holidays in florida

the holidays this year were great- full of family fun in not one but two great states. the first few days we spent in florida with my side of the family- we were able to go to bonbon's wedding at the orlando temple, celebrate noah's birthday, and have christmas on christmas eve complete with the redneck gift exchange...

noah's birthday- we bbq'd, played pin the tail on the donkey, ate cake, and drank izze sodas. so delicious. and hung out in shorts and t-shirts, a welcome break from the frigid cold of DC. and of course noah opened presents- the biggest surprise was probably the two hermit crabs he got, one named seven (picture below) and the other ninja because his shell was painted like a teenage mutant ninja turtle.

redneck gift exchange- this involved shopping at thrift stores to get funny gifts for everyone. two highlights were bj's wig to cover up all her gray hair and kristy's doll with a nursing baby that was attached to the doll's boobs with a snap- i think that one was the big winner of the night. i need to track down a photo. it was well-timed because charlee, my new niece, was still nursing and noah had found it in a bin of stuffed animals at some good will. hilarious.

christmas eve dinner - dad and i cooked a japanese feast. we had all the makings for hand roll sushi, yaki soba, gyoza, and shoga yaki (ginger pork). it was a TON of food and so good. dad tried mixing the wasabi powder- we all doubted his ability but it turned out fine with just a bit more powder.

much to mom's annoyance, bj and i kept doing goofy things with our eyes, each without knowing/realizing the other one was doing funny faces too. must be that sisterly connection. ha. we played spoons for a while too-- taught J how to play dirty and tried to help noah learn how to be sly. not sure how that worked out though.

all-in-all it was a grand time had by everyone! we went to bako on christmas day and languished for a bit there before returning home to the cold ice storms of dc again... i know i need some photos from the bako leg of the trip but i don't have any on my computer- i'll try to upload some from the other computer when J gets here.