Christmas Vacation...

Well, it has been a few days since I posted, and to be quite honest I needed the break... I will try to catch you up on the happenings of our life... I decided after my last post that it would be my last (at least for awhile) of the "pouring out my heart" posts... I guess I just realized that there was indeed some closure for me in the funeral service, and in telling the story of it to the world...

So, the last post was the 22nd (Saturday)... I guess I should get you caught up...

December 23rd - We had a Christmas Party with Dawn's Grandpa and her aunts and uncles etc... It was a nice get together at Papio's (where we go most Saturday Nights after church) in their basement. The food was good, and it was nice to see that side of the family, because we don't see them very often. Of course there are a couple of funny stories :) Aunt Noni (Dawn's 89 year-old great aunt) gave the boys each a box with presents. The presents included a "toy" car that is actually a booze bottle. So, I pulled off the cap and sure enough the smell of whiskey was potent. Here is an ebay link of something similar whiskey car.

The other story needs a little background... We know the owner of Papio's (Greg) as an acquaintance, but his fiance's family (she has several brothers) we know quite a bit better than that. Dawn has taught a couple of them, and Scott (Dawn's brother) is good friends with another one. So, Robbie (Scott's friend) tells us this story... Apparently, when Greg was making the roast beef for our dinner he was remarking about how it was just like Emeril would make... Apparently, Shawn (fiance's brother that Dawn taught a few years ago) said, "Yeah, but I don't think that Emeril would be cooking in a Pizza Oven." It was pretty funny to us...

The other Christmas Party was at my mom's... It was a nice get-together with turkey and ham... The presents were good, and we played "Shout About Movies"...

December 24th - We ended up having a Christmas Party at our house, because it was decided last year that we wouldn't have another one at Dawn's Grandparents (hence, why we had the one at Papio's on the 23rd). We had ham, baked potatoes, and lots of party food. The party was nice, and we did our gifts with Dawn's Dad... Tommy did not want to go to sleep, so it was interesting getting "everything" done that night :) He actually got up at 11:30 PM, and came down crying to tell us about how he had been bad at gym class on Friday. He wanted to tell the truth before Santa Claus came.

Christmas - Santa came to our house, and left us a Wii, and Austin got some Playdoh... I got a nice new coat from Dawn, and some other gifts. It was a nice Christmas morning. We then went to Mass for 10 AM. Tommy fell asleep, and Austin was on the "verge" of being bad the whole time. After Mass we went to the cemetery to see Autumn, and Dawn's Grandma. Autumn had a Christmas Tree in addition to her wreath, and we found out later that Dawn's Mom had placed it there. It was the first trip to the cemetery for the boys, and the first for me since the funeral. It was nice to be there... We then went to my Dad's house for lunch. He had ham, and a beef tenderloin (which was awesome). We exchanged presents, and had a nice visit. The marathon was almost complete, and we headed to Dawn's mom's house. We exchanged presents, had dinner, and then Dawn and the boys did Karaoke on the PS2. We left early this year, so that we could get Tommy home and to bed. On the way home we drove through downtown to look at the Christmas lights like we do every year...

December 26th - Tommy had a Hockey clinic, so I spent the day in Midland while he attended that. We went home, and played the Wii all night. Austin loves to play boxing... He drops the Nunchuck out of his right hand (because of his cerebral palsy) during every round. It is so cute to watch him play though...

December 27th - I am at the Midland Arena again today, and using their wi-fi to make this post :)

I hope everyone had a Merry and Blessed Christmas...