Happy 2016

How is it possible that we are already in 2016?!  I'm still having trouble grasping this!  

The end of 2015 ended in epic style for the Pedersen house.  If you recall a previous post, we are trying to reserve Fridays for fun days spent with the family.  Prior to Thanksgiving, Dave proposed a surprise trip to Roanoke....about 3.5 hours away.  He and Jeffery went when Jakob and I were in AZ for my sister's bridal shower and Dave thought that the entire family would enjoy the trip.  

After a breakfast treat of Cracker Barrel (Jeffery's favorite spot), we arrived in Roanoke and first visited the BEAUTIFUL St. Andrews Catholic Church.  Absolutely gorgeous!  Our parish is currently looking at building a new church and I keep pestering our priest to take St. Andrews as a model of what we should do.  It was stunning!!!!  In the empty nave, we said our family's morning prayers, walked around the building a bit, and I could have stayed all day.  

Our next stop was at the Roanoke Transportation Museum which houses the historic 611 J-Class Steam Engine and several large steam engines.  The museum was really quite fascinating and the boys (all 3 of them) were in their idea of heaven.  Trains, trains, and more trains!  :)

Thanksgiving was then upon us.  We were honored and delighted to spend the holiday with some wonderful friends, the Cota family....who have three children: the eldest is Jeffery's best friend and just a few months older than him, the second is a month younger than Jakob, and the third is a baby.  We had a wonderful time and I, for one, am kind of hoping it becomes a tradition.  :)

Our Thanksgiving weekend is always a busy busy busy time with our little own traditions.  The day after Thanksgiving was spent at the Science Museum and the model railroad exhibit that happens every Thanksgiving weekend.  It is something that Jeffery starts looking forward to in June.  :)  The next day, we always have our former neighbors and really good friends over for a breakfast of biscuits and gravy and mimosas....and then we go and get Christmas trees together.  Dave usually sets up his model trains that day...as he did this year....and oh boy! were the boys ever interested!!!  Jeffery is even running the trains this year!  Everyone is amazed to hear that we're allowing a 4 year old to work with N Scale trains but Jeffery takes his work very seriously!  :)  He is truly a train kid!

Sunday of Thanksgiving weekend is normally when we decorate our tree.  Our tree this year....oh my!  It was huge!  And took up more space in our family room than trees have in years past.  BUT......it was absolutely beautiful and probably the most gorgeous tree we've ever had!!!!!!  All of the boys this year helped with decorating it and Jeffery was so proud of his contributions!

Another Friday Family Fun Day was spent in Williamsburg to see their Christmas decorations.  We started with an insanely yummy lunch at The Blue Talon Bistro....yes, we take our children to fancy French restaurants!  :)  And then we wandered down Duke of Gloucester Street where the boys chased each other in the Palace Lawn, Jeffery and Dave did short track racing around a circle right in front of the Governor's palace, and we stopped to see the sheep and waved at all the horses that went by.  

At one point, Dave could tell that we were all starting to run low on energy....so he proposed that we stop into one of my all time favorite places EVER.....Chowning's Tavern.....where Jeffery got to have his first root beer (only the best root beer EVER) and we listened to a tavern musician play a flute recorder and a small violin.  

And then it was Christmas.  And Christmas in Virginia this year was warm!!!!  Dave and Jeffery played football on Christmas Day out in the front street....wearing short sleeved shirts.  NO BUENO!!!!!  There are reasons I don't live in AZ and warm Christmases is one of those reasons.  My parents arrived on Christmas Day and stayed until New Year's Day and we had a simply marvelous time with them.  We had a great time relaxing at home, going to the Botanical Gardens to see their Christmas Lights, taking the boys to the ARC Park (on a very cold day) and then to lunch at the Can-Can Brasserie (yes....again....we take our boys to fancy French restaurants), reading to the boys, running trains, etc.  We even got a babysitter and got dressed up and had an adult dinner out with my parents at a favorite of all of ours, The Boathouse!

And...because Dave thinks this is important....he soundly beat me, my mom, and my dad, at Settlers of Cataan not once....but four times in the span of 24 hours.  (OUCH!  That still stings....but we will have our revenge come the summer!)  :)

2016 came and Dave started back at UR and things started to get busy again.....just in time for a snow storm that walloped us all and gave us a little stay-cation for a couple of days.  Over 2 days, we received 16 inches of snow.  Dave couldn't make it to Mass on Sunday as we were snowed in....he tried but the little Corolla couldn't get past the curb and into the street.  There were times on Saturday where I couldn't see the house right next door it was snowing so hard and the wind was so fierce.  Real blizzard like conditions.  We didn't lose power, had stocked up appropriately on food prior to the storm hitting and had enough whiskey on hand so....we thought it was great fun!

We went out on Friday and played some football in the snow.  But Saturday was nasty (trust me....I had to shovel in the blizzard as Dave was running a low grade fever....it was no fun!) to be out in the elements and then by Sunday and Monday, we'd gotten so much snow that it overwhelmed the boys in how deep it was and they wanted back inside very quickly.  :(  And now, this past week, it has been  70 degrees....so most of the snow is gone.  

We have an insanely busy semester ahead of us but we're looking forward to what the months ahead will bring.  We hope that the start of 2016 has been joyful and peaceful for all of you and that you look to the months ahead with a sense of wonder and anticipation!  Happy 2016 everyone!