Christmas 2011

Hello Everyone,
I hope you all had a wonderful, Merry Christmas and I wish you all good health, happiness, financial stability and spiritual blessings in the New Year!

Some Christmas pictures: Clearly mixed feelings in these pics! :) sorry Miss! :)


P.S. remember, all pictures can be enlarged by clicking on them.



Then Dave drinking his morning coffee and the ritual paper reading.



Our 2011 Christmas tree with gifts and phantom leg.




Matt and Vickie at the Christmas party.


I have to say, this Christmas was one to remember. There really was not the mad dash for last minute presents or rushing around wondering what to get for this one or that one. Well, I did some of that but not nearly as much as in the past. This year we drew names and each bought for one person. I think it worked out great! At least for me. I am not a shopper. I can easily waste away the day shopping and come home nearly empty handed, so this suggestion of drawing names was a blessing for me. Of course I didn't totally follow the plan.
I'm the mom, I have to get something for everyone. It was great!!! There was actually down time, time to enjoy the festivities, the gatherings of friends and family, rather than the usual whirlwind that has Christmas come and gone before you know it. Plus I had planned (since last Christmas) on making the kids each a Santa bag which I never took pictures of so I can't show them off to you. I was pleased the way they came out and the kids really liked them. Andrew says he's using his for everything :). This idea of drawing names also freed me up to do the normal cookie baking that everyone expects (though I never did get to make pizzelles) and join my alma mater for a Perosian Choir Christmas Concert at Nazareth Academy. This was an extra benefit as we used one of the songs for our own pre-mass program on Christmas Eve.

Tiger and Maddox relaxing on Christmas day.



During our family gathering the kids (young and old. . . er :)) made Gingerbread Houses. They had a great time. I however forgot to get pictures of all the beautifully constructed and intricate houses as I was showing them all by way of skyping with Andrew and Nicole in Virginia. This was a great time and the kids all got to say hello and experience Skyping for the first time. Unfortunately these are the most complete houses I have.













































This is Bernadette (below). The genius behind the whole mouth
activity (next photo). Not sure we found out who they all were but most appear to be labeled.

Another fun thing we did at the big family party is try to guess who's mouth was who's. This activity was prepared by Bernadette who went around taking pictures of many mouths or butt's at last years Christmas party. :)
Today is Thursday, December 29, 2011. Christmas has come and gone. It is four days beyond Christmas. Melissa departed from us on Tuesday, heading home to Ohio and Andrew left just this morning heading to Virginia. I cleaned up the kitchen from our breakfast of: coffee, tea, Tuscan Garlic and Cheese toast, biscotti and anything else left on the cookie platter :). It took me a while to figure out that I was just wandering aimlessly. The 4th or 5th pass to grab another cookie or piece of candy, maybe a few sugared pecans, then it hit me. I mean, I had no agenda, I had nothing to bake, nothing to cook, no one wanting food or looking for food, no preparations needed for.....anything!!! The kids were gone. No next round of guests coming for dinner, no desserts to prepare, no more wine and cheese (thank God that wine just puts me to sleep at the most crucial times). No snacks to prepare and put out. No more cookie trays needed (at least not until tomorrow). No! No more gatherings, no more company. I could just sit back and take it easy. Could someone tell me how to do that? :)

HA! I have NOTHING to do! I have nothing to dohoo....I think....I....I think I am lost. I can't remember when I've had nothing to do. Well. . . . . the truth is, of course I have things that I can do but I don't HAVE to do them if I don't want to. Then I remembered Dave said the other day he was checking out my blog and saw that I hadn't posted since August. Truth be told, I thought it had been longer than that. Working full time definitely drains my free time. Not that I'm complaining, I love my jobs, the people I work with and of course my very limited free time. So to get to the point, I thought I could spend some of this time to make a Christmas posting.

The first thing I did after declaring I had nothing to do (which I have to say was an indescribable feeling) was to go down to the basement and cut down all the potted plants I had brought in to winter over, there were maybe 10 or so. Then I swept up all the mess I made in the process. After that I striped the sheets in the spare rooms and put them in the wash. Sorted dirty laundry which I hadn't done prior to Christmas. Reheated some home made ravioli's for my lunch and watched the birds feast on the sunflower seeds I had put out earlier for them.

Here are a couple of pictures, not the clearest since I had to take the pic's through the window and screen. You'll have to look closely at the first one as the female cardinal blends in with the upright deck post.
The dog is Jamison, he belongs to Vicki and Matt. He had a large
portion of this bone gone within the first 30 minutes of getting it.

Wishing everyone a New Year filled with many Special Moments!

God's peace to all!