Holiday Shenanigans

Dec. 13
7th (I believe) annual ladies' Xmas party in Louisville at my friend Kristin's condo. (She and I alternate having it every year.)
We played games (including a wrapping paper fashion show,) made ornaments, ate great food and all-in-all had a great time! I went to bed later than I had in YEARS!!!
Earlier in the day, I celebrated Christmas with my Maysville friends - Amy, Katie and Mindy. It was a terrific time! Katie and Amy accompanied me to the ladies' party.

Dec. 15
My birthday! John took me out to Tony Roma's and bought me the Fair Tax Book. What a happy girl!

Dec. 18
Dinner at Mom and Dad's with Papaw Billy.

Dec. 19
Hord family Christmas (my mom's side) at my Uncle David and Aunt Janie's home. Fun! Fun! Fun!

Dec. 20
Christmas with my parents, brother and his girlfriend, Jana. We ate homemade donuts we made the night before for breakfast! Delicious! We opened all sorts of gifts!
Later in the day we attended the Howard family Christmas get-together at my great-aunt Mabel's. It was great to see everyone!
Dec. 21
Christmas at home. John and I purchased each other a nice elliptical machine, which we received earlier. We opened stockings and poured on the gifts from Santa to Rebecca. :-) She started to show real excitement this year and she understood that Christmas is Jesus birthday. She even went around wishing everyone "Merry Christmas."

Dec. 23
Departed for MN. Once we arrived, the family drove to St. Cloud to celebrate with Grandma Stolpman and the Schrom family. We attended a Christmas Eve service there. Rebecca developed a nasty cold, but was happy to see family and open all sorts of gifts!
Dec. 25
We drove back to Hastings, MN to celebrate Christmas later in the evening with the Carlson clan. Rebecca was in a foul mood due to lack of sleep and the cold. She got a lot of neat stuff though! She enjoyed all the gifts more, later....
Dec. 29
John and Jean's anniversary. We all ate at this super-yummy restaurant in Hampton - I believe.
Dec. 31
John W.'s b-day. We celebrated the New Year at one of Wyatt's friend's homes. He and his wife were very gracious to include us!
Jan.1
HAPPY NEW YEAR!
In between, we ate all sorts of GREAT food, participated in many activities, stopped by the Great Mall (Mall of America) visited with family and had a wonderful time!!!
Jan. 3
Flew to ole KY.

Now, I'm trying to get caught up at home...

Hit-And-Run

On Dec. 10, John, Rebecca and I had a Christmas get-together dinner with some of our friends from Lexmark. We ate at Old Chicago in Hamburg and enjoyed great food and company.

However, on our way home, we were met by some bad company.

We were on the Interstate and within 1-2 miles from our exit. John was driving in the center lane with a car on his right and a semi truck on his left. The semi signaled to get over and John sped up to get out of his way, but the semi driver jerked his rig over and hit the back end of our Saturn (which we just purchased last Jan.) We spun around and for a moment, he pushed us. We spun some more, hit the concrete median divide a couple times and ended up facing the wrong way in the median. The truck drove away.

I thank God for our safety - minus a pretty nasty bruise on my arm, we were all fine. It was a miracle!

Our car, we believe, is totaled. We only had liability on the car since it wasn't worth a whole lot.
Since the police never caught the guy, we are unfortunately out of a vehicle.

We are bummed about the loss of our car, but we are so very thankful we are all still here today! Also, it works out well that I'm at home - John can drive my car!

I guess we'll be car shopping soon....

Anyone know of any good deals on used cars???

Mike Huckabee

On Dec. 2, Joseph-Beth Booksellers in Lexington hosted a Mike Huckabee book signing for his new book, Do the Right Thing.
I believe there was close to 500 people in attendance. So, it was a quick signing and handshake - but very cool nonetheless! I attended the event with my mom, dad and Rebecca.
The book is terrific by the way ;-)

Cute pics

Here she is, at 18 months:
She has really started "helping" me around the house. She actually enjoys putting toys away, "sweeping," "cleaning" things with a rag, "sorting" and "folding" laundry and so forth. I guess I better enjoy it while it lasts!!
On the down side, she is TERRIFIED of the vacuum cleaner.

When she eats not-so-messy food, I allow her to sit in a booster seat.
My mom and dad bought her a swing set, which my dad put together. Here she is in the kiddie swing on Thanksgiving day!

One day, after helping me "fold" laundry, Rebecca took a pair of Daddy's underwear and placed them on her head. My friend's mom commented on this picture and said, "she'll love looking at THIS when she's 16!"

Praise God from Whom all Blessings Flow...

I loved singing the Doxology in the Methodist church I grew up in. I often sing it to Rebecca. There are different versions of the Doxology, sung in many Christian denominations. However, this one is my favorite:

Praise God, from Whom all blessings flow;
Praise Him, all creatures here below;
Praise Him above, ye Heavenly Host;
Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. Amen.

The simply song of praise is fit to be sung EVERY day, but during this Thanksgiving season, let us remember from Whom all our blessings come.

Our family is so very blessed, with wonderful family and friends (yeah, YOU!), with a warm home and good food on our table. I am blessed to be able to stay home with our daughter and John continues to be blessed with good reports from his scans. These are just a few of our many, many blessings.

This Thanksgiving (actually the week prior,) we traveled to Tenn. to stay with my Mom's side of the family in some beautiful mountain cabins. It was a family get-away. We had a great time visiting and bonding with our family and taking in the Pigeon Forge, Gatlinburg, Sevierville attractions.

The Tuesday before Thanksgiving, our family, along with our friend BJ, traveled to Vine Grove, Ky. to dine with our good friends Josh and Jessica Hornsby and their family and close friends at a little German restaurant called the Schnitzel Barn. The food was way yummy and I got overstuffed! The company was first-class!! We so enjoyed seeing our friends and their gracious family! Thank you, Annette! We loved seeing Bill and Judy too! Gosh, we are blessed to have you in our lives!

Here are some pics of Rebecca enjoying the company of other toddlers in our party (Mason and Trey) at the Schnitzel Barn:

On Thanksgiving day, we supped at Mom and Dad's home with the immediate family, my Papaw, (Rebecca calls him "Great" - and he is!) and Robert's girlfriend, Jana.

This past Saturday, we ate lunch at my Mamaw Howard's home. Much of the family was there and it was great to visit and see how much my younger cousins had grown!!!

Mmmmmm M&M's!

Rebecca loves M&M's. I let her try them for the first time around Halloween, and she has been requesting them ever since!

We have been successfully using them to teach colors. We'll ask her what color the candy is before she gets one or she'll request certain colors herself.

Here are a couple pics of her eating M&M's (AFTER dinner, of course.)

Halloween

Rebecca dressed as a turtle for Halloween, an evening which we spent in Maysville.
Rebecca visited some family members mid-afternoon and John, Rebecca and I saw a few friends that evening. One of the pictures is with our friend, Amy, holding Rebecca. Some other shots were taken at my parents' home and at the home of James and Sarah Winter.