Happy New Year One and All! We have returned from our 8-day trip to Pennsylvania and Sophia's first plane ride. It was, generally, a success! Sophia did really well on the plane, both ways, and the altitude didn't seem to bother her a bit. She was a bit fussy on the trip out at first, but that was because she was sleepy. Once we got airborne, she fell asleep and we didn't have one single passenger give us dirty looks! Here is a shot of us on the plane on the trip back from Pittsburgh.... it was hard for Daddy to get a good photo.
We had a wonderful time visiting with family and friends in Greensburg, Jeannette, Indiana and Pittsburgh. Seems we spent a lot of time running around, but that's the nature of visiting home when you have a big family and lots of friends. Both Alan's sister Sheila and my sister Jeanne were our gracious hostesses and allowed us to trash their houses for four days each. We spent Christmas eve at the DiFonso homestead, where my brother Gary and his family have made some wonderful improvements. While we really missed Daddy this first holiday after his death, his presence was in the room in everything we did. The meal was delish...which just goes to show that all of Frank and Marie's children have learned how to carry on their traditions and paid attention to how to make the important and special meals!! On Christmas, we spent the day at Sheila's with Alan's family and managed to eat ourselves into food comas while playing cards, laughing at Sophia and enjoying the company of those we love. The day after Christmas we visited Al's brother Mike and his family in Indiana PA. There were six children under the age of 4 in the house....Wow! It was great fun and total chaos and we loved it. Pat fed us...not one, but two meals..... and we left with full bellies and smiles on our faces with Sophia sleeping in her carseat on the way home!
The rest of our time was spent visiting. We had great evening in Mt. Lebanon with my childhood friends and their families at Chris and Carmen's newly remodeled home. It was so good to see these girls that I've been friends with for more years than I'm going to admit. All of their children are growing so fast..... The joke to me is that our friend Eileen has a son who starts high school this year, while I have an 8-month old! Wow. Of course, Sophia also entertained this group and paid special attention to the men (she LOVES the men!).... with most of her flirting in the direction of Rick Wilson. Not sure why, but she just batted her eyes and smiled demurely at Rick all evening. It was way cute.... On that subject, I just have to tell you that our little girl was charming to pretty much every man she came into contact with. She especially enjoyed smiling at Uncle Muggles, Uncle Lee, Uncle Dan and cousin Tommy. She was enamored with Casey and cousin Anthony as well. It seemed like every time we turned around, she was flirting with someone. Dad is worried. He's already buying firearms!
We all three ended up with head colds after being subjected to so many people travelling and during our visit, which made our trip home a little more harrowing than it would normally have been. Sophia rallied though, and did fine on the plane, which worried us because of her snotty head. She's still stuffed up as I write this and Al and I are also coughing and blowing our noses quite a bit, but we're taking it easy at home and hoping this will all pass by the time Monday rolls around. We've been relaxing quite well these first days of the new year. It's nice to be home and once I've tackled the mountain of laundry, I'll really feel good about things! So, on that note, I'll finish this post and get some photos online. To those of you that we didn't get to see while home, we apologize. Seems no matter how hard we try, we can't get to see everyone. Do remember though, that our door is always open. It's warmer in Alabama!!!
Happy New Year from the Stulls.
PS...I forgot to send thanks to all who gave Sophia such nice Christmas presents! Your generosity is much appreciated.
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