Friday night Dad had family over to his house for a bit of a reunion. Irwin, Dawn, Shea, the Wightmans, Auntie Doris, Uncle David and Carol, Julian and Alex, Dad’s long time friend Jeffery Small, Dad’s wife’s daughter Tamara and her four kids, and an interesting couple who live across the street from Dad. The wife was a TV producer and the husband a ship captain.

We were late. It seems like if you try to respect both of the twins naps like we did Friday, it doesn’t leave much time to be outside the hotel. We also shamelessly brought loads of laundry by. It was easy to do during the party, though. With so many people playing with all our kids, I could easily launder up and hold a glass of wine as well.

Jeffery has 6 grand kids and is a natural with the twins.

Lovely as it is to see family, I couldn’t help but walk away feeling so lucky for the life I have. Job loss, impending spousal death, and money problems were some of the things people were having to deal with. At one point, while talking to someone about how much laundry we have, we were asked if we had a laundry machine in our house. In our little circle of friends laundry machines is a given!

It wasn’t all bad news, there was also college acceptance, new jobs, and new family members. And there was always the warm fuzzies I get when I see family.

Every day Ben sings the Hanukkah blessing. He has made the connect between the blessing on the candles and new toys. Since we’ve been here, our boys have been spoiled with toys, candy and money. I think Ben is confused and believes it’s still Hanukkah!

Whoopsie Cushions are fun for all ages!

Uncle David was a delight for our kids. All the Devenskys are good with our kids at any age, but Uncle David always stands out as a star when we see him. He got Jack wonderful, old school presents that any naughty 5 year old would receive with glee. A whoopie cushion and surprise snake in a can of peanuts kept Jack occupied for ages. He even had the twins giggling together over a bouncy ball.