Home for the Holidays!

Mikey and I were thrilled to go home for Christmas. Maria and Mike picked us up at the airport on December 21st. There were tight hugs all around! We knew it would be a crazy fast week but we were determine to get the most at of it. On Monday we went upstate to see Grandma and Aunt Eileen for Christmas. We had a lot of fun exchanging presents and catching up with each other. On Tuesday I visited the beauty parlor to get rid of the "Skunk" look! Wednesday I shopped, wrapped presents and then the family went to Aunt Mary's for Christmas Eve dinner. It was delicious. Christmas morning opening the presents Santa left was so much fun. Mikey pretended to faint when we told him about Disney and of course Maria had to do the same. The kids loved all the presents. Daddy made us some waffles for breakfast and then we had to clear the presents out of the living room to make room our guests. On Christmas the whole family came to our house and at some point I stopped counting how many seats we need for dinner! The little cousins had lots of fun opening presents and playing in Maria's room. Nana made delicious spiral hams and Uncle Artie contributed by making a leg of lamb which seemed to disappear quickly. Thanks Mom for all the wrapping and cooking because I could not have survived without your help. It was fun tell cousin Johnny that he was going to disney with us. I wrapped a shirt I bought for him in Mt. Rushmore. I told him I know you wanted money but I thought this shirt was better. You could tell as he looked at the shirt that he rather have money. Then I told him to read the note I wrote. It said" You will need to wear this shirt in a very special place in two weeks. See below for clues. On the paper was stickers of Mickey Mouse. His face was priceless. He seem to be afraid to guess so I finally told him it was Disney. He did not believe us at first and kept asking "Are you serious." The day after Christmas we took Mikey and his friend Reilly to see "Young Frankenstein." Before the show we ate at Ruby Tuesdays. The kids absolutely loved the show and Mikey has not stopped singing the songs. I apologized to the cast in advance! Some of them are verrrrrrrrrrrry interesting and not necessarily age appropriate! LOL. The next day was his actual birthday and we had a few of his friends and family members over to celebrate. He really enjoyed playing with his cousins and Will, Michael, Brandon and Caroline. He misses all of them while he is away. It was so good to see Mary who shamed me into updating this blog. Maria enjoyed playing with Alex. Sunday was our day to pack again. Maria and I stayed in our PJ's all day. It was hard leaving Mike, Maria and Nana again. Knowing I would be home in a week to take Maria to Disney got me through it. Not sure what will get me through when I have to come back after Disney. I guess I'll take it "One Day at a Time."