Holiday Hangover

I copied the title of this post from my friend Mara. It's a perfect title for a post-holiday post, after I dragged myself out of bed and into work this morning. We sure had a fun, Fun, FUN Christmas! Here is the family Christmas ornament for this year... cubes make perfect ornaments for our family because there are six kids.

We started the holiday with Christmas Eve at my Aunt and Uncle's house in Hacienda Heights. The whole family gets together for great food, games, dancing....

... and a visit from the BIG GUY!

The next morning... LOOK! Santa came to our house too!

We spent the morning opening presents at home.

Then came the fun playing with presents, Jim cussing out the new Tivo, and eating our traditional Christmas morning cinnamon rolls... the secret are the crushed red hots!

After a nice relaxing celebration at home, we head over to my mom and dad's for a big family opening! It's fun seeing my brother's kids get all excited over the presents, they are just at the perfect age to really get into it! {sigh} When did my kids get so old?

Merry Christmas, ALL!

AND to all a good night!

Happy December Birthday!

Last week was such a busy week that I didn't get a chance to mention my nephew's birthday. We have another teenager in the family!... BIG 13!

How do you like the birthday tower! With all those candles, it's lit up like a Christmas tree!

Here's what a Christmas birthday looks like. What a festive group!

Look at these cuties enjoying some birthday "cake"!

At a Christmas Birthday, we must have karaoke Christmas Caroling!

And we have the appreciative spectators...

Happy Birthday, Noah!

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas Everyone!
Here are the Christmas cards I sent out this year... It's different than the ones I've sent out in the past. I got the cute button stamp set and Christmas paper from PTI.


This adorable stamp made us LOL when my friend Mary sent it to us on a card last year. Mary stamped me a few images to sent to our dog loving neighbors this year!

For the envelopes, I used the PTI button stamp set again. I punched a button shape out of Fun Foam and used it to stamp the envelopes... a nice non-bulky alternative to buttons.

Merry Christmas again to ALL!!!

Happy Winter!

I looked at the calendar and today is the first day of Winter! Here's what winter looked like at my house today... what is it like where you live?

Designing Friday-5

Christmas shopping is done. I have my Christmas cards written and addressed. The tree and lights are up. I was going to do a Christmas post, but I didn't take any photos of our Christmas prep... I'm such a bad scrapbooker!

So instead I'll share Chris's new passion... Graphics design... He taught himself how to use Photoshop CS3 and has been experimenting. He thinks he might want to go to college and study to be a graphics designer. Let me show you 5 of his favorite designs.

What do you think? Does the boy have a knack for this?

Most Outstanding Offensive Player!!!

Cheryl came home from her college soccer banquet and announced, "I was voted most offensive!" And of course we responded, "You should remember to wash your uniform between games!" LOL!

Seriously, We are so proud of Cheryl! She is Saddleback College's most outstanding offensive player for 2009. Which is quite a surprise since she played offense only in the last five games (Up to then, she was a defender). She scored three goals in those five games which made her Saddleback's highest scoring player.

Congratulations Cheryl! What a way to end your college season!

Festive Friday 5

What's Christmas without a little JibJab FUN?! LOL! I have a few family photos I'd like to share this festive Friday!

The first photo is of Grandma baking cookies...
Bake them cookies, Grandma!

Look! Here's Papa hanging up his Christmas lights! For real this time, LOL!

Me and Jim (Santa in training) hehehe...

Cheryl and Chris having some sister and brother fun!

Merry Christmas from our family to yours!!!

Elf Yourself!!!

These are so funny! How can I resist?!!!

Try JibJab Sendables® eCards today!

Friday 5 - Welcome December!!!

It's December already! The company insisted that everyone take all their 2009 vacation days and 1/2 of their saved vacation from previous years. Well I took 5 of my 7 days for a week off during the summer, and I'm adding one day to Christmas weekend and one day to New Years weekend. Since I have no carry-over days, that's it for me. A majority of my department is off for most of December. That makes it extra busy for those of us that are there. The holiday season will be a little hectic... thank goodness for online shopping!

Speaking of Christmas... LOOK! My dad hung up his Christmas lights!

