Our Christmas

Our week before Christmas was full, but nice! It started off with the church choir performing on Sunday. The music for the most part was the same they do every year, but a new addition was "It's bout the Cross". I love this song! It's so good! The concert ended with the Hallelujah  Chorus. Which is always good!

Sunday night we had several friends over to play games. I was able to get two games of Ticket to Ride in - won one; lost one...  The teenage boys played Risk. One set of friends played Canasta.  All in all, I think everyone had a  good time.  And we had several yummy treats!

Monday was a day Melissa and I had been looking forward to for months!! A dear friend of ours had here baby! His name is Gabriel and Melissa and I adore him!  He's so cute!!  We're looking forward to holding him again!



Tuesday we attended a friend's retirement from the Air Force. It was a beautiful ceremony. Later that night I was able to delivery my niece's t-shirt quilt finally done. She gave me her high school t-shirts back in August. I told her then I would try to get it done by Christmas.  I finished earlier in the month - I'm so glad it came out well!. She loves it!

Wednesday Melissa and I had another we had been looking forward to: her senior year portraits.  A friend of the family's is a great photographer and we had her do them. She had some inside and outside.  We'll go back in a few weeks to see the proofs. I have a feeling it's going to be hard to decide which ones to purchase....and Drew has already given me a budget....

Thursday I cooked for the friend with the new baby....we just had a relaxing day. And got to see the baby again.

Friday Drew took the day off! - yea!! I love it when the alarm does NOT go off at 5:40!! Drew and the boys went out for lunch the saw the newest Star Wars movie: Rouge One.  We all enjoyed it - the lunch and the movie!

Christmas Eve we stayed home and cooked.  I made gingerbread and sugar cookies while Drew used his new electric smoker to smoke salmon for our Christmas Eve dinner. The salmon turned out a little more salty than we all liked, but not a bad try the first time to smoke fish.  After our dinner, we attended our church's Christmas Eve service.  Instead of the normal candlelight service, this year the service had a  festive feel instead of a sacred one.  After we tortured the kids after church by driving around to look at Christmas lights, we opened our presents when we got home. I think they were overall happy...nothing too big at this time. 

Christmas morning we had to wake up the kids.  That's like with teenagers... the days of them waking us up at the crack of down are over!  William's big gift was a chair for his dorm room he asked for, Melissa got a new cell phone, and Benjamin got money.  He never could come up with a gift we would agree to, so he got money. 

After church in the morning we drove over to my parent's house for the afternoon. It was a nice time with my family...and of course, good food.

Today - Monday - we enjoyed sleeping in again!  Sadly, Drew's alarm will go off early tomorrow morning again, so we definitely enjoyed sleeping in today. We both did some more cooking. Also, a neighbor came over to taste our food and play a few rounds of a new game Ben gave Drew for Christmas called Sequence.  I have yet to win!! May not be my game..... 

The kids are currently out shopping to spend some of the money got received from Christmas while Drew and I are watching a movie.  I am contemplating de-decorating the house....but just contemplating it...got all week, right?

Conversations at Our Dinner Table

Last week when Melissa came home from her trip she left her backpack and her suitcase out on and around the kitchen table.  One of the items left out was a bag of goldfish that her friend gave her so she would have a snack on the plane ride back home. Melissa's mistake was leaving them in the kitchen...and not wrapping them up and putting her name on them or putting them in her snack basket in the pantry.

Nope...she just left them by her other things....where her brother could see them...and the temptation was  great for Benjamin.

While he sat and played computer games, he ate a few of those goldfish.  And a few more....and a few more.  Over the course of an afternoon, he ate the whole bag.

Yep. There was screaming by the girl when she found the empty bag.

Tonight's dinner conversation she reminded him that he owes her food.  Goldfish would be preferable.

This is not the first time one of her brothers ate her food....and probably won't be the last....

I've Tried!

I really have tried to post in the last week or so, but I was using my phone and it was NOT cooperating!  I type several lines and then it closes out the blog app. Very, very annoying.

All in all, my phone annoys me.  The battery only last a few hours now. I've even tried to order a new one and Wal-Mart was the one that didn't cooperate. On-line they cancelled the order and in person they didn't have the right "sim" card.

For right now I'm stuck with a phone that does NOT want to hold a battery charge...or let me use some of my apps...and that freezes...  First world problems, right?

So. Back to what I WAS trying to post!

Ben - high school soccer is alive and well - and keeping us busy. There was talk among the coaches about playing Ben on varsity, but by the time of the first real (not a scrimmage) game they decided to just have him on junior varsity. Which is TOTALLY fine with us.  Being on JV means he play just about the whole game.  Being on varsity means playing only a little.  I do think that IF he plays well, then when the JV season ends he'll be moved up to varsity for the last weeks of it's season (which is about two more weeks).

