The McMahon Family

Growing up, many years we would travel to Illinois for Christmas time at my grandparents’ house.  Those trips are some of the fondest memories of my childhood.  I remember making beds in the van once the seats had been removed.  I remember playing with my cousins in the snow and with the ancient toys Grandma kept at her house (the pull wiener dog, the brown clip purse, the wire gulf clubs – huh? what were those anyway?).  I remember running in a circle through all the rooms in the house while the adults talked and laughed in groups.  I remember the haze of smoke for the time period when everyone smoked in the house.  I remember watching the adults wondering what they could possibly talk about all that time that could be interesting or so darn funny.  Now that I’m the adult, I know what they were talking about and what they were laughing at.  They were remembering when they were kids.

This Thanksgiving weekend, we laughed so hard that I really thought my ribs were going to crack.  I couldn’t breathe and it hurt so badly.  In such a good way.  With us living close to both sets of grandparents, our kids won’t have the same memories of traveling and staying in the same house as the 20 relatives that traveled there.  But I do still hope they remember and cherish the holidays we have and the times we get together with cousins.  They had a blast this year with cousins and I hope that continues with each holiday they celebrate together.

Cousins playing games electronic and physical. 🙂

I started this game ahead and finished dead last….Never moved more than a couple spaces.

We decorated Grandma Neukomm’s tree.  We even overcame the light issues and got it decorated gorgeously! As a side note: it was my fourth tree that weekend!  Mine, two at Grandma Rapp’s and this one.  I may have laid on the couch during this one during the ornament stage due to exhaustion…

Black Friday shopping at Toys r US with the girls while the boys headed to Walmart.

You can see all of the photos including our gingerbread men in the November album.  And one day when Shannon posts his pics, I’ll share some of those with you. 🙂

His first chapter book.

My job has me constantly on the go.  There is very little down time to do paperwork or things at my desk that don’t involve the students.  This is as it should be for a teacher. But that means that all day long I look forward to getting home to get things done.  Tonight, I knew I had piles of laundry to fold and tons of school work to do and wanted the peace and quiet of home to finally get it done.  No more kids standing at my elbow wanting constant attention and help.  I knew my boys would be content to play with their Legos or play on the iPads and leave me alone.  So I packed up my stuff from work and headed home anticipating this:

Then, on the drive home, I heard this song.

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So I figured instead of working all evening, I would play Mac’s new Ninjago game he got for his birthday with him.  I had promised we would do it later this weekend when things were slower.  But as I learned on my way home, I better enjoy it now.  Didn’t his seventh birthday already teach me that? It seems he was my tiny baby just last year!  So the family enjoyed some game time this evening.

And you know what?  All that work still got done.  Just after I loved on my boys first. 🙂

One of a kind Ninjago cake. More shots in the album, Nicki! 🙂

7!

Way cool gift from Uncle Nate and Aunt Kimberly. He’s used the alarm every night since. 🙂

His robe from Grandma. Think he was excited?

Angry Bird Boy

The birthday boy and me

Without Meme here to take pics for me, I didn’t get many but they’re still fun to see.
Shannon did a great job, as always.  Enjoy our pics of celebrating Mac.

How is my baby 7 years old?

Happy birthday, my sweet Baby Mac.