family party

Our family party was on Sunday evening, after the play.

Very nice evening.

 He worked on the meatballs for hours, well worth it.

These two:

Gifts!

Thanks for making this a spectacular occasion once again.

Love you all like crazy, Mom and Dad

willy wonka

This sweet girl was in the play, and they've been working on this for months, and what a nice job. That's her second to the right in the nightcap, one of the grandparents in Willy Wonka.

And in another role:

 Ahhh, with her Aunt Jean, her great-grandma, and her regular grandma:

Lots of love, Grandma

happy birthday kenya

Yesterday, opening gifts, so nice to wish you happy birthday.

The past year has been great,

and the year ahead is looking better than ever.

We appreciate your patience and kindness, your sense of humor, and the way you make things special and sweet.

Happy birthday with so much love, Val and Jay and Everybody

 

way behind

The weeks are going by fast this December, and yet I haven't bothered to put any picture up or anything.

Cookies are all baked. These were frosted and went out in the mail today.

The concerts have been wonderful.

There are some talented kids in this music program.

This was the Christmas program at the elementary school, and they always do a nice job, include everyone, practice and make it a fun night.

Kids came last Saturday after basketball and decorated cookies.  Heidi stayed too, and Julia, and we decorated a LOT of cookies.

The basement washing machine crapped out, so while we were doing this Jay and Joe were bringing the old washer out, and the replacement one in.  I got it off Facebook Marketplace, good enough.   Today I looked up the model number and serial number on the old one because we knew it was very old.

1985

Pretty good it lasted this long.

Sunday morning Christmas program, very sweet.

 

Look how cute.

And now they're eating ravioli and cookies Kari baked last night, snacks from Costco, and Jay's doing the turtle tank, and the week is officially half over.

Our family party is December 21, and I think we're almost ready.

Love, Val

the week

 Dani has taken to ripping up cardboard for entertainment.   She doesn't care to be outside in the cold alone, comes right back to the door with all her pent up puppy energy, and she can't play with the cats all day. They get tired of her.

We got these done.

Saw some youth basketball. They won this game, very exciting game.

Sunrise golden pink, so pretty.

They did not win, but they played hard and are coming together as a group.   

More winter sky

Concert=beautiful.   The director is talented and enthusiastic and the kids are playing better than ever.

Someone left these glasses here, but nobody's admitting to it.

And that's the end of a long dark week in December, cozy and sweet.  Love, Val

cousins

My cousin sent this to our Facebook page, and what a surprise.  It's Grandma and Grandpa with all of us.  Oh my goodness, how I love these people.

Tammy, you're the best.  Love, Val
 

ready for christmas

First thing we had to do was gather up Thanksgiving and put it away.

 

Jay got all these guys going.

Tree was set up and the thing for Christmas decorating this year was, "Will we be sad if the cats wreck this?"  They aren't loose unsupervised, but we didn't put anything out that felt breakable.

This is not breakable, but I'd be very sad if it got wrecked anyway.

Kids slept over and Julia was very entertaining, which was nice for them, and I think a nice break for her from homework.

Lots of love, Val, aka Grandma