New Year's Eve

We have a new NYE tradition. It started last year. Spur of the moment, Jack, Bucky and I dined at the Union League Club. It was a festive experience, fun to get all dressed up and be in the city for an early dinner then home in bed way before midnight. The best of both worlds! We did a repeat this year and Downtown Sue was able to join us. The evening was another great success! 

 

 

Christmas Eve Re-do

We celebrated Christmas Eve with our kids 8 days late this year because of illness/exposure to germs. We had the redo on New Years Day in the evening. It's always good to be together as a family and not easy to get even just the 7.6 of us together, given everyone's busy lives.

Here's our attempt at a family picture using the selfie stick. 

 

Jack made his famous snowman cheese ball (I am proud to say that I did not have a meltdown this time-a famous family story that I will share sometime) 

 

 

Ellie loving on Baby Jesus from our nativity scene. 

Fun family Christmas, as always. 

Shortnin' Bread 2016

New mobile blogging app

I just downloaded a new app which I am hoping will make it easier for me to blog more regularly. 🤞🏻

 

Let's see how this works! 

Merry Christmas 2016

So much for my optimism from my last post, to be more faithful in my blogging!

It was a much different kind of Christmas this year, but we rolled with the punches.
Matt, Sally and Ellie were victims of a stomach bug, one right after another. It was a fast and furious foe. It meant that Matt, Sally and Ellie missed our Christmas Eve and Christmas Day festivities. Add to the mix was the fact that Julie (6 months pregnant) had a severe case of vertigo (the worst of it was in the middle of the night Sun into Mon) and didn't feel quite right all week. We did not want to expose Julie to any stomach bugs. It ended up that Wayne and Julie did not make it to Christmas Eve at Jenny and Jay's and only Wayne came to Bucky's on Christmas.
Disappointing for all that we couldn't be together, but it made us realize (even more than we already do) how very blessed we are with good health overall.
We all made the best of it and it opened the door to other choices for how we could celebrate Christmas.
Instead of going to our usual Christmas Eve mass at St. Cletus, Jack and I worshiped with Bucky and Downtown Sue at St. John Fisher. We went to the 4pm mass and the children presented the gospel. It was sweet and cute and holy, all in one.

mass at Fisher

We spent the rest of Christmas Eve at Jenny and Jay's. We were thrilled that Karen joined us this year after a two years off. It was a lighter crowd but a very fun crowd.

Kjell, Lisa, Jake and Charley

Jaime and Jenny

Christmas morning at Bucky's was fun, as always. We toasted to all who were not there with us, whether dead or just sick. We have that kind of sense of humor! One of the highlights was sitting around the dining room table and talking about lots of interesting topics. There was a little bit of family history, a little politics (well, a lot of politics, but everyone was interested), a little bit of catching up on everyone's lives.

opening presents

Downtown Sue

Jack and I ended up spending the rest of the day at Bucky's. Jack ran out to the 7-11 (only place open on Christmas) and got 2 frozen pizzas and cooked them for dinner.
All in all, a different but fun and meaningful Christmas. We are going to reschedule our Christmas Eve with our kids later this week when Julie and Wayne get back from Ohio.

Blog slacker

My blogging is diminishing. It's December 13th and not one post yet this month? I think I am only averaging 2.5 posts per month. How will I keep all my readers coming back?! Luckily, I am not worried about that. I am thrilled that anyone takes the time to read my blog, but that is not the primary reason I do this. I am not exactly sure why I blog, but I think it is all about the documentation. It helps me to remember. I think that is one of the reasons I take so many pictures and get so much joy from photographs. It keeps memories alive.

I have been feeling a bit anxious this Advent season. I am not sure why. It might be the cumulative effect of several Decembers that involved sick family members or dying family members. Maybe. It might also be because I am working through December 22nd. That does not leave much time for shopping, baking and all the other activities. 

I know for a fact that everything that needs to get done will get done. It always does. 

highlights from the previous week:

We are thrilled to have Bucky, Jack's dad, back in town. He is doing great. We had a fun dinner out at Ken's last Friday.

We got our tree on Saturday and we finally decorated our house. Jack and I agree that if we didn't get a tree, it'd be the beginning of the end for us. 

We had our annual Del Rio's dinner with Steve and Christy et al Saturday night.  Always a beautiful evening.

Last Thursday, I was honored to be asked by Nina to read a book to her class. She was star of the week and that was part of the deal. I was super impressed by Nina, her teacher and her class. Great experience!

Also, I need to blog about Ellie's brunch with Santa! So fun.

I am going to try to be more faithful to my blog and its faithful reader(s). 

Good night!

Another Thanksgiving Over and Done

It's Sunday night of Thanksgiving weekend and another Thanksgiving is over and done. It was a really fun Thanksgiving and overall, a great weekend with a nice blend of fun, productivity and relaxation. After the craziness of hosting Thanksgiving, there were lots of naps. LOTS of naps. Clean a little, nap, do a little schoolwork, nap, clean up more, nap...repeat.
It was the first Thanksgiving that Jack and I were ready for our guests at least an hour before they arrived!!! It was sort of a miracle. It helped that I hosted a little playdate with Sally, Ellie, Teri, Caylen, Henry, Britt and Brooks on Monday after school. That gave me the impetus to clean over the weekend which lightened my cleaning load for Wednesday.

Henry, Ellie and Brooks

Sally, Ellie and I participated in the Hall Family WBTL (Wednesday Before Thanksgiving Lunch). Jenny hosted it at Houlihan's. Nice chance to relax amid the preparations.

the crew

Thanksgiving was fun. Hectic, but fun. Lighthearted and lots of laughs.
Sally, Matt, Ellie and Otto arrived early so that Ellie could nap and Matt could take Otto out for a long walk to burn off some energy. Jack, Sally and I talked about our profound Thanksgiving memories. Hard to pick just one...top picks: Tommy and  magnums of Taittinger, even when he was so impaired with his brain tumor; Mike and Marmar's last Thanksgiving(s) in 2011- who knew that both would leave this earth less than a month later? We got all of that heaviness out of our system before the festivities began.

We were very excited to have Matt's folks join us this year. Bob and Mary were a great addition and we hope they want to make it a new tradition.

Ellie is happy Grandma Mary and Papa are here

All in all, it was the most fun Thanksgiving we have had in a long time. Jenny texted me at 9:30 to see what time all the kids left. Here was my response:

still going strong at 9:30!

However, this Thanksgiving  we did discover a rather disturbing fact (disturbing to Jack, at least!); relish trays are a thing of the past! Jack takes great pride in buying items for his relish tray and alas, no one ate much of anything from them. Pumpkin pie isn't much of a seller anymore, either.
We will adjust!