Christmas was beautiful this year! We had a houseful.....it was quite busy! As most of our readers know, my best friend, Mel, passed away 1 year ago. Her daughter, Jazmine, has become a member of our family...we love her just like our own! This year she was able to spend her Christmas vacation with us. This was a very special time for all of us. A super Thank You goes out to all of Mel's friends that sent Jazzy Christmas gifts, cards, letters...everyone was read and cherished by Jazzy. I can truly say she had a memorable Christmas.
All of our grown children made it home also! They all took their vacation times to spend 10-12 days with us. We stayed up late Christmas Eve, wrapping presents, laughing, hugging and totally enjoying each other's company.
Christmas day took about 5 hours to open gifts! We have a tradition where we start with the youngest, watch her open one gift, then go to the next person. Soooo when you have 13 people in your house....it takes a while to watch everyone open their gifts! It was lovely!!
During the two week time, we played a lot of cards, board games, pool, ping pong....tons of jumping on the new trampoline (everyone realized then how out of shape they were)...cooking, eating, drinking, staying up way too late and sleeping in way too late...laughed and hugged a ton...
For New Year's Eve, we all got to be treated like royalty at the movie theater. Elaine, our new friend who works at the CFF office, also works at the Regal theater. She arranged a lovely experience for all of us. 16 of us (all staying at our home at the time) arrived at the theater, Elaine greeted us with warm smiles and hugs, then we had a tour of the upstairs where they have the films. It was amazing! All the movies are in one long room. At this theater, most of the movies are still real film, only one was digital. Zoe was the special guest, so everyone else went down to the 'reserved' section for us to watch the new Narnia movie. Zoe stayed up top with Dad and Mom, to wave at everyone through the window, then push the button to start our movie! It was fantastic! After, Elaine had Narnia t-shirts, silly bands, notebooks and posters for all! Thank you Elaine!
Then a lovely dinner at Pepper's Mexican Cantina....fireworks and champagne at our home later to bring in 2011!!
The luggage 'piggy tags' were special to give to Jazzy for her new luggage(thanks to gift cards from Mel's friends)...they were mine and everytime I went to Mel's house, she was always wanting my 'piggy tags' for her luggage. So, I gave them to Jazzy and told her the story. We both were in tears....
It was a magical time...as my sister-in-law, Courtney sais....I LOVE MY LIFE!!!
slideshow above
Zoe for Life.... Our journey with Cystic Fibrosis....
Thank you for sharing the holiday with us. The slide was wonderful. It really looks like a great time was had by all. You have a beautiful family...Inside and out
ReplyDeleteMichelle vermeland