Merry Christmas!

I hope you all had a very Merry Christmas!

Christmas seems to have been happening all week!

Friday I went by and dropped off Robert's present

Then I went by my friend Dee's to drop off presents for her boys. Her dog Meatball is hilarious.

Then it was off to a dinner party at my friend Ginny's house

We were all sitting around relaxing after dinner when someone was like "hey there is a dog outside". He came in and hung out and got some dinner too. Someone said he belongs across the way, hopefully he made his way back and they actually feed him. He seemed awfully skinny!

Christmas Eve I went to drop off Traci's wine gift bag that I made that matches her kitchen (and a bottle of wine) and the pillow I made for Marcus, her grandson. He was sick so he had just left to go to the doctor. She sent me some pictures though.

We went to Scott's parents for Christmas Eve. Scott made his awesome ribs in the oven recipe and then we plopped them in the crock pot and took them over there.  His mom wasn't feeling well so she mostly stayed in the bedroom but she wanted to come out and eat. She was having a lot of pain so Scott padded up the wheel chair that was in the garage and wheeler her in to eat. She ate quite a bit for how tiny she is now and then wanted to go back to bed.

So we mostly visited with his dad and his sister Suzie was in a good mood so she was out with us too. I made sweet potato pie since his mom had wanted that and Scott made some beans that she wanted and apparently always made but he didn't remember eating them lol.

I didn't take any pictures there since it didn't feel appropriate. :( Sadness when we left about parents getting older.  Wait I did take one picture, myself before I stripped off my sweater because it was 100 degrees in the house.

We decided to go to the movies to brighten things up a bit. We went and saw Moana and amazingly I stayed awake the entire movie. I didn't even nod off a bit haha. Maybe that was due to my 10 minute power nap between his parents and the movie theater ;)

Christmas morning we got up and did presents at home. No big gifts this year since everyone has already been spoiled with all the electronics and such. I sent Jessica a crock pot and some odds in ends (TG for Amazon!). Melissa got a ton of books that she had on her list and Trevor got some odds and ends boys stuff.

Rusty was super excited that Melissa had her blanket to snuggle ;)

Rusty with me so cute

Scott got me a gift card to the running shoe store which was super nice. He knows that next week I want to get back on plan. Starting to look like an oompa loompa again! Damn you fantastic tasting food. I got Scott a new Raider's shirt. We don't usually buy much for each other because we both would rather just buy what we want/need when we need it and we aren't big on "stuff."

After opening our presents I finally made up the lasagna to take to my moms. We all showered and then we were off to mom's!

I made pocket pillow cases for all the kids for Christmas (except Tony he got a gift card to Game Stop). Each pillow I did a little bit of a theme with the print on the pillow, a book mark, some books and a little blind bag type of toy.

Adrian being cute! She's getting so tall.

Emma, oh Emma, so is darling & busy lol

Vincent

Emma is the 2nd youngest (by seconds I think) but she was too excited to wait to open her presents. (We open one at a time, youngest to oldest)

Ava

Adrian

Trevor

Tony

Melissa

Jessica should be here. Hopefully next year she'll be home!

Maegen

Joe

Louie

Michele

Insert me here (mom took one..)

Scott

Scott had helpers, so cute.

Mom

Dad

Charly (Maegen's dad)

Some snuggles after presents

I brought this snowman craft thing I've had forever. I think we spent a couple hours playing with them.

Vincent liked the pens lol

Mom took some pictures of dinner I'll have to try and get some from her. I made lasagna, she made Parmesan chicken, my brother made rice balls, his grandma's sauce recipe and my mom also made meatballs & sausage. Oh and my sister in law made potato soup. I'm still full at 9:30 the next day and I skipped dessert lol. 

All done until next year which is probably like tomorrow with how fast time flies once you get older!

Book Club

November was my turn for book club. We all trade off in alphabetical order. There 10 of us I think but 2 have been not having it since one is 90 and the other has health issues. So every 8 months or so it's my turn.

You would think that this is like the worst thing in the world for my family. They have to leave the house for 2-4 hours. OMG the horror!! This time I told Scott to make sure and make enough plans to be gone at least 4 hours and not be waiting down the street freaking out like he was last time.

Part of having book club is getting our house to look like normal people's homes. You know,  like clean, and not cluttered. It's amazing how much dirt you see when you really start cleaning. Cleaning the kitchen turns into scrubbing all the walls and cleaning grout.  Scott was actually a big help this time and did a ton of cleaning. He even took out our metal kitchen cabinet and painted it up a bit (it was getting really rusty).

I love having him clean the ceiling fans. He's so much closer to them than I am ;)

Yes, that's my foot. I was taking a break and enjoying the view.

Oh and I had to pick a book! My friend Eric recommended Hello Love.  Everyone loved the book so that was a win!

I actually ended up listening to it on my Kindle with the text to speech feature. I'm so glad I finally figured out how to do that. It's like a computer reading to you but after awhile you get used to it. Makes it easier to read and do something else with your eyes at the same time! I haven't spent much time reading lately. I've been too into watching/listening to Netflix on my Kindle while I craft or sew.

We don't meet again until January so I've got a bit of time to get the next book read.

Senior Pictures

My sister in law took Melissa's senior pictures for me. OMG they are amazing!  I still need to download them all from the website.

Before we left we went to her house and I got some selfie time with Emma. She loved looking at herself in the front facing camera on my phone. THAT'S ME THAT'S ME!!  So cute.

Then we went down the road to this really cool place that has all these areas for photo props. It's a horse ranch and then the gal rents out time slots for people to go around her property and take pictures. Talk about a smart way to make some money eh?

Snuck this picture of Michele and Melissa

I love this picture with the light coming in the barn

Check her out! So pretty and that sunset!

More to come soon!

Thanksgiving

Yes I'm just now posting about Thanksgiving at my brother Louie's house!

Had to make my Peanut butter pie for my brothers. (picture turned itself, I hate when they do that)

Vincent. Destroyer of things.

My sister in law Michele decorated the back porch area. It was so pretty! She did a great job.

Kids table but they all ended up sitting at the big table with us when we ate.

Pictures around the table. Tony & Trevor 

Ava, Adrian, Joe & Maegen

Joe and Maegen

Charly (Maegen's dad), Melissa and Emma

Louie, Michele and Vincent

Howard, Me and Scott

Mom and Dad

Mom & Emma bonding over coloring

Melissa and her pile of girl cousins

My friend Janice from elementary-high school was visiting in Stockton. She lives in Canada now. I had meant to try and get together with her earlier in the week but we were so busy. I had sent her a message asking if she was busy and she came over with her aunt. I had not seen her since high school so just a few years!

Here is our group family picture that Michele took with her remote! Turned out pretty well :)

Dinner and all the desserts were fantastic. I was so full I had to go home and go to bed lol. Time to get back to more exercise and less food soon I think!