Christmas 2015, Eve

As our Christmas began, we had a great Christmas, with much joy and great memories.  We had a much busier Christmas Eve than ususal because we woke up to a SNOW STORM!  Could not believe it, so instead of lounging around, taking it easy cleaning up as a family, 1/2 the family was outdoor shoveling while me and the younger 1/2 was indoors doing all the clean up but we all finished just in time for a nice lunch and power nap!  We woke and I began dinner, we has a nice fried fish dinner and relax time before we started dressing for midnight Mass.  The outfits worked so nicely without fuss from me this year, since we were on a pretty tight budget, as it seems we are on every year, since the bulk of Steve's work is great in the summer, my funds went to Christmas and not clothes, but I was pleasantly surprised going through the children's clothes I save for them to find 3 very nice velvet dresses for the little girls, the boys we put together nice pants and vests and the big girls came up in very nice outfits...so yeah for us. haha.  Sometimes I make it look just way too easy, its just some sort of dumb luck or something, kidding!!!!  

Mass was beautiful, Tony was the only one that fell asleep and Gwena the last five minutes.  It was very beautiful and the church looked super beautiful.  We went to the church basement for a great meal before heading home.  We had went a little driving for Christmas light sight seeing but with the snow and road conditions it was just a few blocks in the neighborhood of the church, but great to get home and get all snuggled in for our children's Christmas. 

ps...sometimes it takes a bit of time to finally catch the spirit of Christmas in the little ones, lets just say taking pictures of Gwena was a little fun this year. haha

My nephew Jeremy whom lives with us right now

Merry Christmas Letter

Here is the Yearly Christmas Letter, that was included in our Christmas cards this year:

I hope this year has brought you health and happiness, and strength in hard times.  As a good friend reminded me lately, we are all together in the trenches, especially in these times we need more than ever to unite in our vocations.  Faith, family putting our best foot forward and perseverance is the way. 

This year as I’m sure each of us shared its good times and not so good times.  Keep the good times good and pray through the bad times.  For us, we had to deal with two miscarriages which beyond devastating but we were also able to enjoy the children, have 2 little vacations, pursue our own business a little more, see my brother, nephew and mother move close by and enjoy some pretty great milestones. So even though we had shed many tears through the year we also loved and laughed much.

Me and Steve took a night out for our Anniversary this year, it was very quiet and very nice.  On the career front, I developed a blog for Steve’s work and through word of mouth shared it with an email group of the surrounding neighborhoods, he spent much of the summer working for himself and it was greatly rewarding.  We have work scheduled for Spring to pick back up when the weather is permitting.  Many times the kids helped him do the work, schedules permitting so it most certainly is a family affair.  You can see the blog if you like at workbysteve.blogspot.com. I was able to work a little bit on my projects, but a lot of my projects took a back burner as not enough hours in the day, but we did get my new counter done and stair rail. I’m really hoping we can take steps to building a living room in the very near future, we have maxed out our living room in just about every way possible… we’ll have to leave that to God’s timing mostly. Hehe.

Katelyn is doing well at Metropolitan Community College and is in her last year.  She has switched to General Studies with an added certificate in Business Management.  She juggles her job at Jimmy Johns, with her studies and time at home.  She’s become quite fun loving, loves to shop, and hopes one day to find that someone special.  She turned 20 a few months ago. 

Carolyn is also in her last year of college and will earn Bachelor’s Degree as a Sign Language Interpreter next winter.  It’s very exciting to watch her work, and we’ve had the opportunity to observe her sign the National Anthem for College games, minor league ball clubs, etc… She has a friend she is communicating with, but nothing serious as of yet, she juggles her school schedule with her job at Olive Garden and homelife.  She is really good with the kids, has her own car so is helpful for pickup and drop-off times.

Jaclyn is my shocker of the year, she is transferring next year to Automotive Mechanic College, but will finish this year at the University, she is following what interests her.  She has been dating a young Catholic man, and they are very happy planning a future together, we couldn’t be happier with her life choices so far.  She works for Carabas, stays very busy with school, work, homework and even doing homework with Shaun. 

Joseph just got his first job at an Italian Pizzeria, his Archery team placed 2^nd, breaking a 4 year 1^st place streak so this year they are going to work very hard is my guess. He is in the choir at school and likes a very nice young lady, Charlee from a wonderful Catholic family. (Pretty awesome that me and her Mom are really good friends) He spent the summer working for his dad and really likes the ‘trades’ and is considering schooling in heating and air in the future.

Evelyn is now a teenager, probably the most fun and happy teenager you ever met.  Her best friend, Erynne is a perfect match for her, they are so funny together, have been taking dance together and now just joined the school choir together.  I couldn’t have picked a better friend for her myself…(plus I just love her whole family)

Madelyn is at that age, not little, not a teen.  She enjoys well just about everything.  Life is her canvas.  She really likes crafts and reading and she is hilarious.  Her and Michael sometimes are best buddies and other times…well lets just say, not best buddies. Haha.

Michael learned to serve this year and he loves being an altar boy.  He is super smart and talks all the time about all these different facts and statistics, sometimes I have to remind myself to listen. Haha.

Rosie is my sweetie, very loving, very silly.  She received her 1^st Holy Communion this year and loves to read, we have to work a little bit in the area of Math with her. She likes everyone and has the biggest and best smile ever.

Tony is adorable, cute is natural for him.  He says the funnies things, he started kindergarten.  He and Rosie are thrilled crazy that grandma is here, especially when she tells them stories about when she was little, super wide eye and amazed. Haha.  He loves his Uncle Joe along with all the kids, but Uncle Joe is cool to him because he knows he acts and looks like him. 

Gwendalyn, my little baby that’s not so little anymore.  But if you ask her, she says she’s the baby, we tell her she’s a toddler and she says, “…nope I’m the baby” she talks all day long, my nephew Jeremy has recently learned to talk “Gwendalyn” and can understand her toddler talk now.  She talks in complete sentences but you gotta listen at some of the words to hear it clearly.  She is not quite interested in toilet training, but loves to tell everyone else what to do. She loves baby dolls and is loving “Christmas time” ~ Have a great New Year and many prayers for your health & happiness

New Project! Right in time

So we did a quick project, just before Christmas Decorating.  I like it, but its not exactly what I was going for.  But I sanded down the stair rail and we stained it and added stained finished ply wood to the front and back, maybe down the road we will get a nicer wood but it does look good with the stockings in front of it. 

Steve cut the wood for me, I stained it and added a few coats of poly to it, in the future I may add a few more coats of poly to get a little more of a gloss look to it.  

Downtown Choir Singing

Very surprising December, the weather has been glorious!  I cannot believe the mild tempertures.  So this year when the highschool choir went downtown to sing, we went too.  It was so great to watch them.  The whole family enjoyed it.  What was especially nice was to see people stop, and watch for 2, 3, 4 songs, not wanting to leave, and most certainly not crossing them in the middle of a song, I was quite impressed.  

Then we did a few slide down the downtown slides.  It was a great night.