Happy New Year!

Hello everyone! Hope you had a wonderful holiday season. We have had a very nice time over the past week.

On Christmas eve, we went to Whitney's for a nice brunch. Then, on Christmas day, we hung out at home. We didn't go anywhere and no one came here. It was very relaxing and Eddie and Ben enjoyed some new goodies.

Then, on the 26th, we drove to Wintergreen, VA for three nights. On the way there, we stopped at JMU for lunch and ran around the campus getting in and out of the car taking pictures. Come on kids! Stand here! Now, Eddie, take MY picture. It was fun.

Wintergreen was beautiful and so relaxing! We were there with Peirce's dad and Sybil, and brother, Gordon, and Andrea and Zoë. It was a six bedroom house and unfortunately, Will and family from NJ couldn't make it down because of the blizzard they got up north. We cooked good meals, enjoyed each other's company and hit the slopes on one day. Most of us stood around and watched the kids learn to ski, but Gordon wins the award for best athlete because he rented skis and actually skied a few runs. My foot is still very tender and purple, so even my snow boot hurt after a half hour of wear. Otherwise, I'm doing just fine. I'm just slightly limited in footwear options.

After Wintergreen, we drove back through Richmond and stopped and had a nice Christmas celebration lunch with Cacky and Rupert. The boys received their gifts and proceeded to fight over them, so as I told Cacky, that is a sign of a good present.

We came home and decompressed for a day and then went to my dad's yesterday for gift exchange and lunch (picture above). My dad has his train garden up, so the boys pretty much stood at the big table the entire time and hardly ever spoke to us! And yesterday, the torch was passed when my dad handed down his "Eddie" stocking from when he was a little boy to our Eddie. What a neat thing! We don't know which year the stocking was purchased, but Nanny said it was "during the war." So, there you have it!

New Years eve was fun. The kids ate pizza, I got steamed shrimp and Peirce made some frozen mozzarella sticks and potato skins for himself. After we put the kids to bed, Peirce and I played Rock Band on the Wii. Peirce was glad that I FINALLY wanted to play a video game with him. It was fun! I sang lots of Pearl Jam and good rock songs and I also made him download Lady Gaga's Bad Romance. I looove that song. Low and behold, it was the hardest one. The girl does not take a breath the whole song, so I was dying.

Now it is the new year. Soon enough we will all be back to the grind of our daily lives again. This vacation certainly has been fun while it lasted! I hope you all have a very happy and healthy 2011.