December 2012 - part two photos

[Festive manicure for a special night with....]

[The huge surprise was my little sister, Meg, flying in from California early to go with us!]

[Meg, me, and my mom, Lori ready to see John Waters (Jeremi was too!)]

[A Christmas with John Waters!  We've been trying to get tickets for 4 years now, but it always sells out.  It was amazing and I highly recommend going next year!]

[For the first time ever, a quiet Christmas Eve]

[Christmas morning, complete with fireplace on the television]

[Ain't no shame in Joon's game]

[A few nights before we celebrated my parents 50th wedding anniversary, Dad cut one of these for all of his daughters]

[Nothing says Happy Holidays like white chocolate peppermint skeletons!]

[The Leg Lamp outside my parents front window.  A tradition every year]

So that was my December in a visual nutshell.  It was more quiet than most, but I totally appreciated that and felt like I was able to enjoy my time even more.

holiday

[christmess morning at our house.  nothing says the holidays like a life size gremlin]

the holiday has come and gone, and i hope it was wonderful to you all.  if you don't celebrate, i hope that you had an amazing weekend!

ours was busy like normal, but still seemed to be a little more laid back.  for us it all starts on christmess eve. we go to my cousins house who has the entire family over.  but this year before we went we stopped by my biological mum's house to try her homemade mulled wine(amazing!), and to share our gifts with them.  

[her tree!]

[ornament that jeremi made last year]

christmess morning was sweet and quiet for us at our home.  cosette was excited for her stocking and the treats that were inside, and jeremi was pretty excited with his things.  me, you can't go wrong with a black nintendo 3DS complete with bust-a-move in 3D!    after coffee and showers, we headed down to my parents house who live about 30minutes away for traditional christmess morning brunch and coffee with all of the immediate family.  always so much fun!

 [decorations at mums]

[their tree christmess morning]

[my parents house christmess night]

[i love christmess lights]

[their tree]

[grinch ornament made my jeremi, poe-ho-ho ornament made by me]

[we have a peppermint pig every year]

[the star wreath on my parents house]

[my old street with the best street light]

our christmess ended with being back at my parents house for our spaghetti dinner, present and ornament exchange.  as we were leaving i decided that i need to photo our street light.  the town has 5 different designs and it's rare that our street gets the snowflake(the best one!).

i hope everyone is ready to wish 2011 goodbye, and ready to say hello to 2012.  it's going to be a weird year, i can already tell.  not a bad weird though, or at least i hope not!

catching up on december

[12.12.2011 what my morning looked like.  just a few more to go!]

[same morning.  red is orly's "mon cherie", and glitter sandwiched is claire's "bedazzled"]

[making christmas making christmas]

[i have random festive picks throughout my home]

[our wreath this year!  i keep it inside though because i don't trust someone to not mess it up]

[a peek into our tree]

[ earlier this month at my parents]

[i have an excellent family]

so!  here is what my decemeber has looked like so far!  it's really hard to believe that we're already so close to christmas.  i'd love to have a job where things slow down and you get a "break", but i'm in no field to allow that to ever happen!  the time i do get though, i appreciate and  i know it could be worse!  

dia de los muertos

[11.1.2011]

[11.2.2011 our altar]

[11.2.2011 - grandaddy owen, and mrs. comer]

[11.2.2011 lil warren and sandra]

[11.2.2011]

[11.2.2011 a smile for them]

we celebrate day of the dead, or dia de los muertos.  last year was the hardest yet.  it's never to easy to place a new photo or belonging for a loved one lost, but when you have to double it...  this year was much easier than last.  i did not cry when i set up the altar.  when i placed the food, i did not cry.  jem saw it when i was done setting everything up, and he smiled.

remember and show love to who you have and who you have lost.  smile and wish them well.  remember what they left you with and appreciate it because they are never fully gone from you.

halloween weekend 2011 - part two - home

[pre surgery]

[taking a break from serious pumpkin carving - meg, my little sister]

[meg]

[our pumpkins actually got carved this year!]

halloween day was spent being lazy and staying close to home, visiting grandma and a sick mum, feasting, carving pumpkins, sipping spiked cider, and watching movies.

not a bad halloween weekend.  though, i will say that it made me realize that i slacked a lot this year with preparation.  next year it will be different!  watch out!

catching up - lake erie, pa and allegheny college bound

i really didn't mean to go this long without an update.  i've had several posts started in my head, but it's been very hard to get any one done.  i'm technically off today and tomorrow and this is on my list of to-do's, so here we go!


since i last shared, heather was here and was staying with us until she had to go to her scheduled move-in at allegheny college in pennsylvania.  we were able to do a good amount of things except for hit up an amusement park(next year!) while she was here and getting back up do D.C.,  but i think just getting out of new mexico was good enough for her. the entire time she was with us she was so excited about the move-in and setting up her side of her dorm room.  jeremi on the other hand, was not as excited.  this was a little harder for him because he hated the idea of leaving his little sister all alone in a place he had never even been too, but she needed it.


at 6am on the 8.25.2011 jeremi, heather, mum, dad, cosette, and myself all piled in to a huge truck loaded to the brim to get heather to college.  the drive wasn't bad, but then again i kept nodding off every other hour. this was only the second time for me being in pennsylvania, and not in a big city atmosphere.  the last time i was there was for a day trip to go to philadelphia to visit the mutter museum, get a steakandcheese, and come back home.  this time we were on the western side of the state, and it was beautifully green and rolling hills.  we stopped in her college town of meadville to check it out first and then to erie, pa which was maybe 35minutes northwest from meadville to stay the night and to see lake erie.


once in erie, my parents immediately started toward lake erie.  as you can tell in my blog, my family are big lake people.  we have our few that we make it to yearly, so to go to one of the great lakes was really exciting.  what was even more exciting(to me) was that it wasn't like a lake.  it was more like the ocean.  you can't see across it, there are waves, beaches, dunes, beach grass, shells, and seagulls!  i think what made me so happy was that i have always wanted to take cosette to the ocean to see what she would do.  she's only ever been on desert sand.  cosette seemed to really enjoy it!  she would run all the way out and back again away from the water.  that is until she saw seagulls.  she apparently hates seagulls.  we spent a good 2 hours there just walking the beach which was nice, and all we needed.  

[a lighthouse on lake erie]

[one of the beaches]

[cosette]

[pawprint]

[my feet and her pawprints]

[attack!]

[me at lake erie]

we stayed the night in erie, and then friday we were back off to meadville to get heather settled in.  we didn't really have a lot of time to spend with her there because she already had a group meeting to attend and a picnic so it was a quick move-in, trip to the store for essentials that she couldn't bring along and back for huge hugs and good luck wishes.

[heather's dorm door with warm welcomes]

[her laptop case - jealous.]

[jem and heather before the goodbye for a little while]

we left her happy and excited, though a little anxious and nervous(who wouldn't be?).  i hope that she is finally settled in and that her first week of classes are going well <3