Falalalala....

We have had a wonderful Christmas holiday. Although I was sick earlier this month and that put me behind in shopping and mailings, and with work and all the bustle, Christmas day came as it always does...with family get togethers, friends warm wishes, delish food, lovely music of the season and of course never forgetting why we celebrate...thankful for our Savior and all He has done for us. We are so grateful for our beautiful children and grandkiddos and being able to share this special day with them. We missed Craig and Amy and family but talked to them on the phone and we were happy that their day was great too. Sorry for all the pics, but they are truly filled with what makes the Spirit bright!
Christmas can be a bit tiring for the little ones! Alexis perked up nicely later on.
Cameron's face just cracks me up! He looks like a Dickens character...who could refuse those goobie eyes?
I think Driana is tapping into her Greek roots by turning her hair darker...Although I do miss my little blondie, I must admit, she's a cutie!
Jack being the Santa of the hour and handing out the presents...Good Job!
Cameron needed just a little help from his Dad
The couch crew enjoying gift time..
Phil and Addy opening presents...She's much more into Christmas this year!
My blog wouldn't be complete without a foodie shot! So I "hammed" it up a bit...
Eddy sure loves his "Dad"..,
Anthony needs to sing:"All I want for Christmas is my two front teeth!"
Addy looked very cute in her animal print!
This little smiley face really sums up the Christmas spirit for me...Oh the joy of being a child on this special day. Merry Christmas everyone!

Faces of Christmas Present (get it...present!)

Here are the pics of all those that I happened to catch on Saturday at the party. I will just name the names and let you match them up with the faces...If I forget anyone, well you can just remind me! OK here goes, not in any particular order:Amy, Mom, Midge, Megan, Vicky, one of the twins..Rachael or Meadow, Blake, Katie, Mason, Greg, Deidra, Eric, Bill, Laura,Jan, Andrew, Brooke, Jack, Rick, Betsy, all the kiddos waiting for Santa on the front porch...And to all a good night!

Have a Holly Jolly Christmas!

Every year, the weekend before Christmas, we head to Chicago to celebrate with my family. Phil had the annual party at his house and it was so great. He had wonderful food, horse drawn wagon rides, Santa, and we had a Nativity with the children. It was just awesome. I will post pics of the people that were there later. Here are a few snipets of the weekend. The pic above is the beautiful tree at my fav shopping center, Oak Brook. It was magnifico!

Phil's house is about an hour from Mom's so we all stayed at a motel Sat. after the Christmas party. Here we all are gathered together to head off to Phil's after checking in.

Mom had not been feeling well the week before and I was so happy that she bounced back and was doing great by Saturday. She's not one to miss a great party!
Phil and Bonnie hosted the Christmas party this year. Thanks for opening your home to all of us and making it such a memorable evening. You really out did yourselves.
The food that was prepared for this occasion was so good and tastey. I know that Melissa and Curtis did a ton of the cooking, along with many helpers. This pic is only a tiny bit of the feast. It was wonderful.
It was really dark by the time this horse drawn wagon arrived with the "Big Guy" himself and I could only get a clear shot of the horses. The wagon actually had lights on it and the horses had bells on too. Sounded so Christmasy when they arrived!
Santa was very well received by all the kids and adults too. He was very, very jolly...I won't mention why!

The hightlight of the night for me was the imprompto Nativity that we had the kids do. Midge made all the costumes in record time that night and we rehearsed only once.Most of the kiddos wanted to be angels, so we accomodated them! Here they are lining up for the their heavenly entrance. Megan was Mary, Ethan was Joseph, Mason was Baby Jesus, many angels and 2 wise men and one shepherd rounded out the play. I narrated and it was soooo sweet.This time last year Andrew was only a month old, this year he was able to be our only shepherd and ran across the "plains" to see baby Jesus (cousin Mason). He may look sleepy in this pic, but believe me, he was full of energy all night long.
We had to have the magic star...Thanks Eric for being so celestial!
Perfection...a true Silent night, Holy night!

