Mother's Day
Well, I still have a lot to backtrack on to cover the last few weeks of events.

Here are some pics from the time that we spent at Hope & Steve's on Mother's Day. Thanks for hosting guys, even though it would have been nice for Hope to have the day off too. It was so sweet of you to sacrifice your time for us.

Isn't Kassidy's haircut so cute? She's such an adorable little lady. And of course, my nieces Hope and Lisa look gorgeous too. O.k., let's not play favorites. Its a pretty nice looking family overall.

We went over mid-afternoon, shared some lunch and then played Wii bowling together. I'd love to look for a used Wii game someday so we can have one at home. The nice thing about it is that virtually any age or physical abilities can play. The range of ages on Sunday was about 5 to 85...not bad and I think everyone had a good time.

I love the shot below of the Betty Crocker cookbook with takeout containers sitting in front of it. Good news was that no mothers had to do any cooking on Mother's Day. All in all it was a good day!

I am so thankful for every day that I get to spend with my mom. At 85 we know that she may not be around too long, although she seems to be doing very well so far.

I know this is already a lot of photos, but for those (family members, mostly) that want to see more pics, you can see them here.

Christmas Week Activities continued...

6 different gatherings in 10 days - 4 of them at our house from Christmas day thru today.

Yes, I'm pretty exhausted and really not too excited about going back to work tomorrow, but there's no way I'd complain with all the time I've had off in December. I was really pretty conservative on the photography this season, but got a few good ones, I think.

I already posted about our delayed Christmas Eve on Saturday, 12/27 when we got to hang out with Amy, Andrew and a few of our dear friends. I actually missed posting our Perkins Christmas gathering on the 26th but will do that now, for those who want to keep things orderly.

We went to my sister, Diane's house, since we did Thanksgiving and most of our recent Perkins gatherings at our house. Her place was pretty "cozy" (read small) and we didn't even have everyone there. I think next year we should do Christmas either at our house or Sharon's since Diane's place is just too small with the tree and all. It also made a difference that it was too cold to go outside...so there was no place to really spread out. But we made do with what we had and I think everyone had a good time. Diane's boyfriend, JD (pictured with the red & green gift bag) made pans and pans of lasagna and even made a veggie one for Ashley. How nice of him. A few of us brought other side dishes and we had a great meal.
Some also brought little gifts for Hope & Steve's "little" ones who are not so little anymore, Kassidy, Jacob & Joshua. It's strange to think they I am their Great Aunt. I thought Great Aunts were always like 90-something. I think they're always confused about my role a little anyway, since they have another Aunt Nancy also. Anyway, it's so fun to see them enjoying their gifts. The little game that Kassidy is so excited about above is from an activity book that we got for her. Makes me happy that we picked something they liked...it's so hard to know sometimes.

We also did a white elephant (food related) gift exchange and came away with a few goodies to share with friends.

We had a random group of folks this year. Good news was that my brother, Pat was in town for the first time in a while and Bunny dropped by as well. Sad news was that Sharon, Dustin, Steve, Kevin, Amy & Andrew and others weren't able to be there this year, so we missed them.

We also learned that Lisa and Hope's grandfather (Diane's former father-in-law) passed away on Christmas Day, which was hard on the whole family since they were all very close to him. He will be missed by everyone. He was a dear man.

Happy Thanksgiving to all!

I hope your day was filled with the joys of family & friends!

We had a relatively quiet day, compared to other years. We had only 7 here for dinner compared to 20 or 30 in the past. Amy & Andrew are in So Cal, Kevin is in the Middle East, my sister, Sharon is in Kuwait, Ashley & Russell were at Ashley's parent's house, Lisa was with the Strattons and Hope & Steve were with Steve's family.

So dinner time was Terry and I, my mom, Diane, Pat, Sharon's boyfriend-Steve and Sharon's son, Dustin. It was a nice group. Dustin was kind to put up with us older folks with no other young people around. He's growing up to be quite a handsome young man (see below). He's in ROTC right now and wants to be a pilot someday.

Steve was so sweet to bring Diane and I early Christmas presents (which he didn't need to do) but he's going to be out of town at Christmas and said he wanted to. He got us each beautiful serving dishes that we can use for entertaining. I can already picture when I'm going to use mine. Steve's so thoughtful. Sharon finally has a great guy! He's the one in the blue shirt talking on the phone. I wanted to get a picture of him on the phone to send to Sharon so she can see what he looks like when she's talking with him.

There are also pics here of Mom, Diane & Pat.

We were thrilled to get a phone call from Kevin early in the day too!!! We had been trying to figure out a way to connect with him, but weren't sure that it was going to happen. We had a chance to talk to him for a half hour. It was so great to hear his voice! We got to find out a little bit about what it's like there, although he can't tell us what he's doing. He says he might be moving to a different location, so he doesn't want us to send anything for Christmas until he knows his new address. I may send a few things anyway, just on the chance that he'll get them at Christmas. I'd hate for him to be without anything to open. We miss him.

Sharon called too and I got to talk to her for just a few minutes. She's a bit homesick and wanted us to take lots of pictures and send them to her. I'll be printing out some of these and others from our day together and sending them to her. We missed having her here with us.

We tried to call Amy & Andrew, but only were able to connect with them for a few minutes. We missed them too!

Ron & Bunny stopped by for a little while in the evening and we got to catch up a little bit on them and the family. It was great to see them.

Here's a picture of our nearly 24 pound turkey. I have this amazing recipe where it cooks overnight and turns out delicious...and it was!

This Grandma Perkins Pumpkin Patch sign always reminds me of Thanksgivings with my own Grandma Perkins and the extended family in Ohio. We would have tables and tables of people and food and homemade pies. I had so many cousins that I really barely knew many of them, but we'd all get together on Thanksgiving at my grandma's house for dinner and visiting. My uncle would sometimes go out and hunt rabbits after dinner (poor rabbits) and the cousins would all hang out together outside while the aunts and uncles would catch up on the latest family news.

I'm so thankful for all the blessings that God has bestowed on me thru-out my life and especially what he's sent our way this year. I trust that you're able to consider all the big and little things that God has allowed to happen or has protected you from in 2008 and thank him for his loving care. We serve a gracious God! Happy Thanksgiving!