Dear Blog, Please excuse me from blogging this week...

Dear Blog,


Please excuse me from blogging. It's not that I am going to ignore you. It's just that life has taken over and I am being held hostage to family events. You can blame me, I suppose. I mean, it's my fault, ultimately. My girls ALL have birthdays within 2 weeks of Christmas (9 days before, 4 days after and 11 days after). I won't even mention the other family birthdays in this time period.


Here's a little peek at Megan's celebrations. Yup, it's plural. She got the family party on her actual birthday. Complete with an Edible Arrangement. She loved it. (Seems like a wierd thing for a 16 year old, but she wanted it, so she got it.):

And a party with her friends last Saturday/Sunday. I got a couple of hotel rooms and let her and her friends spend the night in one. I was in the room next door with my other 2 daughters.

Here you can see the beach in the background. It was too cold for us to go out there. We are ALL cold weather wimps. And proud of it.

We had a nice dinner in the hotel restaurant. They were so cute. They were a bit intimidated because they were not dressed up. But they enjoyed it anyway. (This isn't the best picture, but it's my favorite. I love that it shows how much fun they were having.)

The whole reason for the hotel was so Megan could have a pool party. I don't think she made it into the pool. The older girls stayed in the hot tub the entire time. The younger two kept jumping from the pool to the hot tub and back. Crazy kids.

We decorated her room and sang Happy Birthday to her.


(A picture of her blowing out the candles on her cupcakes is forthcoming. I took the pics with her iTouch, and she hasn't downloaded them yet. Could be a while, so use your imagination a bit.)
 Then we went to our separate rooms, and spent the rest of the evening. The 16 Year Old Party watched movies, ate junk food and giggled until 3am. The "other" party watched movies, ate junk food and giggled until 11pm.

Each room had a balcony. If you looked out to the right, you could see the lights on the boardwalk. It's one of those displays that have lights coordinated with music. They thought it was really neat to be able to see it from the room. So did I.

And then had breakfast and the teenagers went walking/shopping while I took Melissa to the pool again before check-out time.

And finally, the view of the Atlantic Ocean from the rooms. Isn't it great!

Now, it's on to Christmas. Lots still to do. Those cookies aren't going to bake themselves you know...

I hope this helps you understand, and forgive me for neglecting you. It won't be long before I am back on a more regular basis.

Love,

Jana