We're Back...in Indiana...for a week...after Christmas

I didn't realize that my last post was in April of 2014!  So, I took a year-and-a-half off from blogging...that's what everyone does, what's the big deal?

The real reason I'm back is that for Christmas, I gave Megan a promise that I'd do 52 blog posts in 2016.  And, I know I have my doubters as to whether or not I will actually be able to deliver, so I thought I'd get the first one done before the first week is even out!  Booyah!

We spent Christmas at home and then, for some reason, thought it would be awesome to leave the 72 degree weather we were experiencing in Charlotte and drive 11 hours to cold, frigid Indiana.

Since we were with Megan's family, as soon as we got there (or the next day at least), we honored tradition and immediately went to a movie (Hotel Transylvania 2), but made sure we visited the $1 store beforehand to agonize (and cry) over the decision of which large box of candy to take.  ("We" mostly meaning "children 8 and under.")

Of course, most of the candy was probably gone by the time we actually reached the movie theater, so we made sure to get a huge bucket of popcorn to get us through--until the movie started.

Once the movie was over, Megan informed the children that they couldn't have anything else to eat for the day.  Then, we went to Chic-Fil-A where I gave in to letting Olivia trade in her book for ice cream so that the other children could complain about the injustice of not getting any.

Another great thing about being in Indiana was getting to see "baby Sawyer" for the first time.  Olivia thought it was fun to hold the baby and felt so big and grown up.

We also hung out with Grandma, and Peyton, and let Grandma read books about horses to us ("us" meaning "girls under 5").

Olivia also discovered a puzzle in the game closet and enlisted my help as well as the help of Ava and Grandpa.  I was pretty good at that 100 piecer!  Now, Olivia didn't quite have the same sense of accomplishment that I did and within about 10 seconds of completion had ruined the whole thing saying "Let's do it again!"

The last bloggable moment was decorating sugar cookies.  Now, this wasn't just your regular old, run-of-the-mill sugar decorating party.  Megan had pre-researched some designs on Pinterest and we gathered the kids together in the van before going into Jessica's house to put our hands in for a team cheer: "Mediocrity is mediocre!"  (Yes, we are incredible nerds, but we are proud of it, thank you very much.)

Ava did some cookies.

I poorly decorated some Christmas tree-shaped cookies and then did my best to distract any potential observers by decorating the plates too and turning it into an epic visual story of Christmas being saved by Superman.

Megan and Michael did their best to see if they could spend 3 hours decorating 2 cookies combined.  Actually, Megan did 6.

Grant and Ali created some Werewolf cookies (in honor of the many, many games of Ultimate Werewolf that we played) by spending 2 hours individually placing brown sprinkles on the frosting so they all lined up correctly like wolf hair. 

Then, we were so tired that the girls fell asleep on my lap (or face)--just like at home.

Other notable occurrences:

• Ava made chocolate silk pie with Grandpa
• Megan and I went out for a steak dinner with her parents and siblings and I mostly paid attention to them instead of watching the College Playoff bowl games
• Jessica's carrot cake and chocolate chip cookies

Happy New Year and I hope you look forward to a year's worth of blogs from yours truly!