We Are Still HERE!!

I say that for more than one reason. :) 1st being that I haven't blogged in...almost 3 weeks! WOW! 2nd being our area was hit with tornadoes and straightline winds from before 5pm Monday night until about 5am this morning! I wanted to reasure any family members that we came through it fine...only really tired :) We spent the evening in the basement as storm after storm came through the area. The NW corner of town (opposite side from us), had some touch downs from tornadoes (yes plural) and there was damage on the NE side of town which they are saying could have just been straightline winds. About 2 hours up the interstate from us they recorded the first storm as having 106 mph winds - that is equal to a category 2 hurricane! In neighboring towns there were 2 deaths and more than a dozen taken to the hospitals...a grade school lost most of its roof and its computer lab was destroyed...as well as many homes were demolished (or as they were reporting from Strafford - they were "obliterated"). Once again I was VERY thankful to have my basement to retreat to and it just made me realize again that I NEVER want to live in a home without a basement!! I know that they aren't ALWAYS safe, but they help reasure me some at least :) We didn't go into our basement bathroom (safest place for us) or lose power until 3am this morning when 2 different big storms came very close to us)...the rest of the evening we just watched it effecting everyone else and called some people to check on them (ones we knew were in the direct paths). The boys hanging out in the tub until we got the "all clear" which was at almost 4am this morning

Man I don't even know where to begin with what all has been happening in the past 3 weeks! I will probably split this recap up into multiple entries as it is a LOT to cover even for one of my entries :) Plus I ended up with only about 3 hrs of sleep last night and I am ready for bed already.

I left last time with sharing about Zach being sick....well, Drew ended up being sick Friday morning which pushed our travling to my parents back to Saturday morning. Then I ended up with is Saturday evening...and John had it Sunday. At least we were all past it before Christmas :)

Christmas was really nice. I always enjoy getting to see so much of our extended family. Christmas Eve morning we opened presents with my parents, and my brother and his family. I got all 3 of the boys matching PJs...but we had some difficulty getting a picture of them all together *laugh*

Christmas Eve afternoon we spent with John's grandma, mom and stepdad. I can't believe I am saying this, but we had lunch at Chuck E. Cheese! *laugh* Of course Drew LOVED that :) We then went back to his grandma's place and opened presents And an attempt at a group photo

Christmas Eve was spent with my mom's side of the family. Always an fun time since there is usually a large number of people there

Christmas Day is always nice and quite. We usually celebrate it starting with breakfast with my dad's side of the family. This year we didn't start until about 11am. We are just a small group, so it is mostly spent chatting, eatting, playing video games and sometimes watching a movie...and of course MORE eatting :) Zach mooching food from my uncle:

Ok, I will leave it at that for tonight. I will pick up with my night out at the Fox Theatre next time :) And I have MANY more photos from Christmas that are in my Winkflash account for those family members that care to see them. Night for now!