Patrick's mom, dad, and "little brother" Geoff arrived last Sunday, December 22nd. I was on call at the hospital then, but apparently they arrived some time after Natalie's swim meet. This was the first time in three years that we'd seen Geoff, the last time being three years ago when he came with his parents for Christmas also. He lives in Alaska, so traveling to see him is cost-prohibitive plus I don't like cold weather.
This time Geoff played with the big boys on the PS3. He also watched with a few of the movies we own, like Despicable Me and Despicable Me 2, complete with Eric dancing to the musical numbers. They also rented a movie that they kept saying was really bad. I was at work so I was spared having to watch it. Geoff even went with Patrick and Eric to one of the local parks and played with Eric on the playground equipment. On Christmas Day, Geoff said that Eric was the only one that was fun to shop for. He got him a remote control car that Geoff himself played with. The rest of us got gift cards to the movie theatre--fun gifts but understandably not as fun to shop for.
Patrick's mom's birthday is today, December 30th--her 80th. They weren't going to be with us on her actual birthday, so we celebrated on Christmas Eve night instead. After church in the afternoon, Patrick prepared some brisket for dinner and then we sang "Happy Birthday". She didn't want the fuss of a candle, but it did make it more like a birthday in the fact that she could blow out a candle. She definitely didn't want 80 candles. :)
Patrick had texted his sister Lisa to ask what her favorite cake was. In the end it was good that he didn't get an answer until after he had gotten this chocolate "Tuxedo Cake". Lisa had said that carrot cake was Mom's favorite, but Mom said that it wasn't. She seemed quite pleased with this cake. She had a couple of pieces of it before they left and talked about how much she enjoyed it.
On the night of December 26th, they took us out to eat at Paesano's. We came back and took this photo in front of the tree. Mom and Dad are actually looking at the camera, which makes it a very rare photo. :) They left the next morning after I had already gone to work. Patrick was good about taking a few photos before they left, but Anthony and Alex got up just to say goodbye and Alex's gravity-defying hair proved it. I didn't have the heart to post one of those photos here.
We'll see Mom and Dad again for Spring Break. As with every year, I hope we can see them more often. I'm very lucky to have wonderful in-laws like these.
No comments:
Post a Comment