Christmas is over and we're home at last!

We're home, we're home, we're home! La la la-la la la! Oh, I can't tell you how happy I was to get home, to sleep in my own bed, to take a nice long shower in my own bathroom.... Don't get me wrong, I love to travel and see our families, but living out of a suitcase in someone else's house with all different stuff can get old very quickly.

We did have a great time at GG's house while we were there. On Wednesday, Mike, Kym, Courtney, Caden and Colin came from Buffalo for dinner and to visit with us. Here's a great shot of all 5 kids together. We wanted a nicer background, but when you can get all five sitting together and looking somewhat at the camera, you take your shot! I also got a nice picture of Gail and her two grown-up babies.

Francesca got to pal around and carry on with her Uncle (and Godfather). And Dominic was enjoying having some boy cousins to hang out with. Both kids love their cousins - it's too bad we can't see more of them!

Little Miss Cranky Pants (not to be confused with Little Miss Sunshine), had a few moments of crankitude. But so did Courtney, which makes me tremble in fear thinking about how Francesca is going to be when hormones come into play!

Mikey (aka Little Mikey) and Kasey even came to visit Wednesday night. Mikey is Chris's cousin, and he and Kasey are some of the nicest people I've ever met. They are so sweet, funny, and adorable. The kids love them, too. In fact, they LOVE Mikey, they have from the first time they met him. Even Francesca, who can be a little shy and clingy around people she doesn't know, hangs all over him. (Although I don't think she knew what to do about the beard this time! :)

We drove back to MA from Chris's mom's house on Thursday. The original plan was to come home on Friday, but it snowed there on Wednesday, was forecasted to be clear on Thursday, and then the weather report said snow for Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Not wanting to drive 8 hours in the snow, we moved our departure up a day and got home Thursday around 4:30 PM. (Just in time for me to cook dinner.)

If you remember from earlier posts, Santa had not yet visited the Beyer family here in MA. Since we were gone, we let him know that he could skip us on Christmas Eve and drop off the presents after we got home. So late Thursday night, while we were all asleep, Santa came!

The kids got tons of great stuff from Santa. The first thing was new suitcases for each of them! They have little kid suitcases, but as they have grown, so have their clothes! Summer travel isn't too bad - shorts and bathing suits don't take up much room. But our Christmas travel requires sweaters and pants and boots - oh my! We had to scrounge for size-appropriate luggage for their clothes for this Christmas vacation. Santa must have seen that and made sure they each have their own color-coded bags for next time!

Dominic got some new cars from "Cars," some DVDs (Schoolhouse Rock and Gremlins, along with Wall-E to share with Francesca), clothes, puzzles, and a super cool interactive globe that tells you countries, states & territories, population, climate, distance between two points on it, etc. I'm horrible at geography, so it could help me, too! We opened presents from GG and Uncle Mike, Aunt Kym and their kids as well. Dominic got video games from them for the Wii - Mario Party 8 and Smarty Pants.

Francesca started out a bit grumpy (big surprise there), but got into the swing of things as she started opening her gifts. She got lots of Fancy Nancy stuff - the "Bonjour Butterfly" book, clothes for her Fancy Nancy doll (GG got her the doll for Christmas), FN clothes for her to dress up in (purse, sunglasses, skirt, shoes, feather boa), the Sleeping Beauty DVD, and some pretty earrings. She also got Carnival Games for the Wii from Mike, Kym, Courtney, Caden and Colin.

The kids also gave us our gifts, which was so sweet. They had bought them in secret at our church's holiday fair. There was a separate shopping room for kids - no parents allowed! Each item cost $1, so they each went in with $2 and came out with presents for us.

Dominic got Chris a classic cars calendar, and Francesca got him a notepad with a patriotic theme - she loves everything that have American flags on them. Francesca got me a pretty ceramic flower pot with pink and purple flowers. It matches her room very nicely, which I find pretty darn convenient. :) Dominic got me a super cute necklace that looks like a strand of tiny Christmas lights. I wore it all day yesterday - it went perfect with my red sweater.