Christmas With the Kids

Before we left for Wyoming, we celebrated an early Christmas with our kids.  

Here are the highlights:

Dinner

Amber is finally warming up to Dakota...four years later!! :0)  

As you can see, he thoroughly enjoys her attention!!

Unwrapping presents meant wearing bows as hats for Michael (per Amber)!!

Of course, Benji had to have his share of attention.

Now that Michael is headed to Carleton College for his master's degree, Dani gifted him with some neat U of M items.

Dakota thought that he should help unwrap gifts.

Our tree :0)

Amber didn't forget to put ribbons on Dakota...

and JJ 

Dani gave me such a neat gift of Polish pottery.  

She bought it when she went to Seattle in October.  

More impressive, this very fragile pottery made it back to Sartell safely!!

JJ and Me

That's it for tonight...

Merry Christmas From Wyoming

A beautiful Christmas morning from Sheridan...

 from our family to yours!!

Ugly Christmas Sweater Day

     One of our favorite days of the year...Ugly (or Festive...whatever you prefer to call it) Christmas Sweater Day!!!  We always have a lot of fun with this day!!  A lot of people participated this year which made it even more fun.  Unfortunately, not everyone could make it for this morning's photo before school.  We must have had another 10-12 people who wore ugly sweaters that aren't pictured.  It's fun for the kids to see us dressed like this as well.

 Claud wanted a picture of us acting goofy.

 Simona, Jill, and Kevin

The top two ugliest sweaters... 

 These definitely are close in the running!!

Some ugly sweater vests and one "festive" sweater...

 Even the guys participated!!

 What a pair!! 

 Santa's little elf was caught in the candy stash!!

April and Ann even sported Christmas socks to compliment their sweaters.  

What a fun day it was!! :0)

A Forgotten Post

     In November, we honored our veterans on Veteran's Day by inviting them in for our three lunches, and each grade level wore a different color of our American flag.

     Our head cook, Jodi, had a wonderful surprise as her son and active duty soldier, paid her a visit (unbeknownst to her).  She was able to sit down and have lunch with him.  It was a very touching sight when he first arrived.  Her expression was just priceless!! :0)

     Ann, Kelly, and I gathered for our annual "Mammo and More" night sponsored by CDI.  Usually Jean and Darci are with us, but they couldn't make it on the same night as we could.  After our mammos, they presented each of us with a gift bag, a 15 minute chair massage, wine, cheese, and chocolates.  

x

Hornet Pride

     Some of us were part of creating a respect and pride video recently.  Instead of Aretha Franklin, our very own, Bridget Eisinger (in the pink wig), did her rendition.  The rest of us were responsible for these letters and some "dancing" shall we say?!  We had a great time; too bad I couldn't put the video on my blog easily!!   

No More Treatments!!

     Yay, Jenny!!!  Four of us surprised Jenny last Thursday night after Jenny's last radiation treatment.  After months of chemotherapy and radiation, Jenny is done and (hopefully) cancer free.  She was thrilled by our support and wanted a picture to commemorate her big event, so I thought that I would share it as well!  Prayers for good news soon, Jen!!

      

Christmas Decorating

     Over Thanksgiving weekend, Darrell ended up in a precarious position as he was painting a wall that isn't the easiest to maneuver around!!  As you can see, he had to use a ladder to position himself on his belly and paint the corner of the wall.  My job was to make sure he didn't fall!!

     After Darrell was safe and sound, I started decorating for Christmas.  Of course, I had some help (just not in the human sense...as shown below)!!

As I decorated the banisters, Benji thought that he would position himself on the top of one of the railings and "snoopervise"!! 

As Darrell was putting together these fun light bulb ornaments, Dakota thought that he would snuggle in for a snooze.  Think they're spoiled at all??!!

Meanwhile...JJ decided to show off her new candy cane squeaky toy (which, of course, woke up the big guy who had to come and investigate what all of the noise was about).  

No worries...he got a new red light bulb squeaky toy.

When all was said and done, it was time to relax.  Apparently, it was way too much excitement for Benji!! 

Time to Catch Up

                                  
     I had a chance to catch up with friends recently.  Heidi transferred to the high school this year, and our friend's daughter, Bailey, has a new teaching job in the cities.  I never get a chance to see April, so it's pretty sad that we have to make arrangements to catch up outside of school!!  We had a very nice gathering, and it was really fun to see Bailey's new bling as she recently got engaged.  We got to see pictures of potential wedding dresses and hear about some of the wedding planning details.  I love this picture of us!! :)

The Smiths' Harvest Party

     I have had a couple of posts started but didn't realize that they weren't finished, so I better catch up!!  Our friends, Keith and Beth, hosted their annual harvest party, and I have pictures to prove it!! :0)

Here is Sugarfoot...

It was a beautiful day!!


Isn't this a cool gourd?  It was shaped like a swan!!

Here she is, the hit of the party, Alizandra.

Isn't she cute??!!
She has the pretty olive skin and big brown eyes like her dad, but her other facial structures look more like her mom.

She kept picking up the candles and smelling them and having the other guests smell them too. :0)

Checking out what her mom, Kelsa, was up to...

I love this picture!!

Alizandra wanted me to pack her around and show me different things.  It was pretty cute. :0)

Our gracious hostess, Beth, with one of her grandsons.