ladle of love

'twas the weeks around christmas, the ladles were gone

they'd gone to virginia and would be gone long . . .

to meet up with cousins, with ma and with pa,

first stop was the ladles, with amy and jon.

the trip started off great with ice-skating fun,

and for her first time parker loved it a ton!

a nativity play with costumes by ma,

gifts for the cousins, the big and the small.

macy got sick the second night we were there,

throwing up for the first time gave her quite a scare.

(and the rest of the trip, i promise it's so,

she ate nothing but yogurt, and cheerios.)

next, jamie and travis hosted us for ten days,

the longest, with them, that we've ever stayed.

christmas eve was a dinner, bethlehem style

including dancing around the kitchen isle!

christmas day was exciting and full of such joy,

to see each child open and play with new toys.

the rest of our days there were spent having fun,

relaxing and playing and eating a ton.

we're grateful to family who let us stay with them,

and hope that we did not outstay our welcome!

but seriously, it was great.  we had a blast.  and really, macy honestly didn't eat anything but yoplait strawberry yogurt and cheerios.  i'm not kidding.  she completely abandoned the only other two things she eats, oatmeal and macaroni and cheese.  it was crazy.

some more highlights included:  macy bonding with the older boy cousins, playing frolf for the first time, cousin relays, my soup mishap (that's 1/4 tsp. cayenne pepper, not 2 tsp.), the girls getting "rose petal cottage" from santa, parker's reaction to "diamond castle", macy's reaction to everything she opened, oliver getting his first official boy toys, christmas day family football, gingerbread houses with ma, joint birthday party for malia and oliver (more on that later), and the beautiful weather.