What the Wind Blew In

We had a bit of a windy start to the weekend. First the wind blew over my "creepy" kids on my front porch. I thought it was funny that the pine cuttings in the basket stayed put! Then it blew in Craig from Michigan. We had a nice visit with him and hopefully he enjoyed seeing grass after the 20in. of snow he got last week! Everything started out fine. First with the church Christmas social and other events...then I cooked all day on Sat. for the Missionaries who were coming for dinner on Sunday and had requested Greek food. Leisy gave me a great idea. I made soulvaki for the first time. I also made a ton of other stuff...then I woke up Sunday with the stomach flu. I was so sick all day and night. It was awful, but the worst part was having to cancel on dinner and being stuck with tons of food. Anyway, watch out for windy weather, you never know what will blow your way.
Friday night we had our annual church Christmas party. Phil and Amanda were at the Starkey Glass party so we took the girls with us and they did great. Here's Alexis enjoying her dessert.
I wasn't sure how Addy would do at the social, but she took everything is stride and enjoyed her dinner. She's such a sweetie.
Alexis made a friend at the social. Ezra complimented her on her cute shoes and won a friend for life I think! Smooth mover he is!
This is Alexis's pirate pose!
We took a drive on Saturday with Craig to a little Amish store where he scored a pair of warm gloves for a cheap price. I should have taken a pic of the place but I didn't want to offend the Amish. Afterwards we stopped at the apple orchard and I couldn't resist taking this pic. I call it "My fruit of loom" shot!
Saturday night we had a fun dinner at the Crawford's. They did a smoked pork thing and made wonderful sandwiches. The guys all gathered by the telly to watch the game. I should have known something was up with me because I really didn't feel like eating anything, but I did to be polite. It was very good, but I was in for a surprise when the flu hit on Sunday.

'Cause We Need a Little Christmas...

This weekend Ashland had it's annual Christmas parade downtown. I decided I needed a little Christmas spirit to push me along to finish my decorating. So I trudged downtown. Forget the fact that it was 25de. outside. Forget the fact that my camera doesn't take night pics too well. (as you can see!) Also forget the fact that it was a long parade and I needed to go to the bathroom and had to take a quick hike back to Jack's office. It was still a nice time and even though all the floats looked blurry to me as I ran to the office, it did help put me in a better Christmas mood.
Here are some daylight pics of my decorating adventures.What a pathetic face. Eddy really wants to come out and help me cut pine boughs and finish up the outdoor decorating. I guess he needs a little Christmas too!
I may not have a live tree in the house, but I have all the fresh pine boughs I can carry!
Eddy, if you're going to help get pine cuttings, you need to pick one that has some needles on it. I swear he's part termite...there's nothing he likes better than wood...except my shoes.
Ummm, I don't think Eddy is actually helping me cut pine in this pic. Hey, when you gotta go, you gotta go!
I put some of the pine cuttings in baskets. These are not frozen kiddos by the way. Jordan thinks they look scary, but I like them.
All those cuttings look just fine in the empty flower boxes...helps me to not miss the summer flowers a bit!
Finished product...let the season begin!

Smore cousin fun!

After all the cousins from Toledo and Buffalo went home on Thursday, Katie and Taylor were missing some cousin fun. Luckily Summer and Anthony asked if they could come over and spend some time with them Friday night. Cameron came too, but he had to leave early because he's very allergic to Eddy. I had this pic of him from Wednesday night celebrating his Dad's birthday. I think he's growing up so fast! Hopefully he'll be able to tolerate the dog better as he gets older. Summer and Anthony and Katie and Taylor had a fun night of running around crazy and then quieted a bit to watch a movie.
The cousins decided that they wanted to sit around a campfire last night, but it was too cold and dark to start one in the outdoor pit. So PawPaw made a cheery one right in the kitchen. It was a blog worthy pic!
They all gathered around the fire with the hot dog/marshmellow sticks.Who's going to tell the first campfire story?
That has just the right amount of char for the perfect smore marshmellow Anthony!

That looks very yummy Summer
Finger licking good!
I think Taylor got more marshmellow on his face than in his tummy!
The cousins stayed the night and the next morning Craig and Amy packed all their gear and the car. But before heading out for the 10hr drive back to South Carolina, the cousins all enjoyed a hearty breakfast of pancakes and bacon and YaYa decided she was done cooking until Christmas!
After such a fun week, we had to say farewell as Craig, Amy and grandkiddos head back home...bye guys, thanks for a great Thanksgiving!