amaryllis

Sherry gave us an amaryllis bulb for Christmas and it is thriving.

Ahhhh!

So beautiful

Love, Val
 

baby monday

 The weeks of Maria's maternity leave are flying by, but we made the most of this day.

Love, Grandma

aladdin, children's theater

We didn't know what to expect, but this production was so well done.  Everyone did wonderfully.

You should be proud, Girl.  We sure were, watching this.

Love, Grandma and Grandpa
 

wednesday basketball

These days of cold and early darkness go by quickly once January gets rolling.

It was fun to be together in the gym and watch a basketball game.  The players have improved and come together as a group, and that's fun to see.

Love, Grandma
 

christmas is over

 Last weekend we gathered up all the Christmas crap and put it all away, returned the rooms back to normal.

I worked on this part. Kari carefully took all the ornaments off the tree, sorted them into their right boxes, wrapped and safe.

Jay took down Big Santa from the front yard.

This doily full of wax--ran hot water over it until it was gone.

And this guy:

I was a little ambivalent to see him go, took a minute and repaired his belt first.  Joe gave him to me a couple years ago. He's a bawdy dumb thing, twerks, sings, "I like big butts and I cannot lie."  Yeah, he does that. Right on Christmas.

I sent Joe a text,  "I feel like he's the Stinky Pete doll of the situation."

We laughed.  Joe said he could stay year round, actually.

Bye until next December, Twerking Santa.

Love, Val

a funny story

This is a great picture of these two guys, a nephew and his uncle, both having survived their first semester in the dorms, in two schools not that far away from each other.

It's all good.

But this is the funny story we heard at Christmas:

The nephew was watching a movie late in the evening, minding his business, when he got a text, "Time for you to get ready for bed."

He was stumped.  Jeez. Sometimes.  My parents.

Then he realized it was NOT from them, it was from DAN.

Why in the world would Dan be sending him to bed? What does he care?  

Sheesh, I'm in college!

Dan was texting his own kids and this guy was in the text loop from something else.

Oh my goodness, this cracked me up so much.

Yeah, it's good to have uncles, I agree.

Nothing but love, Grandma

happy birthday, buddy!

It was a New Year's Eve birthday party, always the best.

Everybody was happy to see each other again, even after all the togetherness of the last week.

Presents!

Cake!

Oh my goodness, thirteen years of you--thirteen wonderful years of you.

This whole family is lucky.

Thanks for being ours.

We love you like crazy.

Happy Birthday, and hope the year ahead is all kinds of great.   Love, Grandma and Grandpa and Everybody