Christmas in the County

Well, we are back from the Land of Dial-up. No blogging, facebook, or email for a week - except for the one time we dialed-up and managed to do fourteen loads of laundry while we waited to connect. JUST KIDDING! .....Kind of. It wasn't THAT bad.

But that is one of the little things that actually does make it a whole different world up there. One of the reasons why I really love going "home" so much! Life slows waaaaay down. It's simple. And it's good.

This was the first Christmas in many years where both of my brother's families and my own were together under one roof celebrating all together. Aaron didn't make it the actual day of Christmas - he came in a few days later - but for a few days, we were all together - every last one of us. And we make quite a crew.....

The big plan was for all of us to go on a one horse open sleigh ride, but instead we got a few feet of snow, so we made our own fun....

THIS is Dad's "Christmas moose head carcass" that he put Christmas lights in - JUST for us! (Visions of nightmares dancing in their heads, methinks.....)

The large ones shot a couple of partridge! (I put these pics up for you, Rachel, since you've never seen one before! They look like small pheasants, see?)

We learned many new games, as well! Mancala is our new fave. So far, Kev and I are three for three....but who's counting?

And my nephew taught us RISK.
At 9:00 at night.
Holy Hannah.
Fun game, but CRAZY long.
And those kids don't sleep.
Long about Midnight, Kev and I are TRYING to die.
Put us out of our misery.....I need my bed.......

And Daddy-O.....this is him....he won't care that I put his pic on my blog.....he always comes up with some sort of hick craft for the boys to do to stay out of trouble. This here's a multi-purpose candle holder, a-yuh. Yessiree. See, you can use it for a candle holder OR these handy dandy bullet casings can serve as mighty fine pencil holders, too!

And he even let Jesse use the glue gun ALL by himself. While showering, I heard some yelling, some crying, the basement door opening and closing rather quickly.....and I knew that:
1. Jesse had burnt himself and
2. Dad was dunking his hand in a snowbank
3. It's all good.
4. Yeesh, Dad. Dude. You should KNOW that kid by now.....

And THIS is one of my most fave Christmas gifts! It's a pile of things to burn! But, look how cute everything is! I can't burn this!!

So, anyway....we are HOME.
Way overtired and overfed.
It was wonderful to have been with family. And it is wonderful to be back in our own little space and rhythm of life.
A very merry Christmas was had by all....and we still have one more to go with Kev's side of the family! Whew!