipient of this item.

On Christmas Eve, we had a great lasagna dinner, oldest son's favorite, then headed off to church. When we returned, we got into our pajamas, opened one gift each, and watched "Muppet's Christmas". This has been our family tradition since 1987, the Christmas just before youngest son turned two. Muppet's Christmas was a television program just before Christmas which we had taped for the kids to watch, and for almost every day the following year, he asked to watch it again and again. Everyone learned every line of the show: "look out for the icy patch", "Hobla gobla, goofy woofy", and Miss Piggy's line about her Christmas gift to her beloved Kermy: "green, fuzzy flipper slippers". Four years ago, while visiting my sister in Missouri, she took me to a gift shop where I found a tiny pair of baby green fuzzy flipper slippers. I bought one pair with blue embroidery and another with pink and set them aside for my first grandchild. Well, the time had come.....when Miss Piggy spoke her famous line, I announced that we had to pause the tape and open this little gift. Having neglected to take a photo of my first expected grandson's slippers, here are the pink embroidered pair of green fuzzy flipper slippers (which are still safely tucked away for our first granddaughter). Needless to say, the little slippers were a big hit, and I secretly prided myself at actually remembering where I had hid them away four years ago!

Christmas morning we enjoyed opening gifts together while eating cinnamon rolls, had a wonderful "big" breakfast complete with our once-a-year bacon, played games all afternoon, and then ate our turkey dinner in the evening. What a great day!! Hubby got a Wii for Christmas (good thing because the kids received games!). We played some Guitar Hero III, Tiger Woods Golf, and Mario Party. Here are some photos of the competitive game playing and jigsaw puzzling:




It has really been a fun week here at our house. Oldest son, our daughter-in-law, their soon expected son, and their dog, all left on Wednesday evening. Tomorrow youngest son will leave to go back to school in California. So today is our last day of family fun. DD and her hubby will arrive soon to watch UConn play in the Meineke Car Care Bowl this afternoon and then we'll watch the Patriots go 16-0 tonight. Somewhere in between the two games we'll have dinner and maybe play a little more Wii. What are Hubby and I going to do when all this entertainment is over??