Friends, Family and Fire Trucks

Happy New Year! Our family had a very nice holiday season. Working for a university means I get almost two weeks off:) Lucas and I spent a week in Buffalo with my family. It was glorious. I haven't spent that much time there in a very, very long time. the night we got there, our family was celebrating Wigilia-a traditional Polish Christmas Eve meal. Because my sister spends Christmas Eve with her in laws, we generally celebrate Wigilia another night. The highlights included: my dad trying to get the dog to wear antlers but in the end were worn by all the grandsons. Lucas had them on the longest. Lucas also started to anticipate Santa's arrival by jumping up and down and yelling, "Santa Claus! Santa Claus!" He was so excited. Marc arriving just before 7pm to the delight of everyone. I was so happy to see him and to have him experience Santa on a Fire Truck! That's right, my brother in law is chief of the town's fire department. Every year "Santa" comes to the various fire member's houses and delivers a pre Christmas toy to the children. Since my nephew's were going to be at the house and Lucas' love of fire trucks made this stop very special.

It was great to spend time with my brother who came in from Hawaii and to meet his girlfriend. Jayne is very nice and seems to suit my brother well. I don't think my family scared her off too much. Of course all she wanted was to see snow while she was in town and as luck would have it, we didn't get much of it until the day after they left. Lucas liked visiting with "Uncle Gaw" and being rough housed a bit.

One of my highlights was seeing four friends from high school-three of which I hadn't seen in many, many years. It was great to reconnect. Between all the kids and us, there were about 20 people at the pizza place. It was amazing to think that our kids had never met before but just fell into natural play groups based on their common ages. And it was fun to see each of us as moms. Some things never change in terms of how we react to situations and it was fun to watch! Of course I think I am now suckered into going to my 20th high school reunion in July-ugh.

Another highlight was going to dinner with Marc. Just the two of us. My mom and dad watched Lucas so we could go to to locate restaurant. It was nice to go someplace that caters to grown ups and didn't have a children's section on the menu!

We made it home safely and I still had time to tackle some home projects that had been nagging at me to get done.

Here is to a good 2010!