Merry Christmas to all!

Santa has come-to multiple state and homes for lucky, little Miss E. We've unwrapped, exchanged and stuffed ourselves to serious extremes for 2 days, but we've also seen many,many family from near and far and that has been our greatest gift.


We were up until the wee hours last night celebrating in Suffield, CT with family we don't see nearly enough of, and then we were back at it early this morning.


We spent a special morning with Papa and Grammy, opening stockings, gifts and savoring a delicious breakfast before hitting the road and heading back to MA. We were treated to some fluffy snowflakes on our journey; nothing to complicate the drive, but just enough to make driving on a Christmas morning feel magical.

We then commenced with the annual Pickard/Parker Christmas Day Swapathon. The cousins were delighted to see each other after a long stretch of visits only by FaceTime.


While the kids played, the adults got down to business and wrangled our way through our Yankee swap. We laughed, we ate, we drank... it was truly a perfect afternoon.

We're tired from a few days of putting in a lot of hours , but can't imagine doing it any other way, or having changed a thing!

Merry Christmas!

Location:Briarwood Dr,Attleboro,United States

Holidays, Rainbows and Bugs and everything else nice...

We're back on the East Coast for our first family visit since leaving in August, and I can say we have this week packed full with visits and fun. We arrived a little later than planned this morning thanks to some snow in Denver, but we're pleased to see 44 degrees on the thermometer and NO SNOW here :)

Interesting, we just saw a rainbow! Wacky weather, I guess.


We ended up camping out at the airport Residence Inn (our hotel chain of choice, if you recall our prior journey) due to our late arrival. Fortunately, as West Coasters, this wasn't that painful at 1:30am this morning when it still felt like a civilized hour to us. At 7:30am, it was a another story...

We wrangled ourselves out of bed and onto the highway (it feels nice to say that, in CA, they are freeways, and I have NOT mastered that lingo) and past our favorite RI landmark, the Big Blue Bug, resplendent in his holiday best- Rudolph nose and antlers. Oh how we've missed you Big Blue.



We then stopped in heaven, I mean Dunking' Donuts, and picked up the Big Box of Munchkins to keep us going. A quick stop at Nan's for a bit of luggage/present reshuffling- oh yeah, I failed to mention we arrived with 5 large suitcases because : A. Southwest lets you check 2 free bags a person B. we all know I am cheap, so why ship if I can check said presents in my luggage and C. we were a little behind in present procurement this year. This is horrifying for someone like me who NEVER checks bags.

With a lighter load in tow, Emma and I took off to meet up with her BFF Amira, to exchange some gifts, and catch up on all the little things 7 year old girls chatter about when they now live 3,000 miles apart. Mainly, "can I come live with you, can you come live with me??" Ah, if only it were that easy :) We had a great lunch at Shogun, one of our old favorite spots, and made all kinds of plans for the girl's next visit- only 6 weeks away. Much better than 5 months!!



We're on the Mass Pike now and on to Papa and Grammy's in CT. Someone is a little tuckered out from the lack of sleep last night and the time change...


Hey, it was a good travel day for us today... We made it to 3 states :)

Location:Worcester-Providence Turnpike,Sutton,United States