Traditions ...

Happy New Year Everyone!  I hope you all have a wonderful New Year's Eve doing whatever makes you happy *smile*

We have lots of traditions during the holidays ... one very special tradition is spending New Year's Eve with Ken and Lisa.  We usually cook dinner, play games and do a fare amount of drinking lol .. we've been celebrating New Year's Eve with Ken and Lisa for 20+ years.   It started out being a big family thing, with their two boys and our two boys, playing games all night long and the kids always wanting to stay up for midnight.  Over the years our New Year's Eve celebration has dwindled to just the four of us ... kids do grow up and have their own parties to go to .. but we still have lots of fun!  This year we decided to go out to dinner at a Japanese Steakhouse and then home for some dessert and games and wait for midnight to come.  It's a tradition I hope never ends!

Here's a few pictures that always make me smile ...

another tradition I started back in 2007 is adding the year to my Happy New Year pillow ... it's always my last stitches for that year.  I'm enjoying watching the years grow ...

I forgot in my last post to share our family Santa picture with you.  Another tradition that has been going on for 31 years ... our first family Santa picture was taken when Chris was 7 months old.  When Monica joined the family (7 years ago) I had thought it would be a good time to stop the pictures ... but no, my wonderful daughter in law wanted to join in the family tradition ... and I'm sooooo very glad she did.

I'm really looking forward to 2014 ... I'm calling it the year that is all about me because I'm turning 60 on the 11th of January and am planning on celebrating it all year long with family and friends ... and in September, Lisa and I (Lisa turns 60 in May) are going to Paris for 5 days to celebrate turning 60 together.  We've known each other since high school, longer than Terry and I have known each other ... and I'm looking forward to sharing Paris together ... it will be our first visit.

Terry was ok about me going without him but reminds me that in 2015 we'll be celebrating our 40th wedding anniversary ... think he wants to go to Paris too *smile*

I hope 2014 is a great year for all of you ... make it so!

I hope you find your Joy in your stitches ...

I'm grateful for family and friends ...

Merry Christmas ..

I hope this posts finds you all well and resting from your very busy and wonderful Christmas ... whether it was with friends and family or just a quite one.

Our holidays were a bit different for us this year.  About 3 weeks before Christmas my dad had a cardic episode and ended up needing a new stint put in.  He had a stint put in about 6 years ago and there was some scare tissue that started blocking blood flow.  Once the new stint was put in everything seemed to be going well when he came down with a terrible bout of the flu that is going around.  It really kicked his butt and with him living alone and being 82, he gets kinda needy so my brother and I spent the few weeks before Christmas trying to get him healthy.  Unfortunately a couple of days before Christmas he decided it really wasn't feeling good enough to enjoy the day with all of us so we've moved Christmas to this coming Sunday ... we were concerned that not all the grandkids would be available, but after everyone got their work schedules it was a great surprise that everyone will be able to make Christmas ... so we'll enjoy family and a Seahawk win too!

Because we weren't going anywhere for Christmas the kids decided to all spend the night Christmas Eve ... we had Christmas Eve dinner with my father in law and then all came back to the house to play games and watch movies before heading to bed.  We ended up playing Christmas-opoly which was lots of fun!  The reindeer were the railroad replaement ... guess who got ALL the reindeer squares?  Yep, me!  lol ... after the game we settled in to watch Muppets Christmas ... Christmas morning we all slept in a bit and then enjoyed a morning of presents and breakfast.  I tried a new crockpot breakfast recipe .. never try something new ... it was an epic failure :(  but I still had more stuff for breakfast.

After presents and breakfast Monica made a lovely huckleberry pie and some dinner rolls.  She also made her family favorite ... orange rolls ... they were so yummy!

It was strange not spending the day with my dad, my brother and his family ... but thanks to my kids it was a very full fun couple of days.

Here's a few pictures of the day ....

 Chris made his wrapping paper this year ... very clever don't you think?

 They are all ready to start opening presents ...

Monica make her huckleberry pie ...

 Dinner rolls ...

orange rolls ready for the oven

dinner ....

 Terry got me lovely garnet earrings ... complete with teddy bear :)

 the aftermath after dinner ..

 Three of us were playing dots on our phones ... Terry got a new phone and was listening to music ... we had a good laugh about this picture ...

I've been stitching a little bit ... but between getting ready for Christmas for both my dad and us ... I spent my down time resting lol

I'm looking forward to a quite time and lots of stitching!  Boeing closes down until January 2nd, I took a couple of vacation days so I don't go back to work until the 6th!  woo hoo!!!

I hope you find your Joy in your stitches ...

I'm grateful for family and friends ...