The family Christmas Eve party

My family (grandmother, aunts, uncles, and cousins) have our Christmas gathering on Christmas Eve.  The family party was moved to Christmas eve when I was little, after my cousins, Sunshine and Angel, were born and it became too complicated to drag the little ones away from home on Christmas Day, when they had all kinds of new toys to play with.

I hated it back then.  It was just my mom, my grandmother, and me... and we did very little on Christmas Day.  The trials of an only child... I had no one to play with.

As an adult, I am grateful for the date change.  It's true that Christmas would be more hectic if I had to drag Amerah out and away from her presents on Christmas Day.  I LIKE lounging around the house, in my pajamas, eating candy, on Christmas Day!

This year, we had Christmas at Sunshine and Shaun's house (which may look familiar to those of you who read my Thanksgiving blog).  It was nice and relaxed and I enjoyed it even though it was the most painful day that my legs had had in a long time. 

Dave got his tankerman (who has a captain's license) to cover for him at work, and found someone to cover for his tankerman, so that he could be with us on Christmas Eve.  He missed the party last year due to a ship that ran aground.

(proof that he was there :-)

"The Girls" - Alexis, Gracie, and Amerah

Alexis and Amerah posed patiently for Angel and I as we snapped away...

 

 

Jimmy reluctantly agreed to let us photograph him with the girls...

 

Shaun... watching the game...

Angel...

Donna... (there's one in every crowd haha)

Dave, making friends with Gracie...

Mike, Pat, and Roy...

Somehow I managed to not get any photos at all of about 4 other people who were there!  (Of course, I'm not in any either haha).

Opening presents....

Jimmy doesn't look happy about this one at ALL, does he? hahaha

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Best gift of the night...  Dave and I gave Nanny a hardcover book full of photos of her and her sisters, both of whom have passed away).  I knew it would be emotional for her, but never imagined that she'd start crying the minute she saw the cover!

 

 

We ended the night at the Presbyterian church that my grandmother, Aunt Pat and Uncle Roy, and cousins Sunshine and Shaun attend.  It was a lovely service and a treat to see all three in choir robes (especially Nanny - I never thought I'd see the day she'd go to church, much less look like a choir girl!)

 

 

 

 

When we got home, Amerah got to open the traditional Christmas Eve gift of Christmas Pajamas...  Which she LOVED because there was a matching nightie for her baby doll!

 

 

 

Then it was off to bed so that visions of sugar plums could dance through her head... a lovely Christmas Eve!

December 22nd - a busy day!

As I look back and realize how far behind I am in my blogging... I am grateful for a camera that uploads photos into dated albums so that I know when each photo was taken!

December 22nd was Amerah's chorus concert at school.  I took a video with the camera so I only took a couple photos and they didn't turn out that great.

 

She's in the red dress... in the back... not smiling...

On this day, she also received her box of gifts from Grandma Mimzy (my mom) which ALWAYS makes her day!  She was all excitement and smiles as she opened all her presents...

 

 

 

 

 

Mimzy sent a present for Lily too... and boy was she one happy puppy!  She could smell it through the packaging and was very impatient while I unwrapped it!

 

To cap off an eventful day...we still had cookies to make for the family Christmas party on Christmas Eve!  Amerah loves making our shortbread cookies because we have to use our hands (don't worry, I made her scrub really well!).

 

 

By the time we finished, we were completely exhausted but had had a wonderful day!

20 Year High School Reunion

The Saturday after Thanksgiving was my 20 year high school reunion... I know... I know... shocking because I look so young still... ;-)

It was nice to see, in person, a lot of people with whom I had reconnected on Facebook!  Social networking sites sure have shrunk the world, haven't they!

My camera didn't like the lighting at the Holiday Inn, and circulating wasn't an option, so my pictures are few and poor in quality unfortunately.

Dave and I... doing the teenage girl thing and photographing ourselves... A little goof-up with the program changed my name for the evening...

Yup.. that's me... Karen Rector SMITH.  Program created by a longtime friend whom I've known since I was FOUR!  I told her that she wasn't supposed to tell Dave about my "other" husband! ;-)

I wasn't alone though, there were a lot of names misspelled in the program (none as bad as mine though haha). 

With Sheryl...

Sandy and Andrea...

Random pics of everyone...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I can't believe it's been twenty years! 

Thanksgiving

So... yeah... I'm a little behind in my blogging :-)  Thanksgiving was spent at my cousin Sunshine's house this year.  Boy did Sunshine and Shaun have a house full!  We usually have about 14 or so people... this year we numbered somewhere around 30!

That made it all the more fun though!  Amerah certainly enjoyed having more kids to play with!  I didn't take a lot of photos, I was hurting and didn't move much from my seat on the couch.  On top of that I got a strange and random bout of nausea that sent me to a seat near the rest room... just in case!

So here are the few pics that I got... not much but there you have 'em...

This was the group in the living room with me... we had two or three tables set up in the dining room as well. 

Nanny...

Brian and Becky...

Uncle Mike... (truly looking the part of the "Wildeman" haha)

Ignoring the fact that I felt like I couldn't hold anything down, it was, all in all, a nice relaxing day...