Griswold Family Christmas

I feel backlogged. Backblogged, I should say. HAR HAR. *rimshot* Seriously though, it was so busy the whole second half of December. And now that I am out of my parents house and into my new place, I can't use their computer anymore. As we all know, my computer was held hostage in a break-up (along with other things), so...I guess I'm SOL until I can finish paying that one off and purchase another. Anyway. What I'm trying to say is that updates are harder to make these days.

I had off from December 14 to January 2...so I had a much-needed and much-deserved break. Ellen, Jared, Sam, & Heidi all came home, and Marsha, Dorald, Laura, Andrew, and Bear all visited several times...so it was a full Vanesky house. Christmas was good! Dad, Jared, Ellen, Heidi and I found a bowling alley open on Christmas Eve, so we drove 25 minutes to WAUPACA BOWL for some greasy food and three games. Dad was wearing his new bowling shoes (gift from Heidi). And, this was the first bowling lane he'd ever been to in his LIFE that featured AUTOMATIC SCORING!!!!!!!!! He was simply marveled. I got a few seconds of video before the camera went dead:



I finally got to meet my 2nd cousin Andrew...Laura's son. He's so cute and we all think he looks a lot like his Mama. Dad brought up our old BUSYTOWN (Lowly Worm!) from the basement to have Andrew play with. He also really liked to take the stockings off of the upstairs banister, play with the little Christmas Trees, do his puzzles, have Grandpa read to him, and sing. What a little munchkin. I can't believe he will have a baby sister soon!



Did I mention we had 5 dogs in the house? Riley, Maggie, Sam, and Marsha and Dorald's dogs Maddy and Lucy. Maddy's a really big, beautiful, furry Bernese Mountain dog, and Lucy is a teeny tiny little Dachshund that wears a pink coat (because she is freezing all the time and because it's cute). Riley bit Lucy one of the nights and put two big puncture wounds in her -- one in the back of her neck and one in her throat. I wasn't there when it happened...but I felt so bad for little Luce. She had been starting to get a little brave and charge at the bigger dogs when they came near...unfortunately Riley didn't like that so much. :( Of course the vet offices weren't open at the time and we were 45 minutes away from civilization. We kept a good eye on her owies and I think they have since healed okay. This Riley's 3rd serious little dog attack.

Mom, Dad, & Dorald spread Grandma, Grandpa, & Molly's ashes in the trout stream out back one of the cold, snowy nights. Mom cried a little. I wish they would have waited for me because I'd have put boots on and gone out there with them...but I was still in Appleton at the time. Oh well. At least the ashes are finally spread and not sitting up in Mom's closet anymore (creepy).

For now, I leave you with videos of my babies over the holidays: