Christmas Break - From MA to PA to MD to PA to MD to MA

Christmas Break continued...

On December 26, we rolled out at 7am with everyone except JP, who had to stay to work at the hospital for a few days, and Lucy Doodle, who stayed home with JP.  We drove five hours and stopped at Camelback Resort and our room was ready early (the best!) and we hit the waterpark for a few hours:

We went back to the much-too-small-room-for-eight-people-even-though-it-was-called-the-king-suite-and-slept-eight-people to change and drove down the road to get dinner at Barley Creek Brewery.  After the last person ordered, I realized that we all got cheeseburgers - such simple folk are we.

We went back to the hotel after dinner and the kids played at the waterpark again while Phil and I walked around the place.  There was a magic show in the lobby which was quite entertaining even for the magic-hater that I am.  It just creeps me out.

SNOW!!

The next morning, we drove from the Poconos to Phil's parents house in Maryland.  December 27th was their big Martin Family Christmas party and *almost* everyone was there from his side (missed you Nisey, JP, Maura and Ryan) so we had 33 in attendance.  No matter what side of the family we are with, it's always a BIG party, which I realize is partly our fault ;)

The next night, Phil's sister Kelly invited us to her outdoor furniture shop in downtown Frederick where we had some snacks and hot cocoa and then walked over to the creek to see the boats decorated for Christmas.  It was very cool!

JP and Lucy made the drive down to Maryland that night and the next day, JP went to visit his girlfriend Grace who happens to live about an hour away from Nana and Gramps, very handy!  These two have missed each other while JP has been on his gap year at home and Grace is finishing her senior year at Franciscan.

On Sunday, December 29th, Phil took Andrew and Eamon to see the Commanders game (their Christmas present).  I had bought these tickets back in October and the game day and time wasn't decided until December 17, but it ended up being the national Sunday night game because the Commanders are killing it this year.  I watched the game on tv but went to bed at half time when they were losing.  I layed in bed, praying for a win so I wouldn't have to deal with three sad guys and somehow they pulled it off in overtime!  How exciting!

Pretty good seats if I do say so myself.

There's a guy on the Commanders who doesn't actively play on the team (I think he's a rookie quarterback?) but has gotten some recognition for his good looks and luscious locks.  Phil sent me this photo while he was there:

The next day, we all drove to Hagerstown to get a look at the new medical school where JP most likely will attend.  It's only 40 minutes from Nana and Gramps, and only 20 minutes from Phil's brother (who is married to my bestie and has 8 kids) whom we went and hung out with the rest of the day.  So fun!

Some of the cousins eating ice cream (their peanut butter soft serve is so good!) at the restaurant where their teens work.  We call ourselves the MA Martins (us because we live in Massachusetts) and the PA Martins (them because they live in Pennsylvania) and all of the kids basically have a cousin around the same age which is so great.

For New Year's Eve we all went to our friends house to spend the day, where the kids played basketball for hours, and then went to the Vigil Mass for the holy day.  Nana made a taco feast for dinner and we were supposed to stay up and play games but we ended up watching some episodes of Lost with the teenagers like every other night this Christmas break.  I can't believe Phil and I used to watch this show on TV once a week for six seasons and now my kids can binge watch multiple episodes each night.

My only photo from NYE 2024

On January 1, 2025 we took the kids to walk around downtown Frederick because we thought they would enjoy seeing the boats, got some ice cream of course, and then shopped at Marshall's with some gift cards that were burning holes in Maggie's pockets.

This boat said "Colleen's Crew"!

Our ice cream is better, but I loved this bench!

January 2nd was a chill day spent doing laundry and packing and stuff like this:

We drove home on January 3rd, unpacked AND put away all of the Christmas decor both inside and outside.  The next day we cleaned out the fridge and made a shopping list to start this stupid January diet because we need to push the reset button after that long and fun Christmas break.