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

a night at the flophouse motel

He has not been a fan of these mechanical guys.   Some are pretty overwhelming, true. This one is nice though, and he likes him.

After the family Christmas party they cooked up the idea to have a sleepover the next night.  I mean, why not?

John wondered though--they've been together for four days.  You'd think they'd be sick of it?

Evidently not.

John came all the way across town with his kids.

Here they are planning the wedding of the stuffed animals.  It kept them busy a good long while.



I thought he looked like clergy, but they said nope. Ringbearer.

This was a Yu Gi Oh battle or some such thing.

I noticed these decorations later after the wedding was over.

This new garland is so cute.

At 11 pm they came running up from downstairs arms full of things to air fry.

Seriously?

Yeah!

Oh my goodness.   

Julia texted me shortly before midnight that all were in bed.  I was giving them until midnight to quiet down, and when I checked at midnight everyone was in bed--not necessarily asleep yet, but in bed.

Maria came over this morning and her guys were ready to join the party.

Photos of  The Flophouse:

They were told: Nothing with screens on the floor.  Be SURE all screens are NOT on the floor.   We don't want to accidentally step on any.  BE SURE. They were very diligent.

We fed them party leftovers and glad to do so.  Keep eating.  I made a big pot of mac and cheese too, and last night quesadillas and they were happy.

He can't eat mac and cheese yet, but he enjoyed being in room, doing lots of looking around.

And when they all left, after spending today and yesterday and the day before with all these people I love so crazy much, this wild extravagance of family, we headed out to say good bye at the end of the afternoon.

And now the house is very, very quiet.

Love you all,  Grandma aka MOM