Christmas 2008

So I haven't written for quite awhile... Busy busy time of year as you all know.So here's the scoop...

We celebrated Mark's 40Th on December 20Th with a few friends and family. It was nice. I invited friends and family that we haven't seen in quite awhile and they all came! We really enjoyed seeing everyone. Mark actually found out the day before and was giving me a hard time for having a dinner party when he said he didn't want anything but at the end of it all he thanked me and said it was the perfect crowd. We made it a family environment and He really liked that. Rob, Dusty and the girls came and Mark was so happy. He is such a sentimental guy these day's. Not that he didn't appreciate or enjoy everyone else. I think now that our kids are older he just loves being around the little ones. Not to mention the Gipson girls are the cutest little girls ever. We only invited a few and hope we didn't offend anyone. Just wanted something small and that is hard to do because we are blessed with so many wonderful friends and family. It was hard to choose but I had to scale it down. Even scaled down there were 20 people. I made the list expecting a few to say no and was pleasantly surprised they all could make it. Thanks! The nice thing was I had a seat for everyone and we were able to have a sit down dinner. I made Lasagna, Cesar salad, bread sticks and garlic bread... simple but delicious.

What a nice Christmas. My mother out did herself again. We went up on Christmas Eve to celebrate with my family. It was nice that Aunt Agnes, Uncle Jimmy, Aunt Donna, David, Lindsey and their boys came this year. My brother and Rian were there as they are every year and Al, Jessica, and the boys made it also. We missed seeing grandma and my dads side of the family! Hopefully next year. We had a nice dinner. This year we decided to do the white elephant gift exchange for the adults and only buy for the kids. It was a great idea and fun at the same time. Mark ,the kids ,and I stayed until Saturday. On Christmas morning we let the kids open their gifts from us and had a small breakfast. My mother made another great meal and Richard joined us that evening. between the two days we had turkey, Ham, and roast beef with all the fixings and only went to one house... how great is that. The kids were excited and pleasantly surprised by their gifts. They were not expecting what they received. We put Emily on our phone plan and bought her a phone and we up graded Cameron's phone to a G1 which is the T mobile version of the I phone. He was expecting to have to buy it him self. They also received clothes and some other fun stuff. I think it was a hit because they were both on their phones for days after. On Friday my mother treated Emily and I to a spa day. My mother and I got a massage with an add on I had a foot reflexology and my mother added a mud wrap. Emily got a pedicure and manicure. What a nice treat. Thanks Mom! That evening my parents, Richard, Brandon, Rich, Mark, and I went to Red Hawk. The new Indian casino in Shingle Springs. We had a great time and my dad was the lucky one. He won 600.00... he bought us all a midnight meal and gave me 75.00... love being daddy's little girl! HEE HEE! We didn't make it home until 3:00 am needless to say we woke up in the afternoon and said what we always say... "We are too old for this!" but for some reason we always go back for more... Hey it's fun! My kids stayed at my parents and watched TV so they say... When we got back Cameron was still up and playing with his phone... I think that's what they both did all night. We came home on Saturday and watched a few movies. I woke up yesterday not feeling well and with a fever. Cameron left first thing in the morning and went to San Fransisco with his friends. They took Bart in and brought their scooters. Scootered around SF for the day and met Matt's parents for dinner at Buca di Bepo. Then they came back on Bart and went to Steve's to watch a movie. I still haven't seen him today...Still asleep! Emily stayed home with us yesterday but we still didn't see her. She was in her room playing with all her new stuff. She tried to get a few friends to come over but no one could. Only one more week and they all go back to school and work. I think Mark will have the hardest time... a month off... he's just getting use to relaxing. He went golfing today and I'm sure before the weeks over he will go again. We're not sure what we will do for New Years yet. I'm thinking we will stay home and have a little family time. Movies... games... and snack foods! We did enough drinking this week to last us awhile... Well at least that's how I feel. I haven't really talked to Mark to see what he wants to do yet. We hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and have a Happy New Year! I'll post pictures when I get them!