I'm still here.......

Can you tell I've been overwhelmed with work, holidays, and volleyball in the past two months? And now Max has valley fever, so we are dealing with that. Heartfelt thanks to my friends/neighbors on both sides of me who nursed Max while we were gone for the holidays. There are 7 new posts below from the beginning of December. Hope you enjoy watching the videos as much as we did creating the memories.

Christmas Day with The Serras

We spent Christmas Day with my side of the family. My nephews are now 22 and 27 years old and have inherited their sense of humour from my sister, Rose. Nicole is the youngest on my side and the eldest on Dan's side. I'm so grateful that we were all able to be together and continue with our annual family tradition.

Christmas Eve with The Donnellys

We were fortunate that Dan's Mom and Aunt were able to travel down from Up-north Michigan to join us for Christmas Eve. It was great to see everyone and the kids have grown so much in one year.

Michigan Visit over the Holidays

This year on our visit to Michigan for the holidays, we were fortunate enough to spend 10 days there visiting friends and family. We really missed everyone and are truly blessed. Nicole has felt the seasonal impact of living in Arizona and misses the four seasons. She went ice skating her her cousins, sledding and roller skating with friends, played walleyball,visited and partied at New Years Eve. When we went sledding, the temperature was in the mid 20s. I was freezing and you can even hear the wind on the video. I wish we could pick everyone up in Michigan and transplant them here in Arizona and then I would have the best of both worlds!

Gingerbread Houses

I so miss my friend, Kristin, who moved to Mandeville, Louisiana this summer. Kristin and I moved into the neighborhood four years ago, within months of each other. Kristin was THE person to bring many of us neighbors together and always coordinated get togethers. One of Kristin's annual traditions was to invite all the kids with a parent and decorate Gingerbread houses. So to keep up with that tradition, Nicole had two of her friends, Madison and Emma, come over to decorate their own houses and sleepover. This is what memories are made of.

Vistancia Snow Day

It's become an annual tradition that our community trucks in tons of "snow" and the kids go sledding. This is how the Arizonians get their snow fix. It's so cute, when the little ones touch the snow and think it's "too cold", they obviously never lived in Michigan. Nicole got her short-term fix for a few weeks until we headed to Michigan for the holidays.

Journey Musical - "Leon"

Our friend, Jennifer, directed this children's musical for Journey church. Some of Nicole's friends were in it. What a great job Jennifer and all the kids did.

Lake Pleasant Winter Band Concert 2010

Nicole continues to play the clarinet for her school band. This is from her Winter Band Concert at Lake Pleasant.