First Christmas card

Here's my little card holder now, with its very first card on it from Auty! It's looking a bit bare there! Can't wait to fill it up with cards from all my lovely friends and family!!

Going out..

A few pics I took on our way out the door for some Christmas shopping

Oooh, they're all smiling and actually standing close to each other! That's a very rare thing!

Father and son

Jordan in his favorite spot--the car

Christmas Shopping!

I wish I'd gotten more pictures of Christmas shopping, but we worked it out for Papa to watch bebe so the big kids and I could take off for a few hours to the super-mall near our house and spend some time together, and some money together. It was great! Here we are stopping for snack half-way through our shopping adventure. The place is a new ice-cream shop a lot like cold stone in the States, but probably 3x the cost! So, this treat was a once-a-year treat. When it costs me $20 for snack, that's just a bit out of my normal budget!

But it sure was YUMMY!

The ever-so-cool teen boy who believes smiling will ruin the effect

But my lovely daughters still smile for the camera

The Christmas Picture

After I threatened everyone they'd better dress nicely for our once yearly family portrait, it took about 30 attempts to reach a satisfactory picture. Honestly, I'd have rather kept trying, but Jordan just couldn't handle anymore.

So, we got Dad to put on a collar shirt and tie, Janina to brush her hair..they were the first ones on the couch, and no, Thomas is not part of our family, though Jordan thinks he is.

Ok, so, Juli made it to the couch, and she tried to grab Jordan as he whizzed by...

Ahhh, Jason, took a few severe words from Mom, but he finally put on his tux shirt, vest and tie, and boy did he look awesome!

I dashed in real quick for the photo...too quickly by the blur..

And finally, some sort of decent photo, everyone smiling, looking at the camera, in focus, except Dad, can't figure out what he was thinking. So, this wasn't the final, we had a few more takes, but this one was close!

Christmas Decorating

Just a few of our 2008 decorations! This year the house was mostly decorated by Janina and
Julia, Mom just did the lights and ribbon on the tree. Thank God that kids grow up!

The tree before the decor

The tree decorated!

Our Christmas card holder I got at Costco, filled with last year's cards! It's eagerly awaiting this year's cards!

Our countdown calendar that usually gets stuck somewhere between 1 and 2

My one special ornament I bought the tree this year

Day at the Park

One of the last truly warm and beautiful days of fall, we spent it together at the park!

Jack O

We found a nice large orange pumpkin in the local supermarket for a very reasonable price, I couldn't resist buying it, Julia was enthusiastic about carving it out. It's our first really, we once made paper mache Jack O Lanterns but it rained the day after we set them outside and we came out to little piles of orange mush.. This year we have a genuine authentic Jack O Lantern to put on our gate!

My latest quilt

Scrappy Stars sort of quilt, started in July, hopefully will finish before the end of the year, but somehow, I doubt it. I have to sew the large star blocks together, then add 2 borders, backing, quilting and binding, still lots of work. For now it's decorating my living room wall.

Goodbye Tony

Tony's been gone now for almost 2 months, but we miss him, and these are the final shots of us dropping him off at the airport. One day we hope to live closer or see him again for a nice long visit!