My favorite Things

Mary's bag of baked cookies and brittle. Yes, I love to bake, but it means so much to me that someone wants to do it for me.

Same for Stacy's "Bronco" orange and blue scarf she made me. This is the first thing (beside the hats and scarfs that Sharen has made me) that someones made me something.

The quite morning hours spent cuddling with Roger. He woke up in a strange bed, in a strange house, early Saturday morning, but quickly fell back asleep on my chest in the recliner. Snuggles for 2 hours! A time that I will never get again and a memory I will never forget.

Having Mary in my kitchen. I gave her the recipe and she just did it. I didn't even mind that she had to go looking in my cupboards for the ingredients.

Brunch at Carrie's.

Matthew's scream for "Uncle Jon - Uncle Jon" and runs around in a circle and then just throws himself in Jon's lap. He landed in Erica's a few times too.

A family that loves to play games. Next time Bryan and Mary are NOT on the same team.

A husband that cleans my kitchen and puts away the dishes, every time I cook.

A grandson, despite battling a sore throat, ate 2 helpings of my mostacolli and thanking me for it.

Hanging in the kitchen with Mary and Stacy drinking wine out of my Mother-in-laws green crystal wine glasses.

That Bryan and I still think alike. We both bought Mary the same thing for Christmas. This morning Sharen and I lugged the freezer back to the store. His was getting delivered.

A step son that likes to monster wrap presents. My cookies sheets took me 15 minutes to open.

Adults playing the kids game.

The phone call from Sharen who was crying because she was listening to the present I gave her.

The phone call I made to Sharen this morning laughing, because I used the present that she gave us.

A grand daughter that actually wore one of the matching outfits I made her and her doll.

And the best part spending holiday time with all the grandkids.

Babysitting

Carrie and Dave took Jon's Bulls tickets on Tuesday night so Sharen was called to baby sit and I tagged along to play with the kids. They all know who Grandma is - I tried to have Matthew call me "Aunt Grandma" but no I was Aunt Karen.

Matthew was very interested in my camera, so I showed him how to work it.
Our first attempt was me showing him what button to push and him pushing them all.

We decided (or I decided) that we needed more light, so I opened the flash. Yes, Kallie caught us with the camera and as you can see. Cheese!!! I swear that girl is going to be a movie star some day.

"Me do it, Aunt Karen!" so here is Matthew's self portrait.

Then came the baths. OMG those girls like their bath time - as soon as their clothes came off. Kicking! Shrieks! and Giggles!
Kendell had a hard time relaxing in the water, but she liked when Grandma put water on her head.

Kallie loved it all, but mostly having her picture taken.

Matthew was just happy that the girls were gone and he had the whole tub to himself.

The girls were nestled all snug in their beds and it was Grandma and Matthew time. Sharen got a book read to her by her favorite little boy.

It's only 7:30 and I'm exhausted - I'm outa here.

That time of Year again

Coooook ..kies!

This years cookie bake looked a lot different. We had more help. Kallie just wanted to eat the wooden spoon and Kendell was giving me the look - "You want me to do what?"

Now Matthew was a different story. He came into the house and ran off yelling  "Play with Uncle Mike!" heading downstairs with his coat on. That was until I started to make the frosting. Then he stood on the step stool and was Aunt Karen's little helper. He turned on the mixer and made it go fast and faster. UNTIL Uncle Mike started a fire and then it was "Help Uncle Mike!". He was such a good little boy.

Mike and Matthew, and then later Kaylyn after she had her fill of cookies, played in the basement while the girls got busy, making and baking cookies.

Kallie thought she was a big help to Mommy making the 7 layer. I am pretty sure Carrie has done this one handed baking before.

There was no sitting down this year. All the girls with knives in hand decorating the cut outs. I made a double batch this year. Please try and not notice that Erica doesn't have her apron on. She forgot it! (Jon had her doing HIS errands that he forgot to do and she was running around before hand, so we are blaming it all on him)

But Stacy and Kaylyn have theirs on. I made them this year for them. Note to Michelle: Sam's should fit in about 3 more years. :)

Me, I am in the kitchen throwing cookies into and out of the oven and Sharen is keeping the twins entertained. Some how I think I got the short end of that one.

We worked a assembly line that Ford would be proud of, because we had those cookies baked, decorated, and sorted into containers in 2 1/2 hours. BAM!!

Then we got to visiting and Roger got to chill with his cousins. Carries made the observation that the only sisters in attendance were twins. Interesting....

Will He remember?

Bryan has a new family now. A wife,  a baby, a new home, and finally a place to put up a Christmas tree.
It's time for him to come and get his Christmas ornaments.

I love ornaments!! I love to just sit and look at the tree all decorated. I had some sadness and some laughter while decorating MY tree this year, because I took all of Bryan's ornaments and put them into a shoe box for Mary to take home with her this weekend.

I hope that he looks at these ornaments and shares with Mary and Roger all the stories behind them.
Will he remember?
His Aunt Marcia also had a love for Christmas and bought Bryan his first ornament.

The book his Grandma Flory bought him - we had to read that little thing every Christmas Eve right after "Twas the Night Before Christmas"

The MANY ornaments I made.
The rocking horses I made for his entire 4th grade class.

The Mickey, Minne and Donald I made after our trip to Disney world.

The cross stitch "Cheesecake" the year he got his first dog. The ones from "Operation Jingle Bells" (drive to help the needy at Christmas) from the year he worked at the CN with me. The bears super bowl, the bulls championship and the White sox world series.

The "Scooby Do" to go with the rug his Aunt Linda made him.

The list and stories go on and on. I tried to put the year on each ornament so he had a reference when things happened.

Will He Remember?

Beat Aunt Karen

Back when my bowling average was 175 and my nephews, Andy and Jon, were both in bowling leagues, Andy at Diversey Bowl in Chicago and Jon was away at college in Myrtle Beach, I would challenge them to "Beat Aunt Karen" and send them an email with my bowling scores each week.

It was a good battle and sometimes they would actually beat me. :)
I never had the opportunity to bowl with them head to head until last night.

Our bowling team was bowling against Jon, Erica, Carrie and Dave in our once a month Saturday night mixed league.

Mike was out with his back so I was bowling anchor. Jon was likewise for the other team. Game 2 it came down to the tenth frame me vs Jon. They had us by 1 pin going in.
We both had spares in the ninth - after some discussion Jon went first. Strike!!!
Jon was on a roll the whole game - me I had one strike the whole game. Things were not looking good.
I wiped my ball of all grease, took a deep breath, stared at my mark, got my fingers just perfect in the ball and walked up to that line, and threw the perfect 9 count. Damn...

Jon's next ball an 8 count. I still had a shot when I picked up my spare, all he had to do is miss it. Nope the little bugger picked it up. I struck! we lose by 1.
Jon's game 191 - me 139. Hey, it's a team sport.

The third game came down to the tenth also, but this time we had them by a few. Jon throws a split in the tenth and the pressure was off. I marked - we win!

Interesting side note -  When I was in Wichita bowling in the Women's National tourney at the same time Jon was away at school, we got partnered on our pair of lanes with a team from Myrtle Beach. Yup, the same alley where Jon and his buddies would bowl. The lady we bowled with was actually the owner and she knew Jon and the boys from Coastal very well. Small World!