Back home again........

in Indiana......okay not for me but for Dann. Elijah and Dann sing the song (Back Home Again in Indiana) everytime we cross the bridge from Louisville into Indiana. We spent the New Year holiday with Dann's family. We met in the Indianapolis area where both of Dann's sisters live. His brother, his wife and 7 (yes 7) kids and Dann's mom and stepdad traveled down from Ft. Wayne. There are 16 cousins in all so my kids always have a fantastic time!

Our tradtional gift exchange is that everyone draws a name.....then you have to MAKE your gift. I'll admit that this used to freak me out a bit but over the years it has gotten easier. It is much easier now that my older kids can execute their own projects. We had an easy year because we made the same gift for three people. I had Aubrey, Sophie had Thomas and Elijah had Michael (all teens). The gift we made was a total rip off of what Jana did for Elijah this past year for his birthday. I am not too proud to steal! The gifts were paper mache boxes that each one of us decorated to fit the person's personality. Sophie even painted her box! After you decorate the box you then tape 10 one dollar bills together and then tape the first one to the lid. The result is when you open the box lid a long stream of money rolls out. Needless to say it was a big hit with the recipients! Dann painted a beautiful watercolor for his sister Brenda's new bedroom and Macklin made some great fun foam paper dolls for Veronica (she's 3). David (Dann's brother) and Michael (David's son) had Dann and Elijah. They made them each a really cool folding wooden tables and Michael made Elijah some goo also! Bridget (she's 1 so mom helped) made Sophie tubs of play dough scented and colored by dry Kool-Aid. Matthew had Macklin and he made her the best bunny slipper ever! Deanna (Dann's sister, Matthew's mom) reports that Matthew thought up the idea and made them all himself. Pretty awesome for a teenage boy! Brenda (Dann's baby sister) had my name and she made me some cute Christmas pillow shams for my bed. We stayed up late on New Years Eve eating Papa Murphy's pizza and other fun stuff. The kids all stayed up until the ball dropped and were asleep about five minutes after midnight! Sorry for the length of the post. If you read to the end thanks for staying and enjoy the photos!