It's all about......

Good food
Presents (just ask the kids - no matter how old they are!)
Family
Games
---------it's how we celebrate Christmas!


Joey was the designated Santa and enlisted Sierra to help out! We decided to pass out all the presents first then open them. Much less chaos and actually we had a lot of fun seeing who was naughty or nice (Beth and Bryan won the nice....you should have seen their haul!!!)

Mom and Dad managed to relax a little before all the gifts were passed - yep, Mom is like a teenager - the i-pod (a birthday present from Dad) is not very far from her these days!!!

Rusty had a ball getting into the fray of it all! He wasn't about to be left out of the activities.As is the tradition, we played a game after the presents were opened. It was several games of ol' fashioned bingo! Lottery tickets were the prize - the most anyone won was $3.00 No one is quitting their day job!

We truly feel very blessed and fortunate to be in such a loving family. We missed having Ryan and his family here - he had to work. Also Andy and Teresa had their plane trip canceled because of the terrible weather and decided to stay home. It was sad not to have them but they were in our thoughts and prayers.

We took time to also remember the true meaning of Christmas and the reason we celebrate - the birth of Christ. What a wonderful gift God gave to us and we will always be thankful for Christ in our lives.

Merry Christmas!

Not even winter...

and guess who shows up? Ol' Man Winter! We woke up to a wintery site on 12/14/08. Beth's log home is the perfect setting for this type of weather! Fireplace was roaring and we enjoyed the snow from inside! We weren't quite prepared for this! But it was absolutely beautiful!
The birds were thankful for the feeder! Plenty of food and goodies to snack on.

Here's the snow coming down in Independence. It's a rare sight.

The next morning we had about 3" on the ground. That was the start of it all. Now it's the 21st and we have had snow and ice all week. This morning we are blanketed with ice - our snow has melted and in its wake is a mess! Good day to hunker down and enjoy the indoors! Movie anyone?

Another reason to party!!

Mom turned 75 on December 14th and we celebrated with an open house party on the 13th. We spent the morning preparing the church hall and then the afternoon enjoying Mom's friends.Mom got to pick out her own birthday cake. She ordered two different cakes and they were really good! Greg and Bryan are busy with hanging glittered snowflakes; they had to do it a couple of times as we rearranged the trees and decided to close the stage curtains! Thank goodness for a ladder that the church had - it came in handy!!

Here's the birthday girl!
The biggest surprise of the day was Aunt Irene arriving. She is dad's older sister and she flew in from Iowa to surprise Mom. It was so good to see her and catch up on how things are going. She is 80 years old and made the trip all by herself! Way to go, Aunt Irene!Here we are: the 4 kids and spouses with Mom and Dad. It's rare when we can all get together for a picture!
And here are all the great-grandkids with Mom! Mom even has the sticking-out-the-tongue trick down! (It's the only picture I had so that's what is here!)

With Age Comes......

learning to like things I have never liked before!

I had the opportunity to try a really great aspargus dish and much to my surprise, I really liked it. Since then, I have used apsaragus in many different dishes and even ordered it at a restaurant! Mighty good stuff! I always disliked the texture when I was younger...who knew???

Yep, those are my toenails painted! My close friend gave me a manicure/pedicure gift certificate at a local spa (for my birthday in September) and last week I bit the bullet and had it done! Most everyone in my family understands I can't STAND to have my feet touched - way too sensitive. And no, I didn't have to take drugs, Ryan! I had my moments but managed to just laugh through it and for the very first time in my life, I have painted toenails. Would I do it again? Yes, to parts of it, not sure I could do it on a regular basis! I do like the look so will work on keep the nails painted! Fun stuff!