Ho Ho Holiday Part 1

There is nothing like being home for the Holidays. I love my family so so much. Andrew and I arrived in DC late last Thursday, Dec 16th, and then went right to Roanoke, VA Saturday morning. With the move, we hadn't seen my mom's family since the wedding! 

I have a beautiful Godson, Coleman, and he has turned into such a little man! We used to roll around on the ground playing ninja turtles and going on missions, but now he's on to Ben 10 and iphone apps and other big boy games. With a little insider information, I was able to get him a Ben 10 game for wii that got a "Thank you very much Stephy!" in an almost soldier-like, snapping into a straight up and down salute! It's amazing how wonderful and loving he is since he was so little the last time I saw him and we were best friends almost instantly! 

And then there was Ben. At our wedding, Ben was barely a couple weeks old. He's a mover and a shaker! I'm convinced that I'm a bit of a baby whisperer because kids tend to like me, and really quickly. Within 10 minutes, Ben was in my arms and not wanting to go to anyone else! Granted, his mom and dad weren't there, but I choose to ignore that fact. It's so fun to see kids be their own little people. Whenever Ben got upset, if you took him outside for a few minutes - just holding him - he was revived. Amazing!

Ben and Coleman are my cousin Alissa's kids. Lissy is my long lost sister. We both have the "Goober" gene which causes us to humiliate ourselves over and over in grandiose, and often self-injuring, ways. It was so great to see her and her hubby Keith, who was a big trooper since he celebrated his 40th birthday rather enthusiastically the night before. Then Aunt Conchita came, and Natty and Matt, and Mikey and Sam! It was just like the good old days, minus Jesse. And that's a really big minus. 

Mikey and Sam brought Aunt Cris and Uncle Wayne electronic Catch Phrase. After a disgustingly huge dinner full of our favorites - black beans and rice, turkey, ham, Aunt Conchita's famous broccoli casserole, and more - we played several hours of Catch Phrase, Boys vs Girls. There were some really funny highlights including Matt's clue of wavelengths bouncing off prisms, trying to get his team to guess "color" and Jack's interesting way to get his team to guess "mixed". We girls really struggled with our timing and the boys kept winning over and over. I was really enjoying the plethora of red wines, and the vino combined with my competitiveness was not bringing out my best side. I walked away from the game with a sour taste in my mouth! 


We ended up leaving VA fairly early on Sunday morning so all the boys could get home to watch the Ravens game. I made everyone watch Elf in the car to get us into the Christmas Spirit. There's something about Will Farrel as Buddy the Elf that really completes the Christmas experience. It's definitely one of the most quotable movies out there! We stopped in Charlottesville on the way back, at a Best Buy, to pick up a cable so that Andrew could hook his computer up to our TV at home to watch the Ravens game (being from a predominantly Redskin town, we'd already found out it wasn't being shown on regualr TV) via Andrew's NFL gamepass. While in Best Buy, I found Despicable Me! I'm really lucky that my husband doesn't tell me "no" very often :) 


Jack, Andrew and I watched Despicable Me for the last leg of the trip. Hands down, one of my most favorite movies I've ever seen! It's sad when you are almost 27 years old and identify most with an animated 5 year old. The part where she sees the unicorn at the amusement park and screams "it's SO fluffy I want to die" really got me, on more than one level! I can't WAIT to watch it again! 


So our trip has started off with a bang! I can't wait to see what happens as we get closer and closer to Christmas. 


Side Note: Christmas Dinner part 1 at Aunt Cris's, we were still sat at the kids table... I'm not sure that we'll ever graduate!