6 Months!

I bet you gave up on me ever returning to this blog.  Heck, I even thought of giving up on it....but as always, I am drawn back.  I still love this blog and appreciate all of my readers, especially those who have been so faithful and have continued to check back day after day, week after week, and month after month.

Well, here I am!  Alive, well, and as always very busy.  Christmas is the day after tomorrow, and I can't believe that the last time I posted it was summer time and we were in the pool every day, enjoying the warm weather, etc.  Honestly, I don't know where the time has gone.

I'm making a New Year's promise to myself....I'll blog at least once a week in 2014.  It may sound silly, but I actually REALLY miss blogging!  I am on facebook a ton, but it's just not the same.  FB is great for the quicky little note and photo, but I don't get to share what's in my head nearly as much as when I get to sit down and really ramble.  Haha!  

For now I will leave you with our family Christmas card, and Kona and Lucas' card... yes, I had a special Christmas card made for the two of them....Kona's FB page is now up to over 11,800 fans....how crazy is that?  That boy and the little Squirt certainly keep me busy.  If you want to follow their antics, click over to their FB page, and "like" it.  I'm on that page at least once a day....here is a link for you.  Kona's Page

Merry Christmas, and happy holidays!  Let's keep in touch! 

Merry Christmas 2012

Here's hoping that your Christmas was everything you hoped it would be.
From our family to yours...Merry Christmas, and happiest of whichever holidays you celebrate.

Here are a few pictures from our Christmas Eve and Christmas morning...

 Christmas Eve with Mom.

 She always makes us an authentic German dinner, and it is always out of this world!

 Kona guarding the presents

Harley thinks this whole 'get up early' thing is over-rated.

 Mom loved the giant coke bottle we got her - she always wanted a big bottle to put quarters in.

 Barry and AJ hamming it up for the camera.

 Mom was pretty emotional with the last gift we got her. I made her a special hard bound photo book in memory of my Dad. It was a very, very special moment.

Warmest wishes from us to you.

More of a challenge than I thought! Updated

I have been thoroughly enjoying the December photo-a-day challenge that I've been participating in, but with as busy as these last couple of days have been, it's been tough to post the photos here.  I've only missed one day on my FB posting, but again, I am running behind here on my blog. 

Friday's prompt word was "tree" - a pretty easy one, given the time of year.  We were out and about for a good part of the day, and braved one of the local malls for some shopping.  We spotted this tree (it was pretty hard to miss) and I took the picture with Pickle in it to help show how large it was.  It was very nice and festive indeed!

 

Yesterday's prompt was "decoration"

I posted this picture of our cozy family room. These decorations make me happy and warm inside.

Today's challenge is "joy is ______"  That's going to be a tough one for me. Capturing "joy" in a photo. Hmmm...we'll have to see what strikes me...stay tuned. I'll try to update later.

Updated as of 9:45pm
My "joy is____________" picture - taken today on a hike to Iron Mountain.

My kids home from college, my husband home from traveling, my beautiful dogs, and spending time outdoors with them. Yes, that makes my feel joy for sure.

Some more of my photos from today...
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 This evening we went out in search of Christmas lights after dinner and we found out that the Mormon Temple nearby has a beautiful display set up that you can walk or drive through at no charge.  It was lovely!

December Photo-a-day catchup and more!

First, let me catch up from the days I've missed for posting my photo-a-day challenges.

Day 16 was "something you made"
meet my 3 knuckleheads!

Day 17 was "on the floor"
Kona - only the nose knows.

 

Day 18 was "makes you feel merry"

Mom's homemade Christmas cookies!



 Yesterday's prompt was "something beginning with 's' "
Sparkly surprises!

 The prompt for today is "weather". 
It's rare that San Diego even has much weather to talk about, but lately we've had a couple of storms roll thru and even a little rain. It's been a nice change.

Since my last post, Pickle had a birthday (on the 16th) - it's so hard to believe my baby is 19! Holy moly, I feel old!

 

We celebrated with a nice dinner out with friends and family, and a small gathering at the house later. It was very nice. On the 15th we picked up AJ, who flew in late that evening from Indiana for the holidays.  Thankfully the weather was decent back there and there weren't any delays with his flight home.  It's so nice to have everyone in town for a change!  We were able to get our annual Christmas picture done, and cards are finally in the mail.  I sent out 120 cards this year! Here are a couple of our "out-takes" from our Christmas photo shoot.

 

 

 

 

 

I was glad to get these done - finally!

I'm off to feed 2 hungry college students now - cheap Chinese buffet, here we come!

December photo-a-day challenge, day 10

"Under"

As in "under" our Christmas tree.

Merry Christmas!

From our family to yours....

We wish you the Merriest Christmas and the Happiest of all Holidays. May you spend your time with those you love, and enjoy every moment together.

Plans

What is that saying about plans? "The best laid plans of mice and men often go astray"...well, welcome to my world lately. I've had the best intentions of getting certain things done, and well, I just haven't done them. I've barely started my Christmas shopping - Yes, you read that right! ME! The master planner of events and parties and all things social....and I totally don't have my poop in a group this year.

I can't quite put my finger on it. I have been very busy, that's one thing. Busy with things I love to do, so at least that's a good thing. I've been working a LOT and it's been mainly out of town. I've not been enjoying an 80+ mile commute each way, but I love my job and I won't complain. I do look forward to getting through January though, and hopefully getting back into the San Diego market.

I've also (at least for the last week or so) been fighting a nasty head cold. I freaking hate being sick! I've got no energy, no "UMPH". I want to sit on the couch in my sweats, curled up with a blanket and the dogs and spend long hours with my newest boyfriend, Dexter Morgan. Oh, I do love my Dexter...I've only known him for about 3 seasons so far (don't give anything away if you are a fan) but it was love at first episode, and it's torture to tear myself away from him.

