Ornaments

I have some Christmas ornaments that I made years ago. They are Edna Looney designs and made with felt and sequins. I think I like them as they remind me of some of the projects my mom made many years ago when felt and sequins were so popular. They are some of the first ornaments I hang on the tree every year. I have lots of them, but have resisted the 12 Days of Christmas set. That would be a little over the top. Other than that I think I have all the designs. They are no longer available in stores, but I have found some on eBay. As I was putting them away this year I thought I would share a few of them with you. Here's a sampling of some of my favorites.

Christmas Day with the Sessions

The Sessions Family came over after their morning gift opening. I always like to have a little project for the girls to do as we are waiting for dinner to be ready. This year we made beaded Christmas Trees.

Amber, Jennie, Lexi and Jodie are working on their trees.

Here's a close up of a few of the finished trees. We had lots of fun combinations.

I made Lexi, Jodie's boyfriend Rich's daughter, 3 hats to go with her pink coat. My sister Julie made her the scarf. She was pretty happy with all her new things.

I gave my great niece Rylie a box of dress up clothes. These little ones move so fast that we really didn't get any pictures of the great expressions on her face. She just loves all the girlie things and was sooooo excited about this box of goodies. Of course she wanted to put them on right away.

She has a few things on, but there is more in the box. Notice the Hello Kitty water bottle in the background. Ahhh, aren't little girls fun!!!

Wow, even a pink harmonica that makes great music!

Here is one happy little girl. She now has her halo, necklaces, gloves, tutu, purse - with the harmonica probably inside, and her shoes which you can't see.

So the boys aren't left out of all the fun they had Lego surprise packages in the Christmas Poppers on the dinner table. It was fun that they were all different.

Christmas Day

Christmas 2010. What a fun and exciting time to be with family and friends. It looks like Santa definitely found our house.

Though the kids are grown they still like their sock gifts the best. Well, the gifts have sort of outgrown the socks and are now delivered in gift bags. Here are Jennie and Will's socks...

and Amber and Jerad's.

Amber and Jerad with their socks (bags).

Jennie is having a great time finding the treasures in her Santa Sock.

Ron likes these funny T-shirts.

Amber with her new external hard drive so she can back up her computer.

Ron made Jennie another bowl. This one has horseshoes with a copper band as she has some copper accents in her kitchen.

The gifts have been opened and the clean up begins.

Heron

This guy definitely was not in the Christmas spirit, unless he thought I was going to provide his dinner. These birds are sooooo patient and can stand perfectly still for the longest time just waiting for the fish to get close so they can snatch them. Now he is getting even braver and has moved onto the net support.
Look at him checking out my Koi. However, what you can't see is that next he walked right out onto the net. At that point he saw me move and took off before I could get a picture. We are pretty confident that he can't get through the net to get the Koi. Anyway, I sure hope he can't.

The BEPT Christmas

Jennie and Will have their house decorated beautifully for Christmas. They like the brown tones and continue that even into their holiday decorations. Mmm, like yummy Christmas chocolate.

We get together with Dave and Amy for a little Becker, Evans, Parson, Thompson (BEPT) Christmas. It's always great fun getting together with them for freindship and food. This time we get to have presents, which is even more exciting. Jennie and Will

Carole and Ron

Amber and Jerad

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas!

Here's a quick look at some of our adventures in 2010. We are enjoying retirement as it gives us time to get away, go to fun places and do exciting things. As you will see we are making good use of our motorhome and that is what retirement is all about. Grand adventures with great people! We wish you a very Merry Christmas and the best in the year to come.

Carole and Ron

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Cookie Party

The girls; Jennifer, Amber, Jodie, Cara and their friend Jen K, get together to make Christmas cookies. This year Julie thought we could help them out by making the rosettes before they got busy making their cookies. So, I headed over the Julie's after lunch and by 2 we were finished. We cleaned up our mess and the kitchen was ready when the girls arrived at 3. Here's Jen K., Jennifer, Jodie, Amber and Cara ready to start their cookies.
Look at this pile of chocolate chips! I seems a lot of recipes need them. Mmmmm...

Checking the recipe and getting the ingredients together. Each girl chooses a recipe and the bake-off is on!!

A Day in Seattle

My friend Cathie and I headed to Seattle for a day filled with fun. We started by having lunch at the Seattle Art Museum. While we were eating Amber called and told us we needed to go to the Sheraton to see the gingerbread houses. Since we had some time after lunch and before we could enter the Picasso Exhibit (the tickets are for specific times) we headed that way. These houses were huge! Take a look and you'll see what I mean.

After the Gingerbread Houses we were off to SAM to see the Picasso Exhibit. Ah, from one type of art to another. It was amazing to see the "real work" of one of the masters that I had studied in college. I wish I could show it to you, but due to museum rules no pictures were allowed. We couldn't even take a picture of the sign as we entered the exhibit. However, if you would like to see some of the work on display you can click on http://www.picassoinseattle.org/.

Next we met Jennie and Ann, the lady she rents from in Seattle, for dinner at a fun little Italian restaurant within walking distance of Jennie's Seattle house. Mmmm, delicious dinner. After dinner we were ready for a little shopping at University Village. The lights and decorations were so festive and we had a great time. Here are Cathie and Jennie just as we were heading to the car. As you can see they both have packages. I believe those are Christmas gifts.