My sister, Teresa (the oldest), has been cyber-stalking me to post a new blog. Behold some pictures from Christmas 2009.
This first picture is of the nativity set my sisters gave me for my birthday. It's beautiful and the most fancy nativity I've ever owned. I loved looking at it over the holidays and just recently put it away. I added the tree in the back which was purchased at Barrier's liquidation sale last month.
My sisters and I have a gift ball that we pass around each Christmas. This Christmas Teresa had the gift ball and was responsible for purchasing gifts for us (we include mom in this tradition, too, she just doesn't ever have to buy presents). We went to Teresa's house and she served us yummy tea in her pretty Christmas cups and we snacked on breads that she'd baked. My favorite is her almond poppyseed bread. This year she got us Christmas ornaments that are ceramic boxes shaped like Hershey's Kisses that were also filled with Kisses. Don't have a picture of them since I've already stowed the decorations, but it's really cute. Mine is red. Mom and Jenny got green. Next year Jenny will have the ball.
My oldest nephew, Andrew, was in charge of passing out presents.
Zach peering in as Grandma opens one of her presents. That lunch box he's holding was something I played with as a kid - a vintage toy if you will.
Caden (with his mom, Rachel) opening his present from me: Toy Story pajamas and a Tupperware pitcher and four cups for his play kitchen at home.
Terri, Zach and Mark opening gifts. I had Mark's name and gave him a rear-view mirror for their Rhino and the second Diners, Drive-ins and Dives cookbook. He's a big fan of the show.
Teresa with one of the Santa heads she got. Anissa, Kyle and Victoria are also tearing into their presents.
Katie, Frank, Jenny, Fred, Jessica and Cody were around the corner. This was the first Christmas since my mom and dad's house remodel was finished. It was nice to have enough room for everybody. The only drawback is not being able to see everybody at once.
My nephew, Christopher, with his nephew, Caden.
My mom's birthday is Christmas
Eve. We always get her the prettiest birthday cakes. This one tasted as good as it looks. Caden and Zach (as did the rest of us) dug into some cake after opening presents.
Zach got a wagon from grandma Sherrie and grandpa. He liked it when we took turns pulling him through the house. He and Caden both got in and took rides, too. This shot also highlights the new flooring my parents got in their kitchen and dining room right before Thanksgiving. It's one of the final steps in their renovation process. The only thing left to do is finish up the trim and paint touch-ups.
My sisters, Jenny and Teresa, on Christmas Day during our card-playing extravaganza.
Two of my nephews, Jeffrey and Christopher, during my worst game of rummy ever on Christmas Day.
I have struggled this year to get everything done. Not just blogging, but everything. It's weird because I had six months with no job and still have not completed tasks I thought I would have finished. The month of December has been a complete blur. I'll recap as best I can and try to be a better blogger in 2009. I've missed posting. Honest. And I pledge to do better than the three posts I've managed to do this month. Shameful.
One of the Christmas celebrations (we've already had three and will still have another) we had at work was a luncheon hosted by Bishop Michael Jackels. It started with a mass at the Spiritual Life Center and then we had a delicious meal catered by Corporate Caterers. Bishop Jackels served me wine and then coffee before I pushed back from the table. He has a great sense of humor and I had a great time at the luncheon. Here's a photo of the Bishop serving coffee to Michael who's the director of the counseling center and the Marriage for Keeps program.
Just in case you were wondering, I didn't win one of the poinsettias that were on the tables. Also, I'd completed my hours when this luncheon was over, so I didn't have to go back to work that Friday afternoon.
Christmas preparations were late for me this year. The tree didn't get lit and decorated until about a week before the holiday. Jennifer and Bella helped me decorate. A three-year-old's decorating sense is wonderfully refreshing! I managed to make about 10 dozen sugar cookies and five loaves of English muffin bread this year in addition to wrapping my gifts, trimming the tree, writing the Christmas letter (they just got mailed this week) and packing up to go see my family. I decorated some of the cookies for friends and co-workers, but my family has been trained by me to frost their own cookies. Pretty smart, huh?
Zach was definitely the star of the show at my family's Christmas Eve celebration. Andrew, Rachel and Caden were with Rachel's family in Missouri, so we were without his antics. Zach kept us plenty entertained on his behalf. I'm already excited for next year when they'll both be two years old. I've got some pictures of other people, but the ones of Zach are by far my favorite. Without further adieu...
He walked all around the house in one of my dad's boots until he lost interest and focused on the platter of cookies and goodies my sister Teresa brought. Dig the Santa suit!
And he helped grandma eat some of her birthday cake. Or more specifically the frosting on her birthday cake.
Lynette, John, Jenny and Mark tear into their presents.
