Let The Games Begin!!!

Hey there, Everyone!?

I pray your Thanskgiving gatherings were all filled with good food, friends, family, and plenty of time to reflect and count your blessings! Our weekend was full... of all of the above!

We had my sister, Karinna and her family come 'home' on Wednesday... they stayed until Sunday afternoon! Karinna has always been one of my very best friends... I have missed her more than I knew... I am blessed in that she lives just a short drive away... however, our lives are full and busy and they rarely travel anywhere - so that leaves it up to me to visit there usually! So - it was great to have them home for Thanksgiving!

I had the best of intentions of actually photographing the FOOD this year... getting great photo's of the feast - but - with 14 hungry people - and a buffet style set up - well - it was just not gonna happen! Instead, I got a blimpse of the line... although - it was near the end anyway...

We did also use my fun Basic Grey Thanksgiving Tags and I will (as you can guess) make a layout with them in our family Scrapbook! Everyone played this year without too much grumbling! LOL! Hey - maybe it really IS becoming a family tradition now?!

I battled a cold/ear infection/sore throat much of the weekend... not too much fun!? But - praise God - it never did knock me totally out... I did not however go out at all on Black Friday! I am not a huge Day after Thanksgiving Day shopper anyway... I look every year - but usually I am done shopping - or nearly done... this year - I had barely started - but still - there was nothing that was luring me out of my bed that early in the morning to deal with the likes of Darcie! LOL! (Oh come on... you know it's true!) Oh - but... my DH gets MAJOR Bonus Points... because he went out super early and braved the madness to get me some medicine and herbs... and even brought home breakfast too! What a guy!!! I didn't even ask!

Saturday the entire family went to see Happy Feet... too cute! So fun... LOVED the music - no surprise there! LOL! I think I laughed out loud more than my daughter... I thought that there was a LOT of sexual references for a children's animated movie - but hey?! Maybe that is just me?! Overall though - it was entertaining - if not a bit too long! I thought they could have cut out a lot towards the end and it would have been even better?! Still - fun time!!! Oh - a pricelss Dave/Everybody Loves Raymond-Dave moment... we go and prebuy our tickets - at my insistence that if we didn't it would be sold out... (so glad I was right on that one... the ticket gal was like - oh wow - how many?! Good thing you are here early!?) anyway - we buy the tickets nad then head out for lunch... then we go back to the theater. We were told with that many of us - we should get there at 2... so - we show up at 2 and there is already this huge line in the lobby. Now - these people are obviously in line for Happy Feet. The sign in the lobby just said "Please wait in Lobby" But - these people all formed a line. Dave - my own personal Raymond - decided that we should just wait in the lobby - but once the 'cord' is open - we can go down and enter the second entrance to the screen house and get seats that way. Now - most of us were giving him a hard time about not getting in line... he pointed out that it doesn't say to form a line - but to simply wait in the lobby... amazing to me... if I would have done this - someone (again - yes - like Darcie) would have given me a ton of crap about it - with good reason!? After all - they were there earlier than us - and they are wanting a good seat as well... but once that cord was down - they were all entering the tiny entrance - and Dave took off for the second entrance... it would be one thing if it was just two of us - but there was a dozen of us?! LOL?! We all followed Dave - our leader - whom we planned on blaming if anyone complained... but - no one did?! Not a one!? Hmph?! Apparently - everybody really DOES love "Raymond"!?

Anyway - then Sunday - we woke up to SNOW!!!! I am talking a LOT of snow... snowball fighting, snowman makin', slippin', slidin', several inches of snow! So - what did we do?! We had a BBQ of course! LOL! We really did... we had a family BBQ and enjoyed one last meal together before my sister and her family cautiously headed back home!

What a great weekend... we played games, talked, ate a LOT of food, laughed, sang, goofed off, and just enjoyed being all together. We had several moments of reminsicing and talking about the good ol' days... several serious conversations and deep meaningful discussions... several times to give thanks - to God... and out loud to each other! There is something so powerful in telling those we love - that we love them... and why! I don't know about you - but I am pretty good at talking with God about all that stuff - but I can forget to really get specific in telling my loved ones WHY I love them!

Since I am still fighting off this cold - I am not in the midst of decorating anything yet... but - I am sure by the weekend - I will be! I also have to finish up with my cards and start writing my Christmas Letter too... I went out and did a bit of Christmas shopping today too - so I think I am about halfway done now! My normal deadline is December 10th - but that includes everything - stocking stuffers, all the gifts, packages mailed, cards/letters out and the whole show! I am pretty sure I will make it this year even though I had such a late start!

So - I have not scrapped anything... been working on Christmas cards for now... and yes - I am STILL WAITING for photo's from our trip!?!?

Hope you are all well... Off to work on cards tonight!!!

Scrap Happy!
~Karrilee~