Melissa - is flying home as I type.  For her 18th b-day she wanted to go sky-diving.  Which for a brief few days, we actually thought about letting her do.  But a friend that was a para-jumper in the Army talked us out of it. I'm sure at some point in her life, she will jump out of a perfectly good airplane. We just want her to be older. And for her to pay for it. As her "cancelation" prize, she got a plane ticket to see her best friend from Guam that now lives in St. Louis.  This was the first time she traveled by herself.  And I think she's enjoyed every bit of it.  I'm so looking forward to hearing all about her trip tonight when she gets home.

William - he's home from college and totally relaxing...sleeping and playing video games to all hours at night.  We supposedly have our internet to turn off at 9:45 pm, but we have a sneaky suspension  that the boys have figured out a way around our limits.

Other happenings...we hosted several dinners in the last weeks.  One for the office - have a great time! One for friend as a baby shower and card game. I did have  good time at that one, too, but was annoyed when people didn't RSVP!! urggg.  I knew they probably won't do that, so I put "regrets only". And still.  People didn't.  So, we have over a dozen baked potatoes left from our bake potato bar which I made into potato casserole Sunday after church.  As Drew said: at least it wasn't some too expensive.

And I've been working on a tee-shirt quilt for a niece.  I'm almost done with the piecing. Today I bought the fabric for the back and the batting.  As I was working on it last week, I misjudged pin placement and the needle went through my finger. Yes, there was blood . And yes, it hurt.  And thankfully, I'm good with my tetanus shot. I did NOT go to the doctor as I was able to pull the tip of the needle out myself....but thought for a moment I would have to bug  a neighbor to help me....

That's life here...we are all looking forward to Thanksgiving with all the family!!

When Bourbon Street Has a Baby...

South Beach Miami....this is what happens when Bourbon Street and Latin America has a baby... just call her Trashy. 

Yes, I was surprised.  I know.  Even Benjamin was like "Mom? Really?  It's SOUTH BEACH!!"

But yea.  Not really what I was excepting.  Not sure why...probably too much "Million Dollar Real Estate" watching for me, I guess.

But Key West?  Loved it.  Would go back there again.

Miami?  No, not really....would pass on that.

But I did enjoy myself!  I'm glad we went.

So. Why exactly was I surprised about??  I guess it was how the sidewalk restaurants were set up. Any other time I have seen tables outside a restaurant they were on a sidewalk but next to the restaurant.  In South Beach there were also tables between where you walk and the street. It made it seem like you were walking right through the restaurant.  We even had to dodge the servers with their trays of food. At times you had to stop to let the servers or others pass and it was like you were joining the costumers during their meals.

And the hosts??  Most of them were in your face asking if you wanted a table for two or telling you what was on the menu. Sensory overload for me, I guess. (And I could really have done without the two guys offering us cocaine...and yes. We did PASS on that offer! We just kept walking - fast!!)

And the size of some drinks we saw...wow.  Why? Seriously? Does a table of two really need a gallon of alcohol?? Just another sign of America having to have the biggest, I guess.  But when you see a girl with her head on the table and half the drink gone, you have to wonder if she's really having fun.

One of the funniest sights for me though was one of the bouncers. This particular restaurant at one point had a  host/bouncer stand at either end of their part of the sidewalk to block traffic so a "lady"  (aka: drag queen) could perform.  One of the bouncers just stood there with his head in down and he was rubbing his forehead with his hand - it was like he was saying to himself, "How did I get here?"  It just struck me as funny.

As I said earlier, we loved Key West - There were several things we didn't get to do due to time, so I would love to go back.  But not drive there....While the drive between Miami and Key West was beautiful, its a drive you really only need to do once.  Two lanes....slow drivers....yea... just once, please.

Over the long weekend, we had some great food! That did not disappoint!  The weather was just so-so....a few nice days, but also a day of rain.

We did one of those bus tours on the open top bus.  We've done several of these through-out our travels, but this is the first time we were unhappy.  The tour guides were just not that good...maybe too young?  Or maybe Miami just has a boring history??  But once again - the bus tour of Key West was very enjoyable!

Overall, it was  a great way to celebrate our 25th wedding anniversary! 

Food Truck Round-Up

After VBS on Friday we went with some friends to a food truck round-up. After seeing so many shows on the Food Network about food trucks, we wanted to see if we could find some good food. While mine was just okay, everyone else said their food was really good. 

My Current Favorite

Chicken Pot Pie....oh, how I love thee.