My Nephew Michael and his Wife Kailey

Posts tagged ‘My Nephew Michael and his Wife Kailey’

Our Christmas

Our Christmas began on Wednesday, December 23. We celebrated Christmas with my stepdaughter and two granddaughters on that day. Stacey and the girls arrived at 2:00 pm. We ate Christmas dinner: turkey with stuffing, mashed potatoes and gravy, carrots, green bean casserole, dinner rolls, cranberry sauce and for dessert pumpkin pie, chocolate pudding and chocolate chip cookies. After dinner, and after the kitchen had been cleaned up, we exchanged Christmas gifts. Our granddaughters left around 4:15 pm, when their paternal grandmother picked up the girls to take them to church. Stacey left about an hour later.

It was just Bob and me for Christmas Day. Bob and I decided not to exchange gifts this year, opting to make our Eureka Springs vacation in September our Christmas present to each other. We didn’t have a white Christmas. It wasn’t even a chilly Christmas, as the temperature rose into the 50s. In the afternoon Bob and I went for a long walk at the Audubon Center and Sanctuary in Jamestown, NY. We walked three trails. The orange trail is 1 mile in length; the yellow trail is 2 miles in length; and the blue trail is .5 miles in length. We didn’t follow each trail individually, so we didn’t walk the entire 3 ½ miles in trail. It would be reasonable, though, to say we walked more than 2 miles, probably close to 3 miles!

Bob and I on one of the trails at the Audubon Center and Sanctuary

We ate Christmas dinner at Variety Buffet, a local Chinese restaurant that we have eaten at the past couple Christmases.

Bob and I celebrated Christmas with my brother and family at his house the day after Christmas. We left Warren at 10:00 am and arrived in Cadogan around 12:30 pm. Our nephew, Jared, and his wife Sara and their daughter Kyla had arrived earlier in the day. I had plenty of Kyla time (and time with Sara and Jared) before the arrival of Judy’s brother, Donald, and his wife Gina and Judy’s mother, Lois, and our nephew, Michael, and his wife Kailey and their children Kaleb and Anna.

We ate dinner at 3:00 pm.

Our Christmas dinner included ham, turkey, sweet potatoes, mashed potatoes with gravy, Amish noodles, stuffing, green beans and cranberry sauce. For dessert we had a choice of pumpkin pie, pumpkin roll, and brownies. Dinner was served buffet style, with us taking our filled plates into the living room and den to eat. Dinner was delicious.

Gift opening commenced at 4:00 pm.

The last activity before we departed for home was a sock exchange, in which Judy, Gina, Lois, Sara, Kailey and I participated. Each of us filled a pair of fuzzy socks with stocking stuffers, the contents of which were not to exceed $20.00. We sat in a circle holding the socks that we brought. Jared read a Christmas story that I found on the Internet. Every time the word RIGHT was read, everyone passed her gift to the right. Every time the word LEFT was read, gifts were passed to the left. Each person kept the gift held at the end of the story. I give kudos to my sister-in-law, Judy, for suggesting the sock exchange. We had the best time passing around our socks!

Bob and I left for home around 6:15 pm and returned home around 9:00 pm. It was an enjoyable day. Too bad that our niece, Emily, and her husband Dan and their daughter Elise couldn’t be there with us. Emily, Dan and Elise live about a 1.000 miles away–a bit too far for a day’s drive!

I put together the following collage of some of the photographs that I took, while at my brother’s house.

(top row) l-r: Lois and her great granddaughter; Michael and his family
(middle row) l-r: My brother and sister-in-law with their grandchildren; Donald and Gina
(bottom row) l-r: Emily and her family; Jared and his family

There is one picture included in the collage that I didn’t take. I downloaded one of Emily’s Facebook pictures. Dan, Emily and Elise were not with us in person. They were, though, with us in spirit!

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It is now the last day of the year 2015. Happy New Year to each and every one of you. Here are my wishes for you in the new year:

“Great beginning for January…
Love for February…
Peace for March…
No worries for April…
Fun for May…
Joy for June and July…
Achievements for August…
Harmony for September…
Good fortune for October and November…
Happiness for December…”

~Author Unknown

Christmas 2010

Bob and I had a quiet, restful Christmas Eve, just the two of us. We ate an early dinner at Pizza Hut. Pizza Hut was a good choice, as it was offering its all-you-can eat buffet all day Christmas Eve. We didn’t know this was the case when we decided to eat there. In the evening we watched a couple movies, and around 11:00 PM we opened our Christmas gifts. This was the first year that we opened our Christmas gifts on Christmas Eve. We were able to see what we got each other for Christmas and dream about our gifts all night long 🙂 Bob is happy with the Keurig Coffee Maker, a tool set, and a Steelers shirt and sleep pants that I gave him for Christmas. I’m happy with the gifts that Bob gave me too — a Kindle! and a gift card to purchase e-books!

Bob and I celebrated Christmas with my brother and his family at their home on Christmas Day. We celebrated Christmas with my stepdaughter, Stacey, and her fiance Mike at our house the day after Christmas. Our Christmas weekend was wonderful, and I hope the same of yours.

Please click on image to enlarge

Christmas Day and the Day After

Bob and I celebrated Christmas with my brother, Jim, and his family at their house on Christmas Day. It’s a little more than a 2-hour drive to Jim’s house. The weather forecast for Christmas Day was not good. Here, in Warren PA, there was a winter weather advisory for freezing rain until 5:00 PM. Jim lives near Kittanning PA, where there was also a winter weather advisory in effect. The winter weather advisory in Kittanning, though, expired at noon. We left our house late morning, hoping to avoid the wintry weather. We were fortunate not to run into any freezing rain either en route Jim’s house or on our way back home in the evening.

My family’s Christmas tree bursting with gifts

Judy (my sister-in-law), carving the turkey
My nephew, Jared, is overseeing the task at hand.

After dinner, Christmas gifts were opened.

My nephew, Mike, and his daughter Anna

My great nephew, Kaleb
Oh boy, a Triceratops!

Jared handed out gifts
(or should I say, Jared tossed gifts)

I snapped a few family portraits.

My nephew, Mike, and his family
(Mike, Kailey, Kaleb and Anna)

My brother, Jim, and his wife Judy

My niece, Emily

We celebrated Christmas with Stacey and her boyfriend, Mike, at our house the day after Christmas.

Stacey and Mike

We enjoyed good food and the wonderful company of family and friends both days. Time spent with family and friends during the holidays is definitely time well spent. Bob and I hope all of our family members and friends, near and far, enjoyed Christmas as much as we did.