A very noisy Christmas

Tom and I both have nice sized families. Not huge but big enough. When we get together, it's a production. It's very loud and usually a lot of fun. We went to his Mom's first. I love playing with all the babies! My great neices and Nephew are all adorable!

From left to right, Torrie on Christle's lap. Torrie is kelly's daughter. Jack, on kelly's lap. Jack is Kelly's son, Etta in the back. Heather has Emily, Christles other daughter on her lap, Amanda in the front sitting next to Faith, Christles other little girl, Faith is holding Molahta, Amanda's daugher. Natasha, not pictured, was somewhere not wanting to be in the picture.

Natasha holding Jack. That is her husband, Leon in the back.

Later at my sisters house

Jake and Dylan

Broden and Ryan

My sister Chris who rarely comes to get-togethers

A very strange sight. The kids sitting quietly

Christmas Morning

I didn't get many pictures Christmas morning. Etta used to love to have her picture taken. Since she didn't give me good pictures, I chose to publish the ones I got. She is going to freak!!! LOL

Before she was awake enough to argue. Isn't she bootiful! LOL

She is behind there somewhere

A very busy holiday

We went to see Friends and family who live farther away than the rest of the family. This is Ryan and Robin, my best friend, Ann's daughter and son. I forgot to get a picture of Ann and Alan.

Tom's sister Mary and her husband Eugene

Heather and Natasha. Mary's daughters. Lovely girls.

Natasha and her husband, Leon, are expecting. She

Is 2 months along

Getting there!

Still decorating for Christmas. Slowly getting done. I really thought this year I would get done way early because I am not trying to work 80 hours a week. I think what happened is I lost my Christmas spirit there for a while. I was tired and just didn't feel like messing with it. I was stressing out because I want everything to be the way I have wanted it for years. Perfect. There were things I wanted, but couldn't find. There were crafts I wanted to do but they didn't turn out the way I wanted. Then it snowed. Everything looked so pretty and festive. The Christmas lights at night glowed under the snow. I got so angry that night at my husband and daughter who were watching TV while I struggled with he lights on the tree. Struggled with the village, and tried new crafts. I felt as if they didn't give a crap. I had the resulting fit, stomped outside, and went to look at the lights. While I cooled off, literally, I realized just how ridiculous I was being and how lucky I was. I have my husband and daughter right there in the house. Many people don't have a family that is together. The holidays are so much harder for them and here I am throwing a fit because things are not going my way. Typical of us red-heads or part red-heads. The German Irish temper, what ever. Anyway, I could feel my spirit coming back as I stood shivering in the snow. I came back inside feeling better. Come to find out, Tom and Etta could see the build up of my temper and just stayed out of my way. They were both going to help with the tree but thought better of it. They taught me a lesson that night. Throwing a fit doesn't decorate a tree. LOL. Well, that's part of it. When the stress gets to you, take a step back, look at what you have, instead of what you don't. Count your blessing and let the spirit of all that is good, wash over you. The beauty of Christmas isn't in what you see. It's the love and joy of family and friends that makes the season warm and bright. Anyway, I got my spirit back. Things are back on track as far as my decorating goes. It doesn't have to be perfect, and I'm not going to stop until its done. I will try to finish each room before my party, if its not, oh well. I don't think my family and friends will love me any more or less if the decorating is not complete. I am taking it easy on myself. I will look at a room and think, OK, that table could use a touch of Christmas, and i go find something to stick on it. No problem. Etta helped with the tree last night. Its not perfect anymore, but that's OK. She did it, and it looks fine. Tom headed out hunting but when he comes back he gets to help with Grandmas decorating and the outside project i have cooking up for him. Hope he remembers the Christmas spirit while shivering out in the cold. LoL

