back but busy

We had a great birthday (Matthew), Christmas, and New Year's. We had family here and then we went to visit family. It all went pretty well. I think it was the best visit we ever had with MIL. Maybe she's accepting how David & I are as parents and has decided that we are doing ok. Of course we might hear in 3 months how we did something horrible while she was here, but oh well...I'm not going to fret about it. I enjoyed her visit very much and hope that the next visit is just as good. It helps that I felt like I got a lot done while she was here - having her entertain/play with the kids while I cooked and all was just awesome. I think everyone enjoyed their time here - we got a TON of snow, and my 5 year old nephew kept telling his mom that Michigan is so pretty! While that is true, we are definitely not in the pretty part of the state, but it does look nice when blanketed with snow. He also told her at one point "this is the best Christmas ever" - and that was before he got any presents!

For Christmas Eve & Christmas Day, it was just the four of us and David's mom. Christmas Eve we went to see Santa. Scarlett wouldn't have anything to do with him until he offered her a stuffed bear. She took that but was holding on tight to her daddy the whole time. No great Santa pictures, even though some of the ones I took with just Matthew & Santa are ok. That night David & I enjoyed playing Santa - wrapping presents and putting the bigger things together so the kids would see them right away. Christmas morning was a lot of fun - Matthew's face lit up when he saw his bicycle (Smart Cycle) and he immediately ran over to it & climbed on. Scarlett loved her princess chair. We left home after lunch Christmas Day to visit with David's dad's family. We spent the night in Tennesee and then drove Friday night to Georgia. That's my favorite place of all. :)

We really had a great time in Georgia - the weather was so warm and Matthew & Scarlett enjoyed playing outside almost every day. I think Matthew has a little farm boy in him - his favorite activity is riding or driving the tractor and he insists on going out in the field.

David & I enjoyed a little time away - we bought tickets to the Peach Bowl, which is a New Year's Eve bowl game, and we booked a hotel room for the night. Ordinarily we would have gone back to mom & dad's, but the game was a 7:30pm game, and it was NYE. We left the kiddos with my parents and went to Atlanta - we somehow were running late and didn't have time to do much before the game. The game sucked, we got our butts kicked, but it was entertaining watching people fly paper airplanes around the dome. Someone threw one from the opposite side of the field that actually made it all the way across the field - that's a minimum of 160 feet, plus the sidelines - that it crossed. Pretty impressive!

We then went to the Peach Drop. I can't believe all the years we lived in Atlanta we never went. We had a lot of fun - the crowds were terrible but people were in party mode and pretty much everyone was nice & fun. There were a couple of obnoxious assholes, but in that size crowd, a couple isn't too bad. After the peach dropped we walked back to the hotel. From our room we could see fireworks going off around the city. I enjoyed sleeping in the next day, because even though I have a super awesome husband who lets me sleep in pretty often, I've been nursing for so long that even sleeping in meant getting up to feed Scarlett and then going back to bed. It was nice to sleep late, but I did wake up around 8am, then realized I could go back to sleep.

I had a really hard time this trip saying goodbye to everyone. I almost lost it Friday night at supper, even though it was just me & David eating, since we were trying to pack when everyone else ate. I just hate being this far away from home, because as much as we've made this home, it will never truly be home.

We got back home Saturday afternoon & it was like christmas all over again for the kids - so many new toys at home that they barely had time to play with. Of course now my house is a wreck since we haven't really unpacked, we just unloaded & dumped stuff everywhere. It can wait, right?