Unexpected road trip

Mr. C's stepdad and sister were supposed to come and visit and stay with us the night before Christmas eve and stay for a few days for the holidays. That week Mr. C had been talking with his stepdad who told him that his mother was not doing well and he didn't think they would make it down since they did not expect her to live much longer. On Christmas Eve morning we received the phone call that Mr. C's step-grandma had passed away at 11:00pm the night before. The visitation was to be held on the following Monday with the funeral mass on Tuesday. Mr. C and I had talked and we wanted to go to some part of the services if we could and we shared this with his aunts & grandma. Mr. C's stepdad's family lives about 3-4 hours away. Monday came & Mr. C could not join us but I joined Grandma, AK, & AL and went started our road trip to the visitation with lil miss. We arrived at their house before heading to the visitation, here is lil miss with her aunt S for the first time.

Grandma W with lil miss.

Although it was a very long day as we drove there and back and visited for 5 hours, I am glad that lil miss & I went and were there to support J & S. 

Christmas in review part 1

On Thursday December 23 we continued our Christmas celebrations. Mr. C's parent's were having family night at their house, so we joined them for soup, sandwiches, and good company. This is a tradition of Mr. C's step mom's family, as they have gotten together on the night before Christmas Eve to watch a movie, but now we don't really watch a movie as more we just sit around and visit and enjoy adult beverages and watch the kiddos play, and sometimes a good game of pool or suffleboard but no one played any games this year. We also exchanged our gift with Grandma H this night since we would not be joining them on Christmas Eve as Christmas Eve would be spent at my Grandma C's house. Mr. C and I woke up on Christmas Eve to it snowing, they were calling for snow but it was not supposed to start until later, so we were surprised to find it snowing, Mr. C left to take the skid loaders down to where they plow snow, he returned around noontime, I made beer bread and a dip to take to my Grandma's and started getting us ready around 3:00pm. Luckily since Mr. C was hadn't been called out to plow snow yet, I was able to still go to our Christmas. I packed our bags, gathered our presents and Mr. C packed the truck and we were headed out to Grandma's by about 4:45pm. We arrived just in time to join everyone for dinner and not long after we got done eating, Mr. C got the phone call to go plow snow. So we made sure somone cold take me to his parent's house after we were done and he took our stuff over there before leaving to go plow snow.

Here is lil miss C in her Christmas Dress at my Grandma C's house.

4 generations on Christmas Eve: my dad, Grandma C, lil miss C & me.

My parents were going to midnight mass and we were planning on joining them, but since it was snowing and the roads were icy & Mr. C was called out to plow snow, we did not join them for mass, instead my brother took us over to Mr. C's parents house and we settled in and went to sleep. We did not know exactly when and if Mr. C would be joining us and luckily he crawled into bed with me about 1:30am. Since 2004 we have spent Christmas Eve at his parents house and opened presents with his family on Christmas morning. We are the only ones who are still spending the night and will continue to do so until his parents tell us they don't want us to anymore. His brother & girls & sissy & boys joined us around 8:30am and we started opening presents. 

Lil miss C with Mama & Papa on Christmas morning.  

Lil miss beautiful making sure Papa was doing a good job of holding lil miss C.

Taking turns opening presents and playing with the new toys.

Lil miss C spent the morning in Papa's arms as Mr. C & I took turns opening her presents for her.

Mama & Papa opening a special present from Santa, we took the kiddos and did a grandchildren photo for them.

Mr. C received a special present that he opened after we were all done opening all of our other presents. His parents have had this frog that sings jingle bells for many many years and Mr. C absoutly hates it and trys to hide it from anyone playing it when he is around. Well this year he received a frog of his very own for us to have at our house. Here he is opening it, can't u tell he is just thrilled!

Mama & papa got this for all the grandkids that will stay at mama's & papa's house for them to play with. K man will have a gator full of girls when B & lil miss C are old enough to ride along.

So K man and lil miss beautiful did not only want to play with all their new toys but they also had to check out lil miss C & B's birthday cakes they got.

