Christmas Eve...... 2011

How much fun to have everyone here for the holidays. Grammy and Papa came in at the beginning of the week and then Grandma came in mid week. Ashley to say the least was super spoiled. Mommy had to work a lot over the holidays but Ashley did not miss a beat. Grammy took her to Gymboree and they made a cute card for Mommy & Daddy...


Grammy took her shopping and spent some real quality time with Ashley. Papa as usual got the playful side of Ashley. She loved untying his shoes and teasing him with her toys.

On Christmas Eve Ashley came down with a cold. Runny nose and a slight fever. When I got home from work we canceled going to midnight mass. Grammy & Papa went and they said it was beautiful.

Daddy got his book prepared and read Twas the night before Christmas to Ashley...




After story time Ashley went to bed and then it was time to get the tree set up so that Santa could put the presentsssssss under it.

Santa & Me

I hear the nightmare stories about Santa and babies that are 2. Ashley was right on the border this year and I was not sure how she was going to react to Santa.

As I put her on his lap she looked at him and then looked at us and started to smile. I think she knew his was planning on bringing her a lot of goodies for Christmas.


The other 2 pictures are from her Christmas photo session.

Our Little Rudolph....

Ashley caught a little bug on Christmas Eve. She had a runny nose and a little fever. We gave her some medicine and lots of love which got her feeling better. It took a few days but it did not let it bother her. She was still all over the place.

Baking Cookies wiith Grammy

On Christmas Eve we needed to bake cookies for Santa. Grammy and Ashley did a great job. Grammy put it all together and then Ashley got to squeeze out the dough and decorating them was so much fun with all the colorful sugar crystals.

Here is the plate Ashley left out for Santa.

Daddy's Birthday....

It was great... Grammy & Papa got here in time to spend Mark's birthday with us.

We did cards and the went out for a REALLY nice dinner at a Prime Steakhouse. Ashley was so well behaved as usual. We always get compliments on how good she is in restaurants.


I'll add some photos in this section soon.


Anyway.. Happy Birthday DADA....

Black Friday Shopping

OK this goes out to you crazy people who go out and wait in 10 hour lines and stalk the stores until midnight...... CRAZY....

My mom and I went to Toys R Us and the line was wrapped in the parking lot 6 times, Kholes was wrapped around the building, Walmart was a complete mad house. We went to Macy's and waited for the doors to open about 200 people behind us and we entered the store moved to the left and watched these CRAZY people go wild over minimal sales..... We went into Kholes and the lines were wrapped in and out of the isles all around the inside of the building to check out.

Unless there is something that I just can't live without and it is dirt cheap... no way I would wait in these insane lines for hours..... I do not have the patience..... The stores only do limited quantities and I know my luck... I would be behind the person who got the last of what I wanted...

Happy Thanksgiving

Nothing is better than looking through the sales ads on Thanksgiving day and planning a night of shopping. Here is Ashley becoming a part of the tradition.



Yummyyyy Yummmyyyy.........


All Done..........


Full Belly.............


Time to walk off the meal.........




Thanksgiving was very relaxing. We had dinner and then after dinner everyone stopped in to say hi. Loretta's family, Jennee's family, Cheryl and Bill, and Lenny's whole gang. It was great seeing everyone.

I am very Thankful.

Turkey Trot

Every year St. Petersburg Times hosts a Turkey Trot 5K. Loretta has made it a tradition and this year since Mark & I were in town we joined. As usual we were a little late so Loretta and Randy went ahead. Mark & I did the 5K with Ashley. Here are a few pics from the run....

Here is Emmie and Ashley after the run with Loretta...









One amazing site that we stumbled across was the SMILEY FACE balloon. If you don't know the story here is a quick update. My dad would always run to Walgreens and pick up a smiley face balloon whenever there was a hurricane off the coast. He would tie it down on his back dock. This tradition was done to keep the hurricanes off shore. I know it was a crazy tradition but it was my dad's thing. For the most part it worked. Ft Lauderdale never got a direct hit from any storm. So anytime I see this balloon I think of him and I know he is still with us. While we were walking we saw a random balloon tied to a mailbox. Look at how the picture shows a burst of sun shining on the balloon. The sun was shining directly on us. I know it was my dad...

Plane Trip to Tampa for Thanksgiving

For Thanksgiving , we decided at last minute to go to Clearwater to visit mom for a couple of days. Here is Dada teaching Ashley the ins and outs of flying.

Time to catch up....

I will be catching up the blog over the next week....sorry... we are in the heat of season at the restaurant and I have been working a ton......

So look for post to cover Nov-Feb.