Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!!

Christmas has come and gone and it's back to work/school tomorrow. I was lucky enough to have the whole family together for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. Amber and Andy hosted Christmas in their new home in Virginia this year. They did a wonderful job. The decorations, tree, Christmas dinner, everything was wonderful.

I flew over the Monday before Christmas. I was a little worried because there had been a flu outbreak at the house just before I arrived. Friday night Berit had thrown up, then Saturday Quinn got it. Later that night Amber and Andy both had it. But by Monday they were all feeling better so I flew over as planned. Howard drove over on Tuesday and then Tyler and Scott flew in on Wednesday, Christmas Eve.

Christmas Eve we went to church early and then had our traditional Christmas Eve dinner of pizza. Then we took our Christmas Eve picture with only a few people missing. Howard had gone to pick up the pizza and I don't know where Quinn was!

The next morning we opened our gifts. Quinn had the biggest pile and Berit wasn't far behind her.

That afternoon my stomach started rolling and I wasn't feeling to well. It was all I could do to stay upright and try to be part of the festivities. I was only able to eat a small part of the delicious dinner Amber prepared.

Later that evening I was headed up to bed and finally got sick and started feeling better. I took a couple long naps the next day but was feeling much better. No one else got sick at Amber's house. Scott got sick after he got home and then Howard started feeling ill the day he drove back home. Tyler seemed to be the only person who escaped the illness. Lucky him!!

Berit loved riding her baby around on her new scooter!

Scott and Tyler flew back home the day after Christmas. But before they did Amber & Andy took them to see a museum first. Berit enjoyed spending time with her Uncles.

The next day Amber and Andy took us to the Museum of Natural Science. It was pretty crowded but we had a good time and spent a couple hours looking around.

They even had The Hope Diamond there!

We had a really great visit!

Everything at home had been well taken care of. The dogs did fine even though it seemed they had a different caretaker every other day or so. Tyler's girlfriend, Jessie, really came through for us staying with them Christmas Eve and Christmas night.

The rest of the week at home was spent cleaning, decluttering and getting rid of things I've been holding on to for way too long. I cleaned out two closets and Howard made two trips down to the Salvation Army. It's a good start but I have lots more to do. My goal is to be ruthless!! Get rid of everything that we really don't need. Stop hanging on to things that just sit there year after year. Sometimes you don't even realize how long you've been holding on to them. I finally got rid of the clothes that were 3 sizes too big for me and things I just didn't want to wear anymore.

So that's it! 2015, here we come! Can't wait to see where the year takes us! Happy New Year!