Ending 2011 and beginning 2012

Since I've fallen off once again on blogging I thought I'd share some pictures -- just to catch up a little more.

Lisa & Amanda outside of church before the Christmas Eve service.  It was wonderful to have the whole family together ... it's going to be a long time before that happens again.  (I'll explain later)

Jonathan and Amanda returned home around the 17th of December and we all met at their place in Indiana for the holiday -- she did a wonderful job of decorating in a short time.

Aren't they a beautiful couple?

The kids ..........some can behave and others cannot.....

Hayden wrote a letter for Santa and put it in the mailbox ....

And Gabi wrote one too .............

We were very lucky to celebrate Jackson's first Christmas with him.  He was so much fun!

Can you see how excited Hayden was on Christmas morning?

We only stayed with Jonathan and Amanda until the 26th.  We helped them pack up their Christmas and said good-bye.  They were moving to Florida for Jonathan's new job ....... it was a sad ride home for all of us, we knew we wouldn't be seeing them every couple weeks as we had the last few years.  We're still adjusting -- skype and phone calls just aren't the same.  We really miss seeing the boys grow -- they change so quickly!

Jack's sisters -- Pat, Ginger and Nancy -- we had a quick visit with them before Ginger, Bob and Nancy left for the winter.  They escape the snow and cold by spending it in Florida.

And then we celebrated Christmas with the girls at our place.  Santa had delivered his gift to Jonathan and Amanda's but we didn't bring the rest because there wasn't room in the car.  We had a relaxing morning on the 27th .... that was until Hailee had basketball practice anyway.

New Year's Eve we dressed up and waited for the group to arrive for a night of games ... we had an amazing time playing Pictionary!  We're planning on getting together again to play -- if you haven't tried it you have to!

We really thought we'd ring in the New Year early but everyone stayed until midnight!  We're not as old as we thought!!!

We had one more celebration with my family ....  here's my sister Kathy, her husband, Jerry with Lindsey, Nikki and Charley and their new baby, Sean.  Ashley & Mitch were missing ----

And Kim and Dave with Sami and Garrett, who is definitely related to Jonathan since he doesn't seem able to take a serious picture.

And finally, I wanted to share a picture of a very proud Gabi.  She is showing off the Bulgarian Banitza's that we made for school.  She did a project on Bulgaria and decided that she needed to make something for the students to try.

Initially she didn't think the dessert was from Bulgaria but once we started making them she got very excited and said she remembered making them with Ganka's daughter-in-law, Dedia.  It warmed my heart to hear the excitement in her voice as she explained what they did and how they would taste when they were done.  This dessert is extremely putzy to make, but very, very yummy.