Who Is This BIRTHDAY BOY on New Year's Eve??

HE IS OUR EVERYTHING!

He's a father to his son.  He's OUR son.  He's a brother.

He's a father to his daughter.

He's an uncle to his nieces and nephews.

He's a loving husband.

He's their DAD!!

And today is his birthday!!!!!

HAPPY HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO MY OLDEST SON!!!!

(my most fave quote of all time......SO true!)

Traveling Around my Christmas Tree!

Don't you wonder sometimes how it takes so long to get your tree decorated for Christmas??  Me too!
And I realized this year and chuckled about my conclusions.....as I unwrap each ornament, I remember where I was when I found it, who I was with, what we were doing.....and then proceed to stop what I'm doing and just "remember" and chuckle some more!!  Isn't that the fun part of decorating??  So last night, in the quiet of my home with lights twinkling and music playing softly, I stood in front of my tree and revisited so many of the places I've traveled to!

Handmade in Lucca, Italy

From Radio City Music Hall when my daughter in laws and I went to New York to see the Rockettes Christmas show!

Pinochio from Venice Italy

Radko ornament made in 2005 in tribute to survivors of hurricane Katrina

Lighthouses of Cape Cod!

Annual girlfriend trips to Florida!

SophieJane in her fave pink car!

arrrrrrgh!

 Best friends from Spokane WA!

Too many more to show here but our tree is a true reflection of so many things we've done in our life!

Just the way it's supposed to be!!

Girlfriends just left after our lil Christmas "hen" party and the house is quiet again.  Not for long!  Chirren and grandchirren start coming in tomorrow and our Christmas dinner will be Thursday night.

Our house will be filled with laughter, good food and LOVE....a very magical time indeed!

Merry Merry Christmas to all of our friends...may your hearts be filled with the spirit of His birth and the wonder of magic!!

Once Upon a Time.....

...there was a little browned haired girl who helped her mom set up the Nativity scene every year at Christmas.  It was always on the same table with the same worn out cotton and she knew just where each piece was to be placed. (her mom had made sure of that!!)  Carefully, oh so carefully, we would unwrap each animal and wise man, making sure that all the jewels were hung correctly around their necks and Mary and Joseph hovered just right around the baby Jesus.
This was a very special ritual for the little girl.
Time passed with each year bringing the same tradition.
Until that mom lived out her life and her weathered soul became one with God.
The little girl packed up the house she'd lived in until she married her prince, bringing boxes and boxes of her mom's things to her own home.
In one of those boxes was that Nativity.  It had never been unpacked at the little girl's home.  Why?  Dunno.  Maybe afraid something would happen to it if it were set out with 3 sons running rampant thru the house?  And then it got shoved to the back and rarely thought about for 19 years.
Until this year.
The little girl brought it back out and set it up exactly as her mother had taught her.  Relishing the memories.  That little girl being me and those 3 sons now grown.  Hopefully, as my grandchildren grow older, I will be able to share the story with them as they help set it up with me. (placing the pieces just as I want them to-- I'm my mother's daughter!)
It was a handmade set and nothing grand, but man, oh man......to me, it was like gold.  Were the pieces really so grand or was it the time spent with my mom the true gold??!!!

The Ballet! Cookies! ICE Celebration!!!

A few weeks ago, I took 2 of my granddaughters and their mom to the Moscow production of The Nutcracker ballet at our local theatre.

Moscow Ballet’s award-winning dancers bring the holiday season to life in Shreveport, LA!

I had a talk with the girls about how they had to be very good and act like big girls....they were angels!

the youngest one even fell asleep 15 minutes into the first half of the production...

Afterwards we met up with other daughter in law and grandson for dinner. Such a fun day and night!

The next weekend was cookie baking day at my house!

They had such a good time.  So did their mom and I!

Next on the agenda was a trip to Grapevine TX to take more grandkids to the ICE celebration at the Gaylord Hotel.

ICE!

