Christmas 2011

Moving on with the photos from fall of  '11 - we come to Christmas time.  2 years ago, Stef suggested that we move family Christmas from Christmas Eve (at our house, since forever) to a different day and place.  She suggested Mahoney State Park and even reserved a huge cabin in our name.  I was not altogether happy about the change in events.  I know all the kids need to start their own traditions and Christmas Day was everyone's time with the other grandparents/parents - but I liked having everyone at MY house.  As it turned out, it was a great change.  Everyone gets to stay overnight instead of just a couple hours.  We eat with reckless abandon and the huge cabin gives everyone plenty of room (and bathrooms).  So, we did it again in 2011.  Once again, ignore the time/date insertions.

      Entrance to the park.  Between Omaha and Lincoln, perfect. We had our gathering the weekend before Christmas.

                                            Huge cabin - so perfect for the whole family.

                                           Everyone brings food.

                            Ryleigh, Rowen, Reise, Stef, Dave, Chase, Becky and Lao (partial headshot).

                                                        Andrew stomping on something.

                                                                     Chase.  Concentrating.

Rugger with his new kite.  I made kites for all the kids.  It's my thing to make something for Christmas  even if it's not something big.  Somehow, I still like the idea of homemade from me.  It has more meaning and is way more fun (for me).

                                                      The requisite fireplace, very nice. 

                                                                             Dekker. What a sweet face.

 Pao/Lao, Dale/Marylyn  playing in the wii bowling tourney.  They came this year for the first time and stayed overnight.

 All the g'kids got flashlights with their name on it.  We went downstairs (huge, really huge) and played tag and hide and seek in the dark.  You can fit 3 toddlers in a lower kitchen cabinet.  Rowen, Maeson, and Trenton proved it.

                                    Reise modeling her scarf ( I really got into the stitchery this year).

                                                    Stef with Tucker (all of 4 weeks old).

                                                                   Effervescent Becky.

                                                           Tiffany slaving in the kitchen (with moi).

                                                                 Ryeligh and her new calendar.

                                              Brandon and Don supervising the paper pick-up.

                                                                        Major help here.

                                                       Trenton rocking the stocking cap.

                                           HaHa - what a handsome little guy.

                                                               Tucker - so stinkin' cute!!

I'm going to go steal some pics from Tiffany on Facebook.  She has some great shots of Dominick and I think he's the only one I don't have a picture of from Christmas.  This posting thing makes me see where I need to seriously improve on picture taking.  I knew I was bad at the camera thing but really.............

Let's get started

This begins my blog  - or as I would call it, my online journal and picture album.  It's sure not intended to entertain or inform anyone but me.  I'm going to try and get all pictures on this eventually with captions, before I forget who is in the pictures or the paper copies fade to nothing.
So, I unloaded my camera from the last 6 months and will start with that.  I might eventually figure out how to make the home page cool.  Or maybe not.  You will notice that the dates on the pictures are incorrect.  I didn't have the date in the camera set right - it is set correctly now, but I just set it to NOT put the date on the pics.  Seems easier to me.
Last October 30 (2011), we had a birthday dinner.  We have these periodically to celebrate birthdays and it's pretty much just a great excuse to get everyone together for food and dessert.  This time we were celebrating the Nov Dec birthdays early, because Stef was due to have a baby soon and there was so much going on with everyone plus Thanksgiving in Nov, that we had it early.  For Don, Brandon, Stef, Dave, Dominick and Rugger.  So, to begin the evening we all went to Dave and Stef's church for their Trunk or Treat.

 Rugger and Reise (aka Fancy Nancy)

 Rowen and Fancy Nancy

 You know who.

 And Rowen.

You can see Dekker here.

 Ryleigh as Princess Leia (sp).  It was freezing cold that day.


I got a little camera of my own last year before a trip.  I got one with regular batteries and, of course, the batteries went dead in the middle of the Trunk or Treat.  Tiff and Brandon brought their boys but - too late for pics by me.  My bad.

So then we had supper.

 My firstborn, Becky.

 Daughter -in -law Stef.

 Again - great smile there.

 Second born Tiff.

 Tiff and Brandon's youngest - Dominick.

Hehe.

Obviously, I have issues with getting enough pictures of everyone.  Hopefully, it will even out some as events are posted.

That's all for today.  Becky tells me that if I do this once a week - I should be able to get my life on blog in due time.  She's optimistic -but I will keep at it.