Merry-land

Wow, much to catch up on. We arrived at my brother, Bryan's house on 12/22 to an exuberant greeting from Alston's cousins. Everyone was please to finally get a look and a cuddle with Alston. Uncle Bryan and Aunt Susan were quite excited to finally reach the high status of Aunt and Uncle after ALL these years. I of course have been enjoying such status for many years already!
From the left: Alston, Carter (age 7) and Mason (age 4)


Aunt Susan and Alston meet!

There was much build up for Christmas. It has been years since I spent the holiday with my family. My mother reminds me that it has been about 13 years since I was with my mom AND my brother on Christmas morning. So, it was bound to be an occasion for sure!

Patrick and I braved the mall to pick up a last few things for our gift list. We vowed that next year we'd have to get on the shopping earlier and really use our dollars at businesses we care more about supporting. But hey, when you got a newborn you do what you can, right? One day before we left I tried to go to 2 stores on 1 street to pick-up some presents. Every time I walked into the stores and got close to purchasing, Alston would start to cry. It took me 3 tries at each store over about 3 hours to successfully get the gifts. We spent a great deal of time bouncing up and down the street trying to compose ourselves...it was pretty funny.

On Christmas Eve, Bryan and Susan put together an awesome dinner. Bryan cheffed up a delicious roast with some sort of peppercorn rub. I will have to get the recipe for that one! Just as Patrick was rolling up his sleeves to dive into the dishes and Susan was throwing the boys in the bath - tragedy struck! After years of life, Bryan and Susan's hot water heater decided it was done living! The unfortunate part was it also decided to belch it's remaining hot water on to their basement floor. Many might say the timing was poor being the holiday and all but really, what better time than when you have family around to help. Grammy gladly volunteered for Alston duty over basement clean up, which freed Patrick and I up to wade into the basement clean-up task. Our task force was fierce and aided greatly by a generous neighbors wet-vac, which Bryan manned. It's amazing what you can get done in an hour or so with the help of others. It actually ended up being oddly fun. Laughing about the situation with everyone in the basement, barefoot and wading into find buried treasures in the basement. I think Patrick did find an embarrassing CD of boy band, 98 Degrees, wonder who's that was?? Luckily, nothing of any value was damaged. Boy, what a lesson though. Replace your hot water heater before it gets TOO old. Also, keep flies in storage areas in plastic filers or up off the ground a bit.

With that behind us, suddenly it became apparent that the crisis had derailed not only the boys bath, the mountain of dishes but also Santa's present wrapping! We gladly lent a hand. These were my last blurry visions before I drifted to bed on Christmas eve.

I always love how the tree twinkles at night.

Christmas morning brought shear bliss to many!!! Clearly the mountain of presents was beyond belief!Grammy enjoying time with her favorite sleeping elf.

It was blissful, lounging morning that included a decadent breakfast featuring my brother's favorite dutch baby (as seen below), our family's traditional stollen and a savory pie from Dangerous Pies of Baltimore(I think it was a quiche w/ bacon, Gruyere cheese - correct me if I'm wrong?).

The dutch baby


The ever so cool pie box from Dangerous. And I will agree dangerously delicious!

After we wrapped up breakfast, it was time to head off to the next stop, Delaware to meet up w/ Patrick's family.

Thanks to the Sizemores and Grammy for a wonderful and extravagant holiday! We'll be seeing them again on the tail end of our trip(when the hot water is back!!! - hee hee).