HOLIDAYS!!!!!!!!!

We went on a fabulous cruise to New England and spent a day in Manhattan and a day in Brooklyn. What fun! It was our first ever cruise by ourselves. Almost scary! When we came home, we worked and then spent a weekend with Sherri and Graham in Washington. We went to two movies (yes, Twilight II was one of them) and had massages (not the guys) and shopped all day at Bellevue (is that spelled right?) Sherri's birthday was last week so we bought her something for her special day and their anniversary is in 12 days so we bought them something for that, too. Such a fun time! I miss my kids that don't live close.

I'm actually just blogging to say how excited I am for the holidays. EVERYONE is coming home (except possibly my Dad -- but that's another story). So starting with Thanksgiving -- Sherri and Graham were the only ones not home (they went to his family's dinner celebration). We had 46 people to dinner: 2 turkeys, 1 roast beef, 1 pork tenderloin, 20 pounds of mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, green bean casserole, green salad, green fluff, jello salad, dinner rolls, and PIES. My mom was too sick to come as was my cousin. We all had a great time with lots of good food.

The day after I got up at 6 AM and went shopping all day with Anna and Jacob and B. We totally shopped until we dropped. And then G and Y helped me decorate the tree. Gosh that was so nice. Shon and Christopher put up the outdoor lights (the stupid fuses go out every other day now) and by the end of the day (Saturday) everything looked great! We all went out to Lucille's for dinner and then Jacob and family left for Utah.

But NOW: Julie coming home on 12/16. Going to Nutcracker on 12/18. Channukah and Dave's birthday on 12/19. Fred and Dave's birthday dinner on 12/21. Braden's birthday and Sherri and Graham coming on 12/23. We're having an Italian dinner for 12/24 with tons of family and I love it all.

In the midst of all this two sad posts (not to be equally sad, but sad nonetheless): my dad is just barely hanging in with pancreatic cancer eating up his insides; Julie and her boyfriend of 3 months are no longer together.

But Christmas is coming and so is my family. Happy, happy times!