I love my family

Everytime I visit my family in New Hamphsire I get a deep warm glow inside my body that lingers for days after I leave. Being with my family often makes me wonder why I even bother to come home to VA. My daughter and her family give me so much joy that every day is filled with love and caring that I don't want to let it go. Now that my mother lives in New Hampshire it is so much easier to be with her as well. She is very tiring at times, but I love her dearly and being able to be around her for the holidays and help when I am there is also very precious to me. I also got to spend lots of time with my younger brother David and his family. My brother is such a wonderful man, father,husband and brother. Are there any more of him out there? that aren't related to me of course. Anyway, being with my family for the holidays was such fun. I spent the first few days finishing Christmas preparations with my daughter. We went shopping and Marx and I went shopping for presents for Mama and Daddy - what fun. I picked up GG Christmas eve night and we spent the night at David's and Donna's. Unfortunatley kathy had to work and couldn't be there. Below is a picture of the grandchildren -expect Kathy :-( with GG.

Christmas day of course was a blast. I got to the spend the morning with my two wonderful grandchildren. The theme this year is "dress up" So of course, I went a little over board. There were these major sales at KB Toys and everything was like 75% off. Needless to say, the kids got allot more than even I realized. But, they had fun and so did I.

We all went over to David's again for dinner and to be together. Kathy had to work again, but got off early and later that night we played a couple of games which is always allot of fun. Kathy got me "are you smarter than a 5th grader." Guess what? I'm not!! LOL and we also played the singing bee. not my best game - I always had a hard time singing the right words, like "I have my cassette on you." right Kathy? hahaha, but so what - we had a blast.

Later that week was a pure joy taking my grandbabies skiing. I have been promising Marx once he was old enough I would take him skiing. At age 4 he is such a big boy and was so excitied. Well imagine my surprise when we found out that even Lexi was old enough to ski this year!! They got in new ski boots for children at a younger age. So needless to say, what a great day we all had on the ski slopes.

The rest of my visit was also very nice. I went skiing again on New Years eve day with my brother, two nieces and nephew. The powder was wonderful and we had a great time. David took some video of me and all you can hear is David and me laughing through the whole thing. That night was another great time with family. Again Kathy had to work but she got back to
David's around 1230. The rest of my time there was relaxing, being with my grandbabies and visiting my Mom. I left Wed night for the long drive home, with Harry Potter on CD to keep me company. Now that I am home, I can't wait for my next visit which is the weekend of 18 January for Lexi's birthday party.

And once again I think, I wonder - what if I just retired early and move to New Hampshire? It is only three years, 6% of my retirment not earned, is it worth it?? Well, that is about 1K per month not earned so I guess I need to wait out my 3 years, but it is soooo difficult. I also think, I can get a job in New Hampshire and earn extra money to make up the 6%difference in retirment, buy a smaller home and/or condo and not have the higher mortgage payments, hmmmm I wonder.

One day I will move closer to all my family and not miss them so much. What a wonderful family I have Love you all - B'Ma