Happy Holidays

The new album that I just added to my photo gallery chronicles the busy holiday season that we just had. The weekend after Thanksgiving, while Bob's daughter Cara was still home, we went to the Philadelphia Zoo. Then I basically fast forward to Christmas Eve, when Bob's children and father came over for dinner. Aileen is a hair dresser so she spiked Ryan's hair up.

Late on Christmas Eve we drove to my parents house in Toms River, NJ. My sister Connie and her husband Mark were already there with their 9 month old twin boys. You can tell them apart because Nathan has a small freckle on one of his wrists; otherwise, Connie and Mark try to dress Gavin in green. The twins talk way more than Ryan (at 15 months) does. Gavin is especially talkative, and says "Gunta Gunta Gunta; Goya Goya Goya." We all called them the "Guntas."

The day after Christmas we drove up to see my paternal Grandfather in Dunellen, NJ. He is doing great for 88 years old (Happy Birthday Grandpa - a New Year's Baby). That same day, my maternal Grandmother went into the hospital with symptoms that were later identified as being caused by restrictions in her carotid arteries. She underwent surgery yesterday on one side and is doing well.

Ryan was very jealous when I held one of the twins. He tried to push the twin off my lap. He also regressed in his eating habits - he let my father feed him baby food. I tried to feed him baby food and he wanted no part of it.

My parents had Tivo'ed three episodes of the "Backyardigans" at my request. "Stomp, Stomp, Stomp, I'm doing the Yeti Stomp." "Make the world nice, fill it up with ice." "Ski Patrol to the Rescue." Let's just say that we watched the episodes so many times that I will never forget the songs. Ryan would walk over to the chairs in front of the TV, grab the Tivo remote, and wait for someone to put on the show. If he was in a really good mood, we would twirl in circles to the opening song.

By the way, the car was fine. Bob drove it down the hill, and there was no damage except to the bush that I ran over.