Candice & Todd's blog: The last 10 days....

Whew. We made it home last night.
(the previous blog post was completed before we hit the road 10 days ago).

So much has been happening.

So much happened.

The 1st thing that was/is happening.... the "Omnicron" outbreak -- a milder cold-like version of Covid. I'm still keep up with a group of teachers from my old school. They have early release the last 2 days of December... and on the last day - have a Christmas party. Unfortunately, the messages kept coming through... Covid case after Covid case after Covid case! They were saying how they had symptoms / tested and were OK.... felt worse the next day... tested again and was Positive. There were at least 15 teachers who got it out of the group of 60 or so that I'm still connected with. It was like watching dominoes falling... it was so crazy! So many people had to quarantine away from their families and children... on Christmas. :( On the news... there are tales of HOURS long lines for testing and "at home" test kits not being available anywhere. (We looked and thought about testing while on our trip but we couldn't find kits.... hopefully we did not have any exposure to us or us exposing to others??!!)

We visited my mom in North Carolina and had a quiet Christmas celebration with her. (Well, Mercer was a little "not" quiet -- acting goofy -- which we love!)

We played games Mexican Train and ate way too much food.

We also visited my aunt + her two corgis, saw the new Spiderman movie (masked) AND went through a drive-through Christmas light show which was about an hour's drive from mom's house.

Isabella stated that we needed to "up" our light game! I think we all want a giant pole with the tree-shaped form and choregraphed lights!

The kids were hangry because it took so long to go through. Isabella was a little cold too b/c she watched part of the light show standing up out of the sun roof.

We went back to my mom's for a late dinner -- without stopping by s'more-ville... their choice!

I forgot to mention: the elves followed us up to North Carolina!

We then made the trek up north to New Jersey. We made it up late - but made pizzas and hung out with the dog (Gunter).

Rose Marie came down the next day.

The elves followed us up to New Jersey too!

(check out Tonia's Christmas tree!!)

Mercer is shown above for "scale!"

One of the elves ended up INSIDE of the plastic ornament that was hanging up in Tonia's house!! How??!! That girl elf is trouble.... maybe SHE put Fred inside somehow??!!

The next morning, the elves were hanging out in a bowl of marshmallows!

On Christmas Eve, we visited Zach and Carlee at their (tiny) house about 45 minutes away.

They have Ameraucana chickens - with blue eggs - and a giant dog named Yeti.

Isabella got to gather the eggs and - of course - love on their dog!

They also used to have turkeys running around their fenced-in yard, but Yeti got a hold of them! Yes - that is a REAL turkey leg.... eew.

I snapped a bunch of pics next to his container "garage" because the lichen growing on it looked really really cool - and - Isabella's pink jacket really popped against it!

Sorry - random photo alert!

We decorated cookies for Santa.

...and made "reindeer food" that we spread out on the lawn.

On Christmas morning, the elves disappeared, but the bowl of marshmallows transformed into a helmet full of marshmallows !!?? We were a little confused -- except after seeing one of the gifts -- it made sense: the elves were in kahoots with Santa.

The big guy left a note for Isabella on her "hover board" to have fun, but always wear a helmet. Thankfully they were able to fly home and get it so she could try out her new gift!

Baby Westley wanted to watch and get in on the action.

But she had a TON of things of her own to open up!

Mercer got a new phone and several types of hot sauce. eek. Isabella got several things (rocks, wheelie shoes, hover board).

Westley got 2 kitchens, a chair, a giant barbie doll and a giant unicorn. She was a bit overwhelmed!

This Christmas, however, was one that the family needed to focus their attention on & celebrate the baby. Rory (Junior) would have been 30 earlier this month. (December 9. He and I shared a birthday.)

It was unseasonably warm in New Jersey.

Mercer got pants to match his sweatshirt too... ha!

Isabella and I went to feed the horse some apples. On our walk back to the house, everyone was crowding around Tonia... her hands were on her face and they were covered in blood! She had fallen on the driveway -- tripped over the edge and fell smack on her face.

The blood came from sunglasses that cut the bridge of her nose. She got cleaned up and came back out, but didn't feel right. She said her eye hurt. Meaghan dropped her off at the ER. She broke her nose and the oracle (eye socket). Good thing she trusted her instincts and wanted to go get checked out!!

Dinner was already cooking... so, the family pulled together -- finished setting everything up and had Christmas dinner without her. :(

Here are photos I took from the "adult" table. (The photo was taken after several people had cleared -- so they are pictured here as a small group with the baby).

... and photos from the "kid's" table.

Isabella was NOT happy about being at the kid's table... she refused to be photographed 'til after we had eaten.

Sammy - who lives there (a friend of Rory Jr's) is at the table with us. We met her this summer when we visited and got the chance to talk with her more / get to know her better.

Tonia finally made it back, but Jim and Marley had to go back to DC.... so everyone pulled together quickly to do the adults-only dirty-santa gift-exchange.

(the kids got plenty!) She looks pretty good here -- just the cut on her nose, but they said there would be bruising.

It was pretty low-key... a few steals + some trades here and there.

Tonia ate a late dinner, went to bed and it was time for us to wind down. However....

While I was putting Isabella to bed, I heard a weird noise from the bathroom. I cut off the fan... and went back to our room. The weird noise happened again. I went back to the bathroom and the fan was on fire!

I ran upstairs to ask for a fire extinguisher. The cousins and their friends were on the back porch, but all came down (unfortunately - no extinguisher in hand). The only thing that was available was paper towels doused in water -- which Ryan snuffed out the fire with.

I'm sure I was annoying -- wanting to make sure it was 100% out... so I asked to cut the power -- cut the panel (thinking it was an electrical fire)... but... they did better... they took out the whole fan and wiring ands fan switch! They looked into the ceiling to make sure that there were no more flames or embers. WHEW!

The joist was a little bit burned, but it was thankfully only on the surface. Tonia slept through all of it! (Rory Senior was at the family's home on Gandy's Beach.) Crisis averted -- and Isabella thought that Ryan was SOOO brave! She called him a hero! :)

There was a lot of noise from the porch AND I had so much adrenaline pumping, that I had a hard time going to sleep -- 'til about 2 am.

Unfortunately, Mercer woke up at 4 am with a nose bleed! (He's been having them off-and-on... however... not for THREE HOURS.) He and I spent a LOT of time in that bathroom where the fan fire was earlier that evening!!

We tried pressure and ice on the bridge of his nose. He was starting to get weak, so I was making plans to take him to urgent care and waking up Todd, but it stopped just before 7 am and he fell asleep! Poor kid.

Isabella did "OK" with Westley. She said she didn't like the baby touching her stuff... or touching her! ha!

Needless to say, I slept in and we got a late start the next morning to head back down to North Carolina! Isabella got extra snuggle time with Gunter.