Christmas/Birthday with Erica and Sarah

My cousin Erica and her daughter Sarah came over this week to bring us Christmas and my birthday goodies. I had a little something for them as well and it included a gift basket that I made for Sarah. I've never made a gift basket for Christmas before but I believe it turned out well.



 

The gift basket included two little boxes, one with jewelry and one with an ornament with her name on it, a big jar of jelly bellies, and a wax warmer with two money tarts. Sarah left here believing that her jar of Jelly Bellies contains some of the gross ones from the Bean Boozled line, lol. We plugged in her warmer while she was here and melted her tart - she got $6!



 

Sarah and Erica brought over these fabulous chocolates and macaroons from William Dean - a local gourmet chocolatier where everything is made by hand. Aren't the chocolates beautiful? Apparently they were featured in two of the Hunger Game films. The couple I have tried are as delicious as they are beautiful.

My Cousins And I Do Another Challenge

Warning - this one gets a little gross at the end. We do the Tin Can Challenge after eating a big Thanksgiving dinner (bad idea).

Christmas 2014

Our advent - we forgot to light one of the candles on week#3 so week#4 we lit the last two.

 



Christmas dinner at mom's (above is Hellen hiding, Lea, and Sarah - below is Jerry, Lea, Sonya, Sarah, tommy, Don, Les, Hellen, Mom))

The dogs had a secret santa and we opened some gift early and some Christmas morning

Christmas morning shot of the annual Swarovski crystal snowflake that Jerry gives me every year. 2014 is particularly beautiful.

Random shot of Eddie with Uncle Les

And, for the final, yes I did give my hubby pooper scooper service for Christmas!

Thanksgiving Break

At my work place we traded Columbus day for the day after Thanksgiving meaning I get a four days off in a row. Initially I scheduled Wednesday off because I volunteered to cook the Thanksgiving feast; however, my cousin Sonya in Lakeland wanted everyone to come to her house. This worked out great because the plague hit my work and we were crippled by low attendance at work so taking Wednesday off would have been canceled anyway. (Really low, like only 32% of people one day.)Well, the plague hopped from work to friends and family because cousin Lea was too sick to drive over to Lakeland so thanksgiving dinner was moved to cousin Erica's which was OK by me because she only lives 10 minutes away. Sadly, Lea still wasn't up to joining us but Erica was able to invite her neighbor who lost his wife a couple years ago AND Aunt Mary joined us.

Aunt Mary & mom in front, cousins Sonya & Erica in back

 

Uncle Larry and cousin Lea's husband Don (Sonya & Erica's dad)

 

Gathering to say the blessing so we could eat! Erica's neighbor BJ, hubby Jerry, Uncle Larry, Erica's coworker Aaron and her sister Kelly, Sonya and her husband Tommy, Erica's daughter Sarah, and mom and Erica in the foreground with their backs to me.

 

We had a traditional thanksgiving feast of turkey, ham, sweet potatoes, dressing, deviled eggs, cranberries, desserts corn plus a tasty Indian rice dish brought by Erica's neighbor.

 

The next day mom and I cooked a turkey with the all the fixing again at my house so that we had leftovers. This has become a tradition to redo Thanksgiving if we go somewhere. Jerry loves cold turkey sandwiches and I love figuring out new leftover turkey recipes each year. We had one of Jerry's coworkers over since he's in retail and they and they had to work the Friday following thanksgiving.

Hope yours was great and spent with those important to you. 

Cousin Sarah's 8th Birthday

My cousin Erica planned another fabulous birthday event for her daughter Sarah's birthday - three hours at McGough Nature Park. We started with snacks and punch and looking around the desplays. Next, the park rangers brought in animals, both alive and taxidermy, and gave a presentation. The aniamls included snakes, owls, raccoon, fox, and alligator. Next we had birthday cake and opened presents. Then the park ranger led the kids in a craft project of turning pine cones into bird feeders. The day ended with feeding the turtles in the pond. Both adults and kids enjoyed the afternoon.

 Our brave birthday girl

A clos eup of the albino corn snake Sarah was holding

Cute little screech owls

Mom and me in front of a taxidermy sand hill crane

The family - Sarah in front, Erica, Lea, and Don in middle, Sonja in the back. Lea is my first cousin, Erica & Sonja are my first cousins once removed, leaving Sarah as my first cousin twice removed. Don is husband, dad, and grandpa.

