Merry Christmas Everyone

Merry Christmas and Happy Birthday Jesus! Today was a wonderful day spent with my family. The morning started off with a delicious breakfast cooked by my Mom and myself. I tried a new recipe for Cinnamon Rolls, out of the cookbook from the Pioneer Woman. They turned out to be a HUGE hit. Yeah, me!!! After dinner, our daughters' arrived to spend the day with us. They both are not feeling well today, I hope they are feeling better soon. About the time they arrived all the family started to parade into the home (my childhood home) of my parents. Once the entire crew arrives the chaos begins. Children running around, everyone talking at the same time and the smell of food!!! That's the best part.. hehe. We all gathered to eat the food we all prepared and then it was time to open gifts. The kids wait so patiently and then the time has finally arrived...the opening of the gifts. That lasted about 10 minutes, a whole year of planning, making, buying and wrapping and the whole thing is over so fast. But the look on the children's faces, it was perfect. Everyone loved their gifts and fun was had by all. That was about the time we all looked outside and the snow was falling heavily. This is the first snow on Christmas we have had since the early 90's I think. It was beautiful, but we (and the daughters) could not be snowed in there, so the hubby hustled us all in our cars and we headed for our two hour drive home. It was a snowy, long, cold ride, but we made it without any problems. So now I sit here, thinking about our day and also watching for our snow. Thank you Lord for a great day and Happy Birthday Jesus!!

Christmas Eve

Happy Christmas Eve 2010 to everyone. It's been a great holiday season so far. All the gifts are bought, wrapped and ready for delivery. The food gifts are cooked and delivered and now at my Parents home enjoying time with family and friends. My holiday weekend started with a visit with two longtime friends from high school. You know the wonderful Facebook social network, it allowed me to hook back up with two special ladies and we were able to spend a few hours together talking about the past and present. What a great gift they are and what a great gift I was given. Today I had lunch with my best friend in the whole world. It is our tradition that my BFF and I have lunch on Christmas Eve every year. We went out, sat, ate, talked and just enjoyed each others company. My second wonderful gift of the season! The rest of today will be spent cooking, and attending Church tonight with my Mother-in-law. Then in the wee hours of the night Santa will appear with his sleigh full of gifts and I sure hope he unloads here. :) Tomorrow will be a wild frenzy of family, gifts and food. I cannot wait! My hubby and children will all be here along with parents, grand parents, brothers, sisters and children. Children, it's what Christmas is all about! My wish this Christmas season is for all my family and friends to enjoy this Christmas season and remember those not with us. Have a blessed season everyone!

Christmas Shopping Frenzie.....

Christmas shopping for me is the worst...I love the giving, I love the holiday, I love the cooking, I love my family, I just hate the shopping. I make my list, check it twice (hehe), then head out to the stores. I walk around aimlessly not knowing what to get. Some of my family members are really easy to buy a gift for, then I have the others that I just cannot find anything...like the hubby! So today I treated myself to a massage, a walk on the beach and then was going to tackle the rest of my shopping. Getting out to the store, walking around and then nothing. I bought a couple little things and then just could not get into it. When it started to rain, that was my cue to come home. Sitting around the house I finally decided to get online and see what I could find and whooohoooo I found many things and purchased many things...now just hope they all arrive on my door step. As the hubby arrived home I explained to him my wonderful hours of shopping :) and told him many packages will be arriving and he is not to open a one! Each and every year we all know when Christmas is going to arrive, the date never changes. Each and every year I try to find items through out the year for gifts, but I'm never ahead of the game. Once in my lifetime I hope to be able to make each gift for my family members. If I would get my act together early in the year, then maybe I could...hmmm...well there is always next year. And everyone don't worry your gift this year will be purchased and wrapped by Christmas Eve. Merry Christmas to everyone! Happy Shopping!!!

Thanksgiving, What are you thankful for?

Every year Thanksgiving comes and I reflect on all that I am thankful for...my family, my friends, my wonderful life. This year is no exception. I have the best family that God has granted anyone. They are there whenever I need them and when I don't! :) My friends are put in that same category, the best God has granted. I have a great job, great place to live and I have perfect Grand dogs! I know that life has it's ups and downs. Marriage has it's ups and downs. Family and friends have their ups and downs. And I am thankful for it all. Thank you God for giving me all that I have and all that I love. Happy Thanksgiving to you all, take a moment out of your day to thank your family and friends...and don't forget our Veterans...they deserve our thanks.

