Christmas Eve and Snow!

It snowed last night!
It is the first time that Williamsburg has had any snow accumulation on Christmas since 1942 or so!

The kids (and Mom) enjoyed playing in the snow and helping Dad shovel!

Christmas Eve!
The presents under the tree!

...and the food!

Christmas Morning
Joshua opening "Connect Four"

Brian getting his first (and probably only) Ford GT!

Boo was a little overwhelmed when she was yanked out of bed at 6:30 in the morning, whisked away to the living room and told to open her stocking! Once she realized there was candy in there, she was fine!

Boo's new Dora tent!Leah with her Belle BarbieAnd Mom and Dad relaxing on the couch amidst the chaos!

Merry Christmas

Here is our Christmas Tree!

(Yeah, I know it leans, if Italy can get away with it, why can't we?)

Dad, Mom, and Jenny reading a book

Our Nativity currently has tree baby Jesus figurines.

Boo figure the more Baby Jesus in the stable, the better!

Speaking of the Boo, here she is holding our Christmas Star!

Here's Leah and I on light duty!

And Jenny trying to dump the tree while getting the star up there!

Boo is very excited about Christmas this year.

When we asked her why we celebrate Christmas, she replied,

"So we can all get together and be happy together"

Here is her ornament for this year!

This is Mom's ornament from 1977

And here is Joshua's addition to our tree.

Since we are living in chaos, not all of us got ornaments.

Josh got one, but it broke before we got home.

Jenny, Jenny, Jenny

An ornament that Mom and Dad got for their wedding!

The completed tree!

Moving

On the road again..

Saying good-bye to the Davis Family

It was just a *little* tight in all of our cars!

A small town in West Virginia.

It was so picturesque!

Another little town...

These little towns kept popping up in the middle of nowhere,

Mom and I think they may be mining towns!

The white line on the middle of the mountain is a road. There were no guard rails and no shoulder at all. No wonder Nana was so worried about us driving through West Virginia! Those are the roads she used to have to take!

Moving in!

The last few days we have been, cleaning the new (rental) house!

Today the moving trucks (all three of them) are going to deliver our stuff!

We are getting very excited about Christmas! Yesterday we bought a real tree!

Well....the moving trucks just pulled up!! We will post pictures soon!!!!!!!

Love,

Jenny-Penny

New Home

Well, interesting bit of information from our new neighbors...

If we hear helicopters, machine guns, or large explosions (that will make our windows rattle)

in the middle of the night...

DON'T WORRY

It's just Camp Peary

(the military training center down the road)

It took us 10 minutes to convince Mom that we weren't kidding!

And another 10 minutes to convince her that it is no big deal,

they probably won't miss their target (we hope!)

Home

"My home is not a place, it is people"
Lois McMaster Bujold

"Mid pleasures and palaces though we may roam,
Be it ever so humble, there's no place like home."
John Howard Payne

"The most important work you and I will ever do will be within the walls of our own homes."
Harold B. Lee

New House

This dashing place will be our home for approximately the next 12 months.
It has 4 bedrooms, two bathrooms, and space enough for all of us!
It also boasts a half-acre lot!

Pie Baking

Here is a slightly belated post of our Thanksgiving Pumpkin Pie Baking Day!

Nana teaching Leah how to make pie crust

ALL the cans of pumpkin!

Jenny and Mom making the filling

A lively games of jacks!

My "mini me" and I enjoying the day!
(Do you see the resemblance?)

Virginia!

We went to a parade of boats on the York River.

Some of the boats were decorated really uniquely.

Here's Jenny at Virginia Beach

The rest of the gang!

It was 68 degrees out and we were freezing! The wind from the ocean was frigid!

The boardwalk was decorated for Christmas!

The beach had huge light displays, you can see them in the background on the right.

It snowed on our way home! The Smokey Mountains are gorgeous when they are covered in snow. However, driving a 12 passenger van through the snow is not fun!

We're Home!

We are home

We have a house in VA

We love the Williamsburg area

We are packing, going to the dentist / orthodontist, and packing!

Pictures to follow!

Pictures!

Pictures!

I didn't get any pictures of IL (because I was sleeping), or Indiana because I didn't feel like it.

Here's Kentucky!

Pretty state, easy roads to drive, not much else to say...

Then we passed into West Virginia!

Pretty state, mountainous state.

We say prime examples of Appalachia (sorry Connor, no washing machines in the front yard)

Here is an under exposed picture of a cute town in WV.

FINALLY -----VIRGINIA!

(I don't have a picture of a welcome sign because we were on a backroad and it was dark, so the sign was small and there was no way to get a good picture of it)

BUT- Here is a picture of the Williamsburg welcome sign.

The area is lovely and the main interstate is beautiful.

(It looks kind of like the stretch of Hwy. 44 between Eureka and Fenton, but not as hilly as Antire Hill)

More picture coming soon! Including the beach

(it's going to be 70 degrees here tomorrow so we are going to the beach!!!!!)