New Christmas

The original plan was to spend Christmas with my family in Florida and New Year's (aka New Christmas) with Matt's family at our house.  Aunt Erin and Erik made it into town midweek so Erin rode out with me to collect the Gracedog at the strategically picked outlet mall exit above Atlanta.  Since we were gone to FL for five days and Gracedog doesn't board well (that is an understatement- her vet file has a huge DO NOT BOARD stamped on it because she will not eat or drink and ends up needing an IV and becomes the most pitiful dog you've ever seen) we packed the dog off to stay with Grandad at the lake for a few weeks so she would be happy.  Poor Grace came home not only to a tormenting toddler but also to Lane the Loving Goldenpoo, who Grace would rather not love.  I'm pretty sure she's wishing she was still at the lake.   

Jackson loves Lane.  She lets him pet her unlike his own dog.

Sadly for us all, on Friday morning Grammy woke up sick as a dog and was so sick she was afraid to come share her germs with all of us.  Since we'd been holding out for Grammy and Grandad to arrive we changed up the schedule a bit and decided to hit the Pelham Road Warriors hockey game.  Neither Matt, Erin or Erik had been to a game!  They even got to see a pretty decent fight which I missed while in the bathroom.  Of course.

A friend told me about a neat place downtown called the Palmetto Olive Oil Co that does tastings so we checked that out on Saturday.  So cool!  They give you a bowl of bread and little cups to taste all the different oils.  Then you try the lighter balsamic vinegars.  At the end they give you a dish of vanilla ice cream and you get to try the dark balsamics.  Who would have thought that pomegranate and dark chocolate balsamic vinegar would be so delicious on ice cream??

We also checked out the Shoeless Joe Jackson museum.  I'm not a baseball fan.  It was eh.  Matt enjoyed it and his dad would have really liked it.

Since we still hadn't opened any of our presents including Santa's presents we did that for New Christmas :)  Jackson got a train that does all kinds of songs, letters and sounds from Santa and a wagon from us to use to roll up to the pool this summer.  His favorite gift from Florida was a DJ stand that has a microphone.  He sits in a box and plays with that thing constantly- although he thinks you have to put the mic in your mouth and talk for it to work.  I hate this toy.  It is soooo obnoxious.  Of course it is his favorite.  Thanks, Nana.