Basketweaving Week

This past week I attended a week of weaving baskets in NC. We had a fabulous couple that taught the Nantucket style weaving. There were 8 of us, 5 from VA, 1 from PA and 2 from FL. We made 52 baskets and repaired 3. What a great time it was. The week started out with a nice 4 1/2 hour drive. The weather was perfect! We arrived to see our beautiful condo overlooking the Atlantic Ocean...now that's what I call a view! Laying down each night and rising each morning to the sound and sight of the Atlantic is my kinda vacation! For the next 6 days we arrived at our teachers home with smiles, sore fingers and ready for more weaving. Lunches were eaten at a wonderful little country cooking hometown feel restaurant on the water. We watched shrimp boats coming and going. Evenings were a mish-mash of dinners at our teachers home and dinners are our condo. All my roommates and myself brought something, which made the dinners extra special. We ate wayyyy tooo well! :) We had a few little mishaps. My nickname became the murderer, I hit a possum headed back to the condo one night. He ran in front of the van, I hit the brakes and thought he would dart back across the road and well he went to possum heaven. I'm sorry Mr. Possum hope you are in possum heaven running around...but stay out of the road! Another little mishap was our windshield wiper came off as we were driving down the road. We "twist tied" it back on until we could buy a new one and now all is fixed. My roommates were great fun and very easy to be around. We drank many bottles of wine, one of our ladies brought many bottles of her homemade wine...delish! I did get to do some walking and running on the beach, my favorite thing to do! And as the week was winding down, I developed a sinus infection...but was still able to take part in the final days of weaving. We are officially home and officially getting back to reality. Why can't I be independently wealthy? Oh well, life is great and I am enjoying every minute of it!
Thanks again to my roomies for a great week and thanks you Mr. and Mrs. K for a wonderful week. Cannot wait til next year!!!!

Wow, it's been a while since I last posted, lots has been going on. This weekend my Mom and best friend, Vicki were in town to walk the Susan Komen Breast Cancer Walk. We had a great time. They arrived on Friday night, we just chatted until bedtime. Saturday morning we awoke early to be on time for the race. The day was chilly and very windy but the walk was very heart warming! All those people there to support a cause that has hit many families and friends. When my Mom told us 20 years ago that she had cancer and she was going to fight it and win...well she did just that! We are so proud of her and her fight! Seeing people there at the walk in various stages of their fight brings tears to your eyes. I pray that each and every one of them fight and win! After the walk on Saturday we enjoyed each other's company. Saturday night lots of fun was had by all at our monthly Bunko. I play Bunko with a super great group of ladies and the night was complete having Mom and Vicki there. This morning, Sunday, my daughter's came home, had breakfast with us all and then Mom and Vicki left. I was sad to see them leave and then just walked around not knowing what to do next. Of course I found many things to keep me busy. With it being football season, well that's all I have on during Sunday. Happy October to you all and remember cancer is a terrible disease and let's all keep up the fight. Love you Mom and Vicki!!

Summer Vacation 2010

This year we did it again, our Annual Summer Vacation with the entire family at our local beach. We've been taking a family vacation of this sort for over 25 years and this year was no different. For hubby and I it's only a 45 minute ride, for the rest of my family it's about 2 1/2 hours. We all arrive with big smiles and tons of food! If nothing else, we eat very well that week! Loads and loads of bags of food, luggage, beach chairs, floats, toys and anything else we could fit in the truck was hauled up the stairs, one by one. This year in attendance were my parents, brother, his wife and two children, sister, her hubby and two children, my youngest brother, my hubby and two daughters. So we had quite the crowd! I am so very proud that I have a family that enjoys being together, there is no fighting, no arguing and no drama. What a fun time we have. We do enjoy just hanging out on the beach or by the pool and just relaxing. Isn't that what a vacation is all about, relaxing? We did our share of it. Long walks on the beach, long runs along the beach, great seafood and long sleepful nights. This year there was even time for some basket weaving. My Mom and two Sisters did a great job! Oh and a couple highlights...got to spend time with my daughters, time with my niece and three nephews and my bro-in-law and I were the first day's Cornhole Winners! So yes it was a great vacation and I cannot wait for the next one!