The craft project - peanut butter and seed covered pine cones

The turtle pond held 8 species of turtles

Busy, Busy, Busy

Lately all of our time has been centered around work, taking care of the dogs, and Marge. Long story short, she is in rehab probably until October 28th. Oh! And I flew to Atlanta last Friday so my mom could buy a new car! We drove it home last weekend.

This weekend is cousin Sarah's 8th birthday so I'll go to her party tomorrow. Today, however, was for crafting. One I will share.

I bought this baroque frame from Michael's (on sale for 40% off), a white double mat, rhinestone stickers and fancy paper from the scrapbooking area, ribbon, and paper flowers with "pearl" centers. I found a place online where you can insert your pedigree information and then print it off for free. So I created a pedigree chart for Sarah, added the corner decos to the mat, then hot glued ribbon and flowers to the outside of the frame. I don't know if she will appreciate her family tree at 8 years old but I do believe she will like the frame.

Earlier this week I got a good start on a fund-raiser wreath for Ratbone. I like to take my time and think about what will look good and what will look overdone. I found this cool red burlap ribbon with buttons on it at Hobby Lobby. My first time in one of those stores and I got there as they were making the "we are closing in 5 minutes" announcements. I was determined to find something in 5 minutes.

The Little Mermaid

Mom & I joined my cousins Lee & Erica to watch Sarah perform in The Little Mermaid at the Largo Community Center. Very cute to see kids acting in a play. Much different than the adult community theatre I was involved with. Her neighbor friend Gracie came too - love Gracie's silver boots!

Busy Saturday

My cousin Lea blowing out her birthday candle - we went to her daughter Erica's for cake and coffee after dinner at Cheddar's.

My fist cousin once removed Erica, her mother Lea, and my mama Vee.

Erica's daughter Sarah (blond with manatee temporary tattoo) and her friend Jolene who is the daughter of the contractor who remodeled my bathrooms.

Husband Jerry, cousin Sonja's husband Tommy (Sonja was sick and stayed home - Sonja is Erica's sister), cousin Erica, Don & Lee.


Early this morning Eddie and I visited two cemeteries to take photos of headstones, as a volunteer, for some folks on Find-A-Grave. My family thought that was wierd ;)

Miniature Golf

Last night I played putt putt golf with the cousins. It started out really nice but as the course progressed, we lost the breeze and it was HOT and humid. I had fun, and the grounds were lovely, but I was glad when we finished and went to feed the gators where there was a breeze.

A photo of the grounds. It was so sunny that most of my photos of the landscaping didn't turn out well.

Cousin Erica teeing off at hole 1.

This poor guy - you gotta watch out for the quicksand.

Cousin Lea shoting through the cave.

Lee and Don - too bad the one with them smiling didn't turn out because they both have beautiful smiles :-)

Don, a.k.a. "Pops", with Sarah.

Amaizing what little girls do when their mother's back is turned, lol.

When we finished golf Sarah wanted to feed the gators - a real Florida girl!

Turns out that feeding the gators is dangling a piece of hot dog on something resembling a fishingpole.

They have all kinds of fencing to keep the gators away from the people, or, is it the people away from the gators?

Pirate Cruise

Today we celebrated my cousin Sarah's 6th birthday - it started with a pirate cruise from Clearwater Beach and ended at Erica's house for cupcakes and ice cream. I highly recommend this type of activity to anyone who want their kids to have loads of fun. The crew was fantastic and kept the kids very busy and entertained for two hours. They also made sure everyone stayed hydrated in the heat and sun by having water, soft drinks, and beer & wine easily available.

I went with Sarah, of course, her mother Erica, her grandmother Lea, and her Aunt Sonya (They are all my cousins) and Sarah's neighbor friend Gracey and her big brother Noah. Noah whipped me at Wii, by the way :(

There were many activities including water gun fights, a treasure hunt, face painting, pirate stories, musical chairs, and a dance party. The kids got beads, pirate hats, and "gold" coins. The music was awesome and really added to the festive feel. We departed with Reggea, and then songs matched the activities, and the dance party was a lot of disco - you just couldn't help tapping your foot or swaying your hips.

They also have special birthday parties where they provide Pirate cupcakes and dress up the birthday family in pirate costumes. I believe it was a good value with lots of entertainment for the dollar. The kids stayed engaged the entire trip. Highly recommend.

By the way, they asked me where they could see "real" pirates and I told them off the coast of Somalia ;)