When Zach opened his presents he wanted to play with them immediately. He looked at or played with each thing before he moved on to open the next present. Especially the books. Notice how he's using Jessica's legs as a book rest while she continues opening her gifts. The whole living room is filled with people and chaos, yet Zach is looking at his book.
Some of the chaos at the other end of the room included Christopher and Frank (sitting on the floor), Teresa, Katie, Kyle, Victoria and Jeffrey. You can also see Anissa's head on the right side of the picture.
After things calmed down a bit, Christopher and Victoria worked on a teapot puzzle that Teresa got from Jenny. Teresa said: "I don't do fuzzles. I mean puzzles." We all agree she should do puzzles instead of sending out forwarded email messages.
Mark and Jeffrey enjoyed looking at one of Zach's new books. Mark had to work the morning of Christmas Eve and he comes over right after getting out of his truck, that's why he has on his work jeans.
The time I spent at my Mom and Dad's for Christmas went by far too quickly. It's hard to believe it's over already. Even though I was there for five days, it seemed a much shorter period of time. There was baking to be done and babies to hold, Christmas letters to address and get in the mail, shopping with my Dad for Mom's gifts and wrapping them once they were purchased.
My Mom has a Christmas Eve birthday, so we always celebrate our family Christmas that day. We eat lunch together and then the chaos ensues and we open gifts. Usually we wait until Santa has visited us, but this year he was too busy to come in person so he left the bag o' sacks with my Dad so he could distribute them. Without further adieu...
Here's a picture of me and Zach, he showed up in festive attire and together we looked very Christmas-y.
Zach wasn't the only baby in the house, though. This is me with Caden. He must be teething, can you tell?
My Mom with her great-grandson, Caden. Notice the antlers she's wearing.
Caden with his Aunt Katie and Uncle Christopher.
Zach's getting to be such a big boy already. Such a serious face, such a cute outfit. He even had on red socks!
Here's Zach and his Mommy (Terri) checking out a book Santa brought him.
Caden's getting pretty good at sitting up without help. But that's his Mommy (Rachel) behind him making sure he doesn't topple over. And yes, he is even smiling!
Daddy (Andrew) and Caden with his sack of goodies from Santa. As you can see, he's way more interested in chewing on the sack than he is about what's in it.
My sister Jenny and her son, Kyle. Kyle was the baby of the family until Zach and Caden came along. He'll be 13 in March.
My brother-in-law Kenny, sister Teresa, Lynette (John's girlfriend), Zach and brother John as the present frenzy was beginning.
Nephews and nieces: Christopher, Anissa, Jessica and Frank (Katie's boyfriend).
Christopher posing for me with the "Push! I Neigh!" sticker on his shirt. It came on the barn toys my Mom got for both babies. I pushed the button and he really did neigh! Delightful.
I didn't take pictures of them, but I got a very cool bread machine (which my Mom got for a huge bargain at Kohls.com), a nifty soup pot and a new crock pot! I also got an outdoor planter, a gift certificate for a pedicure and some lotion that Lynette actually made. No complaints from me, now I just need to get cooking and making some bread.
I'm going to try and get you caught up on my life as it happened over the weekend prior to Christmas. On Saturday I baked a batch of sugar cookies. I had forgotten my signature holly leaf and Christmas tree cookie cutters and the recipe at home. Argh! I went to my sister's house because she had given me the recipe many years ago and looked for it in her cookbook cabinet. I found four recipes for sugar cookies and knew that none of them was the one I use. I went on to plan B and called my friend Joyce who I had given the recipe to several years ago. Luckily, she was home. Instead of holly leaves and trees, I improvised with a cup and just made round cookies. Ornaments, we'll call them. I also baked some English muffin bread that turned out quite yummy. I got the recipe out of our Wichita Eagle holiday cookbook. My family (especially Dad) loved it.
Just before Saturday evening Mass my sister, Jenny, and her family arrived in Ellinwood. We all went to church and then back to Mom and Dad's for potato soup. It had snowed a bit during the morning and the soup sounded good for a cold, snowy night.
After we ate, I decided to go to my Uncle Ed's house and see him and my cousins (his four boys are more like my long-lost brothers than my cousins). I ventured out with my nephew Jeffrey (he's 14 and very talkative) into the night. It's important at this point of the story to tell you that Ellinwood got about a foot of snow the previous weekend. So there was still about 8 inches of snow on the ground in some places.
