Christmas

We had a wonderful Christmas, and we hope all of our friends and family had a nice holiday too. We flew up the 23rd, and had Christmas eve at Lois and John's house. Nana was doing so well...she was up in her wheelchair and was so happy. Christmas day we went to see J and Lauren and our nephew Aiden (he's getting SO big!). Matt's parents were there, and it was so nice to see them! We had a wonderful dinner (who'd have ever thought that stuffing with lil' smokies would be so yummy!), and we spent many hours hanging out with family...it was so nice. Then on the 26th, my mom, my brother, my cousin Jaimie and I met my cousin Lauren at the tattoo parlor. We got pretty things there. :-) Then on the 27th (the day we left), Kayley had a touch of the flu and couldn't have the birthday party we were planning for her. She stayed with my parents while Matt and I went to see my Nana again (apparently after Christmas, she started getting worse, and she had been unresponsive). We left to go to the airport later that day, and found out our flight was delayed almost 2 hours! We FINALLY land in Baltimore, and wait to ge our luggage, where it had said Manchester, only to find out that they'd changed where they would send our luggage. We were waiting for our luggage at the claim that was listed as the claim for Providence. Grr...so we find our claim and get our luggage, and by that time it was almost 10pm. We went straight to the hotel and went to sleep, got up in the morning and went home. Now Matt has laryngitis. Poor thing. :-( We got a call at almost midnight last night from my brother telling me that my Nana had passed. Now, Kayley and I are going back to NH on Thursday (Poor Matt can't take any more time off), and we'll be back on Sunday. I'm so sad, but only for myself and my family. I'm so happy for Nana...she hasn't been well for a long time. It's been such a long couple of weeks...all in all though, our Christmas was fun, and it was so nice to see family we hadn't seen in a while. :-)

Almost Christmas...

Since we are flying to see family for Christmas this year, Kayley's been getting several larger presents delivered to her (how lucky is she?!) She's already received many wonderful things. Nana and Grampa have sent her lots of fun things, including an electric paintbrush light set (very cool), a Barbie Fairy, some foam crafts, an adorable outfit with a Hello Kitty vest, and a Ballerina book. She loves them so much, and she's been having a great time playing with all her new toys. She also received a handmade afghan from Matt's aunt Mary, along with a very cute stuffed afghan pony named Penelope. We were able to get a picture of Kayley, sound asleep, wrapped up in her new afghan with the pony at her head on her pillow. So sweet! And a HUGE thank-you to Matt's Uncle Bob and Aunt Kathie for the basket of assorted English Muffins and Strawberry Jam...they are so tasty, and Kayley loves the cinnamon ones!

We can't wait to see everyone...we're so excited to get there! It's been since July since Matt and Kayley have been to NH/MA to see family, but I last saw them in September. Either way, we feel it's been too long!

The weather here has been very strange...one day last week, it was almost 70 degrees! Then it promptly went down to about 40 the next day. It's nothing like the ice storm that hit NH/MA 3this past week. No wonder so many people have been getting sick. Kayley has a cold, but she's starting to get over it, with only a bad cough left. Matt had a slight cold, but it went away quickly, and I had a small one too.

We're doing pretty well...and we're so excited that we've pretty much finished shopping. I think we have finished, actually. And there's only 6 more days until we arrive in Manchester, 8 more days until Christmas, 9 more days until me, Mom, Stephen and several cousins are going to have a bonding time at a local tattoo and piercing shop, and 10 more days until we're back home. :-)

We have a wonderful lady coming to the apartment to check in on the cats while we're gone. She'll come on the 24th, and on the 26th. I'm going to leave special instructions to give the cats their Christmas presents on Christmas eve, and possibly some ham from the fridge. It's just so much less upsetting to the cats for them to stay at home, instead of being boarded. And much cheaper too...it's wonderful.

Merry Christmas!! I'll post again after we get back!