Christmas Eve

There is a certain element of joy when I know we’re going to be at mom and dad’s on Christmas Eve.

It’s the annual tradition of family, food and visiting that joined together makes for the perfect way to spend the holiday.

But before we could get to my parents house, we had to get on a plane and fly from St Louis *Shiver* – down to Sunny South Florida *Ahhh*

It was and early flight, but worth it! As we arrived at the parents house at around 3pm. YAY! My little brother and his family were right behind us.

We all arrived two hours before mom expected us, which was good all the way around. It took some of the work off of her and we all pitched in to help.

And let me tell you, the food that comes out of her kitchen is amazing!

My nephew jumping to give a helping hand.

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My little brother was on duty texting his baby girl (out doing her calling) who is out of the country. We missed her so much.

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The hubs and nephew on stand-by waiting on their next assignment.

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My pop starting a fire. My wish was to roast a marshmallow that evening, but my tummy was too full by the end of the night. P.S. My family does not burn/catch our marshmallows on fire. No, we slowly turn it until its  reached golden brown status and soft on the inside. Mmmm…I could go for one now!

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My sis-in-law preparing the annual goodie table.

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My niece cooking up some sausage for our homemade egg rolls.

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Her brother, my nephew – supervising…

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And that’s when I went off camera duty and on over to my post aka the kitchen sink. I was trying to keep up with all the dirty dishes flying into my sink…And things had started to pile up.

Then we all enjoyed the fruits of our labor by dining outdoors and visiting into the evening hours by candle light and the nice little fire…Did I mention how yummy everything was? And how good it was to spend time around the table once again with family? It was such a joyous occasion and once again, my mother outdid herself.

Blessings – Debbie

Happy New Year

I’m so excited about 2013! But I’m not going to get all wrapped up into the New Year on the Blog just yet. As you know, I have some catching up to do before I can move on.

We have been quite busy bodies the last couple of weeks. And the plan is to take that one blog post at a time too. Small bites, that’s how I plan to catch up.

For starters, on December 19th, the hubs and I took a trip to St Louis to visit with family and attend our nephew’s wedding.

Disclaimer – All shots (in this post) were taken with my iPad and the last shot (in St Louis) taken with my cell phone. I wasn’t ready for the “big guy” just yet.

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There is something about living on the West Coast and flying over the desert. Especially when snow begins to appear on mountain tops. I’m smitten.

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Oh my word! Utter splendor as we approach our first stop in Salt Lake City. I’m one happy gal that the hubs insists I have the window seat.

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You should have seen me at the airport in Salt Lake that evening. I was PUSHING for our flight to lift off before sunset. As we continued to taxi out, the pilot would announce “we are 5th in line for takeoff”… Each time he would announce something new and all the time in-between, I would freak out, look out the window, check to see that the sun was still up. It’s crazy the things that drive me nuts when I want to photograph a sunset with snow-covered peaks.

But alas, this is all the light I had to work with once our feet were off the ground.

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Soon, I reclined and relaxed for the remains of our flight.

We were prepared for St Louis to be freezing cold. Instead, it was cold and raining that evening. And we were both so thankful that it was not ice.

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That concludes day 1 of our trip.

Blessings – Debbie

Happy Holiday Weekend

Good Friday Afternoon!  I hope all of you are enjoying this holiday week/weekend and keeping nice and cool one way or another.

We’ve had some Fun Filled Days.  As hubby has been off work since Tuesday evening.

  • We checked out this open house on our street.  While we’re not “quite” ready to buy, it’s fun getting our feet wet again.

  • Had some fun errands together – Love doing stuff together, even when it involves Home Depot.  I can have more fun in that store than a shoe store.
  • Enjoyed some really good movies
  • and to think “it’s only Friday!”

But most of all, I’ve enjoyed being totally kick back with the hubs.  Let the chilling continue around here.

Blessings – Debbie

Happy Thanksgiving

Since we don’t live near family, Hubby and I started our own Thanksgiving Dinner tradition by making annual reservations = I’m thankful I don’t have to cook + clean up for just the two of us. And the bonus is that we get to enjoy a huge variety of traditional Thanksgiving food that I would not have the energy or space for. Sigh, reservations were at 1:00 and now we’re home with full tummies + a nice clean house.

A quick snap of us after our dinner.

Thanksgiving dinner buffet

The meat carving station

A portion of the salad bar…

And a birds eye view of all the sweets!  I had a sampling of so many of these yummy treats.  The pumpkin and pecan pies were so good, amongst a host of other goodies…

My handsome hubby enjoying his goodies.

