Tuesday, November 23, 2010

Happy Holidays!!!!!!!!

It's here... Can you feel it?... THE Most Wonderful Time of the Year!!

I love the holidays.  It's a time for family and fun and giving and peace and love...

Our family began the holidays yesterday.

My cousin and his lovely wife are in town for Thanksgiving.

Yesterday, we went to my grandmother's house to visit with my cousin and share a meal.  It was wonderful, as always.

My cousin was driving down from Boston and hit a lot of traffic, so my grandma and I pored over some old photo albums.  I love looking at old family photos.

I found these goodies:
The gorgeous woman on the left is my Grandma; the handsome
dude in the wild shirt making mashed potatoes is my dad.
Here's another one of my handsome father :)
My cousin and his parents moved to Florida when he was about 3, and I was about 6.  They visited sporadically, so we never really knew each other that well.  Sure, my grandparents had everyone over for dinner when they came up from Florida, and we do have memories of playing Houdini and Hide and Seek and my cousin's funny nicknames for everyone.  But it was not really until two years ago, when my cousin came up for my grandmother's ninetieth birthday party and we realized that we were all on facebook.  Now, through the powers of facebook, we are in contact at least once a week!  Jason and my cousin have a lot in common and share a sense of humor.  My cousin's wife is the sweetest thing and very smart and nice to be around.  
How funny is it that my cousin and I both have the same expression?
Since we just began homeschooling, that is often a topic that comes up.  And I am always so grateful for the support of people who I respect.  My cousin and his wife were very supportive.  They have friends that homeschool and think that it is now a viable education option.  My cousin said he read that the number of kids who are homeschooled is equivalent to the number of kids in private school.  

Now that my cousin and I are grown, our parents have dogs and my grandmother has photos of those dogs in frames.  We were teasing my grandmother that she has to put these photos of us in a frame!