Retro Christmas Party at our Place! December 13, 2008

This is what our table looked like with all the wonderful food that we all pitched in and prepared. I love that my friends are all like me and love to bring a dish to make it easier on the hostess, and since that was me this time, thanks ladies & gents! I love my vintage Santa that stood watch over the treats as we all dug in! Watch out Santa, you'll come to find yourself face down in some pretzels later in the night; not that I'm saying that things got a little out of hand....As you can see from the set up on our carport, people took it serious when we said to "please bring your favorite adult beverage"! The kids in the neighborhood could have snuck up and had a hey day if they'd only known...LOL! I'm glad they didn't though as I wouldn't have wanted to have to explain that to their parents.

Don't you love my vintage plastic snowman and Christmas tree pieces that we mounted to our post, my mom always had these when we were growing up and I'm glad I found some for my house and I even found her some as she had sold hers or lost them in an Air Force move somewhere in our past and they always remind me of where we lived during our times in the Air Force growing up. Don't let these two "tough" looking fellas fool ya - best guys you'd ever wanna know! D. on the left is married to my friend C. (you know, the one who got bit by the donkey....) and L. on the right is our neighbor across the street who has helped me and the hubby more than you could ever imagine since he "took us on to raise" when we moved in the neighborhood! We love them both and their wives too! Thanks for coming guys and for being the first to arrive!

This is my sweet S. (in foreground) and that's T. in the background. S. is the mom of sweet Abbie that you saw in pics from where they came to see my dad at the nursing home and is the sweet daughter of my childhood friend T. and is like a daughter to me as I've been in her life since she was born. I'm so proud of her and love her to pieces and this is the first night that she and her Aunt M. got to snorkel together...you'll understand later that she's still not quite able to keep up with me but I have had years, and years. of practice....I love you S.! At least you gave it a great try and you did way out last your mama!
Oh yeah baby, that's me (in my outfit that I worked in all day getting ready for the party and never got a chance to change ...) and my girl T., and her hubby D.. The music was crankin' and we were gettin' down tonight! We had so much fun and do you think this picture had anything to do with all the "refreshments" on my carport...hmmmmm...... See what you guys missed that weren't able to make it...maybe next year...Me and my girl continue to be "shakin' our groove thing, shake your grove thing, uh huh! At least she was still standing up at this point in the night; you'll see that very soon after this, she had to lay down on my couch for "a long winter's nap"....I love ya honey!

Hey you little sexy thing in your leopard tights and go go boots - you go girl! Enjoy that snorkel and thanks for coming and for my awesome Christmas present light that you guys made for us - we love it and we love you & the hubby!
That's S. having another snorkel and I have no idea what I was doing in this shot. Oh, and I have to thank A. for taking some shots of me at the party since I'm usually behind the lens and after seeing all these shots of me I know why! I look like the lumpy snowmen on my shirt! I'm really going to try and work on that for 2009...wish me luck!

Okay D., I don't mind if you check sports scores on that Crackberry but don't you dare work while you're at my party - you work too much anyway and tonight's all about fun! This is (L to R) D., C., and A., all such great friends that I love dearly and was so, so happy that they could all come and join us for our retro inspired Christmas party. That A. makes one mean bowl of gumbo and my hubby brags about it all year! Do you notice who is all of a sudden missing from this shot...T.; I think that she might have had to make a visit to my backyard and then somehow wound up needing a little nap on my sofa from too much "fun"! Oh, and it was only 9:30 p.m. when we lost her to the sofa but S. and D. weren't quite ready to go yet so we talked her into a little power nap...good thing too, since S. was needing a few more snorkels so that she too, could need a little "nap" later...

Here's Louise, of the now famous Thelma (a/k/a C.) & Louise (a/k/a T.) act having a little snorkel in my dining room. You see, Thelma & Louise (Rita's parents - and oh yeah, they didn't bring her to the party - can you believe it - I know, I know, she's pissed at us but it wasn't my fault...) are my adventurous friends who often times have run ins with the law (remember my story about them and the horse trailer and my NIL...) but sure know how to have fun! Thank goodness they had a designated driver tonight so we could go snorkeling!

D. & "Thelma" (a/k/a C.) chat in my dining room and "Thelma" is sharing a hilarious story with us about her son (I think that's what it was about...) and we were all busting up as it's never a dull moment with these guys. I'm so lucky to have such great friends!
Lullaby and good night, may my good friend T. sleep tight.....and that's all we're gonna say about that...good thing I had a pillow and blanket close at hand...
Okay, so this is a horribly taken photo as I didn't have the camera set to the right aperature as I had to run in and get it and help the hubby find a pitcher of water to wash a little "upchuck" off of A.'s new van door and get a cold rag to put on her face...but this is T's daughter S., letting go of a few appetizers and a number of snorkels in our front yard. Sorry sweetie, I guess you're not quite ready to keep up with your Aunt M. and maybe that's still a good thing...LOL!

We love all of you and thank you so much for joining us for our Retro Christmas party! Sorry it took me so long to get this posted but I was busy celebrating the season, going to parties, wrapping presents, shopping, going to friends, etc.....

I hope you enjoyed!

Stay tuned as I'm going to post more Christmas decoration photos and other stuff from Christmas soon!