Jeffrey and I headed south toward Stafford County and turned off the highway to go east toward Ed's house. Silly me. I had forgotten that this particular road drifts terribly and my poor little Honda was no match for the piles of snow that were waiting for us there. I got about a 1/4 of a mile down the dirt road when I got high-centered and had no hope of getting unstuck on my own. I reached for my cell phone, but couldn't reach it because it was back at my parents' house. Crap! Jeffrey gets out and tries to push me. Nothing budged. Neither one of us are really dressed for snow. He has on some thin pajama things and Crocs (at least he had socks on, too) and I had on a thin jacket over my t-shirt and pants. But at least I was wearing tennis shoes and socks. So I decided that I'd walk to the nearest house which meant back to the highway and about a 1/4 mile north. I hoped they were home. Jeffrey loaned me his coat, which was much heavier than the one I was wearing. I started walking and was disgusted to find that I was walking directly into the wind -- holy cow it was cold! Once I got to the highway I was sheltered a bit from the wind. I kept thinking that at least there was a full moon and I could see where I was going. Once I got on the highway and headed north I was able to make a little better time. But I hadn't gotten far when I heard a car approaching from the south and I tried to decide whether I would flag them down or not. I said a prayer for them to not run me over and for them to not be a crazed serial killer. My prayers were answered on both counts. Some nice woman (I had no clue who she was) stopped and let me use her cell phone to call my uncle's house. Once I had told my cousin Dan where I was stuck, I thanked the woman profusely and turned down her offer to sit and warm up in her car. I explained that my nephew was waiting at my car and I needed to get back over there. I walked back and it wasn't nearly as bone-chilling on the return trip with the wind at my back. Shortly after I returned to the car, my cousins Scott, Dan and Jason showed up to rescue us. They pulled us out and I got turned around so I was going back toward the highway. I got stuck again following Jason out but I was able to get going again. Then I got stuck a third time and I couldn't budge the car this time. They pulled me out and just kept on pulling me until there was no more snow. When they stopped to remove the tow chain, I handed them the Christmas letters for their families that I was planning to hand-deliver and told them it was nice to see them and thanks so much for rescuing me, but I wasn't going to be able to go any further. It was almost 9 o'clock by this time and I was exhausted.
In retrospect there are so many things about this incident that are just ridiculous. But Jeffrey loved it that we had an adventure together, even though he kept complaining about having a frost-bitten toe. As far as I know it hasn't turned black yet, so I think he'll be all right.
This first picture is of the nativity set my sisters gave me for my birthday. It's beautiful and the most fancy nativity I've ever owned. I loved looking at it over the holidays and just recently put it away. I added the tree in the back which was purchased at Barrier's liquidation sale last month.
My sisters and I have a gift ball that we pass around each Christmas. This Christmas Teresa had the gift ball and was responsible for purchasing gifts for us (we include mom in this tradition, too, she just doesn't ever have to buy presents). We went to Teresa's house and she served us yummy tea in her pretty Christmas cups and we snacked on breads that she'd baked. My favorite is her almond poppyseed bread. This year she got us Christmas ornaments that are ceramic boxes shaped like Hershey's Kisses that were also filled with Kisses. Don't have a picture of them since I've already stowed the decorations, but it's really cute. Mine is red. Mom and Jenny got green. Next year Jenny will have the ball.
My oldest nephew, Andrew, was in charge of passing out presents.
Zach peering in as Grandma opens one of her presents. That lunch box he's holding was something I played with as a kid - a vintage toy if you will.
Caden (with his mom, Rachel) opening his present from me: Toy Story pajamas and a Tupperware pitcher and four cups for his play kitchen at home.
Terri, Zach and Mark opening gifts. I had Mark's name and gave him a rear-view mirror for their Rhino and the second Diners, Drive-ins and Dives cookbook. He's a big fan of the show.
Teresa with one of the Santa heads she got. Anissa, Kyle and Victoria are also tearing into their presents.
Katie, Frank, Jenny, Fred, Jessica and Cody were around the corner. This was the first Christmas since my mom and dad's house remodel was finished. It was nice to have enough room for everybody. The only drawback is not being able to see everybody at once.
My nephew, Christopher, with his nephew, Caden.
My mom's birthday is Christmas
Eve. We always get her the prettiest birthday cakes. This one tasted as good as it looks. Caden and Zach (as did the rest of us) dug into some cake after opening presents.
Zach got a wagon from grandma Sherrie and grandpa. He liked it when we took turns pulling him through the house. He and Caden both got in and took rides, too. This shot also highlights the new flooring my parents got in their kitchen and dining room right before Thanksgiving. It's one of the final steps in their renovation process. The only thing left to do is finish up the trim and paint touch-ups.
My sisters, Jenny and Teresa, on Christmas Day during our card-playing extravaganza.
Two of my nephews, Jeffrey and Christopher, during my worst game of rummy ever on Christmas Day.