After breakfast we headed down to AK's for Christmas with Grandma W. We visited with them and exchanged our presents and were headed home around 1:30ish. Once we arrived home and let our doggies out, restocked our fire and unpacked the truck, we all took a much needed nap and then celebrated our Christmas together. Mr. C had already given me my present and I had given him 2 of 3 of his presents last weekend as he used them to cut & grind up a deer and I wanted to wear my for pictures and Christmas as he upgraded my diamond stud earrings that he bought me last year. We have decided that after we spend Christmas morning with his parents and visit with his Grandma that we will come home and have our Christmas in the afternoon/evening on Christmas Day. We had a relaxing evening at home and then on Sunday morning Mr. C went hunting for a few short hours and I went after Christmas sale shopping with my mom and 2 of my 3 sisters, just 3 more Christmas celebrations left.   

Merry Christmas

Wishing everyone a Merry Chistmas! May your day be filled with joy, friendship & family! We will be spending our Christmas Eve with my extended C family, spending the night at Mr. C's parents & spending Christmas morning with them, then heading to Mr. C's mom's family for the mid-morning early afternoon and then back to our house for our family Christmas. We are expecting to get snow on Christmas eve and Christmas morning, so hoping everyone has safe travels and a Merry Christmas!  

Out & about

Well lil Miss C and I ventoured out all by ourselves today. We went and visited my co-workers and enjoyed a holiday lunch with them. Last week I had asked my co-worker when they were doing the holiday get together with just our full time office staff and part time staff to let me know as i wanted to come down and visit and not be there for the entire department staff party. Well we talked back and forth and it was decided that it would be today at noon. We'll i think that they just decided to have a holiday lunch amoungst our full time staff so i would bring lil miss C down to visit because none of out part time staff was included or there like we have done in the years past. I do feel bad if that is the only reason why they got together for lunch, but at the same time it was great to see everyone. I was horrible though and didn't snap any pictures of lil miss C with my coworkers. It was great to visit with them and catch up a lil on the office gossip and how "my work" is going. I have done really well with not checking my work email or asking work related questions when talking with my good friend/coworker A, but we will see if i continue to do that in the next 9 weeks or not. I am really lucky to work with such a great group of people, hoping all of them have a merry christmas and a happy new year! After we left my work, we went and finished christmas shopping and i found her a dress i liked and although it was still a little more than i really wanted to pay, i bought it anyways since i haven't seen anything else i have liked for any cheaper and i am running out of time to look. Lil miss C splept the entire time we were out and about and did great for her first outing without dad.

1 down many more to go

Today marked the start of our Christmas celebrations. We had a busy day as we started with family picutres early this morning, also doing a cousin's picture to give to Mr. C's parents at Christmas, then it was back home for a nap & making a dish for Mr. C's C family Christmas. We spent the afternoon visiting with family, enjoying a wonderful meal. Lil miss C did wonderful being held by he aunts & uncles, mama & papa, & great aunts and uncles! Grandma C was able to get out and join us as well, so it was great to see her at Christmas and spend time with family!

Welcome to the 30 club

Mr. C! Today is Mr. C's birthday and he joins his friends in the 30 club. We have gone to a lot of 30's parties this year and i feel bad that i am not doing anything more for his 30th than we are, but he really did not want to do much, and since he decided he wants to go hunting in the morning he didn't want to be out partying late, so we are just keeping in low key this year... Maybe i'll plan a big party for his 40th! I made him a red velvet cake, Grandma C came home from the hospital so he helped get her into her house and otherwise he are just hanging out at home with lil miss C and each other!

Another year on the books

of my life that is. To celebrate i did nothing all day expect take care of lil miss C. It wasjust her and I all day as Mr. C was busy grinding up deer all day and then when he got done with that B needed his help cleaning out his flu as smoke was coming back into their house. When Mr. C came back from his deer grinding party he brought me these.

Here they are sitting in front of the kitchen window. 

The flowers were a nice surprise and unexpected as this is the first he has bought flowers for me. When we were dating he bought a rose or two here or there from the bar lady, but this is the first time i have acutally gotten a vase full of flowers and he did wonderful as lillies are my favorite flower!