New Years Eve

At home, quietly enjoying New Year's Eve at home:

 Our handsome Briggor

 Our New Year's Eve DIVA: tasha

 Our princess Megan

 Megan decorated her own hat for New Years!!

New Years Eve

It's New Years Eve at our house and we are spending it quietly at home.  Our teenagers are out enjoying their youth and we are home, cozy and warm, waiting to ring in the new year.  Another decade has come and gone and I am ready to put this year behind and look forward to the year ahead.

Tonight, I find myself reflecting on my dad, which I do quite often.  I have put the sadness of his death behind me and I try and focus on all the memories I have of my dad.  My dad LOVED New Year's Eve!  My dad and I would spend some time in his garage during the day, filling up balloons with his air compressor.  As the floor of the garage filled up, I would take as many as I could out to the family room and fill it up.  Occasionally, you would hear an unexpected POP and my dad call out and laughter would be sure to follow.  He wouldn't stop until the family room floor was covered with balloons.  It was hard to contain yourself from popping them.  My dad would walk through the family room, kicking them, laughing, saying OOPS!!  If they "accidentally" hit the acoustic ceiling and POP! He would just continue and you could hear my mom yelling at him to stop scarring her!   As midnight approached, my mom and dad would raise a glass to end the year and start anew.  Then the annual popping of the balloons would take place.  What a loud racket that was!!  :)  We started out with sitting on them to pop them then you would find us looking for push pins or needles to make the popping happen faster. There were a few times that I had friends over to share in the New Year's Eve tradition.  We ended the year with so much fun!  

One great memory after another floods my thoughts........... 

My 2010 Book Challenge

Well, it looks like I didn't make my challenge this year.  I read 36 of 50 books.  I think I will start my challenge again for the new year.

Mary's 50 book list for 2010

1. My Life in France by Julia Child and Alex Prud'Homme 363 pages
2. Bed Of Roses by Nora Roberts 368 pages
3. Southern Lights by Danielle Steele 336 pages
4. Take Two by Karen Kingsbury 320 pages
5. The Messenger by Marcus Zusak 368 pages
6. The Last Song by Nicholas Sparks 400 pages
7. Shades of Blue by Karen Kingsbury 336 pages
8. Ronald Reagan - The Great Communicator 108 pages
9. Big Girl by Danielle Steele 352 pages
10. Yada Yada Prayer Group Gets Decked Out Book 7 288 pages
11. Who's Looking Out for You? by Bill O'Reilly 224 pages
12. Take Three by Karen Kingsbury 336 pages
13. Twilight by Stephanie Meyer 544 pages
14. James and The Giant Peach 120 pages
15. New Moon by Stephanie Meyer 576 pages
16. Caught by Harlan Coben 388 pages
17. Witch and Wizard by James Patterson and Gabrielle Charbonnet 307 pages
18. Worst Case by James Patterson 356 pages
19. Spoken from the Heart by Laura Bush 456 pages
20. 9th Judgement by James Patterson 368 pages
21. Savor The Moment by Nora Roberts 352 pages
22. Take Four by Karen Kingsbury 368 pages
23. Overton Window by Glenn Beck 336 pages
24. Trial by James Patterson 416 pages
25. Family Ties by Danielle Steele
26. Hannah's List by Debbie Maccomber
27. Miracle on the 17th Green James Patterson 195 pages
28. Don't Blink vy James Patterson
29. Legacy by Danielle Steele
30. Private by James Patterson
31. Safe Haven by Nicolas Sparks
32. Late, Late at Night by Rick Springfield
33. Happily Ever After by Nora Roberts
34. The Perfect Son By Patti Callahan Henry
35. The Perfect Song by Patti Callahan Henry 228 pages
36. Call Me Mrs. Miracle by Debbie Macomber 253 pages

Happy 43rd Birthday Mark!!

Happy 43rd Birthday!!

Mark has the privilege of celebrating his birthday on Christmas!!

Christmas Day at Our House

Christmas morning starts really early at our house.  The kids are usually up by 5am looking for the stockings from Santa.  After they dump their stockings, we have a huge breakfast!  Then we sit for the opening of the presents, which usually takes hours to get through it all.  Mark and I were so blessed to have all our kids home for Christmas this year. We enjoyed a wonderful day of food, family and love!

Johnette got ENGAGED on Christmas Eve!!

Wayne and Johnette got engaged!!

Wayne surprised Johnette before everyone heading to bed on Christmas Eve with a one-knee proposal of marriage.

Johnette cried so hard then she said YES!!

The future Mr. and Mrs. Gutheil

Our beautiful children at Christmas 2010

Our boys 2010

Skyler (BUD), Andrew, Briggor, Ryan

Our girls 2010

Tasha, Johnette, Megan and Jade

Christmas Eve at Beema's House

We all piled into the car on Christmas Eve Day and traveled to the valley to spend the day with my mom and sister.

My mom had lots of food and presents.

It's tradition in our family to take pictures by the orange tree out back of my parents house.  So why break tradition.........

Andrew in his army uniform!

The whole family together again!! (these are becoming rare photos!)

My mom (beema), Andrew and me

My mom (Beema) and Andrew

My sis (Tink/Monica Jo), my mom (Beema), Andrew and me

**NOTE:  My sister's hubby, Jim and my hubby Mark had to work Christmas Eve!

They were really missed!!

Annual Cookie Decorating

Holiday Cookie Decorating is a big event in our house.  Several sugar cookies are cut out and baked.  The kids wait anxiously to dig into the frosting and they come up with the craziest ideas.

Let Them Eat Cookies!!!

RAINFALL

It's been raining since Friday!!  We haven't seen this much rain in a long time.  According to our newspaper this morning,  Saturday we received 1.37 inches, Sunday 1.53 inches and Monday 0.8 inches.  It has caused much flooding and lots of problems here in town.  It was funny to watch Fox News and see our little town shown as a News Item on television.  Megan put out glasses on Sunday to see how much rain we were getting at our house.

This picture of the boys in the boat is from Ryan's friend Davis' street just a few blocks from us!!

 Our city just can't handle this much rain!!

Happy 13th Birthday Megan!!

Megan celebrated her 13th birthday on Monday!  She started the day making her birthday cake with Briggor.

 We had to improvise due to all the rain we have been having, we couldn't go to Magic Mountain as planned so we went out to dinner at BJ's Brewhouse restaurant and Megan had the famous Pazookie for her birthday celebration!!

 Megan and her best friend, Sabrina