Holiday fun

 David was home two weeks for the holidays. The first week we spent finishing up Christmas shopping and working (me on research, him on loose ends from his previous week at work). We also squeezed in a bit of cleaning and organizing, as well as Christmas cookie baking :). For the beginning of the week Katie and Susan were with us as Katie had hip surgery in Boston and needed a near by place to recuperate for a few days (her apartment, while close by, had a lot of stairs so would have been a challenge!). After they left Harvie came down for a night so that he and David could build shelving for the basement. 

Our Christmas tree, imported from VT!

While David was doing some cleaning/organizing, Ash found a new bed

He grew tired of the photo shoot quickly

On the Friday before Christmas we drove to VT to celebrate Christmas at Joe's Pond with Grammy Jane, Dad, Christine and Alex (Donna was also there for a bit on Saturday morning). We had a great time! A very tasty dinner of steak, chicken, salad, cheesy mashed potatoes, asparagus and flourless chocolate cake (completely gluten free dinner for Christine!). On Saturday we drove down to Randolph to celebrate with David's family (Katie, Susan, Harvie). Dinner of roast beef and veggies and some present wrapping on Christmas Eve, and a morning of presents and cinnamon buns on Christmas day! It was a very relaxing and fun time, and we all witnessed Ash open his first Christmas present!

It was also fun to see the grin on David's face when he opened his surprise 3-piece Craftsman toolbox :)

Coming downstairs with piece #1 (didn't know #2 and #3 were on the way)

"I have a hammer! I can put things together! I can knock things apart! I can alter my environment at will and make an incredible din all the while! Ah, it’s great to be male!"

Around lunch time on Christmas day we left Randolph and drove to Andover, MA to have Christmas dinner with Grammy Pat, Grandpa John, my mom, Tommy, Dan & Purvi et al. and Christine. Ravioli from Dave's Fresh Pasta in Somerville and pot roast! After so many fantastic meals, we were starting to feel pretty full :) The rest of the week we spent split between Randolph and Burke (with a couple trips to Montpelier to celebrate with Grandpa George and Linda), and did our best to relax a bit. Overall Christmas this year was perfect - everyone loved their gifts, and we came home with some awesome new toys ourselves! 

The day before New Year's Eve David and I drove down to Manchester, NH to pick Khush up (my friend from IL). That night Khush and I made a feast of home cooked Indian food (yum!!) and the next day the three of us went skiing with Matt, Christine and Dad. Even though there were only a couple of trails open at we had a great time, and the snow was surprisingly nice! Our vacation ended Sunday night with a movie and dinner, and we are now back into our normal routine. We are very excited to see that, since coming home, Ash seems to have even more confidence than ever! He is doing great, and from what we can tell really loving and enjoying life. As I type this he is in the process of relocating all of his toys, and some of my laundry :)