More Christmas Celebration!

We celebrated with Jason's family on Saturday night. It was a nice time to catch up - one of the few times we get everyone in the same room! Rhonda had to work so she wasn't there and Cody showed up late but it was still a nice time. We're headed up north to my cousin's for New Year's....pictures to come!

Vacation!!

Well, we didn't go anywhere, but Jason and I have both been off work which has been really nice. ISU closes between Christmas and New Year's, and Jason had vacation time to use up. I watched Caden the day after Christmas. Karen's sitter takes this week off so she was looking for volunteers - do you think I'd really turn it down? We didn't do much and he didn't sleep much so hopefully he was okay for her that night. On Thursday, I went to a neighbor friend's to scrapbook. I got as caught up as I could since I have some pictures to still print. That evening was our Mary Kay Christmas potluck - it was nice but I had the beginning of cold so that didn't make for much fun!

I spent all day Friday on the couch (except for getting my haircut) feeling crappy!! I took some Nyquil last night and put Vix on my chest and slept pretty good. I'm feeling a lot better this morning, but we'll see as the day progresses. We're going to Karen's tonight to celebrate Christmas, and I sure don't want to pass this along to anyone!

Christmas!

On Christmas Eve, we drove back to Normal...visited Jason's grandma who moved to a nursing home a few months ago. She is doing well but had been sick. It was a quick visit, but we were also able to see Jason's Aunt Judy, too - she was there visiting. Karen, Kali, & Caden came by and we went to church...nice service and the place was packed! Then, we had appetizers at the house.

We lounged around for most of Christmas Day and then had a Christmas Dinner with some neighbors - the Schneringer's and the Colvert's. They are from Nebraska and didn't make the trip back this year so it was nice for them to have some company. It was great food and a good time. We played Password and had a bowling tournament on the Wii...Kylee, the 5-year old won!!

Sorry...no pictures of these two days...what was I doing?!

Williams Family Christmases!

We headed to Freeport on Saturday to celebrate Christmas with my side of the family. The plan was to go to dinner with my college friend, Janell, and her husband, but Janell wasn't feeling well so we went straight to Freeport. My dad's side of the family came to my parent's house on Sunday for our usual Christmas celebration (we used to always celebrate on Christmas Eve, but it has just gotten too hard since just under half of the cousins are now married)...I have about 25 cousins and there are now 10 second cousins! We also found out that my cousin, Carrie, had her little girl...Rori Grace...on Saturday morning!! Congratulations, Carrie & Nate!! It would be crazy if we all exchanged gifts so we just leave that for anyone still in high school or younger. We were missing about 15 people.  Casey with her neice, Ella, & nephew, Hudsyn.

Staci with her son, Brock. Ella is helping Brock open his gift!

Aunt Carol, Staci (cousin), Kristin (cousin), & Kelly (sister-in-law)

Where the guys spent most of the day -- in the basement watching football!

Kristin, Kelly, Michelle, and Aunt Laurie

After celebrating with the big crowd, we opened gifts with the immediate family. This was the second year we have drawn names between the siblings and my parents. It works out really nice because we spend a little more than we did before and it's way less headache! Besides, it's not really about the presents, anyway, right? Of course, eveyone buys from Nicole and Mitchell and they usually end up with tons of stuff. This year, Nicole got a couple games, a portable dvd player, and other odds & ends; Mitchell got a skateboard, soccer goal, and other things.

arrod's brother, BJ, was in town from California visiting. He even got a stocking!

Jason got his "fun" slippers!

Mitchell with his soccer goal!

Kelly gets a new blender!

Nicole with her DVD player (sorry for the crappy quality photo!)

itchell reading Grandma his book that was made by his class!

Dog Hair...ughh!!!

