This past weekend-o-fun!!!

Ok.... I think I'll start with Thursday.... I had to work, but we were having a huge potluck with all the different parts of my shop coming. There were 40-50 people there- AND SO MUCH FOOD. All I'm saying is the next morning when I woke up, I still felt full... that can't be good people....

Ok, now onto Friday... I had the day off from work! YAYYY! First thing we headed over to Grandma Cindy and Grandpa Lee's. The kids were having their Christmas present opening time this morning because they would be with their dad at Christmas time. So Friday morning we got there bright and early and the kids were ready to open... ya know.... I know they are 17 and 19, so sometimes I think it's weird to call them kids, but what else am I going to call them? My young adults? Nahhh, my kids... and also know as "my babies" at times.

Here's Kent. We've been calling him "The Hairy Beast" while he's been growing out his facial hair, totally freaking my out how much it's coming in- he's only 17. But still such a cutie-pie even under neath all that hair. He's growing it out to show his dad. Then he's shaving when he comes back- I want his face clean shaven for his senior pictures, and then when he's 18- in June- he can do what he wants with his face....Here's Jade my other little cutie-pie! I think she just has a couple more months on her braces.

Man they are getting so big!

They definitely love their video games..

The "To/From" tags my mom made this year are so cute! They have the kids pictures on them!

Isn't that awesome!

Jade got a Zelda game AND the guide book- score!

Those are 2 happy "kids"! They also opened one present from Jeromy and I, the rest they will open when they come home.

Grandma and Grandpa in front of their tree....

The kids and I in front of their tree... I love my festive red scarf I made- it's the only time of year I wear this one cause it's so bold!!!

Ok, after opening presents, I was leaving Jade at Grandma's cause she's was going to spend the night to help Grandma cook and get ready for the Christmas Tea she was hosting- more on that later in the blog.

So Kent and I headed home. Kent to play some of his new games, and me to start some major baking. I had to make several dozen cookies for the cookie exchange I jumped into this year. I figured I'm 36, time to participate! Look at these yummy ingredients!

Here's how they come out of the oven. And here's Jeromy's ruler I used to make sure I was cutting them into 1.5" by 1.5". Had to be perfect ya know! I had to bake this 4 different times to make enough.

I technically only needed 3 batches, but I wanted to make some for my cousins and sister Misty since I was passing them out at my mom's party the next day. Aren't they cute? That's alot of cookies! 12 Dozen to be exact, with some extra in my freezer! I think they turned out pretty yummy!

Ok, so onto Friday night! The reason I had the night off was cause it was our Women's Christmas Party from church and it was the first year I was going! I figured I knew enough people to feel comfortable going. And I had alot of fun.... check out this spread! See the 3 teared trays? The first one, bottom shelf is holding my yummy cookies I brought!Everyone visiting and having a good time. There was a gift exchange also. I got a book, and ornament and some chocolate!The family who hosted the party had an amazing Christmas tree... you know how a picture never does a Christmas tree any justice...

We sang some of my favorite Christmas songs, had a devotional from the book of Luke in the Bible. Then more mingling and eating yummy food. There's me and Maranda!

Me and my great friend Anna- it's pronounced: On-a. Hard for me to remember to pronounce it that way but I'm getting better.

After the party I went home and crashed. I woke up Saturday morning full again, isn't that terrible? That was rhetorical- I know that's terrible! After sleeping in and getting un-full, I had a small breakfast, relaxed for a bit more then headed to the YMCA and ran 9 miles. Yup, burned over 1,100 calories. That helped but a little dent in the calories I was consuming and would continue to consume thru out the weekend!

After showering and resting some more, I headed over to my mom's house at 4pm for her Christmas Tea with all the ladies-young and old in our family. I did bring Kent, he hung out down stairs with Denny and Mason with Grandpa in the man cave.

Look at all that yummy food, Jade and Grandma Cindy had been busy for the last 2 days. I even heard Grandpa helped out with some of the food preparations, which was really good since my mom was recovering from a nasty cold and needed to rest as much as possible!

My baby in red....

Didn't my mom do a great job decorating? She grabbed another long table to connect to her kitchen table making this LONGGGG table for all us women to sit at... let's see if I can name everybody... starting on the right side with my sister Misty, going counter clockwise, Jade, friend Bev, auntie Linda, cousin Patty, my mom, cousin Kimmy, auntie Sharon, auntie Susan, auntie Mary and me- there's my red scarf again...

And who took that great picture? Well, the photographer turned the camera on her self! My cousin Laura...

A little later my cousin's wife Linda showed up. We were missing Aurora, Linda's daughter Madison and my grandma. She says she's almost 94 and it's just too hard for her to get around and there's so much commotion that she can't hear all the different conversations going on around her and she doesn't enjoy her self. I totally understand, but we totally missed her. It wasn't the same with out her!

After eating some yummy appetizers, my mom brought out the cookie trays- look at all those wonderfully homemade cookies!

Here's are the youngest girls at the party, Kelsey and Hannah- both 3 years old. They were diggin' the cookies!

After a while the "men" emerged from the man cave to see if there was any food left for them. And there was. Aren't they all so cute? I love Kent's smile!!!

Jade, Linda F., Kim, me, Laura and Misty... Patty already left...

This turned out kinda dark... Bev, Mary, my mom, Sharon and Susan- aunt Linda J. already left...

