Happy New Year...

Sorry to all for our scrappy blogging presence... we've been working out some computer problems--Paul had to partition and reformat one of our hard drives... whatever...
Back to our documentation of the Christmas break.

A few days after Christmas, we said goodbye to Paul and I packed up the car again for a trip to Oregon with my family! It was so nice to caravan with Matt and Angela and their kiddos... the kids traveled wonderfully, and I loved talking to Angela during the trip. We braved some snowy weather and were glad to walk into warm, comfortable, and familiar surroundings.

There were several sad things about not having Paul along for this part of the trip. First of all, of course, is that we all missed him and his antics. Secondly, I was suddenly in over my head without his help and support. I sorely missed my husband and father to the kiddos! Thirdly,--and directly related to this here post--without Paul I was not as mindful (or just didn't have enough free hands) to get enough pictures. Paul really is the one who takes most of our pictures when we are on vacations. I wish, of course, I had taken more...

There were presents waiting under the tree for the kiddos when we arrived. We waited to have another "Christmas morning" the next day. It was so fun to have the kids together with their cousins. The girls got along so well with Max, and there were so many cute moments with them playing together...



Michael and Brinlee were back to their old, enjoyable games and antics. This time they took most readily to the piano and playing house/football players in the basement. This video shows them also enjoying uncle AJ as he sings along with them...



The girls really enjoyed the piano, too. Here they are one morning, bed-hair and all...



One of the biggest delights of this trip for me was spending time with Grandma Risenmay. I hadn't seen her since Grandpa's funeral last October, and really enjoyed our time together. I think my favorite time was playing Canasta with her and Angela and Farcles and Matt-hew... good times.

We did, of course, play lots of other games... not the least of which was the Great Dalmuti... a Risenmay staple.



Here is the Great Farcles laying down the laws of his newly-formed kingdom. He and AJ gave us the most "colorful" experiences as their subjects...

[Sorry... I haven't been able to get this video to work, but I'll try again later...]

Here is Matt succumbing to one of the ridiculous rulings by doing Jazz hands each time he had to pass...



Another great time was our New Years gift exchange. The biggest hit of the night was Angela's gifts to Marc. I'm sure the shocking ink pen will be used well, and here are the boys trying out his new game. It is a reaction game--you watch the red light blink in random patterns (as some incredibly annoying/suspenseful music plays)--then when it turns green, the last person to push their reaction button gets a SHOCK. Or something like that.



Not surprisingly, I didn't try it. And not surprisingly, it was a hit with my brothers.

In the rare moments I wasn't chasing/feeding/bedding, etc, etc, etc the kiddos, I enjoyed some good talks with my family. It had been so anxious to see all of them for quite a while, and I really enjoyed spending time with everyone again. I love having my kids around their grandparents, uncles, Aunt Angela, and cousins. I especially enjoy watching my brothers in their uncle-mode. They really are great with the kiddos. Here is Marc/Farcles with baby Will...



I was honored to make a New Years Cafe Rio feast... which is always so fun to do for my family because with all those growing boys, good food is appreciated soooooo much! Thanks for being so fun to cook for, guys! I also really enjoyed seeing my mom's shop that she opened up downtown. It is a lovely place, and she's done a cute job with it.

Thanks for a great holiday, you guys! We'll depend on Matt for more pictures and "interesting" videos...