Christmas Break

Christmas week began with an unexpected overnight trip to Burlington with Annie.  I heard that one of my uncles wasn't doing very well, so I decided to pay him a visit.  We were only there for less than 24 hours, but we packed in all we could while we were there: visits with family, shopping on Church Street, dinner at Asiana Noodle Shop, Ben and Jerry's, a night at the Hotel Vermont, and a visit to the King Arthur store on the way home!

We almost had to postpone Christmas until the 26th 

because storms in the south delayed Kerry's plane 

and caused her to miss her connection 

on Christmas morning. 

She was stuck in the Philadelphia airport for 8 hours!

  Instead, we got her on a high speed train 

and Vance picked her up in New Haven.  

Christmas was saved!

The kids seemed very concerned about Sami's old age 

(he turned 11 this year) 

and wanted lots of pictures with him.

Kerry got her Dad a subscription to the Sunday New York Times

 for Christmas.  I couldn't resist wrapping up one of the nation's 

smallest newspapers for his stocking!

Adam's gifts had a common theme this year!  

I'm sure Grandma Alice will wear her t-shirt proudly 

in honor of Adam's home in the city!

Since our Christmas celebration was abbreviated on the 25th,

  we continued on the 26th 

with an afternoon of decorating cookies.

To add to the the fun,  

we decided to make it a competition (big surprise)!

And there was only one shape - a sweater.

The cookies were judged on Facebook 

by friends and family near and far!

Vance decorated these 3 cookies which tell a story.  

Quite a unique idea!

These cookies(above)  were done by Adam!

Kerry made a nice assortment (above). 

 It's too bad none of them won :(

Annie was very creative, with her snowman cookie taking 2nd place!

I made the cookies above, and the one below - which

I am happy to say took first place!

Our family is small in size, but large in love for each other.

We always have a lot of fun when we're together.

No matter how fulfilling it is, 

life and work can be very stressful.

I'm happy that Adam, Kerry, and Annie

could be pampered for a while at home

until leaving to return to real life once again.