So at this point you'd think I'd be exhausted and stuffed. You'd be right. But while I was at my mom's, Jeromy was at his work party. I had to go. Didn't want to go, but I kinda had to, I was just so tired. So after leaving my mom's , I dropped the kids off at home then headed to the party. It was held in some fancy room in the new hotel in our town by the water front... is that vague enough? I started typing the hotel name and thought better of that, don't need too much info in here! So here's some random shots. Jeromy said the buffet was outstanding. But I was too full to eat. People kept telling me to "go eat go drink", but I had no room! They were also having a gift exchange. But Jeromy and I didn't participate. Could only participate in 2 gift exchanges this year... 3 was not in the budget LOL! No but really, it wasn't !Turns out there was one present unaccounted for. They couldn't figure out how they had one extra when everyone who brought a present had got a present. So the boss gave it to Jeromy. And he loved his present. I had to take it away from him at the table cause he kept playing with it! It was a dancing singing COW! It sang that rap song "Don't just stand there, bust a MOOOOve." Get it? Mooooo? Jeromy kept dancing to it. When we got home I tried to get a video of him dancing to it but he refused, but towards the end of the video you can see him start shaking to the beat- he can't resist the bust a moove cow!

So then I finally went to bed.

Next onto sunday...guess what... I woke up FULL again. This is not good people. Anyway, we went to church this morning and they had their Christmas service this morning since the next sunday is Christmas and not as many people would be going.

They had the sunday school class come infront of the congregation and sing 3-4 songs. Jeromy and I help teach every few weeks, so we had been practicing with the kids helping them learn these songs to sing. They are so adorable! Wish I had a picture!

After church, it was time to head to the airport. :o( My babies were leaving me for 2 weeks to spend Christmas and New Years Eve with their dad in California. I know they were going to have so much fun, but I would still rather have them here. It has gotten easier as they've gotten older to send them to California, and they haven't actually gone in a couple of years due to various reasons, but it was his turn to have them and the kids were excited. Here they are at the airport....

Last picture of my kids and I in 2011.... love those faces... I watched them go thru security. They also had to ride the little monorail train thing to get to the correct area. I was kinda worried about them finding their way, but Jade said it was just like riding the city bus, those kids aren't afraid of anything! But I still had her call me when they were standing right infront of their N-7 gate, and she did. They were fine. Bye kiddos... see you in 2012.... (notice the scarf?)

After dropping the kids off, we had yet another party to go to.... Jeromy's side of the family is so big that they usually have the Christmas get together a week before Christmas to make sure everyone can be there. We almost thought we wouldn't make it cause of taking the kids to the airport, but it turned out we would only be about 45 minutes late. When we got there everyone was just eating. Which was great- cause believe it or not Jeromy and I were starving! So we ate, and ate... and ate some more!

The kids could hardly stand to wait to open presents. Unfortunatley we didn't even have Aurora with us either- we were kidless. We tried to get her this weekend but she also had alot of activites going on on her mom's side of the family.

Well, Jeromy's step-mom Joanne has made these stockings for all the kids, and she said she will fill them untill they turn 13, so with Aurora turning 13 next year, this will be her last year getting her stocking filled. But she gets to take the stocking home. She also gets other presents so she's not missing out at all! Aren't all the kids cute with their stockings???

The tree with tons of presents. The party is held at Jeromy's aunt Diane's house. They usuall have the tree decorated with Christmas envelopes for the adult kids- like me and Jeromy! Thanks Chuck and Joanne!!!

One of the girls got a tinkerbell doll.... Jeromy has a thing for tinkerbell.... weirdo!!

Two of Jeromy's brother's kids: Kaitlyn and Haley... so cute!

After eating, emptying stockings and then opening presents, Joanne had a fun activity for the kids to do.... a scavenger hunt! How fun. Diane lives in a pretty nice clean neighborhood so it seemed like a great idea. She had some ground rules. The teams were broken down to the boys against the girls. Jeromy was in charge of the boys, and Joanne and Patsy for the girls, the rest of us just followd with cameras.

She had 12 things on the list to get. They could only go to 6 houses total, and could only ask for 2 things on their list per house. So if someone could only give you one out of the 2 things that you asked for you, couldn't ask for another item, you had to go onto the next house- only 6 houses. Then after the 6th house the team would run back to Diane's house.

While they were scavenging, I was taking picures of all the lights....

All the neighbors seemed so happy. For the help Jeromy gave them a million dollar track!

Ok, back to the house, the girls on the left and the boys on the right. Some of the items included a candy cane, a pickle- both sides got a pickle at different houses and both put it in a ziplock bag for the teams!, red yarn, a Christmas card, green string, a piece of wrapping paper, a green bow, a business card, a red bow... can't remember everything else. The boys won- I think they got 8 out of 12 items and the girls got 6 or 7 items. That was pretty fun for the kids! Then there was another gift exchange with the adults. Jeromy and I won a starbucks coffee cup and coffee card, which means I won a coffee cup and card! Jeromy doesn't drink coffee and he let me pick which present we would "steal", such a sweetie!

Then family picture time. Joanne and her sisters Sharon and Diane being- you guessed it- Charlie's Angels!

Ok, then it was dessert time. Apple pie, pumpkin pie, a pumkin swirl cake and home made whip cream... yes I had some of everything. And yes I'm sure I will wake up full tomorrow. But I need to get serious here, I have a half marathon to run in 2 weeks, I gotta eat (mostly) good for the next 2 weeks. But I need another cookie right now and then I'm going to bed.

We had a great weekend but I am beat!!!