Ah…

Here I sit, boys in bed, old dog next to me on the couch, pup on the floor chewing something she’s supposed to, football on tv, wearing my crazy skiing ducks flannel pjs. Christmas is officially over, minus the gifts we have for friends’ kids and the neighbor kids (that I’m just too damn lazy to finish and walk next door. 🙂 )

Had a really nice time at my uncle’s house tonight. Finally got to meet the two newest babies in the family – flippin’ cute, I tell ya!! We stopped doing gifts for the adults and just drew names for the kids this year and it went really well; I honestly didn’t miss the presents at all because this is one part of my family that totally gets the being together thing. And we really do not see them often enough, even though they live less than an hour away.

My cousin and his wife have the most adorable little girls and little M was all over Matt, leading him by the hand and showing him the play room her grandma set up for her. So cute. And Preston, who had a hard time at first with all the people + a lack of nap, finally came around and had some fun. At the end of our evening, the 3 kids serenaded us with Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star, Up on the Housetop, Jingle Bells and Rudolph. Find me something better than cousins playing together and singing in their little voices at the top of their lungs. I dare you. 😀

My other cousin is a firefighter, and while he despises the politics in the city of Detroit, and will deny until the cows come home that he is a hero of any kind, you can see in his eyes how he lights up from within when he talks about it. He brought in his helmet to show the boys – it was caked with grime and soot and residue from fires and such – and the boys were awed by it (I know this because of the way Matt got really shy all of a sudden and Preston’s eyes got big). And I thought about how cool that was and how lucky we all are to have firefighters like my cousin on the job.

I was looking at some old pictures my dad gave me last night of when I was little (he’s been converting his old slides to digital images) and it was so nice to see me and my cousins and grandparents all smiling and laughing in Kodachrome. This one is my favorite. Not sure how old we were or even where we were, but it’s my two cousins from New Hampshire and me. Wanna guess which one is me? 😀