The Gaylord Texan Resort brings the magic of a winter wonderland indoors with its annual ICE! exhibit, featuring more than 2 million pounds of of colorful, hand-carved sculptures. You’ll pile on a heavy parka (provided, but bring a pair of gloves) and stroll through a maze of themed ice sculptures throughout a 14,000-square-foot exhibit hall kept at a numbing 9 degrees. Think 2 million pounds of ice carved, by more than 40 ice sculptors, into symbols of Christmas and well-known, holiday animated characters. There are also huge ice slides to ride down. ICE! also boasts one-and-a-half million twinkling lights, 12,000 ornaments, a 52-foot-tall rotating Christmas tree, and a life-sized gingerbread house. The temperature inside the exhibit is a chilly 9 degrees so make sure everyone is dressed warmly.

Oh WHAT fun we had!  Even tho it was VERY cold!!!

There was a slide area made completely of ice that Austin had so much fun sliding down! 

A whole room full of ice sculpted nativity scene

Josey loved all of it!

While waiting his turn to see Santa...

he was just beside himself!

There was cookies and milk with Mrs. Clause!

So, as you can see we've been busy since Thanksgiving and we are all filled with holiday cheer.

We've got lots of little people around here who have visions and visions of sugarplums in their heads!

We will all gather round our table this Christmas eve... surely making memories to last forever

c

The Elf is BACK!!!!!

FINALLY!!!!!

Computer is back up and running and I've so much to share......BUT.....this lil elf has lots of little stocking stuffers to work on first.

Can't wait to get around to all my buddies and see whats going on.

Is anyone out there on blogger having trouble connecting? Something strange seems to be going on....

Down for the Count...

.....meaning that until my laptop is discharged from the computer hospital, I can't make posts. ☹️  All of my images and editing programs are on it just waiting to come out and play. But alas, the 3 day job of having it brought back to life has turned into 6. And now maybe 8-10 days 😖
So,even tho I feel like I've lost a limb....I will survive. I sure hate that I've become so dependent on such a small gray box that is smarter than I am...
I'm off to slide down ice tunnels with my grandbabies!!!!

Shall We Just Get This Out First??!!.....Thanksgiving 2015

Yes, of course I am SO thankful for my family.  For my friends, For our health and happy times together.  For getting to share the most awesome Thanksgiving 2015 ever!  And the "few" toddies we have together sure are fun too!!

We all began gathering at the deer camp for our annual turkey day party on Wednesday.  Food was brought in along with babies and toddlers and more food!  It's always such a fun time because there is no pressure.  It's just family and good friends huddling together for 4 days of fun.

(altho my time was cut short...had to come home late friday to nurse a croupy cold....feel really bad)

The kids had hardly tumbled out of their carseats when they saw little surprises.....Cap'n and I had gotten 4 battery operated 4-wheelers of their very own.  There are lots and lots of 4-wheelers around the deer camp but they're for the grown-ups and the kids are always asking us to take them riding. I don't recall being asked a single time to go riding this time....they were thrilled to be able to drive their own.  OMG....just made my heart so happy to see them so happy!

Even the 11 month old jumped right in like she was all grown!! (she doesn't even walk yet..hahaha)

these two are going to be very good friends!

and a huge thank you to this dad for putting 3 of them together!!!! 

DIL and I had our first toast together on our first afternoon together - I found the champagne of the favorite vineyard we went to in Napa years ago.  I had not seen it in our town before. We had such great memories of our trip together...

Our lil preggo one not happy while her sister wife enjoys a morning mimosa!!

We had candy acorns....

and Hailey always has an activity for the kids to participate in...

Of course, since we're at the deer camp, there is always a gathering around the deer cleaning area when one of the guys brings one in

We had fried turkey..

alongside roasted turkey!

and so many side dishes that I didn't even get pics of all...

the carving station!

Unstuffing the bird!

the kiddos sat at their lil table 

while the adults ate and laughed and well......enjoyed our cap'n!!