Last year we spent Thanksgiving in both New Jersey and Virginia, and then we did the same at Christmas. This year we reluctantly acknowledged that this was crazy and decided to split them up. New Jersey took Thanksgiving because Kevin's brother and his family was going to be there from Michigan. One might think that descending upon Kevin's Mom's house with two families of 4, including 4 girls under the age of 6 would be crazy town. I suppose it was, but it was actually far more manageable than I had anticipated it would be. The older girls (about 18 months apart in age) played pleasantly independently allowing the four parents to only have to really keep and eye on the two littles (5 months apart in age) and those two mostly tagged along with the bigs. All in all they were mostly cooperative with each other. Bedtime was becoming increasingly difficult with the room sharing, but we all made it work. It makes me sad they don't live closer, because if they get along so well in close quarters for days on end, I think we would have fantastic single afternoon playdates.
Kevin's mom hosted and cooked a fantastic Thanksgiving, and it was an entirely lovely visit.
There is a playground that is walking distance from Granny's house. It made for a nice afternoon break every day.
PIGGYS! and the Dora picture on the fridge was a cousin cooperative art piece.
The girls with Grams, Kevin's grandmother (Stephanie's namesake). She is 92 now, and as sweet as ever.
Seriously, look at these four. They really did like each other!
Oh, and the lace table cloths turned into capes. More popular than any of us would have anticipated or probably cared for, but they had a lot of lace cape joy.
And the series of pictures below... How do you choose just one? I couldn't, so here is a selection.
Happily anticipating next year with these sweet cousins!
