Post-Christmas

The day after Christmas was supposed to be nice and relaxing, but my parents needed a bunch of help getting stuff ready for a trip they're taking, so I offered to help.  We ended up hitting FOUR different places before we found one that could do passport photos for them.  The first one didn't do them (it was a FedEx store close to me that my Dad and I just walked to, so that one didn't surprise me); the next one the camera batteries died and they didn't seem to know how to replace them; the third place, the camera worked but the computers weren't letting the lady upload the photos.  The fourth place finally worked and I think my Mom and Dad both nearly kissed the guy!  Then Craig got the unenviable task of trying to make the passport photo files the correct size and trying to help my Mom fill out the visa application on-line.  It ended up taking several hours and that was pretty much our entire day.

So that was NOT exactly how I'd envisioned spending the 26th.  I don't think my parents were super thrilled about how the day went, either...

Here's my Dad's practice face.  Gee, I wonder why the camera broke?

They did buy me lunch at Five Guys, though, so that made me happy!


We also ate a fabulous meal at Bella's with all of Craig's family!

Camille loves her cousins!

Unfortunately, the minute we sat at the table, Bentley announced that he had a headache.  It took us a long time to figure out what all to order (it was all served family-style, which I LOVE because you get to try everything and not feel rude about, but it's also really hard to know how much to order, especially with 16 people.  I totally blew that, because I think we ordered about three times as much food as we needed...) and as we were all staring at the menu, Bentley just kept going downhill.  Right as they were bringing out our food, he said he needed to leave right now.  Craig took him outside where he promptly threw up in some bushes.  Lovely.  I ate as fast as I could and took Bentley home.  He felt better almost immediately, so he took a long hot bath and I went back to get everyone from the restaurant.  Then Craig stayed home with him while the rest of us went and saw Mary Poppins.  (He got to do an escape room the next day with everyone while I took all the younger kids to a park, though, so don't feel bad for him.)

As the week wore on, this little bug wound its way through our ranks.  My Mom threw up shortly after arriving at home.  Kamryn and Maya each took a turn with it.  Theo had thrown up the day after Leah and family arrived in Nashville.  As far as holiday illness goes, this one was fairly mild-- most people threw up once and then just rested up getting over it.  But still not quite what you hope for!

Craig got a camping hammock and was very excited to try it out!

Perhaps our most exciting thing was that Bentley got a bird for Christmas!  He'd been asking for one for months, so we decided he really meant it.  (Craig has now decreed that we can have NO MORE PETS.  We'll see, I guess)

Bentley had done tons of research and decided what he wanted was a love bird.  We wanted him to get to pick it out himself, so after Christmas we began searching pet stores and Craigslist until I finally found some for sale in Richmond.  Bentley, my Mom and I all went to pick it up-- the lady selling to us had two birds, so after a few minutes of deliberating Bentley chose one.  I think he made a good choice: the other one was kind of obnoxiously squawky.  This one was a little quieter and hopefully calmer?

As soon as we were back in the car, I tried to take a picture and the bird flew right out of its box:

Bentley looking surprised and worried at the bird suddenly trying to fly through his window

It only took us a couple minutes to get it back into the box!

Very excited Bentley!

He (she?) has been named Scooter, since any time you put your hand near him, he will very politely scoot away from you.

As he matures, his face should turn a lovely red, making him vaguely watermelon colored!

Everyone was very excited to meet this newest family member!

We also got a new game called "Watch Your Mouth" which Ryder LOVES

I LOVE getting Christmas cards!!!  There are a few missing from this door-- either they were too heavy to stay taped up, or they arrived late.  But you get the idea!  So many people to love!

New Year's Eve was our usual celebration by eating WAY too much food all day long and playing lots of games and barely noticing the whole ball drop bit because by the time midnight rolled around we were all so tired.  One of these days I'm going to convince Craig to just let me go to bed early-- I really am SO LAME late at night!  Besides just the fact that we had a super fun time with all Craig's family (my parents had flown home that morning), I also absolutely LOVED the fact that I didn't need to freak out about no one RSVP-ing.  Happy day!

So the holidays were wonderful and stressful and busy and fun!  And as we waved good-bye to everyone, I could hardly wait to start getting my house back in order again!  (Because apparently I am super lame like that!)  But it has felt really good to finally vacuum everywhere again and start finding places to put all the new toys-- yay for a clean house!

Happy New Year, everyone!