From Jet Lag to Jingle Bells

We seem to  have been catapulted right into Christmas. Don't get me wrong, I love this time of year. Almost 2 weeks ago, we hopped on a plane that took us to Paris that was ultimately on its way to Newark Airport in New Jersey. We had to fly further away to get to our destination. In the end, it took just a little longer to do it this way. Our travel company chose the cheapest way to go I guess. Anyways, all that to say, we had a fabulous time on our trip. I'll have to write about it in multiple posts.

Our first stop was to Barb and Skip's home for dinner after we arrived. They are dear friends of ours that came into our lives soon after the twins arrived. Boy did we need help, and God surely provided. So anyway, after we got there and had delicious homemade Italian spaghetti, meatballs and sausage, our children were yawning with major heavy eyelids. After a short couple of hours, it was time to head to the hotel. 

Our main purpose for this trip was to see friends and family during Thanksgiving week.

The next day we were off to the Big Apple. I never get tired of going there. It really is a beautiful, bustling city that everyone should have the chance to visit. I guess that's my humble opinion being a city girl myself. I grew up right across the Hudson River with the ability to see the NY skyline anytime I wanted.  While we were there, we saw the Empire State Building, went into Macy's which is HUGE, and walked around window shopping. The Macy's windows were fabulous. I'll have a separate post of my New York pictures.

Since we stayed a short 2 days in NJ, that evening was spent with my family at my sister, Denise's, house. My four sisters, brother, and cousin, Artie, that I call  my brother, were all there plus my Aunt Judy and Uncle Lenny. All of our children were with us as well. There were some friends there, too. We had great Italian sandwiches with homemade mozzarella and roasted peppers on them. Of course there was salami, ham, and all kinds of other stuff to add to them. It's fairly obvious that my favorite food is Italian. 

I'll continue writing about our trip next time, but I had to show a picture of our loaded van once we returned to the UK. Vehicles are typically smaller and don't have as much storage space.  

Doesn't it look like the van was practically touching the ground? You have to shop in the U.S. and bring as much back with you because things are much more expensive here. And with Christmas just about here, we also bought presents.

Here's Cooper playing his Leapster at the airport. We had a 7 hour layover in Atlanta from Fort Wayne. Eow! We also had snow in Indiana which delayed the flight some. No worries, though, when you have 7 hours between flights, right?

The day after we returned, we put the tree up along with all the other pretties we like to look at. Braaten, who is 10, decorated the mantle. She loves being creative.

The morning after we put the tree up, the kids were putting countless ornaments up.

Mellie likes the new ornament I received from my girlfriend. It spells out the word hope.

The kids were enjoying rediscovering each ornament from the past.

Here they are: Grant, Austin, Braaten, Cooper, and Melanie. It was a job well done.

While I was home, I mailed as many Christmas cards out as I could since it's almost triple the cost to mail them from here. I know I sound cheap, but hey, you do what you gotta do. :-)

It's onto baking loads of Christmas cookies to share with neighbors and friends, get togethers with friends, plays and programs, and wrapping lots of gifts!

The jetlag hasn't been so bad this time around either.