Happy Birthday Chad!!

On this day, 31 yrs ago, the sweetest babyboy was born into this world. He stole my heart that day and he continues to steal my heart on a daily basis. No mother could be more proud than I am of him.....he began my dream of what being a mother is!!! And although he is a grown man, he's still MY babyboy!! That's him on the left with all the stars around playing with his brother on Christmas eve shooting at this: (did I mention he's 31 yrs. old today?!!)

From this......

To this!! (hiking in Central America!)

Naughty Knitter!! but oh, so sweet!

Been dying to call her a "naughty nitter"!! Heheh....So my friend, V from over at Virginia is For...sent me the most awesome product of her creativity!! I follow her blog and do not know ONE thing about knittin'. I knew her before she was a knitter or a blogger....another one of those crazy, scary internet friends!!!! We've been www. friends for over 10 yrs now....and she's a gem.

A yankee gem from New York City, nonetheless, but she and her lil family B and Wisconsin are as sweet as they can be!! So, even tho I'm a knittin' virgin, I continue to be amazed at the things she makes and often beg....um, ask nicely....if I could ever have some of her stuff. So guess what? Christmas rolls around and I am struttin' my stuff in this these days:

I forget what it's called but it's the coolest scarf that doesn't have to wrap or tie...it just hangs exactly where it's supposed to!! Inside a coat or, in our case, since it's gonna be 75 today...just light enough to wear on top of a shirt, just for lookin' cool purposes!!! So soft and the colors are to die for....exactly the colors I wear everyday!! So thanky ms. V...........love ya more than dirt!!
(notice all the uses I've found for it....even covering your whole face on days where I ain't lookin' so purty!)

Best Boyfriend EVAH!!!

So, this morning, I'm kinda whining about lugging all the Christmas decoration boxes all the way down to the garage and carrying them upstairs to the attic. You know.....the usual after celebration blah, blah, blah....so much fun to decorate and such a pain in the ass to put it all away. But it's raining today and a perfect day to be inside to work. He goes off to work listening to my blah, blah, blah.......when what to my wondering eyes should appear?????? He's back not 15 minutes after he left with this:A DOLLY!!!! to carry all my boxes to the garage on!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Is that not the sweetest thing ever?
I swear........just when I think I need to throw him away, he does something so thoughtful that makes me realize I just may keep him!! Thank you, boyfriend!! (and pretty cute too, eh?!!)

The end of the year...

....is closing in on us!! So many pics from Christmas and so much clutter to remove! Hope to have images up by tonight.....the clutter? hmmmm, not so sure about that. One more family birthday on New Year's eve and I think the book will close for 2010. And what a great one it's been!!

"Resolve to edge in a little reading every day, if it is but a single sentence. If you gain fifteen minutes a day, it will make itself felt at the end of the year." ~Horace Mann~

My Christmas Day Wish for You!

On this very cold, windy day.......Christmas Day 2010.....

My wish for all of you is that your wishes came true!

My heart is warm, my belly is full and all of my lil ducks are celebrating with familes!

MERRY MERRY CHRISTMAS TO YOU ALL!!!

Our Christmas Angel/Ballerina!

(she got a new wingback chair just for her! She thinks she's so big....)
Lilli received a lil nite lite dollbaby to take to sleep with her. To make her face light up, you push her belly. You've all seen them....and she loved it. When the face lights up, it makes music and she would rock back and forth and sing..babee babee babee! When she first opened the package, the baby was still in the box so her uncle Josh took it from her and the look on her face to me was priceless! Like she was saying, "YaYa...don't let him take my baby!" and then the squeal when she got it back.....I'm telling you, this child cracks me UP!! I am continually laughing at her antics!!!We had such a great time last night!! Good vino. Good food. Lots of laughter. and FAMILY. All day I've been acknowledging how blessed I am to have such a loving and fun family. I'm a very lucky girl!

On the night of the Lunar Eclipse..

Even tho I couldn't make it long enough to actually see it....or even set the alarm to get up......
.....guess what was going on inside my house?? Come see...

Peanut Butter Balls!!!

My new daughter in law to be and my oldest son will be verah happy!

And tonight, the 22nd, my middle boy, his sweet wife and Lilli, babyboy and his fiance(man does that ever feel crazy to type!) will come to dinner to celebrate Christmas with us. This yr. is Lilli's family's turn to spend the actual days with her family in another city so tonight they will be here!!

And I get to watch my first grandchild experience her very 1st Christmas!!

(wonder who is most excited??!!!!!!)

Naughty Clause's!