I think everyone probably knows how much I hate dog hair! Kahlua (our 90 pound lab) sheds like crazy. We've done the fur-minating process at a local pet spa here and thought it worked pretty well, but who has time to take their dog in to have this done all the time? A couple weeks ago, we heard that Petco had a fur-minator brush. Jason checked it out online and it was getting some great reviews - the brushes range from $35 - $55 so we wanted to see what other people thought before we spent that on a brush! Well, we got one last night, and I LOVE it!!! I'll probably get addicted to brushing Kahlua now! :-) Here's a picture of her with the hair I got off last night, and it probably only took about 10 minutes!

I'm sure I could have gotten a lot more, but it was 10:00pm. This could become a daily routine. I'd guess that she's going to like it, too!!

Camera & Caden...

Jason and I have been checking the ads for quite some time now for a new camera. We have the Sony Cyber-Shot 3.2 megapixel which we got about five years ago and have known that we really needed to upgrade, but just didn't want to spend a fortune doing so. Today, I saw a great deal in the Office Depot ad...the 7.2 megapixel Cyber-Shot for only $149.99! It's still at least $179.99 at most places, so we made the trek out before church to pick it up. We're still playing around with it, but I'm sure we'll love it!

We also watched CAden last night while Karen had her girls Christmas party. It's been since Thanksgiving that we saw him last so it was nice. I can't believe how much he has changed...his cheeks are getting so chubby and he is still just cute as ever!! Here's an updated picture:

Shopping...

On Saturday, I went with a few neighbor girls (Becky, Cara, Julie, Sarie, & Tisha) shopping in Chicago on the State Farm bus trip. We weren't really sure how the day was going to go since it was snowing, but we had a great time. We got some good deals - 30% off Ann Taylor Loft plus the great Christmas sales already going on. I got some clothes for me (go figure!) and a couple things for the two new cousins this year (Jackson & Hudsyn). Here's picture of the girls (minus Julie - who was still shopping at Nordstrom's Rack):

Neighborhood Progressive Dinner

On Friday evening, our neighbors had a progressive dinner. That means we did cocktails and appetizers at one house, soup and salad at another house, the entree at a third house and then dessert at a final house. There were about 16 people total, and we had a great time! We even did a white elephant exchange at the end...we ended up with a hot water bottle and Chicago Bears fuzzy dice! Here's a few pictures to enjoy!

Obviously...Jason didn't want his picture taken. :-)

Well! There just hasn't been too much going on the past week in terms of blogging...just been working and getting some routine stuff done at home. I got home late from work on Friday so Jason and I headed out to dinner -- we tried to go a new restaurant here called Destihl. It's a microbrewery with a different menu, I've heard. Well, there was a 2-hour wait for two people!! We ended up eating at Logan's Roadhouse and got in in 10 minutes! We just worked around the house on Saturday and then I went to a Christmas play called Freedom's Gift with Karen and Kali. Jason and I made it to church today, but it was a pretty slim crowd with the weather (ice/slush) the way it was. Today is my sister's fiance's birthday so, I'll leave with this...

Happy Birthday, Jarrod!!!

Sorry your Raiders couldn't at least win for you on your birthday!

Update

Things have been busy this week! I had a meeting for work on Friday and Saturday after Thanksgiving. On Sunday, Jason and I went to church, came home for a while, then I drove to Galesburg to buy a dress for my friend's upcoming wedding. Wednesday night was my purse party/wine tasting. It went pretty well, but I was a little disappointed in how expensive the purses have gotten! Probably won't be having another one of those. I might as well buy the real thing for these prices, and I think a lot of other people were feeling the same way. I took my little "sister" to the ISU Women's Basketball game on Thursday night, then drove to Freeport on Friday night. My open house on Saturday went pretty well, although I know there were two people who didn't make the drive because of the weather. It took me 3.5 hours to get home yesterday - much better than the 8 hours it took me to get to Freeport last year! Our driveway and street were the worst - a complete sheet of ice! Luckily, Jason was able to get the durango in the garage. Now, I have another meeting for work today. We'll see how everyone's travels go, it's supposed to warm up to a high of 50 degrees today -- crazy weather!