New Year Excitement

We had a fun trip home to Ohio for New Year's. Penny got to catch up with FCOR John, her long lost playdate buddy from while we were living in Ohio. Oddly enough, he only had a few hours before heading to the airport to go to New Jersey for New Years!

We also had one of our best opportunities for a play date with Indio, another of Penny's cousins. They are a month apart, but pretty much the same size and energy level. They had several rounds chasing each other around the house before settling in on the chairs for a bit. They usually took turns throwing themselves at the bean bag chair, but sometimes did it simultaneously too. They had such a blast together, Penny has been asking to "Play Indy" ever since!

Penny has definitely gotten the hang of opening presents. After she opened all of hers at each of the locations we visited, she offered her gift-opening services to anyone else who had not yet opened their gifts. Here she is opening Uncle Pat's gifts. She is quite efficient - fewest pulls necessary in many cases.

We rang in the New Year in good style, thanks to Jenny. She brought us some spiffy poppers (an English holiday treat). Each contains a crown, joke and prize. Penny was most impressed by the variety of noisemakers included. She walked around with this little yellow doo-hicky for days! Almost as good as the kazoo Daddy picked up at the parade a while back. All in all, a really fun trip.

I'm kind of excited about my new phone, ok not so new now. But, it has a pretty decent camera, so that's one less thing for me to drag around. Yay!