Christmas 2013

We had a lovely long Christmas this year. Along with all the parties and other fun activities I already posted about, we had our own small family "Christmas morning" at our house where Santa came early to bring the kids their gifts so he wouldn't have to find them in Michigan. They both were excited for their presents and they stayed busy playing with the new toys while I cleaned and packed the day before we left town.

On Christmas Eve we set off for Michigan. On both the way there and the way back we had ridiculously long days because I thought it would be worth saving the extra money by buying the cheap three-flight-each-way tickets. Although the boys did marvelously well for traveling well over 12 hours both days, I will tell you that we will certainly not be doing THAT again!  We mercifully at least had room to spread out into some empty seats for two of the flights.

Once we arrived in Michigan we spent a lovely seven days with our Onofrio family, first at Benjamin's parents' house and then at Tony and Anna's. Miles and Tommy were in heaven playing with their cute cousins. Miles especially seemed to adore his cousin Lucy (the boy cousins had too many common interests so there was lots of arguments and punching, pushing, etc. over who got which truck or train). We tried to let Miles and Lucy have a cousin sleep-over in the same room one night but after two and a half hours of singing, giggling, fort-building, and finally jumping on the bed we had to break them up and send them to separate rooms. 

While there we were able to see Benjamin's grandparents and some extended family, and even managed to get an updated family photo. We even made it over to see my Grandma Elaine for a quick visit (although Tommy did break a crystal candle stick and Miles spilled on her made-in-Denmark chair, so I guess it wasn't quick enough...)

And along with the fantastic company, there of course was LOTS of good, good food. We discovered Tommy loves Onofrio spaghetti, Miles likes squirrel (I'm not making that up....Grandpa Pat made it for lunch for us!), and I learned Tony's special meatball recipe. I could make a whole post just about the good food.

All in all it was a fantastic trip. Everyone got along, everyone stayed healthy, the boys slept decently, and most importantly we got to spend time with people we love. Thanks for a great time, Onofrios!