Christmas

Christmas this year will not be documented properly. Somehow I didn't take pictures of Ben's dad's Christmas Eve "Pirate" party, and we didn't get to spend time with the rest of Ben's family. Next year I will do a better job.

Me and Ben and the Dicken's Festival

Gift from a student

More gifts from my students, using all the words I hate. 

Christmas day, Ben and I drove down to Grandpa's house to spend the morning with my family. 

Stephanie and her son, Gavin

Pappy's opening a present

Grandpa's present

Niece Kami's turn to open a present.

I played Santa Claus this year. Like my Christmas jammies?

Ben's very excited to open presents

After Christmas, I took advantage of all the after-season clearance sales and I bought a tiny tree and ornaments to put in my classroom next school year.

My classroom Christmas tree

Christmas Trees

This Christmas, my family decided to chop down our own trees together. My sister and her family live near Lily Lake where you can buy permits to cut down Christmas Trees, so we all headed up.

It was gorgeous! Over a foot of snow on the ground, fog, not too cold. Perfect.

You can see my brother, Jason, just to the left in the distance.

Here is Jason's new wife, Sheena, heading up to meet him.

Here is Kevin.

Bundled up and toasty warm.

I love Charlie Brown trees, and luckily for me, they were plentiful. I was the first to find a tree with the help of Jason and Sheena. 

   

Kevin was looking for a short but fuller tree. Sadly there weren't any full trees. However, he found a suitable one.
 
Jason and Sheena have tall ceilings so they were able to get a taller tree.



 

Jason and Sheena; Kim, Neil, Kami and Devan; Kevin.

Kevin; Jason and Sheena; Kim, Devan, and Kami; me.

Charlie Brown before decorations.

Charlie Brown, after.

Kevin, Stephanie and Gavin's tree. 

Kim, Neil, Devan, and Kami's tree.

 Still waiting for a picture from Jason and Sheena.

This past October we used a free photo session that I won in a drawing to have family pictures taken. The photographer wasn't great to work with, but it was FREE! Here are a few of the results.

The whole family

 Me and Ben

 The boys

The girls

 Great grand kids

 Grand kids

 Grandpa and Gavin

  The siblings

2012 Witchie Show

It's Halloween again!

Pumpkins eating pumpkins. Tasty

That means it's time for the ladies to get dressed up in our witchie suits and go to the Gardner Village Witches Night Out, or as I like to call it: The Witchie Show!

Me, niece Kami, Kim

Me, niece Kami, Kim

This year we added 2 extra witchies: niece Kami and new sister-in-law, Sheena.

Me, Stephanie, Kim, Kami, Sheena, mom

Me, Stephanie, Kim, Kami, Sheena, mom

Jason and Sheena got married!

My babiest brother, Jason found the most perfect girl to marry: Her name is Sheena. They are so ideal for each other: they met on a shooting range, they love to hunt, camp, fish and play with their dogs. Sheena is a girl version of Jason, only much cuter.

The wedding ceremony

Officially hitched

Gorgeous setting for wedding pictures

Brother-in-law Neil with Devan and Kami

Me

The happy couple

The wedding cake

The groom's cake