So...between my cold, and my boyfriend, some other distractions and a couple of other unexpected wrenches thrown in between my spokes, some of the more important things have gotten moved to the back burner of my life recently.

One such "wrench" got thrown at me yesterday. AJ and I had just dropped Jack and Jill off at the groomer. (Kona and Harley went the day before) We'd planned to do some much needed (what else)Christmas shopping, and had just walked into Target. My cell phone rang, and it was the groomer. She told me there had been an "incident" and that Jill's toe nail was bleeding. "No big deal, just put some of that powder stuff on it..." I thought to myself. I told her it was probably fine and to give it a couple of minutes. She said that I'd misunderstood her...the toenail hadn't been clipped too short, the whole nail had ripped off. WHAT? I was on my way.

We got to the groomer about 15 minutes later, and this is what I was given. Jill's entire nail. Gross, I know!

Apparently, the groomer was walking her up into the bathtub and the nail caught on something. Ouch! It didn't seem to be bothering her at all, she was jumping around like a silly puppy, but the blood was unbelievable! I called my vet, and off we went.

Jill came home with her foot completely wrapped after having what was left of the toenail cauterized to stop the bleeding. Delightful. And she got an injection for the pain, and of course antibiotics...needless to say, it was not a cheap morning.

The worst part was probably that she was the one most in need of getting groomed (she is SUCH a fluff ball!) and she can't get groomed for several weeks now. Again, delightful.

So much for getting anything done yesterday. Oh, I did finally pick up my Christmas cards from the printer yesterday. Can I get a Whoo-hoo!! I actually got a bunch of them mailed today too. Hey! I'm making progress.

If I could just have another week to get my Christmas shopping done, I'd be in great shape!

...so where was I?....

I know, I know...it's been a while (again) since I've posted. What can I say? I've been caught up by life. It happens to the best of us...

So, to play a little catch up, I'll fill you in on the last couple of days.

Friday was Pickle's birthday. How my BABY can be 18 is absolutely beyond my comprehension. I am way too young to have my baby be that old, right? (Indulge me here folks!) I gave her all sorts of options on fun stuff to do for her birthday from shopping to an amusement park, to the spa, etc., and what did she chose to do? Go to school, and spend the day with her friends since it was the last day before Christmas vacation started. (Who's kid is this?) Seriously though, she had a huge final she knew she had to take, and didn't want to postpone taking it until after vacation, so she stuck it out and got through it. That's my girl. I was proud of the choice she made.

In the evening we had a quiet family dinner at one of her favorite places downtown (The Old Spaghetti Factory) with her boyfriend, and G-Ma and G-Pa. We are so blessed that my Pops has been feeling well enough to venture out a bit with us here and there for our birthday dinners. It makes the family times together extra special.After a great dinner, we headed home for some present opening and cake. It was great way to wrap up a very nice evening.

Saturday morning I had a bit of work to do and then I did some major grocery shopping, not only in anticipation of our Christmas meal preparation, but because our Boy was coming home! Yep! I had to fill the cupboards because AJ came home Saturday afternoon, and that boy can eat! We wanted to be sure to have all of his favorites, especially things he can't get readily in college, so we did some major stocking up.

We picked him up, right on schedule Saturday evening, and spent the rest of the night catching up, hearing stories of the cold weather, the dorm buddies, and of course FINALS. Needless to say, he is very happy to be home for a few weeks to thaw out, rest up, and just plain relax. I am thrilled that he is here, especially for more than just a few days, as he has been for the last two trips he's made home. Things just don't seem so rushed this time. It's really nice.

I worked a bit again on Sunday, so Hubby and AJ got to spend the day together doing a few little house hold projects, etc. I know that no matter what they do together, they aways enjoy each other's company.

Last night we took our annual walk around "Christmas Card Lane" - that's a nearby neighborhood where several blocks of houses decorate their yards with giant, home made Christmas cards made of 4x8 foot sheets of plywood painted to look like cards, or Christmas characters, etc. It's a lovely sight to see, and we try to visit every year. Our friend Lisa, who lives very close to Christmas Card Lane invited us for dinner and then we all made our way over, dogs included, to see the sights. I am bummed to say that I somehow managed (can you believe it?) to leave my house without a camera with me, so I got NO decent pictures. I snapped this one with my phone, but as you'll see the lighting is terrible. At least you get the idea.Anyway, that brings us up to today...Monday. I was supposed to spend the day Christmas shopping, but I haven't made it out of the house yet. It's 4:13pm right now...it's not looking good. I've falled critically behind on my shopping this year, and for the life of me, I'm not sure why. I feel like it's just a lack of inspiration. It's kind of nice to realize that no one in the family really needs anything, so I guess I ask myself the question, "Why buy just to buy?" and so I sit here, catching up on my blog instead of Christmas shopping.

I have a feeling that will NOT go over very well on Christmas morning...I'm just sayin...

Pups on Parade in La Jolla

Yesterday was the annual La Jolla Christmas Parade. This year was the first time I went solo. Just me and Kona...everyone else in the family was otherwise occupied. It was a bit of a bummer, but we did have a good time.
I was pleased that we had a wonderful turnout of members and their dogs. I'd say that we probably had about 55 folks and their pups walk with us.
Kona and his buddy Scooter enjoyed watching some of the other entries walk by.It is quite a site to see our group walk by! What a gaggle of Goldens!I need a better wide angle for a group this big!There was a Santa chair set up at the end of the route so some of us in the group took turns trying it out. Even though Santa wasn't there, I still made a wish on what I wanted for Christmas...I won't tell though...

Here is a little video I took of us walking.