Christmas Eve

This year for the first time ever we held Christmas Eve at my cousin Kyle and Teri's house. Every year we switch off and somebody new has it. Now that Kyle and Teri have a house and their not busy raising new born babies we've added them into the rotation. My dad's entire side of the family gathers together on Christmas Eve and we all eat a bunch of food and celebrate the holiday together. It's my favorite time of the year because it's the only time my dads entire family is all together at the same time in one house. Everybody is always busy with there own lives and now that there are kids in the family it is hard to get everyone together at the same time. But Christmas Eve we did it and it was marvelous! Everyone made a ton of yummy food, we sang carols, we did our white elephant gifts, and we enjoyed watching all the kids have fun and open their presents. As usual I took a ton of pictures so instead of rambling on about the night I'll just show you all these gorgeous pictures I took!

Cooking














Lillian?














Playing pool in the basement.














The dessert table. Yummy!














Aunt Bobbi and her nephews! ;)














Owen and his girls!














Opening presents.
















Charlie's new Belle doll.














Penis cookies... ?














After Owen got a t.v last year Donna ended up with one this year. Hilarious!














The best white elephant of the night. Kyri loved this duck! :)














Barbie pez dispenser.














Mom and Dad.














Gary, Laurel and Bob.














Jenna and I.














Kyri jamming on the piano.














Charlie and Kyri playing on the piano.














Jessica and Carl.

Ski Club Christmas Party

Wow, it has been a mighty long time since I've posted anything to my blog. With school, work, the holidays, and Christmas break I've been way to busy. To start the holidays off we had our annual Four Winds Ski Club Christmas party on December 17th which we hosted at our house. There were about 35 to 40 people that ended up coming for the party. We had alot of delicious food and way to much dessert as always. To complete the party we did our white elephant which is always the hit of the Christmas party. We had a bunco game, a clock, a doll, a garden bird, another t.v for the third year in a row and quite a bunch of other hilarious gifts.

























The white elephant I gave away this year was a squid hat that I had won at Six Flags Great America over the summer. It is quite funny but I wasn't sure what I was ever going to do with it so I gave it away as a white elephant. It was the hit of the party and we made everyone take a picture with it on.

5K Turkey Trot

My mom is getting back in shape and has been attending a class with her friend Pat from work. This class is a free class held at the Bloomingdale Park district. She found out about it in the newspaper and has been going to this class every Sunday morning for quite a few weeks. It is taught by a chiropractor named Dr. Erin Ducat who owns her own chiropractic firm called Chiro One Wellness Center. The class is called walk to run and you gradually start running more and more, farther and farther as the class progresses. Towards the end of the class your goal is to be mainly running and not walking. My mom has been raving about the class every Sunday when she comes home from it. She has made excellent progress in the few weeks shes been taking it.
The class is over now but to finish the class off everyone participated in a 5K run. This 5k/half marathon turkey trot was held yesterday at a forest preserve in Schaumburg. I came to support my mom and take some pictures of course.
My mom and her class were all participating in the 5k run/walk but there were also people there running in the half marathon. All together they had over 2,000 people registered to run yesterday. 550 of which were there for the 5k race which is three miles long. I'm so proud of my mom for doing this, she did a great job! She ran the entire three miles without walking. Her time was 34:16:3 and for never having ran a 5k race in her life that's pretty darn awesome. She almost beat Dr. Erin to who is experienced and has been doing this for a long time. Dr. Erins time was 34:05:8.
During the race my mom caught up to Dr. Erin right as she was going to start walking a little but when she saw my mom was going to keep charging ahead she said no way. I'm supposed to be the one beating you haha.
Before the race they had chiropractors there to stretch you out and different health food and drink tents giving away free stuff. They also had a man dressed up in a turkey costume who also ran the 5k.
The Schaumburg High School cheerleaders were there also, cheering on the runners at the start and end of the race. They were also handing out metals to the runners with the best times.
In honor of Thanksgiving this 5k Turkey Trot helped everyone lose those extra pounds they put on eating all the yummy food on Thanksgiving. Now that winters coming my mom wont be able to get out and run so she'll have to break out the treadmill that's been sitting in our family room for years.

Mom and Pat
















Getting stretched out before the race.











Power Bar Tent











The start and finish line of the race.











Conant High School Cheerleaders!











The turkey and I













Dr. Erin Ducats Walk/Run class- group photo

Thanksgiving

This Thanksgiving was spent at our house. We had Uncle Larry, Aunt Laurel, Jessica, and Carl over for Dinner. Teri and Kyle were also able to stop by for a little while with the girls before we ate. It's not often that we get to see Kyri and Tessa so I was glad they were able to make it. Kyri loves coming over to play with our horses and Tessa is just a happy baby all together. She was all smiles on Thanksgiving, I cant believe shes almost walking.
I enjoyed seeing everyone and eating a ton of food before I had to go to work. An eight hour shift on Thanksgiving isn't the greatest thing ever but I survived. I cant believe Thanksgiving has already come and gone. It went to fast for me, I need a rewind button.

Self Portrait












Tessa












Kyri and Grandma B playing with horses.














Kyri- Tambourine Parade












Tessa, Grandma B and Great Grandma.












Turkey













Dad cutting the turkey.












Thanksgiving Dinner.