Now imagine my kids seeing this picture... They smile, they laugh, they shake their heads, and say, "Paaaaapaaaa...." LOL!

We had a great time at the Jeff Dunham show last weekend. Jeff Dunham was so funny... It started with Guitar Guy opening the show, then they took a 20 minute intermission. Then Jeff Dunham came out and did a 2 hour show! We didn't get home until almost midnight. We laughed and laughed! The next morning, Cheryl got up and said that her cheeks were sore from laughing so much the night before.

As promised here is my report on the turkey trot. Chris and I ran the 10K at 8am... it was a lot colder there than it was at home.
I was wearing a tank top and ended up pulling on a t-shirt over it for the race. It was the biggest 10K ever with over 3500 people running!

Here is me running in my humongo t-shirt. I was hoping to finish in the 53 minute range, and ended up finishing in 51:06! YAHOO for me! Since I ran in the 50-55 year group this year, I thought I'd place really well... NOT! I came in 10th out of 134 in my group. I think that ladies over 50, who are racing, are more dedicated to running than the younger groups. There tend to be fewer walkers.

Here's Chris in this typical orange shirt. He said when he talks to others when he's running, they call him the orange-shirt-guy. He ran in the 16-19 year age group made up of mostly high school cross country runners. He finished in 43:14, 14th out of 66 in his age group. He said he was going at cruising speed, not race-pace. WOW!

Today, Cheryl wants to take me to see New Moon, and I think we'll try and get some Christmas shopping done.
Have great weekend everyone!

Friday 5 - Happy Thanksgiving!!!

It seems like it was just Halloween! I can't believe that it's Thanksgiving already! The year is just flying by... This Thanksgiving weekend starts with my birthday. Yep! 50yrs this weekend! I doesn't bother me... 50 is just a number, and I don't feel 50. I don't think I look it either and my very wonderful family supports me on that, hehehe... thanks, guys!

We had a great dinner at one of my very favorite places, TODAI! I got some wonderful presents too... lots of GCs for GAP (my favorite store). Cheryl and I braved the crowds at the mall and went shopping today! The kids got me a giant tootsie roll, lol! Not really, but you've got to admire the wrapping job. They got me a foam roller (Hey, Mara, I have a foam roller now! YIPEE!!) Jim surprised me with tickets to see Jeff Dunham at the POND! It's for tomorrow night, and I'm so excited!

Here is a photo of Chris giving his Thanksgiving toast (it's for extra credit in Spanish class). My cousin held Thanksgiving at her house this year. She just finished some major remodeling. Her house is gorgeous! I especially LOVE her kitchen. Hopefully, I will get the chance to do mine next year.

Before heading to my cousin's for Thanksgiving, Chris and I ran the 10K Turkey Trot in Dana Point. It was clear and COLD! We both PR'd... I wanted to finish in 53 minutes, and ended up finishing in 51! YAHOO! Chris left me in the dust, finishing in 43 minutes and this was without even trying. He said that he was going at cruising speed instead of race pace. I'll add more about the Turkey Trot in a future post.

I finished the Cross Country photo albums! 78 albums and just over 2000 photos! I still need to finish the frames for the seniors, hopefully by the end of this weekend. I've got to get moving on them... the banquet is coming up next week!

On the way to the mall, Cheryl and I stopped for our first RED CUP of the season! Now the season is offically underway! Here comes Santa Claus...

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!

Weekly Sports Report

Here is the LAST sports report of the year. Cross country is over and now so is soccer. Cheryl ended the season with a BANG as she scored the tying goal in the very last game of the season! She said that the ball bounced off the goalie, then the goalie charged out to get it. Cheryl had her back to the goal, reach out, just managed to get her toe on it, and volley-ed it back towards the goal... just at the goalie crashed into her. As Cheryl was laying on the ground with the goalie on top of her, she was thinking, "I wonder if that went in..." IT DID! Saddleback finishes the season with a TIE! Here's the story from the Saddleback website:
http://www.saddleback.edu/athletics/Soccer/2009.html

... and the good news is... SADDLEBACK DID NOT FINISH IN LAST PLACE!

On to other good news... the Quakes last game was another WIN! They finished their BRONZE season in FIRST PLACE and will move on to SILVER next year! Congratulations Quakes!