Holidays 2008

Our holidays this year kicked off, as usual, by celebrating both Chanukah and Grandpa's birthday at Grandpa and Sue's house. This year, we were at the new place in Annapolis, and there was plenty of room for all the kids (and all the presents). We had a delicious brunch and had plenty of fun playing with the new toys and puzzles.

We celebrated Christmas with Grandma and Papa Bob on the Sunday before Christmas Eve. We first went to the service at Knox Presbyterian (Grandma's church) and then we to Andrew and Treva's for more food (and more presents). Sarah finally lost her first tooth, chewing on some steamed rice. The Tooth Fairy paid a visit that night, and gave Sarah a dollar and a coupon to a visit to Chuck E. Cheese.

On Christmas Eve, we were all planning to go to the children's Mass on St. Pius with the Olsens, but Nicholas had another round of pink eye, so he stayed home with Ali. The next morning, we opened presents - and Santa brought us a Nintendo Wii! David wanted to ease into the day, but Ali and Sarah were pushing him to hook up the Wii as soon as possible. It didn't take long, and we played for a little while. For dinner, we went to the Olsens, and had ham and other goodies.

The weekend after Christmas, we drove up to NJ to stay at Steven and Jenne's in Madison for "A Mocko Family Christmas 2008". Sarah and Nicholas finally got to meet their new cousin Paige, and it was great to see Bryan and Anne and JJ again. We also met JJ's girlfriend Emily. Poppy was also there - but Mom-Mom was so sick with the flu or something like it that she couldn't come up to Madison. :( During the two-plus days we were in NJ, we met David's friends John and Carolyn, took the kids gym at the YMCA, and visited David's grandmother (GG, for great-grandmother) and Aunt Marlene.

For New Year's Eve, we went (as usual) to Ali's friend Cathy's party. She had a "pie" theme this year, so Alison made pepperoni bread on the shape of pi. We ate many other delicious savory and dessert pies, but the kids crashed and we left the party early, and were home by 10:15pm and asleep by 11:00pm.

That weekend, Alison had a bunch of her friends over for a tea party. We ate more delicious food as well (see a theme here?). It was definitely the kind of party that white people would like. *grin*