Christmas 2016

Christmas Eve

Just like every year, our family has a Christmas Eve party at Mom's house and then a Christmas Day party at my house.

This year, everyone brought goodies to Mom's house and we also did a gift exchange. The food was great and the gift exchange was fun, but the highlight of the evening was meeting the two new editions to the family.

Grace was born in summer and is such a sweet thing. Her big brother, Matt, is a great baby sitter and very attentive to her needs.

Ryan was born to Michele and Steve just 11 weeks ago. He is the newest little boy to our family and such a cutie!

Emily also was busy taking care of her little sister, Lucy, who has really grown in the last few months.

One endearing moment was when Lucy was climbing up the staircase and Steve just couldn't keep his eyes off her. So cute and so much a guy!!

Christmas Day

Christmas Day was full of food, family and fun.

We had a wonderful time eating and visiting with both sides of our family.

 

Lou's granddaughter, Ali, and her husband, Evan, were visiting from Nebraska and it was so great to get to spend some time with them. We really miss them and Lou was happy he got some time to spend with them.

 

This year we had a Christmas guessing jar filled with holiday M&M's. Josie was closest to the 1,143 M&M's in the jar. And, of course, won the jar!! Lou painstakingly counted each M&M. Yes, he did wear a glove, Josie!!

We also played a fun memory game. Each person selected a piece of paper that required them to recall their favorite Christmas cookie, movie, gift, movie or memory. It was fun to hear what made the holiday special to our guests.

We had a very special time, as always, and so enjoyed our food, guests, and of course celebrating the birth of our Lord.


Laura's classic head tilt

Linda and Dave

Peace Brothers and Sisters

Party Table

Lou got a Yosemite Sam club cover from Lou and Josie

Mom got new slippers from Lou and Josie




Happy New Year!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Fall in the Backyard

Last week I snapped a few pictures of our backyard. It just looks so pretty in the fall and the scarecrows and pumpkins just make it a happy place to view.

Below are a few pictures:

Berm Scarcrow

Planter Scarecrow

Pumpkin Triplets

 

 

 

Meeting theTwins

This week Lou and I took a vacation to Wisconsin Dells. We left the Dells and headed to Merrill to meet Victoria and Nicholai and visit with Jim, Jackie and the boys.



Mom, Victoria and Nicholai



 

We brought the little ones a Halloween hat, and were amused how big those "little" hats looked on the tiny babies.

The boys were very good at taking care of their little brother and sister. Victor amused us by kissing Nick three times and then letting Nick suck on his nose.

Eddie, Jack, Vince, Victoria and Victor ( lots of "V's" here)

Roman, Eddie, Tony, Victor and Jack
 

Of course, I got to hold the babies for quite some time. I was fearful that they would cry, but Victoria fell asleep while I was holding her for at least 30 minutes... so cool.

Trying to get Nick to smile at me was challenging-as soon as he smiled-he looked away. But, he is such a cute little guy with red hair and bright blue eyes.

Since Dad is growing a beard, I asked him to get close enough to see Nick's reaction. The picture below speaks volumes.

HELP ME............................................................................PLEASE

Vince is getting ready to go off to college next Fall. He continues to be a very popular bagger at Dave's County Market.

Bearded Vince-taking after Dad
 

Although we really wanted to visit with Roman, he spent most of our visit napping. Oh, to be young again.

Dad has been busy getting ready for the long winter. Along with making several different types of beers, cooking and dealing with the day to day activities of 9 children, he has been chopping wood.The woodpile below should last them until March.

Hope to see them again in Spring.







China Lights Exhibit-Boerner Botanical Gardens

Tonight Lou and myself along with Mom and Jeremy visited the traveling China Lights exhibit at Boerner Botanical Gardens.

This is an amazingly beautiful display of Chinese Laterns-which come in many different types of shapes and sizes and are crafted from silk and wire and lighted.

This exibit has been known to bring 2000 to 3000 people per night. It was very,very crowded, but we were lucky enough to park on the Golf Course and get shuttled to and from the exhibit.

Each display was carefully arranged within the Gardens and was stunning. Relaxing music was piped along the way and created an almost surreal affect. Mom remarked that she felt she was in a dream.

Below are some of the beautiful pictures.



Flowers in Bloom



Peacock and Butterflies



Latern Gallery



Lighting Fish

Zebras

Chinese Dragon



Dragon

Chinese Palace



Giraffes







 

Happy Birthday: Laura & Linda

Yesterday, Lou and I hosted my twin sisters' 5X? birthday party.

Because they were born in October, many, many years ago, we went with a Fall/Halloween theme.

 

We had the family over and celebrated with lots of good treats. In honor of us older folks, our background movie was " The Ghost and Mr. Chicken."

The girls always want candles for their birthday presents, and they got plenty of them. I imagine each girl had about 10 lbs. of candles!

My sisters usually have lots of "inside" jokes and stories that they share between themselves. The shirt that Linda gave Laura indicates that below.

Of course the girls are a little older now, so it was fun to watch them whip out their "readers" when it came time to read their birthday cards.

Mom was there looking as good as usual. Jeremy is her buddy and is making sure she doesn't eat too many snacks so she will have room for ice cream.

We had an abundant amount of birthday desserts-a chocolate decorator cake, a lemon meringue pie, and a chocolate trifle. Needless to say, everyone was very full when we finished.

It has been awhile since we have all been together, so it really was a special time. The most priceless picture of the night is shared below. The girls are reacting to the fact that they are a year older!