Getting Caught Up :)

Finally, a chance to catch up and a photo update as promised... This, my crazy brother David. I loaned him this "apron" at Thanksgiving so he didn't ruin his clothes while doing the dishes...Thanks for the help with the dishes...love that! Then, that same weekend, the girls climbed up on the roof to put up the Christmas lights. I love to pick a 'not freezing' weekend, a little bit before Thanksgiving to get them up. It always makes me happy when the house looks so festive!

Thanks girls! and Dad for holding the ladder to avoid any catastrophes. OK, now we're caught up to this weekend. I'm actually caught up in school. I have my paper 1/2 written that isn't even due until Friday. What progress! I put in a request for a voucher to order my school books for my next class. I'm taking the exceptional child and since I already took this class in my undergrad, I'm hoping that it won't be too difficult. After school Saturday, I headed home. Kristina had her first basketball game that she had to cheer at.
Um.....really, is she cute or what?
You might as well agree with me...she's cute :) Their coach couldn't make the first game, so that was a bit challenging, but overall they did a great job.

I hurried home from her game to get ready for my Work Christmas Party. It was a Luau this year complete with a pig roast. I wore a sleeveless flowered dress (yes when it's 30 outside) and flip flops :) Can't beat that! Kevin enjoyed wearing one of his favorite Hawaiian shirts, and the whole event sure made me long for the shores of the beach. Some beach....some where, there's a big umbrella casting shade over an empty chair with my name on it! (I digress to one of my favorite Blake Shelton songs) Anyway, we headed off to our party in the pouring rain, snow, or ice, or whatever it was. The food was so yummy. We had our party at the Venetian club this year and it was so nice in the fact that we didn't have to set up or tear down any tables. They did all of that for us, which was really great! Kevin and I danced a few (even with his sprained ankle) and of course I danced a ton with the girls. One of the highlights of the party is the basket exchange. Each of us makes a theme basket, and then your name goes in a hat to win a basket. Each year I scope out the one I would truly like. Of course my name gets drawn toward the end when the basket I had dreamed of is long gone! Well not this year! This year, I had my eye on this oneand that is the one I won! It is a super cute light up center piece, which I believe Kristina already set up on the sofa table behind my couch...too cute! I finally snapped this picture of my friend Angie and I which I thought I could use in my friends scrapbook, but the darn picture turned out blurry. (Angie is Zoe and Jason's mom) and even though I have a million pictures of them, I have none of us together. So...either the blurry one goes in the scrapbook, or I'll have to take another one when we both look decent! Angie won employee of the year this year. She too is working on her Master's and we both graduate at the same time, and will be moving on from Circles of Learning. She too, will be a lifelong friend for me (as Sarah is) -- It is just too odd how much she and I and our husbands are so alike. We can talk about anything and truly understand each other. Oh, except she is a tight wad and I am a spend thrift. But, other than that....two peas in a pod :) After the party, we ventured outside to see the beauty mother nature had left for us. Very very pretty, but very hard on the electricity. Our was on because we have underground cables, but a big part of the city was out, including my niece--we dropped them to a dark apartment after the party :( We pulled into our driveway and the front of our house was shiny, from being coated in ice Odd, yet lovely. I picked Steph up from her babysitting job at 1AM (after being up since 5) She earned some money for Christmas shopping and is very pleased to be able to buy presents with her own money:) (Big girl) Today, we took Gramma out to breakfast (at 1:00) maybe some people call that lunch, and went condo shopping. It was our first weekend looking, but a good place to start. This spring we hope to list her house and get her somewhere with less upkeep that is less expensive. I want to find her somewhere she will be happy though, and something that is NOT like an old folks high rise. She comes to work for me as my cook in 10 days, and that will really help both her and I :) After condo shopping, I finally got in a restless nap, picked up Brennan (who wore shorts to his tournament today) and picked up taco bell for dinner. It's 8:20 now...I must get a few more loads of laundry done, and hope to catch up on some Tivo...I only got to watch one show last week so it's pretty full I bet. Tomorrow, I have work, internship, Kristina has her Christmas show at the high school and then a game after that! Crazy, yet fun. Until next time...