Thursday, January 3, 2013

Happy New Year!!

Christmas and New Years - as usual - must have gone by in "ludicrous" speed....yes, I took that from Spaceballs (the movie)!  Ryan, Ali, Luke, Nolan and Uncle Bob all came on from DC to spend the week with us. Auntie Annie came from South Boston.  It was filled with lots of laughs, memories and lots of time for cousins to catch up and play.



  











Despite a little stomach bug on my part (and Maddie & Connor who were kind enough to wait for Christmas to be over), we celebrated the Christmas season at the Frog Pond in Boston, the Pops at Symphony Hall, and our traditional party at Gamma and Papa's house on Christmas Eve, with a lovely Mass given by Uncle Arthur (he's Bishop to you!)!  And it wouldn't be Christmas without a visit to the Kennedy's of West Roxbury for a fun and crazy gathering of family.












We must have been very good in the McLean household because Santa was very good to us.  He brought Morgan matching American Girl PJ's and slippers for her and her doll, Kennedy.  Santa brought Maddie her first Itsy Bitsy American Girl baby with a couple of outfits added by Gamma.  And he brought Connor a pirate ship, dump truck, and lots of cars.  Santa even brought something for the whole family - a new pet fish.  Her name is "Blue" - real original since she's blue.  But the hope is that she lasts longer than our last fish (who didn't quite make it a month). Oh, did I mention Maddie also got a tutu?!...















For New Years we made a 4 hour drive each way to New Jersey to visit some old ND friends - the Kobers (Tim was best man in our wedding) and the McCarthy's.  It was great fun to spend it with old friends and have the kids all play together and catch up.  We were kindly reminded how old we've gotten since graduating college almost 13 years ago!  (picts to come)!


We missed our cousins and family out in Seattle (and extended family who's all over!)! You should really prepare yourselves now for our visit out west next year! You will need a year to recover from us!! We're very grateful to NARL (Nolan, Ali, Ryan and Luke) and Bob for making the trip! We hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and a 2013 that full of health and happiness...and pink tutus!