Relaxing, playing with friends and family, and sleeping in -- best gifts ever.

So, I asked for a low-key vacation and I got one! Yay – me!!! On the way home from Tampa, I asked the kids what their favorite parts of our trip were, and here's what they had to say:


Sofia: I liked seeing my Nanni, my Uncle David, Aunt Amy, cousin Isabela and...
Gabe (interrupting): And our new baby cousin Xavier!
Sofia: I liked playing with Elizabeth and Katherine and their friend Annie - and that sounds like my friend Anna. And I liked playing baby with Nanni and Isabela.
Gabe: And I liked seeing the real baby at the museum where Stephen works, and I liked being on the news where Stephen works. (Editor's note: at the science museum, they had babies at various stages of development on display as well as an area where kids could make their own news segments -- very cool!)
Gabe: OH! And I liked when John taught me tricks on my new skateboard. (Ed: Gabe got a skateboard from Santa.)
Sofia: I liked eating green-headed cookies and "chocklic" cake at daddy's party.
Gabe: And I liked the palm trees in Tampa.
Sofia: I liked sleeping in Nanni's bed. My Nanni is so special and her pajamas are so pretty!

At one point, we were headed to Steve's and Sofia wanted to stay behind to play with Nanni and Isabela, so we asked Nanni first and naturally Sofia got to stay. Apparently, while we were at Steve's, Sofia went to the bathroom and insisted that she needed her mommy or daddy to help her. Sofia's Aunt Amy tried to coax her into allowing her to help, but Sofia was being stubborn. Amy finally said, "What about Uncle David? He kinda looks like your dad." To which Sofia replied, "But Uncle David doesn't have as much hair on top of his head!" Oh geez! It's a good thing my brother- and sister-in-law have good senses of humor. David started explaining to her, "But look! I have more hair on my arms than your dad does!"

As for me, I was happy to have a vacation from work and spend so much quality time with the kids. It was great to meet Xavier. I got to sleep in and go for a run in gorgeous weather almost every day. It was fun to meet Tim's friend John, and it was wonderful to spend time with Steve and his folks; Frank, Lisa and Sofia; and Kevin, Cat and Jon. Also wonderful to see Ines, Cecilia and Juan, and the rest of the fam. Thanks to Cecilia for being such a wonderful hostess. I'm sure she's thrilled to have her house back all to herself or at least to have a bit of peace and quiet after such a long visit from this rowdy crew. :)

On the way home, both headlights went out. I think the drop in temperature was just too much. :) When we arrived home, the thermostat informed us it was 16 degrees outside. Uggh....I want to go right back to Tampa. At another point on the drive home, Tim said completely out of the blue, "If I Tweeted, I would Tweet that I wish I ate more pork." And I must've laughed for 10 minutes' straight because who just says that out of nowhere? Was he reminiscing about what fabulous Cuban food we ate? Hysterical.

On the second day of driving home, we stopped at a Cracker Barrel to eat breakfast. The kids were looking around at the toys in the little gift shop area when Sofia announced, "Mom, I don't need any more toys. I just got a bunch of toys for Christmas." Awww -- it's moments like that when I think, "YES! I am doing something right in this parenting gig...." lol!

I’ll post pics soon, but you have to check out some of Gabe’s recent artwork that came home from school. I almost died laughing. I just love the phonetic spelling…The question (in case you can't read it) asks, "How would you catch a gingerbread baby?"