Disney World puzzle

In celebration of L going to Disney World on Tuesday, I pulled put a Disney puzzle last week. E put a lot of it together while I was at work. E and B finished it today (teamwork!) and I got bored so I tore it apart and started another puzzle before L came home to see it. Guess I can show her a picture of it.

All done with all the pieces. It's always a gamble when you thrift a puzzle.

And my pretty August.

Young adult outing

E, B and D went bowling yesterday afternoon with the "young adult" Pilgrims. I guess I suggested the idea that they all get together ober break and my friends G, the former youth pastor when these kids were in high school, and J organized it.

How cute are the lights that spell Pilgrim?

E seems to be walking away with confidence here lol.

After-bowling gathering at J's house.

I need to find out who was talking and what was being said here. The looks on their faces!

Turn up the heat

August knows the warmest room in the house is the bathroom. It's right above the furnace. Guess if I want him to come out and sit by me I'll have to turn up the heat.

More cat puzzles

This is the cat puzzle I took down to Darla in October. She sent me this picture of it, ready to be started, on Dec. 26.

She was on vacation that week and two days later sent this picture of it completed.

I couldn't resist buying two more of the same series that I hadn't seen before. Guess I know who I can pass these along to when I'm done. It's the same series as the puzzle she sent me for Christmas.

A discovery

I've been working for almost five months and the kitchen faucet has always been like this.

Then the other day I realized it can do this. Guess I'm slow. At least it will make filling my water bottle easier.

Back to school, work

I woke up at 6:30 yesterday morning and L was almost out the door. I got a hug ...

as did Andy before he carried her cats to the car. She was back in Champaign by 9 a.m. Said it was an easy drive.

I was back at work too. Lunch was a sandwich of leftover Christmas beef and some Hawaiian salad Allison made and brought some over for me.

E dropped me off at work so she could have the car. She got herself a drink at Dunkin', filled up my car with gas, then did some shopping. Here she is napping with August on her chest.

The day after

L brought Marshmallow out of her room yesterday. It's a big cat.

L and I went out after-Christmas shopping with Allison. Kind of disappointing. Stores were already putting out Valentine's Day things. L did find some shoes (surprise lol) at VonMaur.

Meanwhile Andy went with E and B to Putt Shack in Oak Brook. B's Christmas gift was a mini-golf outing for Andy.

B had the most holes in one but, however the scoring is done, he wasn't the winner.

Festive dinner

Getting ready to eat. The house looks so festive.

And the "kids" minus nephew N who was taking the pictures.

Family Christmas

Got my picture yesterday of the kids ... and D.

E and D made a red-wine reduction for the beef.

Andy cuts the beef. We have two five-pound tenderloins and only needed one. Cut up the second one for people to take home.

The "kids" get their food first. We had a table set up for them in the living room.

Bingo after dinner.

Everyone was a winner.

Pat was boycotting the game lol.

More bingo

Ready for the family

The table is set. E's napkins look good.

My theme is gold and silver. I added the white trees because it didn't seem "sparkley" enough.

Cookie tray.

Drink area with punch in the snowman dispenser.

Pre-family margaritas. Danny had one too. It's tradition.

Veggies. Added cauliflower this year.

The buffet of appetizers. B gave me the three-tiered serving tray as a Christmas present.

Christmas morning

L came home last night about 9 p.m. She said the GPS took her sowntown on the Dan Ryan instead of the Tri-State. Yikes. But she made it! We had to wait for her to wake up to get Christmas started.

This was some makeup she wanted. It was like a pinata. B held it and she pulled the string ...

and all this makeup came out!

We got B an Illinois sweatshirt.

We also got him a new mouse. It's a gaming mouse. We joked that his presents got progressively better as he opened them.

L got Andy a nice Illini polo shirt.

L gave me some Toms. They seem a little tight but she promises they'll loosen up. Andy got me a really nice Coach tote-ish bag. It might be too big. I love the light gray color though.

August hiding. I sent the pic to Allison and she said he's keeping her seat warm.

E and D came over around 10 a.m. I was busy getting ready for the dinner so I didn't get any pictures of them opening their presents.

Awww!

Christmas Eve

Time to pull out all the dishes and make sure we have everything ready for Christmas dinner.

E was on napkin-folding duty. She made elf shoes.

Andy and I went for an afternoon drive and ended up at Sam's Club where we got a clearance deal on a wine sampler pack ($5 for six little bottles, the equivalent of three regular bottles, usually $30) and I got an iced vanilla coffee.

Time for church. That's our star at the top of the tree. It was too big for our tree but looks good on the church's taller tree.

Best parts are lighting the candles ...

and having B join us. (E was at D's house for his family Christmas).

This was Andy's candle. We're not sure why it melted so much.