Christmas 2009

Mom, Dad and Jeff came in from afar to celebrate Christmas with us.

The highlights included Phase Ten, and shooting nerf guns at a the patio door where we painted a target using soap.

Shawn is constantly giving me little tidbits of useful information that he has read. It drives me a little nuts. Especially since one week the article he sends me will say coffee is bad for you. And then he will send me another article the next week that states coffee is the lifesaving nectar of the Gods.

So to retaliate, (because I am mature like that) I got him the complete series of the "Eat This Not That Books". There are actually pretty cool books. Below is a picture of all the men in my life engrossed in one of the books. I am not sure if I should be concerned or happy that the books were such a hit.

Charlie received a bunch of trains for Christmas. And he loved every single one of them. He got the track assembled in no time and played contently for hours.

We also got together with Shawn's family over the holidays. We finally got to meet our little nephew, Elliott. He is pretty stinking cute. But I may be biased, since he looks a lot like his Uncle Shawn.

Shawn's family is famous for giving goofy gifts. It is sort of their trademark. Shawn still talks about the jar of marbles, and shampoo ( in a Spock-shaped bottle), that he received as a kid. This year was no exception. If it says "As seen on TV" on the box, someone in the family is getting it for Christmas.

So, Shawn received Potato Gloves. They are rubber gloves with a texture to them. They allow you to peel the potato by rubbing a boiled potato. We have video. But, I didn't want to scare you so I will just post the following picture.

We had a lot of fun with the family. And of course AJ and Charlie loved having them around. They get so excited, that I have to swear to my parents that they are really quite normal children and not nearly this hyper all the time. I am not sure they believed me, though.

The family left on the 28th and Shawn and I started the arduous moving process. We are still trying to get it all done. The house looks like we should be in one of the documentaries about hoarders. But I guess that is bound to happen when you downsize. We purged. Or at least we thought we had purged. But it turns out we have low standards when it comes to purging. Who knew? Ok, we knew. But we were in denial.

I will post pictures as soon as soon as it looks like a home and not a storage locker. I promise. But, we love the new house. We can walk to the store, school and Charlie's daycare. The house is beautiful and has a lot of fun features. (e.g. wainscotting 3/4 up the wall in the master bedroom- drool.)

I will post what else we have been up to in a few days. But I need to go unpack something. We've already lost the cat once.