Christmas . . . Round 5, a Birthday, and some Friends!!!

Just writing that title is exhausting. Looking back at all we did in a five day time span it was pretty impressive. Reed was really great the whole time. We fiddled with his nap times to accommodate our schedule, let him sleep in the car, and the poor kid ate his plain old dinners without one word of protest while others around him dined on Christmas goodies.

After my family left on Christmas, we headed up to Clovis to the annual McClarty Christmas party. We missed dinner (we knew we would), but made it just in time for the gift exchange. Since we are pretty lacking of local friends with kids and most of our family functions are sans kiddos as well, I think Reed was pretty excited to see 8 kids running around when we arrived. The youngest is still two years older than him, but all of the kids were very nice to Reed. They introduced him to PlayDoh, didn't complain when he climbed the stairs to get to their loft, and Megan (she's 10) even crocheted him a small scarf while we were there.

On the 26th Jon and I both had to work for a bit so Pepe came by to pick up Reed. He took him back to their house and Nonna gave the Kiddo a snack and put him down for a nap, he was still sleeping when we got there three hours later - I guess the Monkey was sleepy!!! Anyway we were there to celebrate Papa's Birthday (Nonna's Dad). We of course had an amazing dinner and had fun getting to spend a little more time with Gran, Papa, Aunt Diana, and TJ.

 

I know Pepe got a couple of group shots, I'll have to post them if I get a hold of them. Our friend Verdo was in town for the Holiday and came over to spend a few hours catching up towards the end of the Birthday party.

Don't they make a cute family!!!

Reed found a pair of glasses in a drawer . . . at least we
know if he inherits his Dad's vision he'll still look cute

On Thursday my childhood friend Sarah, her mom Shelly, sister Ashley, and Nephew Ryan came over for a visit. It was so good to see them and great to catch-up.

At the same time the ladies were visiting Adam, Marli, and Cole stopped by on their trek back to Los Angeles from the Bay Area. It was fun to see the boys play again after spending the weekend together just two weeks prior. Cole gave his seal of approval to the new swing set, I just fell down on the job and didn't get any pictures.

It was an exhausting week, but so worth it. Looking back on all of these pictures makes me realize just how many special moments we had this year.