Wow, it has been a month and a half since I updated my blog!! I guess instead of doing 11 or 12 blogs I will try to keep it down to 5 or 6 this time, haha! When I last left you, we were preparing for our trip to Pennsylvania for Christmas!

The Saturday before Christmas was designated as our “Idaho Christmas” day. My immediate family, minus my niece, nephews and Larry, all gathered for the festivities! Amelia didn’t quite understand this year, so we tore into her presents and put bows on her head and enjoyed ourselves! Needless to say, she was quite spoiled by her Nana and Pappy Nelson, her aunts and uncle, and of course the rest of my family! Half of her toys went to Nana’s house for days she’s being sat…and of course because we spend more time there than we do at home some weeks! It was a great day….insert tons of pictures here:

Then on Sunday, we had our first annual family Christmas Party! It also posed as a housewarming party considering we hadn’t invited anyone over since we bought the house! (Many thanks to my mom and sisters for helping us get the house clean a few days before!!) It was quite the turnout, considering it had snowed pretty bad the day before. Both my brothers came, Mom, Dad, Andy (who brought Joel along) and Dot of course, my Uncle Cass, Aunt Andrea with Abby and Matt, and my cousin Jordan brought my Grandma A. (dad’s mom). All live in Idaho Falls except the seesters and my mom and dad!! I’m hoping everyone else that hasn’t been can make it over one day, if only for a short visit! We had lil’ smokies, brats, salads, chips and Dottie made a dessert that I can never remember the name of. We opened more presents and played a bunch of games before everyone had to get home on the snowy roads! We only got through one game of Uno Attack because there were so many playing, it took an hour for just one hand!! Unfortunately I didn’t get any pictures of the event, I’m hoping someone else did and can share with me!!

Tuesday was the big day to fly out to PA. Many thanks to the weather Gods for dropping a foot of snow on us the day before!! Jason and I both worked the night shift, so when we got off at 0700 we drove to mom and dads and they drove us to Salt Lake so we could get a bit of sleep on the way up. Upon arrival at the airport, we discovered that our connecting flight, through CHICAGO O’HARE of all places, was delayed until 2:00! We finally went through security thinking that we would be good to go and my parents departed the Salt Lake area. So at around 6:00 they finally told us that our flight was canceled and that we would need to make different arrangements. We were rerouted from our original destination of Pittsburgh, to Baltimore, which is about a 3 hour drive away from Connellsville. We got a hotel room and literally crashed for the night! Good thing Amelia was tuckered out too!

Amelia was fabulous on the flight! She didn’t cry at all, she just went to sleep and when she woke up she played with her books!

When we got to Baltimore, we were met by her Pappy and Uncle Jerrod. Her reaction to Jerrod was priceless because he’s just a younger version of Daddy!! She was not too happy about Pappy and glared at him a lot. She only didn’t like him the first day and I attribute that to her being so worn out! That’s the only person that upset her the whole trip!! The night we got in, we went straight to Gram Julie’s for Christmas Eve dinner…and everyone loved meeting the newest Goretsky!! We opened more presents and visited. It was nice to see everyone!

CHRISTMAS MORNING!!

Mom, Dad and Jason all went to church early while Amelia, Jerrod and I slept in. Then it was time for MORE presents! Amelia had fun tearing the paper and trying to eat it! She got a lot of clothes and an awesome horse that she can ride on! She got a bunch of dolls and Steelers stuff! We were hoping we could get all the stuff home in our extra suitcase we brought along! Jason and I were spoiled too, we were grateful just to be there, we didn’t need anything else for Christmas! We spent the rest fo the day going to Christmas dinners and lunches and introducing Amelia to more family! Insert tons of pictures here:

Funny story about the rocking horse: when you push it’s ear it sings a song that goes a little something like this:

I’m a little pony Clippity clop clippity clop Such a pretty pony Clippity clop, clippity clop I like to have my coat brushed underneath the old oak tree Let’s jump and run, we’ll have some fun, won’t you come play with me

Well Mom and Aunt Francie misunderstood what horsey was saying and this is how THEY sang it:

I’m a little pony Clippity clop clippity clop Such a pretty pony Clippity clop, clippity clop I like to have my coat brushed IT KEEPS ME ODOR FREE!!!! Let’s jump and run, we’ll have some fun, won’t you come play with me

Oh my gosh me and Jason laughed so hard we cried!! Good times!

The rest of the trip was A LOT of visiting with people and going to Christmas parties and just enjoying ourselves. Grammie and Pappy got to babysit a few times while we went out with some of Jason’s friends who were in town and while we went shopping. Mom was hilarious because she “forgot what it’s like to have a little one.” She went to WalMart while we were at the Steelers game and forgot the diaper bag, then her coat and she was all sorts of flustered!! She got the hang of it again! It’s like riding a bike haha!

We enjoyed the 60 degree most days, big difference from the other foot that fell at our house while we were away! It was a lot of fun and we can’t wait to go back! Everyone was very impressed on what a good mannered baby we have, and how she was not afraid of them! We are proud!

The flight back was not as pleasant as the flight there. She cried for a good 20 minutes on our connector, until I could finally get her to sleep. We got so many dirty looks, oh well. We were picked up by my seesters and we rang in the New Year on the drive home! It was a lot of fun with egg salad sandwiches and Dr. Pepper!

And that’s Christmas!