New Years Eve

Well, tomorrow is New Years eve, and my hubby and I will be having a nice quiet evening together.  When the kids were younger we would take them all out for Chinese food early in the evening, then we would go home and watch the ball fall.  We continued to do this even when the kids were older except when we got home they would all go out and we would still stay home and watch the ball fall.  As you can see nothing much has changed except the fact that we are a lot older, now I hope we just stay awake long enough to see the ball fall.  Oh, that's another thing, I don't think it is a ball anymore, isn't it an apple or something like that?

New Years day the family will be coming to our house so we can have our annual Sauerkraut and Pork dinner.  It is supposed to bring luck to your family in the new year.  You see this is my German origin coming out, even though I make more Italian food then German food, much to my dad's chagrin.

Well, I just would like to wish you and your family a wonderful prosperous New Year!  Talk to you all in 2011~

Family Day

Well, Christmas eve and Christmas day were wonderful.  We were with family and enjoyed every minute.  As I get older I seem to realize how quickly time passes by.  Like Oprah, I am trying to learn to live in the moment.  Being with family this weekend I tried to do just that.  Sitting there looking at our family as they each opened their gifts was just awesome.  We have been so fortunate to have such a respectful family.  My husband and I just look at each other and we are both thinking, how did we do this?  When you get married people usually don't read books on telling you how to raise good kids.  We have 4 children,  I am not saying that we didn't have our challenges.  Like the time when we were at Penn State for # 1 & #2's graduation, and # 3 was home babysitting # 4 (because he had a playoff game).  # 3 decided to send # 4 to a friends house so he could have his own graduation party.  We received a call from our home town police and said their was a party at our house and what would we like to do.  My husband told the policeman to get everyone out of the house, (of course they were already out of the house due to the fact that one of kid # 3's friend called him and said that he heard on a police scanner that they were directed to our address) and we would handle it when we got home the next day.  Kid # 3 lost his privilege of going to senior week.  So we did have a few problems along the way, and thankfully we all made it through those rough teenage year.  When we are all together and reminiscing about things that happened growing up, that story has been the topic of many a conversations at our dinner table.  We can all laugh about it now.  All I can say is that we have been blessed.
I guess the point of the story is that enjoy every minute with your children and loved ones, because it passes all too quickly.  When we talk about retirement now, we think we should have saved more money when we were younger.  We both look at each other and laugh because who would have ever thought when we were younger that we would grow old, but that is a story for another time.

Christmas Time!

Well, it's almost here, tomorrow is Christmas Eve.  I was in such a good mood up until two days ago, now I feel a little sad.  I can't put my finger on it, I don't know why.  May be it's just that I really can't do anything with this broken ankle, and it has me a little down.  Christmas is my favorite time of year, and right now I am wrapped and ready, so that should make me happy.  Usually I am wrapping on Christmas Eve at 5 pm, right before we all get together to exchange gifts.

They are predicting snow in this area for Sunday/Monday.  It is really just a tease of course.  They are giving us three scenario's of the storm.  I guess they just say that so they can't be wrong no matter what happens.

Since our daughter got married and started having children we have changed our family tradition a little.  We use to all gather at our house on Christmas Eve and we had an Open House for friends and family.  We would open gifts on Christmas day after Santa came.  Since we have downsized to a little community and our daughter has children and the big house we have decided to go there and continue the tradition, except we exchange gifts that night. 

When your children are grown and out of the house it is a little different on Christmas morning now.  So Christmas Eve is our Christmas morning.  Christmas day they can spend with us or their significant other/husband's family.  It works out pretty good.

Well, that is our tradition, what is yours?  It's almost here!  I am wishing you and your family a joyous holiday and good things to happen in 2011!  Enjoy each other and appreciate how lucky we all are.

Tote

Sunday Football

I can't watch any more football!  My team is not doing too well, so I loose confidence and can't watch anymore.  Anyway I have a question.  If my son is dating someone for at least 2 months now,  what should I get her for Christmas?  She is a lovely lady, and I hope things go well for both of them.  I just don't get much information from him, so I don't know how serious things are yet.  Any ideas? 

Have a great day.

Christmas decorating!

I think we are done decorating for the Holidays. My husband has been so patient with me, (since I have a broken ankle, therefore I can't move around too much). He has done such a good job decorating and listening to me give direction. I wish he didn't have to help me so much. I do appreciate it and I thank him from the bottom of my heart.
I have been practicing with my camera and different settings. There is so much to learn about taking pictures. I would love to take a class. I especially like to take pictures of our grand children, which you have probably guessed by now. One thing on my bucket list when I retire is photography lessons, but that is a little way down the road. Oh well, here are some pic's of my favorite decorations.

Thank you so much for visiting!   Tote

Trimming the Tree!

Well, it is that time of year, the time when we all get together and trim the tree.  Now you see since we are empty Nester's we have our grand kids come over and help us.  They get so excited to help, and when they are done it seems like all the ornaments are at one level and below.  This year we got the ladder out for them.  They loved that!  I took the pictures since I am chair bound due to my broken ankle.  They are so much fun to watch.  Megan who is 6 loves being the boss of Connor who is 4.  "Connor, you line them up and I will hang them."  "No, I want to hang them too!"  "My turn on the ladder!"  You get the point.

The tree turned out beautiful and they were so proud of the job they did.  (We did move a few ornament's around.)  Here are a few more pictures of them decorating, and a few of our ornament's that I love.  Some of the handmade ornament's I made for our children were given to them for their trees after they were married.

I really want to take a picture of our Byers Choice Carolers, but that will be for another time.
Hope you all have fun decorating for this Holiday season, and remember why we have this Holiday season!  It's someones birthday!

Giveaway!

Checkout "how I met your father" blog for a great Lilly giveaway!  She writes such a great blog about life and trying to find her way.  Love reading it.