This is one of my fave lil decorations because we all love Santa and his bride!But even my kids get a lil grossed out at why I really love this pair!! When you turn them on (heh) they begin to dance and shake their booty's......turn them around and you see that even the Clause's are a lil naughty!!! My babyboy says it's just wrong on so many levels that mrs. clause would wear a thong!!! hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha............oh, how I love the Christmas season!!

Oreo Truffles??

Yes, friends.....they do exist! My daughter in law gave me a sample of a sweet treat that her friend's grandmother made. OMG.....they were so good..and easy to make too! Cream cheese, crushed oreos dipped into white chocolate. Y-U-M!! So moist and chocolate....

Lilli in the Hospital...:(

...in her hospital gown...

Poor lil Lilli had to have tubes put into her ears on Friday morning. They took her back at 7am, the dr was back to talk to her parents at 7:10 saying everything went fine, and we were back at Lilli's house by 7:40. Here she is back in mom and dad's arms right after procedure:

Nurses had said she may be fussy and whiny during the day. HA! Our Lilli?? Not a chance!! My friend had sent cap'n and I a Christmas surprise (and oh, what a surprise it was!) and I had just picked it up late the night before I went to be with Lilli. So what better time to go thru the fun than with Lilligirl.............so while she was supposed to be fussy, this was Lilli about 3 hrs. after procedure! Not bothering any of the things that came in the box, but playing with the bubble wrap and foam packing!

And if you think the pic below is just out of focus....wrong! That's how fast ms. thang was throwing the stuff outa the box!!

Yep.....she was all smiles and sunshine after her "hospital stay" and hopefully ear infections will be a thing of the past.

p.s. she and her mom and my soon to be daughter-in-law came to spend the night with me. And boy oh boy, did I ever get some cute pics of bebegirl!! Be back in a bit with those.....heheh.....give me a break -- I haven't done a Lilli post in a long time!!!!!

I promise......I can!

Makin' lemonade!

Remember my last post about my Meyer lemons? Well, I used the old adage about "when you get lemons, make lemonade from them"!!

For some reason this yr., several of our trees have died. I'm talkin' about very old, old trees. IE: my swing tree down by the pond that I've showed many times here on the ol' blob. We had a very dry summer and fall so maybe not enough water? But really....those trees have been around for maybe hundred yrs. so just being a lil thirsty doesn't make sense about them dying.

SO...........even some of my shrubs around the house that have been in for 26 yrs died as well. One of them being a shrub right by my front door :(. But instead of griping about it this season, I just made a lil bit of lemonade out of it for Santa to see when he comes thru!!

In the midst of the hustle and bustle of the season...

...it's little things that make me happy! So imagine my surprise, when I went to check on my plants that have gone into hibernation and protected from cold weather, to discover this...
LEMONS from my meyer lemon tree!!!! They were still green when it was time to protect them but have now blossomed into big, beautiful sweet lemons! I was just so excited to find them and now I don't even want to cut them.....hahahahaha!

Chick Movie Night!! (with pics!)

It's Pasta Night here tonight!! We finally got our great big teevee hung with the surround sound hooked up like the theatre...so the gals are coming over for our Eat Pray Love party.
I found a pasta bolognese recipe from Pioneer Woman (that looks and smells amazing) with antipasto, cheeses and a to die-for Italian bread recipe......pizza dough stuffed with olive tampanade and asagio cheese..rolled and cut into individual rolls.....! Italian cream cake for dessert and LOTSA vino!! Did I mention lotsa vino??!!!!!!! So, we're going to snack on antipasto and watch the movie thru Italy...........then pause to eat pasta, pasta, pasta!!!!.....before we finish the movie. Will be back with more pics tomorrow...............Ciao!! "Attraversiamo"

We ate....

SOMEBODY just couldn't get enough of the after dinner drink!

Last week, a few other gal pals came over and we had a really neat time too, watching the movie. Tried to make it happen with all of us together but everyone's plans were wacky....hence, two different nights with very close girlfriends. And I'm sick that I didn't get pics of that night...

This cocktail napkin pretty well summed up my feelings about these nights with my friends!

They rock my world on a daily basis!

The First Meeting.....

...of Santa Clause and Ms. Lillian Leigh!

which didn't go so well.............

But after a lil lovin' and reassurance from Mom......

Lilli was all a-glow in her Christmas finery!! Looking like a precious babydoll!

And for lunch? We all went to Picadilly! Which I have not been to in prolly 20 yrs! Talk about a blast from the past!!!! Same exact foods in that line and I got the exact same foods I ate back then...tasted exactly the same!! Lilli had green beans, macaroni&cheese, mashed potatoes, a lil fried fish...............and of course?? RED JELLO!!! An all grown up meal for a little girl that seemed to be born only yesterday......