home again

Well, after two and a half weeks and lots of traveling, we are finally home, and glad to be here. We had a great time with Greg's family in Washington. The kids were spoiled, of course, but I suppose they deserve it once in a while. James got to ride Grandma's horse, Snickers, a couple of times, and liked to help Papa walk the dogs. He spent a lot of time drawing (he got a lot of art supplies for Christmas) and a lot of time playing with the Schmidts' vast Lego and Transformer collections. His reading is really starting to take off, which we're all excited about. He also got to spend some quality time playing with Greg's 6-year-old cousin Kyle, who loves Star Wars possibly even more than James does.

Evan was a little overwhelmed by all the new people at first, but he soon settled in and loved all the attention he got. (Poor kid will have to learn to live without that again.) Surprisingly, he loved the dogs once he got used to them. He did learn very quickly to turn his face away when Lucky approached, though, to avoid those sloppy doggy kisses Lucky loves to give. Over the course of two weeks, Evan not only perfected pulling himself up to a sitting position, but also crawling and pulling himself up to standing. That last one makes me a little nervous, as he will try to pull up on anything. Now we've really got to get around to babyproofing the house.



We had a nice Christmas, saw all of Greg's family, played lots of Settlers of Catan with its various expansions (always important), slept in now and then, spent New Year's Eve in Seattle with Greg's friends, watched lots of movies, played lots of games (including DDR! my favorite), and we even got a night out without the kiddos for Greg's brother Scott's 21st birthday. I couldn't ask for much more out of a vacation.

Now we are home, with lots of unpacking and cleaning to do. James' birthday is on Sunday, so my mom is coming this weekend to celebrate with us. I have a lot to do in preparation -- find a birthday present, bake a cake, and lots and lots of cleaning. No more of the laziness of vacation. But I am glad to be home. It's very pretty and snowy here, and I slept in my own bed last night with cozy flannel sheets, and now I can play DDR every day and maybe shed a little of the holiday weight I surely gained from all of the wonderful food we had.

Hope everyone else had a wonderful holiday!