Happy Holidays!
Darrell and I have enjoyed keeping up with the kids and their activities through the use of the blogspot.com so we decided it was time for us start keeping our own blog. This will be a great tool to let everyone know what is going on in our lives, and with a link to the kids' blogs you have an opportunity to keep up with what is going on with all of us!
Today is the day we celebrated the West Family Christmas. First let me explain how this works. Since the boys all have extended families, about 6 years ago we decided to celebrate our family time together over New Years. This gives the kids the opportunity to celebrate with their other families yet still give us time together. The idea was that we would always have a chance to be together as a family. Then again, we didn' t count on Thom's repeated deployments so we are missing Thom, Heidi and Matthew this year. Thom is out to sea and Heidi and Matthew are in Virginia Beach.
Anyway, today Amanda cooked a wonderful meal. Everything was good but the best part was the gravy. Oh, my! The pot roast was as tender as could be. And the gravy on top added a touch of vegetable flavor that was really good. We had mashed potatoes with gravy. Did I mention the gravy was GREAT?? Makenna decided it was time to take a nap about 10 minutes into the meal. We ended up having to rush the meal a bit and move on to opening Christmas presents because Darrell had to get on the road. Yep, another really short weekend because of his job. He ended up missing Makenna opening gifts because she was still napping when he left.
Tonight the Colts game is on TV. Chris and Lara were all set to watch the game but Chris has crashed for the evening. We had planned to play some games but......Chris just can't seem to run with the big dogs (so he's sleeping on the porch)! HA! They did watch the Patriots game on Saturday and I was rather surprised of the smack being spoken by both Chris and Lara! Me thinks they don't care much for the New Englanders! HA!
So, Heidi and Matthew had a really rough Christmas. Both were sick about a week before Christmas with a 24 hour bug. Then a couple of days later (as Heidi was trying to drive to Virginia Beach) Matthew decided he still had the bug and spent Christmas eve day at the hospital being re-hydrated and then again Christmas day and night in the hospital. Poor guy was just miserable...and Heidi was worn out! Matthew seems to be on the mend now but I'm sure Heidi is just waiting for the next thing! Thom can't come home soon enough for Heidi!
We want to wish all of you a Happy New Year....may all your dreams for the new year come true!
Love to all!
Darrell and Cathy
