Goodbye 2023, hello 2024

Another crazy year in the books for us. Next year, one of us heads to high school, one of us goes from single-digit age to double digits, and both of us will keep creeping upwards. But for tonight, let's celebrate the great times we've had all year long, and look forward to many more to come. 
 

A trip to the Holy land (of football)

Part of Pop's Christmas present was getting to take a trip with us to Lincoln Financial Field, home of the Eagles (and how Jonathan got his real name, for some weird reason). We actually got a change to walk around the sidelines and see what the players see on gameday. 

We also got to hold our own press conference, although none of us could provide answers for the Eagles' offense's recent slide. 

And in the locker room, we got to see the Super Bowl trophy up close and personal. It's really, really, shiny. The Eagles should get another one to install right beside this one. It would look better. 

Needless to say, Pop had a great time. I'm not sure his form running out of the locker room tunnel was perfect, but he's got the heart of a champion. 

12 days of Christmas

Christmas is never a single day around here. First up, we have presents at home... 

... which turns from neat and tidy to chaos quickly. 

Next up is a visit to Grandmom Claus' house, where there are movies, cookies ...

... and even more presents. 

Then it comes time for a trip to the north pole of Warminster, where there are more family members to hug ... 

... and more presents to unwrap and rewrap. 

The only step left after that is to take care of the leftover cookies. That really is the hardest part of all. 

Christmas party #2

The parties don't end until the new year! The feast of the seven fishes (or was it 17?) was great as always, but even better was hanging out with all the cousins. 

And playing board games, of course! That's even more fun than just hanging out. 

Festive fire trucks

You're never too old to cheer on Santa driving down the street on a fire truck. It's always the best. 
 

Christmas concert

You can't celebrate the holiday without some tunes! Luckily, our school choir had it covered this season. 

Snow, for real!

It has been a long while since we saw any of the white stuff on our lawn, but we woke up this week to an unexpected light dusting of snow. It wasn't enough to cancel school, but it was enough to delay it for two hours and let us have a little fun. 

Plus Dad found enough snow in the back to build a massive snowman. For perspective, Pop is six feet tall. It's amazine how much all that accumulates when you start rolling a snowball! 
 

Here comes Santa Claus

Guess who stopped by the church party! It was Mrs. Claus, and some other guy with him. It was good to give them both another fist bump and remind them that my list was very neatly written...
 

The four hamsters of the Eaglespocalypse

It's hard to tell which one is different from the others, but if you look closely, you can see the one on the end is out of batteries. 
 

It takes a village

Grandmom sent us another Christmas advent calendar to build, so this whole place is gonna be a winter wonderland by the time December is over. Now if we just had a carpenter to help us...
 

Spreading Christmas cheer all over the walls

December means lights inside and outside the house, and since Dad gave us access to the ladder again this year, we had a wonderful awful idea...

Luckily the inside decorations are a little easier. Aunt Olga's Christmas village is always the centerpiece in the living room. 

And you gotta have a great tree if you want Santa to come visit. 

Thanks to some help from Dad, Santa will be able to see the house from way up in the sky. Now comes the worst part -- the waiting for Christmas!

Christmas party #1

Our holiday schedule got a little mixed up this year because of the way weekends fell, so Christmas started right after Thanksgiving this year. Aunt Jeanne's annual party was a blast, and we even got all the kids to smile for a family picture. Well, most of the kids at least...