Over the Holidays and then some...

This is take two because the first take my slideshows were set to some music that I didn't endorse or approve. It's going to just be slideshows, I think.

Thanksgiving/Christmas Celebration with my dad's side of the family:

My brother, A, came into town and visited with my dad's side of the family. He hasn't done that in many, many years. He spent most of the time with my dad, stepmom, and two brothers, R and N. Then we got together with my dad's siblings and "the cousins" on Saturday for our traditional Thanksgiving/Christmas celebration. This year, my aunt's typical planning craziness included a Christmas Cantata that included worship and a sermon from her pastor. She was almost lynched though when she wanted to have the cantata before the food. We L's LOVE, LOVE, LOVE our food. So to postpone dinner was a dicey gamble. It was a fun time. Then A came home with me and the next morning my brother K, his wife M, and their boys T and G, met us for brunch at MoKaBe's. It was a good time.

Our tree farm trip:

First our car started acting funny and we had to take it to the mechanic. By the time we got on the road, The Scientist was SO CRABBY! We did everything we could to appease, or ignore him (in a nice way), to let him know that we were trying to give him an experience. It took a little creativity and patience.

Christmas:

Dirty's mom came to visit us for a week and he took off the whole week. It was a really, really nice way to start the Holiday break. Monkey developed an uncanny ability to guess what presents were. He guessed what most of the presents were that he was getting. It was completely crazy. We enjoyed a lot of family time and I didn't want the break from school to come to an end for the boys. They did start acting like my sweet boys again. So it's good to know that in two weeks, I can dust off the snotty, disrespectful attitudes and have the awesome, loving children that I raised thus far. Oh, and next year, I'm getting the boys, and maybe even Dirty and I, pajamas for Christmas Eve. Our Christmas morning pictures are a bit white trashy with The Scientist with no shirt and Monkey with no pants. You live and you learn. I try to anyway. ha.