Thanksgiving at Mom's

I have always loved thanksgiving. Not for the food or the football game, not for the parade or for the traveling, but for the time spent with family. Even though most of us live fairly close, we rarely see each other. Some of my happiest, and funniest, memories are of thanksgiving.
I got to Mom's house early to help with setting up and the meal in general. Preparing the meal with Mom, Wade, (mom's boyfriend) and Etta was very nice, very calming. We laughed and joked while pealing potatoes, making appetizers, and decorating. The smells of thanksgiving in the air. The spiced cider I had going in the slow cooker and the turkey made for a yummy and very appetizing combination.
After everyone got there, everybody had their advice for the perfect turkey. Mom, who has not roasted a turkey since us kids were little, had asked me for my advice. I told her how I season the turkey under the skin, put a very small amount of broth in the pan, keep the lid on and don't bother basting. The birds baste themselves right? Well, everyone was shocked when Mom said she didn't baste the turkey. "oh you gotta baste it. it will be dry. you will burn it" Despite my advice, Mom decides that she has to baste this turkey. She opens the oven, and there is turkey juice all over the oven. she pulled the rack out and turkey juice is all over the floor. She grabs a towel, throws it on top of the stove to take the turkey out, slipping and sliding on turkey juice she attempts to move the turkey. Not a good move. The turkey didn't hit the floor, but it was a near thing. Suddenly, there is a fire on top of the stove! Hot burner, towel, not good. Wade throws the towel in the sink, runs water over it. That's taken care of. Meanwhile there are now towels all over the floor to clean the turkey juice. While cleaning up this little mess, I ask Mom how much broth she put in the roaster. She tells me that she felt a small can of broth was not enough. She went on and put a REALLY big can of broth in. Plus, the same size can, filled twice, with water. Good god! this was a 21 pound turkey. They make a lot of juice on their own! I guess that it is a good thing that everyone convinced her to baste the turkey or an hour later we would have had a bigger mess.
So, once we got the mess cleaned up, we had an amazing meal. My sister made the most incredible cranberry sauce, we had all of the staples of thanksgiving including green beans, corn, mashed potatoes, gravy, stuffing. We also had incredibly moist cornbread made by Wade's sister and this totally sinful chocolate fudge peanut butter cream pie made by my brother in law. Absolutely incredible!
We played pool, painted Christmas ornaments with the kids, and showed them the joys of the old metal Slinky by making them walk down the stairs. Etta played her violin for everyone. She is getting so much better at it.
It was a great day. A lot of fun and great memories. I'm sure the story of this years turkey will be told, and laughed over for many years to come!
Pictures from top to bottom:

My sister Katie and her daughter Courtney

Katie's son, Broden

Painting ornaments

Etta, Mom and Wade

A decoration I put together for the appetizer area

Busy Busy

For Etta's birthday, we thought it would be nice to take her to her favorite restaurant for dinner. Due to the way our schedules were for the day, Tom and I chose to meet at the restaurant instead of driving together. Turned out, some of my plans were canceled, so I decided to shop for Etta's slumber party and pick up a few things for Christmas crafts. Which then turned into Etta needing shoes, me needing a sweater or two, oh yes, we needed to take a trip to the local Sam's Club. I got a 2lb 2.5 oz can of coffee at Sam's for $5.00, and at the grocery store, the same can is $9.97. How insane is that?? Needless to say, I will make the trip into town to STOCK up on coffee from now on. Etta also picked her cake while we were there. She chose this butt ugly cake with chocolate icing that looks like it is flavored chocolate and died a muddy brown with squiggly lines all over it. ugh. If I had the time, I would have done it myself and had real chocolate Frosting. The sad thing is, I had something i needed to pick up. The specific reason for going to the Dollar General store. We got the party favors there, ended up with some we didn't plan for. I couldn't for the life of me remember what it was. Oh crap. I wondered around the store, hoping to jog my memory. No go. oh well, there is always tomorrow. Anyway, we finally get to the restaurant and had a wonderful meal. Etta just loves the Hibachi grill. For a kid who hates every new food you put in front of her, she can pack it away at a grill. Even shrimp. She will not even look at it anyplace else. Driving home with our tummies full Etta says, Mom, we forgot balloons. Jeez, That's what i couldn't remember. like i said, there is always tomorrow.