Happy New Year!

We hope everyone had a wonderful holiday and a happy New Year! While we did not have the Christmas we originally planned, it was still special and so much fun to watch Max & Tessa experience all the fun of Christmas. Unfortunately, before Christmas, Duke tore his ACL. It's been a bit challenging since his injury trying to chase Max and Tessa around, and cross all our t's and dot all the i's at work, but we did get lots of company and help from family over the holidays. The torn ACL is in Duke's right knee which means no driving. We had planned to drive to Pittsburgh for Christmas and spend a week, but Duke's doctor recommended we stay put. Duke will require surgery sometime in the next couple of weeks to fix the tear and we're trying to make sure he doesn't injure it further before the surgery.

So, we stayed here and made the best of it. We had a great Christmas day with a surprise visit from Duke's sister Mary, a webcam Christmas with my family and then Duke's parents, sister Julie and nephew Jack came over for Christmas dinner. Max and Tessa LOVED opening presents. I didn't think they would get it, but they had zero problems opening anything. My parents drove in that Monday and we did Christmas all over again. Max and Tessa really enjoyed spending time with the webcam grandparents "Gaga Sassy" and "Papa Mow". It was really nice to have them here for a few days. I wish we could do it more often. They were a huge help with the kids too since Dada had to have his leg up most of the time.

The big hits with Max and Tessa were slippers, a school bus and stuffed Big Bird from Santa, a Peek-a-boo baby from Aunt Beas and rocking chairs and a rocking pony from Gaga Sassy and Papa Mow. We're getting lots of requests to "rocky rocky" right now. Here are a few pics from the last week. Sorry for the quality. We need to get a new camera and these are all taken on Duke's phone.

Happy New Year!