Christmas fun, that is!   With all of the excitement yesterday of bringing home our 4th family member – I didn’t get to post about the rest of my Christmas!! 

After opening presents at my Grandparents (Mom’s side) – Mike and I went home, went for a quick 1 mile run, then got ready to go to my Aunt & Uncle’s (Dad’s side) to celebrate some more Christmas! 

My Dad is the oldest of 8 – so our family gatherings on that side are always CRAZY, and always involve lots of food and beverage! My contribution was the same as what I brought to my Aunt & Uncles on Christmas Eve – Baked Brie – a la Iowa Girl Eats! Except it was a small fail – seeing as I forgot to remove a piece of plastic from the brie before I wrapped it in the puffed pastry!   My family was nice enough to try and hide it so my feelings weren’t hurt – but I heard them say “Don’t tell Allison” – so I forced them to tell me! Maybe I should stick to bringing veggie trays and wine – I seem to at least get that much right! While I could have drank water or Diet Coke – I decided “it’s the holidays!” – and scoped out my beverage selection at the “adult table”!   My Aunt had made a fun Vodka Punch – I think it was vodka, Sprite, Lemonade, and Cranberry juice.  Whatever it was it was TASTY!

Apparently – all of my Dad’s siblings decided to surprise my Grandparents with a Wii – which they wanted so badly! (I promise – that’s my Grandpa’s excited face! ) Just in case there wasn’t enough craziness going on – the adults wanted to get a picture of all the grandkids (except this isn’t all of us – there are at least 6 missing!) I had munched on all the appetizers all afternoon – and then made a tiny plate of my Aunt Debbie’s Rigatoni (YUM!!!), and my Mom’s Reuben Dip – that I DREAM ABOUT ON A REGULAR BASIS!   (I know some of you asked for the recipe to this the last time I posted it – I still don’t have it!  I promise I’ll get it soon!) All the food was absolutely delicious!   The Vodka Punch, and Pinot Noir weren’t bad either!

As if we hadn’t eaten or drank enough – then it was time to head back over to my Mom’s side of the family for some more tasty treats!

While this side might be smaller – it’s still just as much fun to get together!  Here’s the whole clan (minus me since I’m taking the picture!) Lasagna & salad (I couldn’t even finish this plate – it was amazing but I was just totally stuffed!) Then after opening presents – we headed home with my brother Timmy and cousin Caroline in tow, because they wanted to come over and play!  I don’t have any pictures – but I can tell you – many Christmas beverages were imbibed!

I’ll leave you with this pic…

Little did Lando know – this was her last night as “the one and only dog of the house”

Who’s there? That’s not Lando… It’s another ball of blurry pug/beagle love! Blog world – meet the newest addition to the GDW family – HARVEY! Just like Lando – Harvey is a GIRL DOG, with a boy’s name!

Lando says “Hey – don’t forget to take super cute pictures of me!!!”Harvey has made herself right at home!  She didn’t hesitate to explore every nook and end table crannyHer and Lando had several good romps around the house, she found where we keep her food and water, and then the two of them quickly got to playing tug-o-war with a rope!

Oh yeah – and Harvey made sure she got plenty of lovin’!  Lando says: “I’m not sure about this whole ‘sharing my humans’ affection with other dogs thing’ – I like to be spoiled rotten!”  In all reality though – they seem to love each other!   

I’ll give 20 TRILLION GREEN DOG WINE POINTS (they are a big deal, I promise) to anyone who can guess why Harvey is named Harvey.  

Mike, Lando, and I are headed off on a 4 hour road trip. 

We may return with a 4th family member!  More details to come.