Merry Christmas!

Well, all the traveling, unwrapping, eating and spending time together is done.  Over.  History.  It's kind of bittersweet. 

I am so ready to get back into a normal routine... BUT...

I had such an amazing time this Christmas.  Limited myself to just one party.  And it was amazing!  Did all the traveling myself, therefore the grandkids all got to be home for Christmas morning.  I'm actually loving this new "tradition".  With a good book (Stephen King's 11-22-63) plugged into my iPhone and no bad weather, I enjoyed the quiet time of my Loaded to the brim car.

And now, I'm ready to bring in the New Year with a couple of close friends, scrapbooking the weekend away!

Gotta work today and tomorrow and then a 4 day weekend off!  It's going to be hard going back to a 5 day work week!!!

HAPPY NEW YEAR, ALL!!!

Christmas Shopping DONE!

Well, the last of the Christmas packages arrived by UPS last night!  Now, all I have to do is find a replacement for David's golf shoes that won't be coming!!!  DANG!  BUT, I do know what I'm getting, so that's not a big deal.  SO, I can officially declare myself DONE!!! 

Had a great dinner at Springfield Brewing Company with Lavon and Michelle to celebrate Vickie's birthday last night!  We laughed and ate and hung out til they ran us out!  We so enjoy each others' company.  And we planned January and February!

Family Christmas Celebration #1

Today was the Lewis Family Christmas celebration!  We had a nice crowd and WAY too much food!  Stacy and David and Brenden and Trella came down yesterday.  Stacy and David went out to dinner with some friends last night and Judy and took Brenden, Trella and Wil to CiCi's for pizza and then out for frozen yogurt afterwards.  Then, we ended the night going through the Christmas lights display at Elfindale.  We had a really good time.  Then, Wil spent the night with us.

Got up this morning and fixed breakfast and then headed to Judy's to help get ready for the day.  Around 12:30, everyone started arriving and before long the house was brimming with family and as usual, it got VERY loud!  I don't know what happens when we all get together, but everyone seems to talk at the same time and the volume just keeps going up!

Lunch was awesome as usual and the crazy gift exchange was as wild as ever!  It's just so much more fun than just drawing names or numbers or whatever!  It ended with the kids dancing to some game on the Kinect and some of the grown ups playing "Logo", a new game Brenden got for Christmas.

Everyone has been gone for an hour or so by now and I am so ready for bed.  I'm pooped!!!

My TV Debut!

Ok, so I'm sleeping so soundly, the alarm goes off, I slowly wake up and reach over to shut it off and turn on the TV.  Can you imagine my confusion to hear my own voice?  Coming from the TV??

Let me tell you... it was a little scary!  Especially when I looked up and my FACE was on TV!!!

Enough said... Click on this link and see for yourself.

Springfield Group send 12,000 Cards

We made the local news!!!  My interview was last Friday and they were suppose to give me a heads up on when it would air, but they didn't!  So, I was very surprised this morning!

I'm hopeful that we will gain some more volunteers and maybe some help with postage!

Thanks to my friends, Lavon and Becky, I wasn't as nervous as I thought I'd be.  They were awesome and I'm so glad they got some "airtime", too!

Interesting Night at Pricecutter's

As I'm walking toward the door, I notice a lady walking toward me, fast, but looking behind her. I then notice a guy running out the door yelling STOP. The lady keeps walking but as the guy gets closer to me (and now right in front of me) she throws something down on the drive and runs to a truck, jumps in and starts backing up... a lady stands right behind the truck so it couldn't go anywhere... by then, they guy says she was stealing! The dude driving the truck starts yelling at us (several, including me, had now gathered behind the truck) to move (no, he really wasn't that nice!) The store manager came out and said since she dropped the stuff to let her go. We moved and they took off. She had a $54 bag of crab legs under her jacket! Very weird. They bought us Starbucks for trying to help!

 In hindsight, I'm a little unnerved.  You know, there are truly crazy people in this world.  I guess tonight, I'm very thankful he didn't pull a gun on us or something crazy like that.  I probably need to think before I act next time, huh!  I'm old enough to know better!

One Month? Where did THAT go?

I can't believe it's been a month since I last blogged.  I know I've gone longer than that, but I really don't like to.  I actually love blogging.  I noticed my last log was not long after my surgery.  You'd have thought those 3 weeks I was off work would have given me plenty of time to "catch up".  But instead, I just got distracted and dropped the ball!

Well, here goes... my feeble attempt to get "caught up".  Of course, November brought us Thanksgiving.  As in the usual vein, we all went to Jim Bob and Sue's.  But this year was a little different.  We were ALL there!  I think the count was 42!

Here is my group.  I love this picture and can't wait to scrapbook it (which, by the way, I think I am planning to spend New Year's Eve weekend scrapbooking.  It just seems to be the thing to do on a weekend like that!

 

JR, Devin, Shelly, Me, David, Stacy, Brenden and Trella

And here is our entire group.  I wish I could tag the names because I just don't think labeling is going to work!

As always, we had a great time.  It was so awesome having the whole family together.  Mom and Daddy would have been so proud to see this group.

So, after Thanksgiving, the Christmas shopping began!  All I can say, is THANK GOD FOR THE INTERNET!!!  I cannot begin to explain how much I hate shopping.  I hate everything about it!  But, I LOVE Amazon Prime!  I can shop till my fingernails fall off and all my shipping is FREE!!!

And then, the weekend after Christmas brought Devin's 3rd birthday party.  Look at this party animal.  He was so good and had a great time.

 

Then, the following weekend (last weekend) was my annual HM Christmas Party.  A great bunch of ladies get together at my house for an all day, eat, talk and scrap fest.  And when I say all day, I mean ALL DAY!  They arrive around 8am and stay till almost midnight!  Usually, we have a cookie exchange and a dirty Santa game, but this year we did an ornament exchange.  I was amazed at how much trouble this caused everyone!  In the end it worked out wonderfully, but SOME people really struggled!  Note to self... no more ornament exchanges!

Here's a pic of our group (minus Keli... she had to leave early and we didn't get a pic of all of us, so we are hopeful that Jeanne will get her Photoshopped in!)

Front row: Becky, Judy, Vickie - Back row: Michelle, Me, Brenda, Lavon and Jeanne

NOW that all that is behind me, I am now moving into the weekend of the Lewis Family Christmas.  Stacy, David and the kids will be here Saturday and we will have our big deal on Sunday.  That will move us into the following weekend, which is CHRISTMAS!  My plans are to drive to KC on Friday and to Chanute on Saturday and home on Monday.  Then, New Years Eve/Day weekend should be quiet and alone here at home.

So, now, you are all caught up!  And so am I!  Phew!!!  Happy Holidays!!!