Blessings

Hello Family.  Thought I would share this cool song and video that was played in church this morning.  Thinking of all of you.  Enjoy!

Bright and Cheery

 

Kade wanted to share a picture of his just-bloomed amarylis. We've never had a red one before. It is beautiful and lovely to look at on this cold, snowy night. :) Hope everyone is doing well! Thanks for the flower, Mom!

Happy New Year and Christmas Wrapup

Hi everyone.

I just wanted to post a quick note and say thanks to everyone for the great time we had at Christmas on the farm! A special thanks to Jill for packing up the girls and coming from Vegas as that made it extra special (we missed you David H.!). And a special thanks to Mom and Dad for letting us invade your home, and to David and Dad for getting Vince's lodge ready, and to David and Melissa for hosting Kade. I think pretty much everyone had a bed this year, which was nice.

The weekend had all the elements of a great Christmas gathering....a full house, fun, some fresh snow to sled on, everyone working together to get the food made, and even the not-so-great-but-always-traditional sharing of the flu! (Sorry you got sick, Dave, and hope you are feeling better!)

I hope you guys don't mind, but I posted the photos on Facebook. I thought that might be easier than sending a Snapfish link. If you don't want a photo online, let me know and I'll delete it. Sorry, Jason and Zach, but I couldn't resist posting the bra and elf short photos!

Here is hoping you all have a happy and healthy 2013. Love you all!

--bobbie

Party Planning Next Steps

Hi Everyone Happy Thanksgiving Weekend!

I hope all your Thanksgiving events were well. We are all blessed to have such great families to celebrate with. Now, with that being said let's talk about Christmas!

Thank you to Bobbie for putting the plans together. I love that we have a family planner. :) Mom and I were discussing meal planning for the Christmas gathering. From what I have heard most of us will be arriving on Wednesday or Thursday, which means that is quite a few days of us eating and drinking together. (YEAH!!) We decided to make a high level list of things that will be needed to help get us covered over that period of time, plus for the big gathering. Please review and let us know where you would like to help out. If there are other things we missed that you would like to add to the list please feel free to do so.

Drinks: Soda (Dt. and Regular), Milk, Chocolate Milk, Juice, Beer, Wine, Coffee Creamer. Mom said they have the whiskey and coffee to cover, but if you have a particular flavor bring it.

Paper Products: Plates and Napkins (mom has plenty of silverware and cups)

Snacks: Chips, crackers, nuts, meat and cheese tray, etc

Desserts: Cookies, pies, bars, etc.

Salads: any kind sweet or salty

Relish Tray: Veggies, pickles, dips. Adding Fruit to this section as well.

Breakfast Meats

Mom will cover meat and potato for the big event. Mom also said she will pickup whatever is not selected from the above items.

Sleeping Arrangements: There are 22 people in our family now. We will need to figure out sleeping arrangments for 15 of us. Mom said they are planning on opening up Vince's house and the camper for anyone who would like to accept the offer. Also, if we all want to be cozy bring your blowup beds and we can all squeeze in. :) (my preference, i love the family togetherness!)

Talk to everyone soon, I am very excited for all of us to get together.

Party Planning!

Hello everyone. I hope this finds you doing well. As we get close to Thanksgiving next week, I just wanted to tell you I am thankful for each and every one of you!

After having some discussion with everyone, it appears that the weekend between Christmas and New Years will work for the Christmas gathering! Yea! I am guessing we will have the party on that Saturday, but we will iron those details out as it gets closer. The main thing is that we have a weekend that seems to work for all.

I have been asked to complete the kids' drawing of names so that everyone knows who they have prior to Black Friday. This year we have seven kids, with the addition of Katelyn, and six families. So, my suggestion is that we each can buy something for little Katelyn...that's the benefit of being the youngest! Here is how the drawing worked out:

Mom and Dad - Addy
Dave and Melissa - Emma
Bobbie and Kevin - Alex
Terry and Tammy - Jacob
Jill and David - Bella
Jeannie and Jason - Kade

I make this a legitimate drawing and this is how it worked out, but you are welcome to switch if you want to.

We will probably do a White Elephant again, unless someone has a new bright idea! Always open to suggestions.

Love you all bunches!

--bobbie

Meet Socks...we are missing her, dad and mom already!!

Christmas party planning and Oldies but Goodies!

Hi All!

I thought I would post a couple of these fun Christmas photos from past years. I have sent everyone emails asking about the Christmas get-together schedule. Get back to me! Hopefully we can find a way to make it work for everyone. Wonder if we'll have snow this year? Last year we played football outside without coats. I think I'll take the snow instead!