Holidays with Family and Friends!

Before signing off for the new year, here are a few favorite moments from holidays with family and friends! (In no particular order!)

Of course, celebrating with Rick and the kids was the best! (And I got a scanner -- I couldn't believe it!)

One of Rick's gifts was a painting (a painted notecard) by his cousin Andy, who died this fall. She'd sent it to me years ago as a thank you note; it got where it belonged.

Of course, there were cookies, decorated with care on Christmas Eve. (We also watched old home movies of the kids -- long before my time!)

And we enjoyed lots of good laughs.

Of course we took memory photos. (I feel like a dwarf here!)

Don't think we were the only ones who opened things. Could one not give a present to this boy?


On Christmas Evening my friend Richard stopped by for dessert! He has worked with children at a local elementary school in cleaning crystals to sell. All profits go to the food bank, and they have made around $1,700. And, the kids have learned a valuable lesson in volunteering and thinking outside themselves.

I enjoyed good times with lots of friends. At my pal Judy's (of Winter Ramblings), we celebrated on Boxing Day, along with Judy's daughter Jenna, Erik and the dogs!

Judy and I go back a long time!

On Saturday, we celebrated with friends Mark and Jan. Each year we pick a Christmas song and base our gifts around that theme (like "Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree" or "White Christmas"). This year we chose "Dysfunctional Family Christmas" -- a medley from the "Saturday Night Live" days, circa Phil Hartman. You've got to know the songs in the medley to really appreciate this, but Jan broke the whopee cushion when she sat on it. Here they are enjoying the "Dysfunctional Family Fun Book."

On Sunday, we enjoyed a wonderful brunch with our wine group. Here are the women!

Barb's breakfast was to die for! The appetizers and desserts were nothing to pass up, either! The guys watched the Lions lose (again) while I learned euchere. Then I got to come home with this one!

And what did I come home to? You guessed it!

Gotta love that face!

I'll have the blogaversary drawing sometime after midnight and post the winner soon! Good luck to everyone and thanks for your visits and comments during my blogaversary month!