I'll be Home for Christmas pt 1

I was lucky enough to get a few days off for Christmas, which I gladly spent in Philly.  The drive was beautiful.  I tried to get pictures of how nice the weather was, but, alas, this is as good as it got:

The first thing I got a video of when I arrived in Philly was Joel's Kate pretending (poorly) to be a flying squirrel.

I had luckly made it in time for Family home evening.  Dad read to the kids and played memory.  Everyone had a blast

I got to take a lot of selfies, starting with sister Jaida and her hubs, Ryan:

Until Sydney pushed me out of the picture

It's ok because Syd took some selfies with me

and Jasper

and Ivy

and EVERYONE!!

The next day, dad was working on christmas presents for the kids.  He had a bag full of things and I said he looked like Krampus.  What do you think?

Grandma let me help make a tie blanket.  It turned out amazing:

Dad showed me his awesome tie skills.  This is a trinity knot:

In the evening, Joel and Kate took me to Rose Tree Park to look at the lights.  We got some great pictures:

On Christmas Eve, I found the brass ducks of my childhood.  Mom use to use these as 1lb weights when she was doing arobics.  She offered to model for me:

Mom and I also made the fashion faux pas of dressing alike

Ok blog, get ready, this is one of the few pics you will ever see of me without ANY makeup.  I was lucky enough to get a few minutes with my nieces and nephews and brother in law on Christmas eve: