Wheeeeeew. I am thoroughly and completely and utterly spent - but we're almost through, and it has been worth all the effort. This holiday season will certainly be remembered as one of our favorites. It has been non-stop, but lots of memories are being made, and the events have been spectacular.
The day after Christmas Jeffrey's mother and aunt arrived from California for some family Christmas time and to help celebrate Jeffrey's birthday. I ran errands, spent time with the horses, cleaned up from the craziness of Christmas day. Suddenly it was 2:30 in the afternoon, and was reading a text from my dear friend Ardeshir saying he was in town and wanted to come to the house at 4.
I've known Ardeshir for years, and he has been extremely instrumental in my equestrian pursuits. As a world class polo player, he's the person I always turned to when anything came up with the horses. He was the one who encouraged me to get back into riding years ago; he was the one who introduced me to my first trainer in LA. He was also the one who found Avdoo and encouraged me to pursue him. It was him who kept telling me, "Just ENJOY and don't listen to people who say you can't do it. You can!"
Ardeshir was only up here for a two days with his girlfriend who grew up just a few miles down the road from us. Their time at DPF was rather limited, but it was so awesome to see him, and show him where we have the horses and catch up on the craziness of the last few months. He couldn't believe how much Avdoo has grown in the last year. He kept saying, "He's HUGE!!!" Seriously. He IS huge.
After spending a couple hours chatting with Ardeshir and Julie, I headed over to Lake Oswego Grill for dinner with the fam to celebrate Rose's 21st birthday! We had dinner and wine, and then Mom and Ed headed back to their house, and we took Rose out to her first legal visit to a bar. I kept saying, "I need to go home, but I can go with you to ONE more bar..." Pretty soon I discovered that it was 1 in the morning, and I was still out...YIKES!!!!!! It was 2 am by the time I crawled into bed.
The last few weeks EG has been waking in the middle of the night screaming for milk, and that night was no exception. Two hours after my head hit the pillow: "Ma-MA! Ma-MA!" she screamed from her crib. I was just too tired to deal, so I gave in and gave her a sippy of milk just hoping for another couple hours of sleep. Knowing that I had people coming over for Jeffrey's birthday party, and that I had yet to do the grocery shopping, I dragged myself out of bed at about 7:30 am to get the day going. I was HURTING. Somehow I made it through the day, and while there were certainly some rough moments, we managed to pull everything together and have a good night of celebration. In Jeffrey's words, it was his best birthday in years.
Mark and Amy piling up
Mom's plate
Yummy food by Jake
Chowing
PRECIOUS!!!
Crazy lady! Hee hee - Minou, don't kill me for putting this up - it's just this photo makes me laugh!!!
The birthday girl
The birthday boy
The birthday ice cream cake from Victor and Lorena
Cassie trying out the roller coaster
Ellie likes to go up and down, but not in the car!
The grandmothers...
What a good sport
The guys chilling...
Ed and Will checking out the new football
Mia styling her mommy
She finally decided to sit in the car!!!
But that was the extent of it.
Today we put away most of the Christmas decor - the tree still stands simply because I couldn't reach the top even on our regular ladder (I need the 12' ladder, and it was in the shop, and Jeffrey was working). Tomorrow Victor will help with that, and we'll be back to normal - whatever that is.
We had our Christmas with Jeffrey's mom and aunt after dinner tonight, and wow! Phyllis spoiled me! She had a Gel Pro Anti-Fatigue mat made to fit between my stove and the island. I'm SO thrilled!!!! I spend hours and hours standing there, and with the problems I have with my hips, I'm excited to experience the difference! Thank you, Phyllis!
Aunt Lois gave Ellie Graye a doll pram, and the child LOVES it. She must have circled around the house 20 times. I'll try to snap some photos tomorrow.
That's one of the things that's odd. I haven't taken a single photo in the last couple of days (aside from Jeffrey's birthday). What's wrong with me?!?!?! We still have another week of holidays, so maybe once things get back into the normal routine I'll also get back into the blog-photo routine! We'll just have to see...........
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