End of a Very Long, Very Good Break

Well, our Christmas break is officially over now--everyone has gone back to school, even the college kids! 

We left to drive to VA Dec. 27, and we were there for about a week.  A whirlwind week of social activities!  I went out to lunch Friday with my friend Lynnea, and then out to breakfast Saturday with my friend Rabia.

 Saturday night was an open house at the MC's, welcoming Isaac home and celebrating his birthday.  I got to catch up with a ton of friends I might not otherwise have been able to see, and it was so much fun.  I was hoarse the next day from all the talking!

 Isaac's party was the first time that Nathan's girlfriend Elena and Luke's girlfriend Elissa had been able to meet each other, as well as a lot of Nathan and Luke's friends. So fun!

 The younger friends had play dates too, like this one Monday morning.  Luna had a play date here too, wrestling around with Denver the whole time.

 Monday night was New Year's Eve, and we went over to the L's house for our usual New Year's Eve party!  We brought Telestrations and Code Names, both of which were well-received.  The Telestrations game was hilarious, as always.

 We counted down at 9:00, like we usually do.  Verity was not scared at all this year, and she participated fully in the noise, lol.

 It was so fun to have all these guys together again. 

 New Year's Day we headed down to Richmond, where we spent the afternoon with Nathan's girlfriend's family at their beautiful house in the woods!  We helped them eat leftovers from their own VT bowl game watching New Year's Eve party the previous day, and we really enjoying getting to know them.  Here Micah is showing off his newly-learned cornhole style.  Luna was also invited for this get-together, and she had an absolute ball running around the whole time with their dogs Ivy and Clementine.  This tired her out so she slept like a champ when we drove back to OH the next day!

 On our drive back to Ohio, we were able to stop by in PA to see Bob's dad for a little while.

Back at home, we did start school (in a somewhat desultory manner) again.  The whole reason we had to rush back on Jan. 2 was because Jonathan's beloved electronics class started again Jan. 3, but the rest of us started the next week.  We left Luke in VA to drive back to AL from there, but Nathan was still with us in Ohio, so it was hard to feel like we were entirely back to our normal routine.  For this break, Nathan worked as a Lyft driver.  He made a nice bit of money, and he was able to just work when he wanted to, which was great.

The weekend of Jan. 11-13, Bob and Nathan headed back to VA to work on the house.  I decided it would be fun to have Amanda and Elissa come out Saturday for dinner, since we would be so lonely here.  I started hearing rumors of snow, so I told them to bring stuff to spend the night.  They drove out Saturday afternoon in a bit of a lull in the already-falling snow, and we had a real snow slumber party!  Hot chocolate, chocolate chip cookies, sleeping late on Sunday--so fun!  We ended up getting about 9 inches, so it was a good storm!

 The kids had a ball playing in the snow.  Luna loved it too--as long as there were people out there with her!

 We had to do a lot of shoveling so that Amanda and Elissa could get their car out to go back to Cedarville Sunday afternoon.  Also, I had foolishly not even thought about the big van, and so it just stayed out on the street where we normally park it.  This meant the snow plow plowed around it, so it was really buried, and also we had to dig out our mailbox.  Grrr.  I won't make that mistake again!  We had the same experience several times in VA, so I can't believe I didn't think about it here!  I think I really didn't take the forecast very seriously, lol. 

 Jonathan racing around with Luna. 

 The kids built snow forts in the back yard with neighbor kids on both sides of us.

 Amanda and Elissa preparing to venture out back to Cedarville.  They made it back safely, praise the Lord!

 I even found our snowshoes in a box in the garage!  I bought these after the great snowstorm of January, 2016, but then we never got another huge snow like that to use them in.  Well . . . they were okay, but I don't know that they really helped me stay above the surface much, lol.  I still felt like I was wading through snow, except now I had these giant things on my feet as well!  But it was fun.

 Luna, snow-loving Newfie.

 While we were frolicking in the snow, Bob and Nathan were busily getting things done on the house, and on their way home, they stopped in PA to visit Bob's dad again in the new place where he is living!  Bob's sister Ann and her husband Wally were also visiting.

 Last Wednesday night we had one last big dinner, inviting Grandma and Grandpa, and Aunt Claire and Uncle Jim over to say goodbye to Nathan.  He left Friday morning to drive back to college.

But wait!  Things still weren't back to normal!  Luke doesn't have classes on Friday, and with Monday being a holiday, he also left Friday morning to drive up here for the long weekend!  He went to Cedarville and picked up Elissa Friday night, since word was another winter storm was on the way.

 We baked a ton of ginger snaps, at Luke's request.  We had also gone to the library Friday afternoon to pick up a bunch of movies, so we were set!  Lots of games of Mastermind were played, as well as some other games.

Drew and Verity have really been into our "I Spy" books, and they spent a lot of time with Luke and Elissa, pouring over the pages.  Those books are actually pretty darn tricky.  Good thing both Luke and Elissa have sharp eyes. 

Church was cancelled this week, so we missed a second week in a row.  It was very relaxing to sleep in, and I made a breakfast casserole (for "brunch", lol).  Sunday evening, we headed over to my parents' house for dinner.  I had made spaghetti sauce in the crockpot, so I brought that, plus bread and salad, and we cooked the noodles over there.  Even though we were disappointed by the outcomes of both games, it was a lot of fun, and we also made tons of progress on a puzzle, which is really fun and relaxing for me.  Such a nice weekend!

Luke took Elissa back to Cedarville last night, and he left this morning.  So now we really are ready to get back to our usual routine, even though no one wants to.  Sigh.  What a tremendous break!  Now--to hang on until summer . . .