Finally... Pictures to Share

Finally we got the phoneline fixed and I can share some Christmas Day pictures. The repairman was to come from morning to 5:30pm and around 4:30 pm he showed up. I have lived long enough to not be surprised at the fact a repairman shows up closer to the end of the day... especially when you have had to stay home all day to make sure not to miss him. Am I right?

Anyway, here are the pictures... I told you that we had "polite snow" on Christmas Day just as we were suppose to leave to go to our family get together and dinner. Here is a picture of the snow that had fallen at that point as we left the house (above).

At our house, Riley woke up about 6:30 am asking me it Santa came yet. He didn't go out to the living room to see himself. He thought I guess that I should go check it out. The night before Dave had put together a train table for the boys to be able to play. I had seen them at the Thomas the Train event in July in Snoquilmie and in various other places and they seemed to be very useful. The boys can keep their trains up instead of tearing them down each time. I also got a different train set that is plastic rather than painted (because of the lead paint scare). Kari and Dave was laughing at me because I got a train set with 161 pieces. It is called The Ultimate Train Set (Thomas the Tank Engine). It has enough trains for the two boys AND can be changed around to change the route of the tracks with bridges and stations etc. What grandmother could resist, I ask you? Here they are playing with their train set Christmas morning.

Later that day, we went to Dave's brother (Steve) and sister inlaw (mine too) house for Christmas dinner and fun. Unfortunately there were a few people missing (Todd and Joelle, Jason and Sarah) from our family because of the fact they have a partner/mate now that we must share them with on the holidays. So at the table this year was: Steve and Ruth, Butchie, Dee, Danna and Dave, and Riley and Brady. Kari was there for a little while before heading out to another dinner she was invited to attend. Here are some extra pictures just so those in Wichita reading this can see. (Wichita is where my husband is from). Below is Dee (Dave's mom) and Butchie (Dave's aunt)...


After the dinner we had our gift exchange game. Of course, there wasn't as many playing this time. And our family gag gift "hamster" that is hidden each year in the presents was given to "Toys for Tots" by Aunt Butchie. (We don't think she caught on to what the gag is about) She receive the gag gift last time... so was suppose to wrap it with a present sometime during the year to give to the next person in the family. We've had that gag gift that we passed around for a few years... maybe five. The person that receives it is to hide it in anothers family members birthday or Christmas present. It is sort of like "tag". We will have to find another "gag" to pass around. It's funny that Butchie sent it off as a donation. :-) After all the gifts were open, Ruth and I asked her "Where is the little hamster that sings?" The gags on us.

Here is the cake(below) and bread wreath (above) for Christmas dinner that I ordered from the bakery in Black Diamond that day I was with Renee where her favorite donuts are made.

Everyone had a great time. I always tell myself that this next year will be different and that I will plan more occasions to get everyone together. Let's see how well I can make things happen.... you can watch me and see. Part of my job at work is being an Event Planner. All one has to do is have an occasion and set the planning in motion. I know that better than anyone.

Above is Dave and Aaron.

I will have more pictures on tomorrow's post. Today I took down the Christmas tree and decorations. I was going to go slow getting it all down but I was waiting for the repairman... it just happened. I was done. Christmas stuff appears here and there for days after putting it away. So I have the last box still down so that I can pack those items that appear that didn't get packed.

I will sign off now for today. Until tomorrow... Hugs.

One More Time

I will have to post one more time without pictures since the phone repair person won't be here til tomorrow. I already have the draft written ready to go. Oh well.

Today was the most quiet day yet out of the three days I worked this week. Jena, a part time student worker, was suppose to be there with me today but I think she found something better to do. As for me, I decorated my little cube. (I have pictures of that too but let's not go there). At lunch I went to a little place that I have been going to for years where one can get antiques and other items. I decided I would like to put a little lamp in my cube for more light and a homey feeling. Afterall, it is my home away from home. So I found the perfect size for a lamp on top of my file cabinet, plus it also compliments my lighthouse picture which is above it. I also found a pot of flowers too which had the right colors as well. My creative juices were flowing which made the time go by quickly. (My boss can't have real flowers around so this is a good thing)

I am now off for four days in a row now. I feel that my time at work was just as equal to bring off this season. I organized at work rather than at work which is important too. I only spoke to less than 5 people today so I had a lot of "me" time while working on work projects.

