NO CAMERA

Well another Christmas and again I have left my camera at my mom's house-- darn!
Guess you will just have to wait to see what happened. Christmas came too fast and was not long enough. Being sick and this stupid knee almost wrecked it all.
Still here are a few of my favorite things:
Christmas presents that are photos of all of my kids. Not having to return one thing!
Christmas cards from family that are photos of their families
Christmas morning at Lilies house with all her gifts, this year she got a scooter and she was so proud to balance on it.
Having Transformers for Kyler that he did not already own. Having Kyler take a nap with me and I sleep and he sneaks out.
Hunter riding his rocking horse.
Ambree in her beautiful Christmas dress.
And although it is crazy, Christmas morning at my parents house. It is a miracle we are all still here, healthy and so happy. I am truly blessed and grateful.
Christmas eve at Ambree's, we went on the Internet and watched Santa as he delivered presents around the world. They really believed.

The perfect christmas Gift

Again I asked Santa for the perfect gift and got it. We will be cruising in March 2009. Although Rob was against going to Columbia, I was able to convenience him that we would not be kidnapped. I am also excited to be going back to Aruba as it was so much fun last year. It seems on almost any cruise we go on, people talk about the panama canal and encourage us to go. We will be going on a partial tour of the panama. It will be interesting to see what everyone likes about it. Now I need to really push at the gym and spend some serious time in the tanning bed. South America, here we come!

Before Christmas Sleep over

Nothing is better than a girl sleep over. These two had such a fun time, playing with the Christmas tree, playing in the basement, bathing, doing our hair, doing or nails and plenty of babies. And of course, breakfast in bed!

Christmas Cookies

Here we all are at the annual decorate cookie party. It was hard to get a good picture as many take cookie decorating very serious.

Connie and Ron and their twin granddaughters

I watch the Diehl website and these beautiful girls always make me smile. They live in Denver so I will probably never see them but it is so much fun watching them grow up. The Internet is a wonderful tool to connect people. Connie loves and cares so much about Olivia and Geneva that is just overflows to me. She is so lucky and enjoying every minute of being a grandma.

Good Friends- good times

This is last years photo but it is still the same group of true friends. We have been together for the good and the bad times and still find strength in the group. We have been the "Bonco group "for over 15 years now and our wish is to make it another 15! No matte rhow old-- always having fun.

DeWitt family Christmas Party

This is our annual Christmas Party with the DeWitt's. Lily is modeling her new hat. Cam is showing Kinley her new toys as she is eating again. Both Hunter and Ambree like to play with all the items under our "beach Tree". We are planning on giving all the items under the tree out to the kids on Christmas Eve. The tree was purchased from Festival. The kids have enjoyed getting a pair of flip flops and sun glasses every time they come over.

Kyler turns Five

Here is Kyler's birthday party. We had dinner and the a football cake. The girls and the kids went to Christmas street to see the lights and then came home for hot cocoa. You can see Kyler with all his toys. These are the new good ones from McDonald's. I have learned that it is best to just go in and buy the whole set and get it over with. We just like it that way.

Family Christmas Party 2008

Here is the whole crew. I was Santa's helper so I did not get the good up close shots but watching the crowd and the kids faces was just as good. I have no idea how many showed up but it was close to all of them. We had dinner. Santa visited with all the kids. The kids broke the pinata. It was a fun time.

However it was not one of my best nights. I am still a little under the weather with this darn cold. I was napping in the morning and Rob went out to find Sage bleeding. He brought her in and gave her a bath and tried to stop the bleeding but was not successful so he went to the vets. Sage had cancer and they had to put her down. I woke up and was cleaning up the blood and dirt and took a fall in the bathroom. My arm got scrapped on the window sill. My shoulder hit the counter top and I twisted my knee again. So by the time the party came around I was hobbling and hurting, I forgot to get new batteries for my camera, I was missing my purse, forgot to handle out my family gifts and the list goes on. Luckily Kendal let me take home her onion soup ( two bottles of wine in the recipe ) to nurse me back to health. Today I am still struggle but finally got the garage clean and two Christmas trees up. Things can only get better!

Hopefully you saw this tree at Festival- It was unbelievable

Ambree dances at Festival

Lily loves festival

Festival of tree delivery day

Delivery day is always my favorite part of Festival of Trees. My most treasured Festival stories are delivery stories. This year however I was exempted from Tree delivery and had storage sheds duty. And like my delivery stories it was noteworthy. So here it is:
Clean up starts Saturday night and we worked till 3:00 am loading trucks. Since we were able to get two trucks full, we decided to send the truck up to the storage shed at 7:00am. I was to meet the trucks there at eight and start unloading. When I got to the sheds, they were closed with big signs on the fence stating " CLOSED SUNDAY". The storage shed manager had recently changed and I did not know them. They had the place all locked up and there was no way to get in. I am getting in a panic as I know there are trucks on the way and no way to get into the sheds. I drive around, -- nothing. I try to call and no answer. I get desperate. So I decide to throw small stones at the bedroom window. A man steps out on the porch and asks me what I am doing. I explain the situation and his response was they are closed, I plead and beg and he responses - no. I ask him to call the owner, who says- no. Finally after begging he agrees to let me in even though they were moments from leaving for the day. Had I gotten there at the assigned time of 10:00 am then we would have missed them and not been able to unload the trucks all day long . I have promised to stay and watch so I sit in my car and wait for the trucks. I leave the car on and the battery dies so I cannot go get a drink or go to the restroom. Now a cop car drive up behind with the lights on. I guess a neighbor had called in my car for mysterious behavior and vandalism. About now, a day in bed and a free meal is sounding pretty good. Doesn't matter because I have no money, no ID, no purse nothing on me but some keys to the shed and my car. Needless the say the cop was extremely gracious. The trucks come and we unload from 10:00 to 4:30 pm. It is long and hard work but we have finished in record time. oh yeah, I wanted to order pizza for the workers, after all Domino's delivers, but I had lost my visa card and no way to pay for it so a worker helped me out. Now I am close to pathetic. Then we we go out to the trucks and there is one missing. It is still at south town. We have to go and get the truck and unload . We finish at 8:00 pm . A long day. As Shae would say " only you Debbi"

Festival of trees 2008

Festival of Trees 2008
Here is our family tree-- Happy Christmas. It sold tonight !

Thanksgiving 2008

Here we are at Great Grandma's for Thanksgiving and the famous fish pond.