"Did you bring my life jacket?"

Well it has been a while since I posted last and a lot has happened! Before break school was crazy and it felt like we had a celebration every day. I love working in a place with so many cultures because we just celebrate every holiday! Santa came in and everything, it was a fun month.
Then I went home and had an amazing time with friends and family!! When I got home Maddy and Jackson were at my house being watched by grandma and grandpa. It was lots of fun because we all got to do Christmasy things like bake togheter! Maddy enjoyed eating the cookie dough most and then told me it was my fault she had a tummy ache, even though I had cut her off :). The next day we headed down to Maryland to return the kiddies and celebrate christmas! For one day while we were there ALL of the siblings, spouses and kids were together!! It was so noisy, chaotic, and wonderful....the best Christmas present possible! We even got a photo of everyone on the couch! Then for Christmas number one, on the 25th we had my parents and the Maryland arnolds. It was lots of fun and Maddy enjoyed leaving out cookies and seeing the crumbs and note that santa left.
It was sad to leave them but we ran out at 8 at night ahead of planned because there was a store coming up the coast. My mom drove all night running from the storm and we arrived back in Rochester. Here Nick came and stayed with us for the rest of my time! It was so nice having a relaxing week to be with him and play lots of games with family! On the 28th we had Ryan's baptism. I was the godmother and since my brother Mike who was the godfather could not make it Nick stood in as godfather for the baptism! Our church has a rather large baptismal font, about the size of a hot tub, so when we arrived big brother Tyler went over and asked "did you bring my life jacket?" We had to explain to him that it wasn't really for swimming but for Tyler to be baptised :). Both him and Ryan were very good during the baptism. Ryan loved the water but got fussy at the end with the oil. After we all had cake and watched Tyler run around.
That night the Virginia Arnold's spent the night at grandma and grandpa's for Christmas number two. We woke up and the tree was surrounded by presents! We had a great Arnold family Christmas. Tyler is at such a great age that everything was just what he wanted! That night after some naps we had game night at out house. We had lots of people over and played some great games of Mafia, Spoons and the oven mitt game. It was a blast.
On the 30th Nick and I headed to Niagara Falls, Canada to bring in the new year! Everything was wonderful and the only bum in the road (a hole to let everyone into our hotel room) was easily fixed. We had so much fun playing glow in the dark mini golf and eating out at a nice restaurants. We even went Under the Falls and looked at them from the tunnels below. We walked around a lot in mostly cloudy weather but just as we got to the horseshoe falls the sun came out to make a rainbow! On the 31st Jen and Jeremy came to meet up with us. We went out to a really nice dinner at a restaurant overlooking the falls lit up at night. It was fabulous. We went into the casino for a bit to gamble and get some hats! We were successful and went back down to the free concert of Barenaked Ladies by the falls for midnight! They stopped playing for a count down with fireworks on the Skylon tower and above the falls. It was the best way to bring in a new year! The next morning we got up for breakfast and hit the road.
I had a few more days at home to play games with my parents and relax before heading back. Now I am back and getting back into the routine of real life. I was really sad to leave, but starting to feel back to normal now. Thanks everyone for a wonderful break!! :)