Jon and Megan

On New Year's Eve I invited my brother and his wife, Megan, over for dinner.  Even though we had spent a lot of time at Mom and Dad's, and they were there too, we didn't really get a chance to hang out much.  They got married last year, but for 10 months of the 12 he was deployed, so they haven't even really been around each other!  I'm sure that there are things they are still finding out about each other, but they seem to be doing well.  :)

I had a couple of reasons for inviting them over.  1.) Get them out of Mom and Dad's house.  Because Megan is so painfully shy it seems like she just doesn't want to hang out with anybody there... which is sort of hurting my Mom's feelings.  I can see both sides, so I was just trying to get them out of an awkward situation.  2.)  Everybody seems to be sick, so I thought that this would give Mom a nice break/rest from having company over.  3.)  I wanted to spend more time with Jon and Megan to try and get to know them a little better.  I can't even really say that I know Jon that well, so it would really be beneficial for both of us really!

At first the visit was a bit awkward.  We had dinner right away and through the entire meal it was pretty hard to pull conversation out of them.  For those of you who don't really know my brother he's not really the talkative type.  He really is much more of a grunter, and a huh, yeah, type of guy... so when I say that Megan is so shy that she makes Jon seem like Mr. Socialite of the year, I hope you understand how severe it is.

After awhile though they loosened up and started to talk a bit more.  They really liked those pineapple upside down cakes, which was a nice ice breaker.  It was Jon's favorite birthday dessert, since we weren't really cake people... and she really seemed to like them as well!  We had a nice time just talking and knowing more about what they do in CO.  The kids eventually went to sleep... Lucy still doesn't want anything to do with Jon.  In fact, she usually runs away from him... but Dude is OK with them.  Megan watches her sister's kids all week so she's pretty used to being around smaller kids, which was evident.

I was really happy that we got to spend time with them.  Even though it was a short visit, I feel like we accomplished a lot.  I felt really good after they left!  I think that they are leaving tomorrow to go visit Megan's Aunt in MN for a couple of days before heading home.  It sounds like they are going to be staying in CO, because that's where Megan is from and she seems to really want to stay around her family.  I think that will be good because Jon doesn't really have any strong feelings about being around Mom and Dad and Holly and her family aren't in MI anymore... and who knows where we'll end up!

Hope that they get to enjoy the rest of their break and that they enjoyed their visit with us as well.  :)

JVG