Christmas Greetings

I've done a Christmas photo shoot with the grandkids every year since 2011 that I've shared on Facebook. I thought this year I'd see if I could get the Photobucket slideshow to work here. There are 50 pictures...

Merry Christmas

&

Blessings for the New Year!

A Smiley Birthday

The Princess Knight has a new handle, Smiley. Grandpa has been calling her this for a while and Princess Knight has kind of retired. So Smiley it is!

Watching a movie and waiting for the party to begin.

Cake and cupcakes await.

Equine themed plates and napkins.

Pizza for the party with two pieces set aside for dad.

Mom giving brother a bite of pizza. In the background Gr-grandma and Aunt Missy inspect the kitchen island rebuild that Aunt Shandy did.

Big brother on the couch watching a movie and eating pizza.

The party guests have arrived and everyone gets pizza.

Movie time.

Smiley with her birthday cake.

Cake closeup.

How many candles? 12?

BLOW!
(Note the hat on Aunt Shandy's head. Smiley was not happy, told her she was going to steal it.)

Mom and her frosting antics. At least there's no face in the cake and only frosty on the nose.

Cupcakes and ice cream for everyone.

Smiley cleaning up her face.

Time to open the presents.

Candy and fun stuff.

Somebody knows her, she loves her candy canes.
(Note the hat now on Smiley's head. Smiley is a happy camper!)

Nail decorating.

Bracelet making.

Nutella from Gr-grandma.

A Diamond Sword!

And cash.

She said read the card. It's a really funny card. Human bean, get it? Human being.

Hanging on tight to the Diamond sword and the cash while keeping an eye on the Nutella. All coveted presents. 

Dad made it home in time for cake and presents. Little brother is all partied out.

And there went the Nutella, get the thief use your Diamond Sword!

Another Happy Birthday, Another Year Older!

Have a WONDERFUL year Smiley, next year you'll be a TEENAGER!!!

Golden Wheat Christmas Party

Today was the Golden Wheat Chapter AHSGR Christmas party.

The registration table was set with the sign in sheet, tickets for door prizes and chances to win prizes with a donation to our fund raiser.

The tables started filling up with sweets and finger food. A wonderful variety to choose from.

Tables started filling with people too! What a nice crowd we had.

Ella read for us the Christmas story in German and in English.

The Christmas music we had planned on couldn't make it but Sondra brought us a nice surprise.

Her friend shared with us a fruit cake recipe much like the one that Sister Loyola prepared for us at each Christmas party.

Totally cracking Sondra up.

Ella (the younger) shared the story of how Jingle Bells came to be and passed around bells for us to jingle as she led us in song.

Dennis spoke about a Christmas past and asked others to share their memories.

Memories that tugged on heartstrings...

Memories of childhood traditions...

Memories that bring a smile.

Then Santa arrived!

...with his bag of gifts.

He called their names...

...as he pulled each gift...

...out of his bag.

Some were a little shy about having their picture taken.

Robert just didn't know who this guy was.

But they all had big smiles for Santa. The last present was for our President.

She was a bit surprised, but all in good fun.

One last story...

The last order of the day was to draw the winners for the fund raiser.

The party's over and what a wonderful time we all had. Wish you were there. Maybe next year?

May you have a Very Merry Christmas
and a 
Blessed New Year!