Christmas Eve (a little late)

We headed out to the city to meet up with our surprise visitors and have a little outing on the streets of San Fran. They were staying at the 4 seasons hotel. Quite nice - maybe one day......
So here's a little tour of our evening.
The view from the 4 seasons hotel
Andrew and cousin Eli - the only boy cousins - heading out to the streets of San Fran
Christmas Eve dinner of Kobe beef, lobster and yummy other things. Oh yeah, check out the $1000 a piece Tiffany plates.









10 of the 15 cousins
Hubby & me, brother Jared & wife Mari, mom & dad, brother Adam & wife Wendy, sister Daphne

Christmas Surprise!

What a day! I had choir practice in the am for tomorrow, Rebecca is singing a solo in the program (a first ever - cross your fingers that she'll really do it! I know she will) When I got home we hurried to get the house cleaned up for a special surprise! The kids had NO idea that their cousins were coming to see them all the way from Park City! They were going to surprise me, too, but they had mercy on me because I was having a melt down about the dishwasher (we got a brand new one. hat post will be after Christmas). So they appeared on out door step this morning and my kids were so surprised. I wish I knew exactly what time they were coming so I could have my camera. We had a fun day, mom and sisters were here, too. They will be here until Christmas morning. They came just to be with us and all our family. We are so blessed to have such a wonderful loving family! I hope you all get to spend the holidays with yours, too. I may not be back until after Christmas, so until then:

Have a wonderful Christmas and may the Lord bless you and your families! Thank you all for being a part of my "world"!

Dishwasher story...

OK, so if you've read about our wonderful (sarcasm) landlady, you'll get this. So about a month and a half ago, our dishwasher kinda quit on us. It wasn't rinsing the dishes. Mind you the DW is only 1.5 yrs old, but it was the cheapest model our LL could get. She had to replace the really old one because it had been leaking under the floor for who knows how long, but that's a whole other story!

Sooo.... she was SO VERY upset because this brand new dishwasher wasn't working, which I'm sure was out fault... She wanted to buy a part that she THOUGHT might be the problem and wanted us to pay 1/2 (of $100). To which I replied - NO.

This fell by the wayside, she had family stuff going on, while we quietly hand washed dishes - yes, Thanksgiving dishes, too - for a month. (talk about missing something!!!)

She finally called about a week ago to tell me she had complained to the DW people but to no avail, she had to fix it. I kindly offered to check on Craigslist (a favorite) for a newish, cheap DW. She agreed. SO my hunt was on. I replied to a post from Walnut Creek - very close to me - and who should respond but Heidi M - a friend both in and out of blogging. They had just purchased it the day before in Napa, but it didn't work for them. I'm thinking it was a God thing here! I love those!

Sooo.... Saturday after a day of baseball (my next post) we picked it up from Heidi and we installed it. Well my husband was the brute force getting the old one out but I intstalled it. I felt very IMPOWERED! You should try it sometime :)

Here's a little glimpse of us hard at work...

Withdrawls....

Our stupid internet router went out on us yesterday! I was informed that it was over 1 yr old (actually 2) and we would have to but a new one! Crud! So after work, Mark met me and we went to fry's. Stupid person told me this one would work and att told me it wouldn't. So off to Best BUy - got the right one and I'm back online. You never really know how much you miss something until you can't have it! I've got a bunch to post about a busy weekend, with pictures to boot. Especially the one with me installing a dishasher! The kids have missed the computer as much as I have. They're in line behind me!

Thank YOU, Paige!

I have a blog frien, who I know personally now. I would link you to her blog, but I don't know how! Her name is Paige. What I know about her is tht she is willing to take time out of her busy schedule and cute up my blog!!!! I'm hoping to have a blog party in January and maybe she'll give us a tutorial - by the way, you're all invited :) I'm thinking the week of the 21st (my boss is gone all week - so no work). So here's props to PAIGE! Thank you, thank you, thank you!!! I'll send you some of my pretzels (a future blog :)

Our tree

I guess it's time to post a picture or 2 of our tree (now that it's finished :)



































AND my favorite wreath that my mom made for me :)

Christmas Work Lunch

So... for our work Christmas "PARTY", our Dr. takes us out to lunch, at the Olive Garden. I think it one of his favorite places. He treats us all and we ALWAYS get dessert. I had my camera, but I forgot to take pictures of the food. But I did get a picture of all us gals and the Dr.

Christmas Lights

If you want a really neat home to visit for Christmas lights come to this house. It's On NewYork dr (near me). As I would walk by this house every morning on my walk, I wondered what in the world these people were thinking. They had lights EVERYWHERE. On the roof on the sides of the house, every tacky looking plastic Christmas character you can imagine. I thought how awful it will look lit up.

Boy was I wrong. This family has a radio station - that you can only hear if you are parked outside their home. The lights dance to the music!!!! It is so fun and amazing to watch. If you want the address, I'll get it. I don't know it exactly, but I know it's on New York Dr (or street or whatever)

Merry Christmas!

Ornamental

Do you have a favorite ornament? I do....