More about the holidays

As I wrote below, my family came out to Arizona for Christmas. My mom, oldest sister and her youngest daughter arrived before Christmas and my nieces from my other sister came out on the 27th. All of them stayed through New Year's. We had a full house and created many new memories as we celebrated the holidays with my brother and his family, who also live here.

Our traditional photo of the 4 boys in front of the tree took a slight twist this year when we included G-Ma. My mom wanted me to make her a rosary this year for Christmas. At least that's what she said 3 months ago. She then promptly forgot about it. But I did it anyway. She designed it - each decade was one of her children's birthstones. Since she has 2 sets of twins and me, there were 2 topaz, 2 aquamarine, and 1 peridot. The Hail Marys were sapphire for her own birthstone, and the Our Fathers throughout the rosary was my dad's birthstone, ruby. It came out a bit gaudy like any mother's ring might, but I think it looks a bit like a stained glass window.

We went to 2 movies while they were here: Night at the Museum (great family movie and just a real delight!) and Dreamgirls (what can I say...I'm a sucker for a musical). I recommend both of them.

The rest of the visit was taken up with lots of eating, talking, playing games, and just enjoying each other. New Year's Eve was spent at our house, with more drinking and eating and then at midnight, we went outside to shoot off all the poppers and crackers that DH had bought for the boys and my nieces. What a mess that made on the driveway!

I hated to see them all go home. But all good times must come to an end and the day they left, I took down all my Christmas decorations and got the house back in order. I'm ready to move on to the new year! And as soon as the boys go back to school on Monday...I'll do just that. :)