Out with the old, in with the new!

It's been a while since I've blogged, partially because I'd forgotten about it and more recently because I was procrastinating. So here you have it - my catch up post.

As every year since Adam and I have have been together, we've tried to see as much family as possible for the holidays.  At Thanksgiving we drove up to Grayling to visit with my family up there.  Mya had never met most of my extended family, and Mason certainly didn't remember them.  He quickly warmed up to Great-Grandma Pete, who chased him around her nursing home in her wheel chair.  I tell you what, for being in her 90's, Grandma Pete still has some spunk in her. 

Christmas came and more miles went on the car.  We had the Mattens Family Christmas with Adam's dad's side of the family out in Plainwell the weekend before.  Mason loves playing with his cousins on that side, and Mya has a friend in Ava who is just a few weeks older than her.  One tradition the adults love at this party is the Euchre tournament we have each year.  I always play, but rarely have I done well.  Until this year that is - I actually won!  Thanks in part to a left-right-ace-king-queen loaner, and of course to my many partners.  

 

Next it was off to Bridgeport and Christmas with my family.  Since Dan was on-call for Christmas Eve, Megan hosted us in Midland for dinner and gift-opening.  Their house was idyllic, until the piercing sound of an injured Abby brought Christmas to a halt.  (Abby is their 6-year-old black lab.)  A trip to the emergency vet later, Christmas was back on.  Outside the tree-decorating fiasco from when I lived at home (when I wanted to organize the tree), it will probably go down as one of the most memorable Welsh Christmas'.

 

We woke up Christmas morning in our home to find Santa had been busy.  Mason got the "Frank" the tractor Cars set he'd asked Santa for, and Mya got a set of little people princesses.  We got them a table and chair set from Ikea, and it's been fun to watch them sit down at it together.

A tradition of ours is to have a pancake breakfast Christmas morning so we all sat down and I decided we'd better take a picture of this.  

After the morning festivities, we headed over to Richland for the Hooker family Christmas.  Mason got to show Papa the "Roger" space shuttle from Cars 2 he got from Auntie MeMe, Uncle Dan and Julia.  Mya had to be removed from the dining room several times - not for trying to eat everything, but for trying to play with Nana's African violets that line the windows and were just at her level.   

The Hooker Christmas is always a good time - lots of food and good conversation.  When it's time to head home, you wonder where the day went.  We extended it a little this time and met Adam's cousins Jonathan, Kristin and Michael for dinner the following night.  The roads were bad, our kids were frazzled, but the company was worth it.

Before we knew it, it was Christmas Eve already.  We usually head back over to Plainwell for a cousins New Year's at the Rowe house, but this year they went down to the Cayman's so we stayed close to home.  Well, I stayed home, and Adam went out to the casino with some friends.  I tell you, staying up until midnight is only fun when your kids will sleep in the next day.  When I was woken up at 6 am, I was glad I'd stayed in and went to bed early.

Between Christmas and New Years, we got our first good snow fall of the year.  We spent New Year's weekend bundling up and playing in our yard and in the park across the street.  Sweet little Mya looked at this strange, cold white stuff and wasn't sure what to do.  She quickly decided she liked it, whatever it was, and followed Mason's lead of trying to eat it. 

It was a busy few weeks, but well worth it.  We're all looking forward to what 2013 has in store for us, and watching our little ones get less and less little.  I would resolve to be more timely with my posts, but why set myself up for failure.  Instead I'll once again promise to try to be better about it.  

From the Mattens Family - Happy New Year!