NYE 2014

I'm squeezing in one last post into 2014!  I had planned to write a separate post for each of our Christmas parties last week, but that didn't quite work out.  Time just got away from me.  Ahh well...good intentions sometimes don't pan out.  So I will just give you a little summary of our awesome Christmas week.

We started Friday afternoon before Christmas.  I had a half day off, and Matt and I were supposed to go to the movies that afternoon.  That didn't happen.  Life happened instead.  Thursday night Laura came home with a fever, and she and Emma had a fever Friday morning.  So I worked a few hours, and then we took both of them to the doctor.  I was concerned that we were going into the weekend and there was a possibility that they had the flu that is permeating our area.  Thankfully, they didn't have the flu, just a pesky virus.  Their fevers were gone the next day, and they were left with congestion.  Thankfully we got that out of the way before all of the parties started. 

Next up was Saturday night with the Manleys at the Shamrock Club.  The kids spent the night at Grammy and Papa's house, and Matt and I headed out around 7:30.  It was the perfect way to kick off our Holiday.  There was good Buckeyes talk, which is standard whenever we hang with the Manleys.  They are all confident that we are winning the game tomorrow, so much so, that Aunt Sandy, Don, Joe, and Kristy have their trips to Texas booked!  I love it!  We shall see tomorrow.  I'm about 50-60% confident.  I'm a little conservative with only seeing that quarterback once!  Don told us a hilarious childhood story about cars and eggs...I'll leave the rest to your imagination.  This of course spurred Matt's memory about snowballs and cars and a chase through the field.  Go figure.  And then there was some great conversation catching up with some others.  As always, we had an awesome time. 

And we got a bonus that evening.  Matt and I got to do a make - up, and we saw Mockingjay Part 1.  I really enjoyed it.  It was my favorite of the Hunger Games series so far.

The next morning, Matt and I sprung into action to start packing and getting ready for the Adams family Christmas in Logan.  We were spending the night in a hotel there, so I had to pack overnight stuff for the girls and me too.  Matt took care of everything food and drink-wise that we were taking.  We were meeting my parents at noon to get the kids, and shockingly we were pretty much on time.  We headed straight to Logan so that the kids could swim before the party.  And they sure did enjoy it!  The water was freeeeezing.  But it didn't bother the kids too much.  They would just jump in the hot tub quickly and then back into the pool.  I pretty much spent the whole time in the hot tub.  I'm a wuss when it comes to cold water!  Matt stayed in the pool with the girls. Later that evening we headed to the Bowen House for the Adams Christmas party.  The kids had an fun-filled evening.  They ran back and forth through that place about a million times.  Little Emma and her cousin, Rom, battled the whole time.  He's about 6 months younger than her, and they were constantly body slamming each other, or pinching, or shoving, or something.  I felt kind of bad for him because he was taking the brunt of it.  Santa and Mrs. Claus also visited the Christmas party and brought the kids presents.  So that was pretty cool too.  Thank you to everyone that contributed and made the party happen.  It was certainly an enjoyable time.

Emma posing for me.

 My nephew, Bryce, kissing his sweet Grandma Rosemund.

 Emma's cousin and opponent, Rom.

We went home the next day, and that afternoon Kara and Sydney came over for a visit.  The girls and Sydney played and played and played to their heart's content.  Kara, Emma's godmother, brought her a baby doll nursery set.  All of our girls love it.  As I suspected many of our babies are getting use out of it!  Sydney was so sweet and made the other two girls bracelets and brought them all reindeer food.  She is so sweet and thoughtful!  It was nice for me too to get to have some girlfriend time.  :)

Tuesday night we spend with the Manleys for our annual Christmas gathering.  Our girls love to play with Sophia, and they had a great time this year too!  The highlight for me was Danielle's dinner!  It was SO good!  She made all of these yummy homemade toppings for taco night.  We had pulled beef, coleslaw, pineapple salsa, tomato salsa, rice and beans, and the list goes on.  I loved it!  Of course the kids opened some gifts, which was fun too.  Then off they went to play, while we got some adult conversation.  Yay!!  It was another fun evening.

Next up - Christmas Eve!  We went to Mass at Holy Cross downtown, which was beautiful, and then we headed to dinner with my parents, Alan and Jayne, Chelsea and Josh at Brio.  It was such a nice time!  We got to catch up with Chelsea and Josh, who we don't see often.  I don't think I've seen Chelsea in a year!  And dinner was delicious!  The kids opened some gifts and played and chatted before dinner.  Little Hannah fell asleep at dinner!  Emma crawled under the table about twenty times.  It all went way too fast.   When we got home, the kids put their cookies out for Santa and sprinkled their reindeer food in the lawn and headed to bead.  Thankfully, they were so tired, they went to bed with no fight and fell right to sleep.  I was able to move little Emma straight from the van to her bed (or mine).

Our elf leaving some Christmas Eve earrings for the girls

Matt and Jayne

Alan and Matt conspiring

Jayne and Chelsea (and my mom and dad at the end of the table)

Christmas morning was magical.  The girls watched a secret video that Johnny the elf left them of Santa in our house!  And then they tore into their stockings.  They could hardly hold themselves back as I started to hand them presents.  It was a blast that ended with a tornado in the living room.  After breakfast, we relaxed for a while and enjoyed the morning.  We watched Christmas Vacation and sipped on eggnog.  Perfect Christmas Morning.  Then of course, we headed to my parents' house.  The excitement started all over again.  Dad made some very decadent, traditional oyster soup.  I loved it.  He also had Merry Berry, which is another Prochaska tradition.  It's a frozen juice and bourbon beverage.  So yummy!  There was presents and lots of good visiting.  My mom and Aunt Lisa made an awesome Christmas dinner that I would be remiss if I didn't mention.  It was so good!

The girls enjoying their fancy holiday drinks! (ginger ale)

They have their new headlamps on for hobbit hunting with Papa!

And then Saturday we repeated our Christmas gathering at my parents' again with Ellen and Justin.  They were in Michigan with Justin's family on Christmas, so we met up with them on Saturday.  We had dinner again with all of the fixings and presents and lots of visiting.  I think it was win-win-win! 

Emma got this Cabbatch Patch kid, but Laura claimed her.

And we even squeezed in a little baking :)

Our Christmas was complete.  I would not have changed one thing about it.  And that brings us to the end of 2014!  Whoa!  I can't believe this year is over already.  It seems to have flown by.  Slow down Father Time!  I can't wait to see what 2015 has in store for us. 

HAPPY NEW YEAR!