My SIL Gets her Masters Degree and we celebrate - 12/12/08

This is my hubby's sister, my SIL, who just graduated with her Masters' Degree and you may not be able to tell it from this picture (sorry about that A.) but she was very excited. My MIL (her mom) hosted a lovely party for her at her home to celebrate on December 12, '08 and invited friends and family to help her celebrate this great achievement. Congrats A.!This is her brother, my hubby, eating candy at the party; you see, he can do that and still never show it, unlike me; I'm so jealous of that! But then again, he's a hard working painter who works off more calories by lunchtime than some people do in a week so he can eat candy, lucky devil!

This is their aunt and uncle on their dad's side, Aunt I. & Uncle G., and you'd never know it but he's 81 and she's 78 and both still doing amazing. Uncle G. plays golf still several times a week and I love them both to pieces as they're a lot of fun and I wish we saw them more...they live just minutes from us but we don't see them that often. I guess we need to work on that in 2009...

This is our nephew B.; I love him and can't believe that in a mere matter of days he's going to be legal to drive! We're so proud of him and he's very talented in school and in Tae Kwon Do where he's a triple black belt (I hope I got that right B.) and he has grown up before my eyes and he's another person that I don't spend near enough time with. He's become a very handsome young man and I'm very proud of him.

This is B.'s mom and dad, my SIL & BIL and they just opened their own Tae Kwon Do school and I think that they're very brave and smart to invest in something they love so much; good luck B & R!

This is my SIL's best friend from grade school, K., and she owns her own hair salon in our fair city and was very proud of her best friend for graduating and brought her cute little son with her to the party where he had fun crawling around on the floor being a typical little man!

This is our Aunt G. on my hubby's side, she is married to my MIL's brother and it was so nice of her to just fly in for this occasion. We don't get to see her or her hubby, Uncle P. near enough. Thank you for coming Aunt G.!

This is my MIL and my SIL's dear friend S. who worked at the hospital with her and we were glad that S. could come and be with us. She had more guests but unfortunately I didn't get pictures of them but we really enjoyed meeting her neighbors that we'd heard a lot about. Congrats again A. and good job on the chili party M..

Estate Sale Treasures on Friday 11/21/2008

Look at all the brand new, awesome Christmas decorations that I got at an estate sale that was held by that company that I like to follow this past Friday, November 21, '08. I thought I had a Christmas addiction but this lady was by far, way, way, way out of control! It was a 6000 square filled house and she literally must have decorated every square inch! And, if you look close, you'll see that almost everything I bought still had the tags on it! I think that every year she threw out last years' decorations and just started over! Must be nice, but fa la la la la for me! I got all this stuff for a little over $50.00 and even some more stuff that I couldn't squeeze into this chair to take the shot!

I'm going to use some of this to make a swag arrangment to donate to the local Senior Citizen center as I volunteered on behalf of my Garden Circle . The Sr. Ctr. holds a charity auction and I'll have fun making it and was going to do it tonight; but, considering the fact that I spent two hours in Walmart buying all of my Thanksgiving food...I'm sure that I wasn't the only woman in there wishing I was somewhere else...

Ho, Ho, Ho, can't wait to use this cute Metal Santa Claus in an arrangement and I got him for $1.00 and the cute set of Santas made from chandelier bulbs I got a set of 6 for $3.00 and may use them on the wreath I'm making.

Stay tuned and I'll post pictures of the wreath/swag I make for the Senior Center.... I'm also gearing up to start my Christmas decorating over the weekend and we'll go to all of our family gatherings and stuff too so I wish all of you a time of truly realizing how blessed we all are and of peace and lots of laughter over the holidays. I'm looking forward to more time with friends and family in the next few days and will post pictures soon!

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!

K.'s Big 5 0 and a little Farckle Fun!

Happy 50th B.D. to K. and a night full of Farckle fun and frolic! You'll see what I mean; just keep scrolling down and enjoy! Wow, I have really been sick for awhile so I got a little behind when it comes to catching you guys up with all that's gone on. So, I'll try and catch you up now as we've been trying to have a little fun while we were all sucking on cough drops and taking antibiotics! C.'s good friend Kay celebrated her 50th BD with us on the 15th at C's house and as you can see; we had a pretty good time considering we were all on cold medicine and cough drops with a little Margarita chaser on the side! Look at the pictures and they kind of tell the whole story - including the kids who thought we "old" folks were even a little fun, playing Farckle, and eating the delicious dinner that T. and D. cooked for all of us.
D.R., hubby of my dear friend from grade school T.; she's the one with the long brown hair, NOT the one I go on the donkey adventures with...read the 65 mile blog for more on that!
These shish ka bobs were just part of the yummy menu; T. also made an awesome cucumber, onion and tomato salad, fresh green beans and we had ribs as well. It was so awesome that I was too busy eating to get a picture of the rest of it!

It was about this time in the night when we heard about the robber who hid in K.'s closet while she stripped down to her house coat...you should have been here to hear this story as we all about wet our pants!

If things weren't out of hand enough when we were playing Farckle; the girls then decided to do some dancing with Kid Rock; you gotta love that we girls still know how to have fun!

I have a few more pictures to post but I'm out of juice tonight and have to get my recipes together for Thanksgiving and make out my grocery list and it's 11:45 p.m. on Monday night so I'd better get to it; but, don't worry I'll post some more pictures but I may not add any descriptions but the pictures tell the whole story....

And, I still have to tell you about the awesome treasures I got this past Friday at an estate sale and then this week at yard sales so stay tuned!