Adam's New Best Friends

As I mentioned in previous posts, Adam has 2 new toys which are proving to be endlessly fascinating to him. On the left is the Garmin StreetPilot c330 GPS and on the right is the Motorola Q smartphone. Where have they been all his life?

Nana and Grandpa

Nana and Grandpa came to visit last night. Drew was so excited to see them! Apparently, Santa had left a few gifts for Drew at their house, so they brought them along too. Thankfully, Santa remembered that we have a small house so none of the presents was huge, as they have a tendency to be quite large when they are left at Judy and Charlie's house.

We didn't do much during the day outside of a thrilling ride to the post office to demonstrate Adam's GPS - his new favorite toy.

Before they headed home this evening, Adam and Charlie went to pick up dinner from Maiwand Kabob. We love their food -- even Drew eats it, and we normally wind up getting kabobs whenever we have family visiting from out of town.

Merry Christmas

We had a great Christmas this year. Not too much stress and everyone seemed to get along. What more can you ask for? Drew came downstairs this morning to see a bunch of Christmas presents under the tree. Santa had also eaten his cookies and drunk his milk during his stop last night.


Opening presents is very exciting, but Drew hardly stopped to look at each one before he was opening the next one. I guess that's pretty normal at this age.


We had a delicious dinner at Aunt Carole and Uncle Andy's (with Dad and Melva too), if I do say so myself:

Too many hors oeuvre's to mention
Standing Rib Roast
Yorkshire Pudding
Mashed Potatoes and Gravy
Broccoli and Hollandaise
Coconut/hot milk Christmas tree cake (made by Melva)

Everyone's Lipitor (or the cholesterol medication du jour) was working overtime today! We almost forgot to take any pictures after dinner so we quickly snapped this one right before we left.

Drew was one tired boy by Christmas night. We stopped at my friend Bonnie's house around 6 and Drew had fallen asleep on the way. He rallied for a little while, but was out like a light as soon as we got him home and in bed!

Happy Birthday Dad!

Today is Dad's ??th birthday. I'm not going to say the number, though, because I'm sure I'd get in trouble for it. We went to lunch today at Shannon's (it's Monday and that's our usual day), but we actually celebrated on Saturday at his house with dinner, cake and presents. Melva made a delicious dinner that included ham and macaroni and cheese--the kids were very happy!

Andy and Carole gave Dad a card that played the Chicken Dance (Alex picked it out), and I got a video of the kids doing the dance along to the music, but I haven't figured out how to post videos. I see that Megan uses youtube, so I'll probably try that route when I get some time. The kids were rambunctious as usual with Drew and Alex doing their usual routine. I really hope those two decide to get along one of these days--I think they're more like brothers than cousins.

Unfortunately, Adam had to work so he missed the party, but he got to have some chocolate cake when he got home.


On our way home, we stopped to see one of the most decorated houses in Columbia, not too far from Dad and Melva's. Drew was so taken by it that he wanted to get out of the car to look at it up close, then he kept running up and down through the tunnel (driveway) ,and I had to practically drag him away to look at the rest of the yard. This place gets written up in the paper every year, although there's a house on the way to Andy and Carole's that's actually going to be in an HGTV special about "extreme lights" or something like that. We stop there almost every time we've been to Andy and Carole's. Drew likes that house because there's a big Grinch toward the front of the yard.

Choir Practice

Quite the look for choir practice, isn't it? Did I mention that it's dark outside, too?

Oh Christmas Tree

Drew is VERY excited about Christmas this year. Once he saw that people had their houses decorated and had their Christmas trees, he was on us constantly about putting our lights up and getting our own tree. We bought a couple of new ornaments last weekend, including one that has the Grinch on it and he really wanted to hang it up.

We managed to get out to get the Christmas tree yesterday (it took us all of 2 minutes to pick it out), and spent part of this evening decorating it. Drew was a big help in putting on the ornaments, but, I don't know if you can really see it in the picture, he put all of the ornaments on 1 or 2 branches. They kept falling off because the branches couldn't handle all the weight. We told him to put them higher or on the other side of the tree, but that just wasn't the look he was going for. I waited until he went to bed and moved them all around (Adam said my OCD kicked in).

Cold Weather

It actually got cold enough to pull out the winter coats, gloves and hats. This hat always gets a laugh when he wears it, but Drew picked it out himself last year when we were at Grandma's house.

Happy Anniversary

Today was our 6th wedding anniversary. I got some beautiful flowers, and Adam got some candy (it's a traditional gift for the 6th anniversary-who knew?!?!) We had the opportunity to actually spend the day together since Adam wasn't working, and my friend Pattee kept Drew overnight for us. We spent the afternoon buying new phones and some new clothes for Adam, which I know doesn't necessarily SOUND very exciting, but it's almost impossible to do those kinds of things with Drew around.

We went to dinner at Cynthia's in Severna Park. The food was really good - Adam had venison and I had duck which aren't things you normally find on the dinner table at or. Drew had a great time at Aunt Pattee and Uncle Lebster's house and he got to see "The Bee Movie" and to eat dinner at Cheeburger Cheeburger.