Christmas in Ohio

We were able to make a run to Ohio right before Christmas this year, which was especially nice since we didn't make it at all last Christmas.  It was a speed run, as usual, and we left on the 23rd instead of the 24th, which meant we didn't make it to the annual Christmas Eve Machak Reunion, but we did manage to see both sides of my immediate family and had play dates with my cousins and their kids.

We met the Shultz' for a yummy dinner at the Spaghetti Warehouse, where Timmy finally added spaghetti to the (small) list of things he will eat!  Afterwards we took a tour of Darren's new, and newly refurbished, home and then settled in at Donny and Peggy's for the rest of the evening, visiting and eating yummy cookies.  We got to see more of Ron and Marleen thanks to staying at Ron's house.  Timmy was happy to help decorate Ron's tree, especially putting the star on top!

The next day the boys and I went to visit my cousin Michelle and her 6 year old twins Connor and Chloe for a few hours.  The twins played very nicely with Timmy, even though he is "only three and a half" and Michelle and I had a nice visit while watching Tyler roll around.  In the evening we met Grandma, Dale, and Paula for dinner and went back to their house for visiting and gifts.  Dale is Timmy's buddy.  Ever since their visit two Thanksgivings ago, Timmy has ended our evening prayers and blessings with "And MandM and Uncle Dale."

Our last day we got to spend a much overdo afternoon with my cousin Erin, her husband Chris, and their kids Jayce and Hannah.  I've mentioned before that we stayed with Chris and Erin while they were living in Edinburgh and we were traveling in Europe for our 3 year anniversary.  Erin hinted at the time that they were starting to think about kids, and Tim was working on convincing me we were ready as well!  Jayce is about 3 weeks older then Timmy, and we are all still on the same schedule, as Tyler is about 6 weeks older then Hannah!  We hadn't seen them at all for two years, and that last visit was at the always hectic Christmas Eve Reunion, so I was really excited to have a quiet visit with them and really catch up.  I was surprised to see how interested Tyler was in Hannah, he was patting her and getting excited and smiling like crazy.  Timmy and Jayce took a little while to get on the same page as far as how to entertain themselves (it was mostly their parents fault, if we had let them jump on the couches it would have been no problem at all) but by lunchtime they were having a cute conversation about their food and then they bonded over their love of Angry Birds.  I like to think that Erin and I are a lot alike, one of our similarities is our love for photographing our children (though I'll give her credit for knowing more about what she's doing!) We definitely couldn't resist making all four kids pose for a few pictures.  It was so, so good to see them, and I'm determined not to let it take another two years to get together next!

It was a very nice visit as always, our drive both ways was incredibly easy as well.  We were happy to get home to enjoy Christmas Eve and prepare for Santa to arrive!