It snowed last night

We got a little snow last night. Maybe 1 inch. This is the snow I prefer, a light dusting. There is no need for double digit inches.

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Christmas Eve

This is caden on christmas eve after eating a few hersheys kisses. A little wild but fun

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Christmas Eve

So, no picture of this, but Christmas Eve was something else. It started out quite well - I delivered potatoes to my sister, did some last minute shopping, helped at the church pre-school for the noon service, family went to the 4pm church service... and then it went crazy. When we were leaving Church, as Justin liked to point out it was like leaving a concert, we got into a car accident. That's right, in the church parking lot on christmas eve. We weren't even moving.... the person in front of us backed into us to let someone else get in line. It was surreal. We were sitting there, waiting our turn and our lane wasn't even moving. Next thing we know, the Yukon, in front of us, puts it into reverse and pow, crunch. Not good.

We are all ok and just inconvenienced to have to deal with another car accident. So we had to call my parents (who were ahead of us) to come back and get us. The delayed dinner at my sisters, which was why she couldn't come to the service was she didn't want to make dinner be so late. Well, we took care of that.

After that, all was well. We had an amazing dinner cooked by my sister. We also had some family fun time which was great. Hopefully we have no challenges in the future with this car accident and we can get Justin's car fixed quickly.

Until then, we are a 1 car family.... sweet~

A new nephew has arrived

Here he is, Royal James Anda. He is 7 pounds 6 ounces and was born 12.18 at 7:31pm. Mama Vanessa is doing well after 23 hours of labor.

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Christmas Countdown

After watching Elmo's Christmas Countdown for the umpteenth time (not sure if that's a word), I realized that maybe I need my own countdown or check off list. When everything is done, that will be a christmas miracle in itself. This year here is what is on my list...

Buy presents
Wrap presents
mail presents
bake christmas cookies
get a tree
decorate tree
put up lights outside
order christmas cards
address christmas cards
mail christmas cards
clean house
write thank you notes
figure out a christmas dinner
christmas eve service at church
enjoy family at christmas

Some of these things seem obvious (enjoy family) others are not solely my job, I have help, but all said & done, there is a lot that goes with christmas. The part I am looking forward to the most is the family time at christmas. Everything else can get done hopefully before christmas.

this year I actually made christmas cookies. Not a ton because I don't want to eat them all myself, but some to make things festive. I divided them up in to 3 bins and froze them. 1 bin is for actual christmas day, so whatever we do that day, we will have cookies too!

Well, I just ordered the christmas cards, so the next thing to do is pick them up tomorrow. I hope to have them mailed by Saturday.....

Do you believe in santa?

Well he is at the mall. This is the same santa that we saw last year, and 2 years ago.

I do have to say, santa pictures are pricey. $25 gets you a 5x7, a 3x5 and 2 wallets. Are you kidding me? The nice thing is if you buy a picture, they let you take one with your own camera/phone, so it can make it to the blog for everyone to see.

Caden was really excited to see Santa and talk to him. He was so busy talking to Santa, he couldn't pause to have his picture taken. Santa had to tickle him to get him to look at the camera.

We asked Caden what he asked Santa for... Caden said "a present." Well, I don't think the little man will be disappointed. I think he will get a present.

Merry Christmas!

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Will it snow?

This is what the sky looked like this morning. it's tough to tell if there is snow in our future. They are predicting it for tonight or Saturday. Happy winter!

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Another relaxing night

Caden & I were just hanging out, watching some elmo's christmas countdown. Good times

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Dinner time

This was another test with my phone and camera to see how this would work, bear with me please. Thanksgiving was exciting for us. We were the hosts. There were 13 adults and 3 kids. We had our family, my sister's family, her in-laws (parents and sister& husband too), my brother's family and my aunt. One big happy family together. It was a good afternoon spent reviewing ads and catching up.

This picture below is to get the grandkids in one picture wearing the sweaters that my mom knit for them, fondly known as the knitting sweatshirts. The funny story is that Caden's wasn't done yet, so every chance my mom had, she would knit. Charlie would remind her to knit caden's sweatshirt. Caden would become hysterical if charlie was wearing his sweater, and his wasn't done. So they are all finished now and everyone is happy... This was the night before thanksgiving and we made the turkey cupcakes out of rolos and candy corn. This is my mom, niece Annie, and my aunt Ginger.

My dad made it over for the festivites too. That was a lot of fun too. He got to help. Charlie figured out how many of each item went on the cupcake and did it in order. Caden just plunked it on there any way it would stick. So funny about their different approaches to cupcakes.

This was on thanksgiving. The kids table. Next year there will be one more - Pete & Vanessa are expecting a baby on 12/22 so there is a spot open at the table. :)

This was from my phone, it is our table all set to seat 13 of us. This table was my dad's parents table and is great for large family gatherings. There are leaves in it to expand it.

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Thanksgiving walk

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This was a test to see how this would work to e-mail photos from my phone. It looks like I can post from my phone, just like with facebook. Look out world, here we come!

This was our walk around riverfront park on thanksgiving. It was cold so we had to bundle up good. What a great way to start out thanksgiving, with some exercise.