Christmas 4
We arrived at Jimmy's mom's condo in Columbia, MD late afternoon on Sunday and festivities began shortly thereafter. Martha had yummy pizza and snacks for us. We exchanged our "Secret Santa" gifts, Kevin found the pickle ornament and for that was awarded a new Redskins Jersey. We played Apples to Apples and Taboo for Target gift cards. I love that Martha sweetens the deal with gift cards - as if the O'Connor's need anything to make them more competitive than they already are!
Christmas 5
We woke up Monday morning and quickly made our way to Jimmy's dad and stepmom's house in Woodbine, MD for Christmas 5. Marisol had swedish meatballs and homemade crab soup for us to munch on. Again, we exchanged "Secret Santa" gifts and then opened our Marisol, made-with-love, stockings. Best stocking gift - the matching flannel pajamas for the whole family - see the group shot below! Oh and Marisol and Dan got the cutest puppy named Buddy!
After the debris was cleaned up and we were once again spoiled with lovely presents, the girls quickly started on prepping the turkey feast for that evening. About 3ish, the extended family, Uncle Jamie, Aunt Aileen and Uncle Pat, in from Chicago, and cousins Austin, Kelsey, Meghan and Michael showed up. I stayed in the kitchen with Marisol, but the rest of family played the "Minute to Win It" games Kelly had set-up in the basement. From the sound of it, it was very fun!
We had a wonderful turkey dinner and then began the annual O'Connor Grab Bag, or Dirty Santa, game. Always a good time. And then Marisol and Dan gave all the cousins matching hoodies with built-in headphones!
Though that concludes our "Christmas" celebrations, the fun didn't stop there. We stayed with Dan and Marisol on Tuesday night as well. We went for a great walk through the woods near their house and then just laid around and read and I even snuck in a little nap. In the evening, Dan and Marisol introduced me to a new (to me), but I think really old, game called Skip-Bo. It was fun.
Wednesday Dan and Marisol left for a New Years trip to SC, so me, Jimmy and Kevin just hung out around the house. Jimmy and I went for a hilly, MD run. It was brutal.
Thursday was a very exciting day for miss Martha and boyfriend, Ron - they got the keys to their new house in Riva, MD near Annapolis! Being three able-bodied youngins', we met Ron at the old Columbia condo to help with moving day. A short 8 hours later and we were enjoying a cold beer in the new place. It's an amazing house that I know they, and we, will enjoy for years to come. Couldn't be happier for them!
To celebrate the new house, we went out to dinner at a local crab house and then called it a night. Friday we had plans to see Annapolis before we headed back to NC in the afternoon and let me say that I am so glad we did. Annapolis was such a pretty place. I honestly think I took 200 pictures of other peoples' houses. A little weird...
Anywho, we got back to NC at about 10pm on Friday, New Years Eve, stayed awake long enough to say "Happy New Years" to one another and then pretty much went into R&R mode for the rest of the weekend.
More to come on other life happenings soon...
What a great holiday! Looks like you had such a blast!
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