Well I’m behind again here but I’ve finally gotten a chance to write about my December. Maybe my new years resolution should be be a better blogger. But I don’t want to put a goal that I might mess up so um ya we’ll just say I hope to do better. Anyways I had a pretty busy December, lots of exciting (to me) things. I ended up working 2 whole weeks subbing in the same classroom right before Christmas break. I really enjoyed it, thankfully I had a good group of kids. This kept me busy and very tired.
I don’t actually remember if it was early December or sometime near the end of November but I went to the park with my cousin and her best friend to take pictures of them and their families. I had such a great time. I’m no photography genius but I think it’s fun finding great shots. I don’t care for the posed “stand like this, smile, say cheese” pictures. I prefer random candid shots. Much more natural and sometimes great unplanned shots or even some rather humorous ones. Here are 2 of my favs.
Mid December I went to stay the weekend with my cousin and her husband at their new house. This is the second time I’ve driven to her house in pouring rain, good thing I have a good time and it’s worth it. On top of driving in rain it was a Friday after I had worked all week so it was late afternoon and I was tired. Friday we went to a great pizza place in their area that I always want to go to when I’m there, then we just went to their house and watched movies. Saturday we got up early and went shopping. In and out of store upon store oh yeah and it was still raining. It happened to be like 2 weekends before Christmas so needless to say places were CROWDED. We circled the mall for 10 minutes looking for a parking place and found none. Not even way back in the far edge of the parking lot. We ended up watching someone come out the doors and following them to their car and waiting while they put away all their shopping bags AND a baby just so we could get their parking spot. Here’s a few shots from my trip.
Picture 1: Notice the dog she’s using as a pillow and cuddling up to. Chip lays up against my leg and sometimes in my arms if I’m sitting up but no way would he let me cuddle like this. He always moves when I try.
Picture 2: Resourceful James. The restaurant didn’t give us silverware so he used his fries to put mayo on his burger. Hilarious but smart!
The Sunday before Christmas we headed to our hometown for Christmas festivities with our families. Sunday night we got to gather at my parents with my brother, sister and their families. We just ate and did gifts for the kiddos this year. Since we only had 2 little ones there and one was less than a year old this year this didn’t take long but we had a good time just being together. Monday morning we got together at my maternal grandparents house with my family and one of the cousins. We decided this year to do a brunch and a white elephant gift exchange. When discussing with my cousin my grandmother suggested household useful things that anyone could use like toilet paper. My cousin mentioned that would be good she needed toilet paper. Soooo… we “pranked” her and all got her some toilet paper. Bet she’ll watch what she asks for next time, or atleast be more specific lol!
Monday evening we went to Joel’s uncles for Christmas with all of his family. We were suppose to have venison this year but something went wrong and we ended up having Christmas pizza. Not your traditional holiday meal but I love me some pizza so I wasn’t complaining. We only do gifts for the kiddos at this get together too. This one was a little longer and more fun because there are 3 kids and a baby on the way in that family so the paper was flyin. I enjoy watching their excitement.
Joel had to be back to work the day after Christmas but the dogs and I stayed for the next week and a half to spend more time with my mom and grandparents. We just had a complete do nothing vacation. We played games with my grandparents and uncle, watched tv, played on the computers, and worked puzzles. We are doing barn puzzles so I can glue and frame them and put up as decoration in my house. Being I want them for decoration we needed atleast the majority of the pieces, so we ended up having 2 false starts with too many pieces missing to continue. We did get started on one but decided we needed a second one going to give our brains a break from that one picture. The snow barns picture we had a couple restarts on because the dogs kept getting on the table and messing it up. We got about half of the snow barn puzzle done before I left and maybe 1/3 of the other one. We left them set up and mom said she’ll work on them a little bit and they will be available next time I go visit and we don’t have to start all over.
And of course being back in my hometown and the holidays I saw my niece Jesslynn. She’s 5 months now and so much fun. She stayed Sunday night at moms so I almost got a full 24 hours with her. Then mom and I went to her house one a day later in my 2 week visit.
Despite this getting long and having LOTS of pictures I can’t end without atleast one picture of my sweet four legged fur babies.
