Before Christmas

Before heading out for the great north, Aunt Kelly came over and did crafts with the boys so I could have some free time to pack. (We now have to distinguish between Georgia Aunt Kelly and Ohio Aunt Kelly, sounds like someone needs a nickname.) With volunteering at Gabe's school, doctor appointments and just all the arranging of Christmas I realized that I really had nothing packed or ready to be packed. I had tried all the movies, books and candy I could muster but thankfully Georgia Aunt Kelly came with loads of fun. Eating the candy sounds more appealing than using it to decorate.Gabe and Caleb made nice and neat houses but Micah decided candy was much better to just randomly throw onto a house. I wonder which of the boys Cory will let into the house building business. Like the good parents we are aspiring to be, we took Gabe out of school early so we could get a jump on the drive to Kentucky, where we stayed with the Praters and had Christmas #1(out of four/five). We recently found that headphones, the DVD player and every half hour throwing food in the back seat makes for an easy drive to Lexington. DuPont received a jar of homemade goodies from the boys and they had fun with the dress up toys and coloring books she gave them. The Praters just had their house repaired because a lady drove through their garage, pushing Rebecca's car into the house and knocking over their two motorcycles. Hopefully, we didn't re-destroy it too much but the stinky diaper Micah left at least covered the smell of new paint.Gabe received 'bling' wear (which cousin Tyler called the yo! yo! necklace) and was sharing it with DuPont.We then headed to Mochican State Park and had a few days of fun with Mimi, Grandpa, Uncle Tim, Ohio Aunt Kelly, Kelsey, Timmy, Katherine, Tyler and Thomas. The cousins had a fun time swimming, playing and asking Grandpa for quarters for the video games. The lodge we stayed at could have been plucked from White Christmas and some how Grandpa worked it out for us to have a good two hours of snow to top it all off (he also had the maintenance staff up all night fixing the pool so his grandkids could swim in the pool that he promised them, he either is very persuasive or apart of the mafia). Micah was dumbfounded about this cold, wet stuff but quickly learned what a snowball was and was set. The only way to get them out of the cold was a promise of hot chocolate, which isn't easy to make in a hotel room when you have rice milk and powdered carob. My camera didn't have a snowfall setting so it was hard to take pictures, plus the fact that my fingers were freezing and I've been in Georgia too long and like the heat instead.
The blur is Gabe throwing snowballs at his dear old mom, but not to worry I got him back. Isn't that what good mom's are supposed to do?