Quality Time

Last weekend was a good one for many reasons. Betsy, Pete, and Henry came to stay with us for the weekend in order to attend Carrie's PhD graduation exercises. Since we won't be together for Christmas, we took advantage of the occasion for selected gift exchanges too.

Soon after Henry arrived, he started "reminding" me and Grandma that we could perhaps see a movie. I think his exact words were, "Grandpa! Watch Dumbo!" So, here he is cuddled up with Grandma and some pizza watching Monsters, Inc. (We decided to introduce him to a new title.)


On Saturday, Rob hosted an open house to further honor Carrie, who had received her hood and PhD at Friday's graduation exercises. (See Betsy's earlier post on this subject.) There were lots of good eats and good feelings. Oscar helped celebrate, and Henry helped Aunt Carrie open her gifts.





Back at home, I pulled out a sure-fire win-over-the-grandson's heart toy, that being my electric train. This was the first time Henry has had a chance to play with it, so it was a big hit. Since he also loves the farm and farm animals that Great Aunt Paula made for us to play with, we set that up in the middle of the track loop. Some of the animals even went for a ride. I anticipate that getting this out whenever Henry visits will now be a requirement, along with the farm and the Dumbo DVD.


Because there are so many of us in the family, we decided a few years ago to draw names. Otherwise, everyone was going broke buying gifts for everyone else. Anyway, this year, Kathie and I had Betsy and Pete's names, respectively. So, we gave them their gifts on Sunday morning before they went home. Of course, buying gifts for Henry is fair game, regardless of the name drawing plans, so he received some things too. Here he is tearing into one of his gifts. Also, Betsy is admiring the new Italian leather purse (purchased during our recent visit to Italy) she received. Pete received a jig saw from me, which I failed to capture on film.



Hope everyone has happy holidays! Today, we were expecting both Jessica and Travis to arrive. Jessica just walked in, but Travis is stuck in Colorado due to very heavy snow in the Denver area. We don't know if he can get rebooked to get here in time for Christmas or not. We have our fingers crossed.