I am beginning to form a plan for New Years Eve. My friend Susie and I are planning to have us (couples) go to a movie or stay in and play games (and eat chips and dip etc). It all has to do with timing. I plan on having a small family dinner on New Years Day. I will probably go towards having a roast, salmon (a big NW favorite), or Mexican food. They all sound good right now. Yum

In the meantime I plan on taking down the Christmas things slowly. I have already packed one box full of stuff. I have about 4 boxes of Christmas decorations. As I pack things I go pick out things to pass on to the Goodwill. And I clean up the house as I go too. For some reason I want to start a new year with a clean house.

Wish me luck with getting the phoneline fixed tomorrow. Oh and I go to WW tomorrow. It might not be the greatest of weigh ins. If it isn't, well we will go from there but hopefully I maintained. Heah, right. No way after this week. Have a goodnight

Another Day In Paradise

This has been a good day. I am getting more rest at work than I would have at home since it has been so slow. Normally I would like to be out doing things but it is cold outside and there is a threat of snow again. Polite snow fell this AM as I drove the boys to daycare. This evening we had snow falling and it was sort of sticking to cars, plants, and grass.

As you can see, I haven't been able to post with my computer. Only from my blackberry. The phone line is still down. Dave says that he will test the lines and call the phone company tomorrow. My pictures of Christmas are on my yahoo account. So I guess we'll wait one more day

Met Kari tonight with her friend Kelly for dinner. We went to Kings Teriyaki our favorite place for teriyaki food. The boys love it. Probably because she ate a lot of it when she was expecting them, especially Riley. Kari starts a class next week at college (not my college). It will be good for her and open her up to new ideas.

Well, even though I didn't work too hard today, I am tired. I will check the snow outside and then turn in. Goodnight.

White Christmas? What???

You know I wasn't dreaming of a White Christmas but regardless flakes started falling anyway. But it was a "polite" snow. That is snow that looks pretty but doesn't cause any problems. In fact it was all gone by the time we left to go home on Christmas Day from Steve and Ruth's house (my brother in law and sister in law).

I have pictures of Christmas Day but I can't post them today because the phone line (land line) isn't working. We didn't really use the phone since Sunday so we don't know what happened. But as soon as it is up and running I will post the pictures. I have family in Southern CA and Dave's family is in Wichita... So I want them to know to keep checking my blog for the pictures.

Today I returned to work and there was hardly anyone there. A few people stopped at my desk to see who was there or because they didn't have much to do. Students aren't on campus. They begin Winter quarter on the 2nd. I moved desks so I was organizing my cube. It was nice to have time to myself to get things done.

This morning I was tired from all the Christmas activities. I could have slept in. I'll say more Christmas Day etc when I get the pictures posted so I am not repeating myself.

I have been reading the blog friends and it seems everyone had a great hoiday with their family and friends. So until tomorrow... Have a restful evening. ;-)

Merry Christmas!

I hope all of you have the Merriest Christmas!

It amazes me how quickly time passes. I keep that in mind when the hoidays come around marking another year and time with the ones we love.

God Bless.

Merry Christmas Eve

Merry Christmas Eve! It's finally here after all our preparing and hard work. On Sunday we finished buying groceries and things for stockings. One great place to buy some stocking stuffers is the dollar store I have found.

We decided on ham. We got it at Costco (which we braved). I am having the boys go to preschool for the morning only. We will go to the bakery and Walmart. Get the boys around noon. We'll have dinner around 5 pm and go to church at 7 pm. When I was growing up, we would go to my Aunt Clara's house to eat and open presents. Then we would go down the street to my grandmother's house to open more presents and eat dessert. Santa would show it and we would get our gift from Santa.

Here's to all of our Christmas memories; past, present, and future. May this Christmas be the merriest yet!

Thank You Mc D

Saturday was very rainy in the AM. The kids need to play and get some exercise so we took them to Mc Donalds. The boys like the pancakes and Dave the coffee. They play in the big treehouse with all it's tubes and slides. They play and we read the paper.

We also took a drive to Enumclaw. Nothing is really there except a cozy farming community and small town. It was nice to take a moment to get outside away from crowds and the bussle of Christmas.

I also got the pictures of Santa and Riley from last week yesterday which I will try to add to this post. I am writing this by my BlackBerry and to get a picture posted I will have to use the computer. If you ever see a mistyped letter it is probably me typing a post from my phone.

We have our shopping done, I believe. Today we will deal with getting the grocery shopping done for Christmas Eve. I ordered a decorated cake for Christmas Day. It will have a skating snowman on the cake.I also ordered a wreath of braided bread for both days. I will try to get a picture of them all.

Tomorrow is Christmas Eve, can you believe it?