HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Well, its the first day of the new year, and this year is going to be the year. These past weeks have been busy, but exciting and relaxing all at the same time. The kids are enjoying their second week of vacation, and have been pretty good too.

Christmas with my parents was pretty typical. My niece said a few things that

were absolutely hilarious, especially about boys putting their underwear on, and

my nephew topped the night when he told Grandma it didn't hurt to touch a 9-volt

battery to your tongue, and SHE DID IT! I have honestly never seen my mom

jump so high, nor have I laughed so hard. Everyone liked what they got, including mom's unmade chicken sampler and grandma's quilt. Here's a picture of Grandmas quilt:

Christmas with the in-laws was pretty uneventful too. We went down to spend the day on Saturday before Christmas. I spent the day with Alice, Sue and Julie, having nice chats while the kids ran around and the guys watched football. We actually got some family pictures. Here's one:

Its kinda hard to see all of us, but everyone was there except A. She is still in NC and has officially moved in with Shannon. More news on "the bean" later! She was planning on coming home in January but I have asked (due to recent developments) to not so that she can work as much as possible before she can't work as a firefighter any more.

I am STILL working on Mary's quilt, but it is almost done. I only have a little bit more to go to quilt before I sew the binding on. I am hoping to have it done by the weekend and mailed off next weekend. I would also love to put a picture of it up, but she hasn't seen the finished top yet and I don't want her to see it till she gets it. I know she checks this periodically (Hi Mary!) so I won't post any yet.

T turned 13 on Christmas Day and had a small party last night. Only 4 friends showed up, but they still had a blast. I guess people just had other things to do on. We have more pizza than we can eat though! They played Corn Hole most of the night (thanks mom!) and seemed to have a really good time. They never stopped laughing! Even the girls seemed to have a good time (which was my concern!) Hopefully no more parties till we turn 16!

I also tried to make it to 130 books read for the year, but I missed it by about 45 pages. I got too involved with J playing rummy last night. We played for over 2 hours and he still wanted to play more. 1:00 am was late enough for me. I went to bed. The nice thing though was that the boys all slept till 10 this morning, which was WONDERFUL!! I can't remember the last time I beat them all up!

I am trying to finish up Beverly Lewis' The Postcard and that is the one that only has about 45 more pages. Then I have no idea what I will begin reading. I have several library books that I need to get read, like Ten Days In The Hills by Jane Smiley, and The Kitchen Boy. Of course, a trip to the Fabric Shop and Borders is in order before the 29th so that I have plenty of fabric and books for the 4 weeks I will be stuck inside at the hospital and after!!

Off to try to figure out how to add links!