Christmas Travels

Last Friday we all drove up to Michigan to spend Christmas with my aunt & uncle and cousins (and my cousin's son Josh who is 6 months older than Eli). My parents also drove up. We arrived later than planned thanks to traffic and rain, but made it late that night. Eli and his cousin Josh had fun opening their presents, and played together some (with a few sharing squabbles, mostly on Eli's part). Eli especially liked playing with the tissue paper and boxes.
We observed Christmas a day early so the cousins could get back to their house to celebrate with his wife's family. Our "observed" Christmas Eve dinner was turkey, stuffing, cranberry relish, and assorted yellowish mashed root vegetables (a bizarre family tradition, typically involving potatoes, sweet potatoes, rutabega, and turnip --and lighting too dim to discern the difference). The only major catastrophe was a water back-up in the basement, requiring an emergency call to a plummer...and the turkey getting dropped twice. Our other family Christmas tradition is every year at least one person gets sick - could be one person with the sniffles or the whole family with a stomach flu, but without fail, there is always a "designated sick person". Justin had the honor this year, with some sort of cold/flu/throat bug which fortunately wasn't contagious. Christmas day the guys stayed home (and fixed the washing machine, which had its own issues) while my mom and aunt and I went out to the movies to see DreamGirls, toodling down the highway with Christmas tunes blaring in my aunt's car. Meanwhile, Eli learned about Playstation with my cousin's new rock guitar game - certainly kept him mesmerized. Hey, it's music, right?
A good visit was had by all and a very Merry Christmas.
On Boxing Day we drove to Toronto and saw the Allen Gardens Conservatory, rode up the elevator of the CN Tower and looked down the glass floor (tallest Building in the world - Eli is still talking about that elevator ride) and walked around the St. Lawrence Market (rated the 3rd best food market by Food & Wine). Eli especially loved riding on the subway since he's really into trains now (and any form of transportation). On our drive home we stopped by Niagra Falls - Eli's observation: "Agua. It goes down." Yup... We also ate lunch at the Anchor Bar in Buffalo, birthplace of the original Buffalo wings.
Not exactly the most relaxing trip, but we had a good time.
Pics coming soon.