I felt beyond blessed to be sitting across the table from him this beautiful Thanksgiving day.

Right in the middle of my picture taking I got caught.  I love it when that happens – he made me smile.

He did scold me – I may or may not have chuckled.

“stop taking my picture”

 I wonder what this sign means.

But this last look more than melts my heart.  And I wish I could convince him that I love him more.

One thing he would never do is taunt me when it comes to cherries.  This was about 5 min. after I got in trouble.

A gift for me…I’m thankful he made this Thanksgiving day so special.  What great conversation we had around our little table.

He truly has a magical way of making my little light shine.

While enjoying the atmosphere, I slipped out to the patio…It was just a bit too chilly for us to comfortably dine but so pretty none the less.

The San Diego Sky line from the patio.  We crossed that bridge to get to the island.

We passed by the Hotel Del

What a pretty hotel.  We enjoyed Thanksgiving there last year.

Such beautiful scenery all along the way.  “Honey, we’re in CA” was repeated again in the car.  It’s impossible to count the times we’ve said that since we moved here just over a year ago.

Coronado Island Yacht Club

And one last shot. I find such beauty in this bridge each time we pass by.

A heart of Thanksgiving is one I want to carry with me all the days of my life.  And my greatest desire is to be the best helpmate I can be for my husband.  While I feel so blessed to have the gift of life, I feel the greater blessing spending the days of my life with him.

Blessings – Debbie

Happy New Year

We were so thrilled to get the call that our friends (Bob and Barbara) were in town (visiting) during the holidays. We had an invite to their place to spend the afternoon and evening to celebrate the last day of 2009.

The two of them “cheers”! Hubby and Bob


We spent the afternoon in the back yard.


Bob and Barbara’s nephew jumping out of his newly constructed fortress


I got you!


Looking off to the distant far right was this very long pier. I think that’s the restaurant I’ve heard so much about, there at the end.


Getting close to the last bit of daylight of 2009


Each shot changed as the sun went down.


Wish I could remember their nephew’s name. He’s standing out there with his board just before sunset.


From the balcony


Big orange ball, sinkin’ in the water… This was our first experience to enjoy the setting of the sun on the Pacific coast. What a sunset and evening spent with friends to remember.


Their nephew playing with his new Christmas electronic gadget.


Linda and her son, nice moment, just wish I had zoomed back out after taking a previous shot in the distance. Terrible quality but love the moment.


Card game – The question I keep asking myself “why did I forget to change the setting when I came inside”? Ugh Hubby reminds me to use the flash but I prefer no flash. But it didn’t help that I left the setting for outdoor shooting. But I want to remember the night so I’m posting the pictures anyway. Sorry…


Bob and Barbara – Looking forward to another visit already.


Friends and family = Good times to remember


Some of the boys


Travis Pastrana New Years Eve 2009-2010 Rally Car Jump – On the west coast the live event took place at 9pm.


And that concluded our wonderful afternoon and evening with friends. We’re light weights and couldn’t last ‘til midnight. But we woke the morning of January 1st feeling refreshed and excited to begin this New Year.

Happy New Year

This New Year I’m doing a Year End Review. I’ve seen so many friends do this on their blogs that I thought it would be a swell idea. And we’re off…

January – We moved from our little two bedroom suite at the hotel to a two bedroom apartment. Here we are getting settled in.

February – On Valentines I took a nice drive and captured so many beautiful pictures of the snow.

March – I finished drawing this set of pears that I now use as my blog header.

April – In memory of Ma. Bobby’s sweet and loving mother passed away – We miss her but we’re thankful she’s with Jesus. The photo below was taken on her 80th birthday.

May – Our home in Texas sold and we flew back for that “BIG” move. Bobby and I also celebrated our birthdays in May. Bobby turned 46 and I turned the big 40 this past year.

June – I continued drawing.

July – The beautiful weeds of summer and a deer. Bobby and I also celebrated our 9th wedding anniversary, I’m so blessed my soul mate found me.

August – A trip to Niagara Falls

August – My first visit to Bobby’s Alma Mater – ILLINI

August – A stop for some Chicago Style Stuffed Pizza. This was my first experience to try this amazing pizza and I’m craving it!

August – Tickets to see the St Louis Cardinals. The Cardinals have been hubby’s team since he was a very young lad.

September – I finally captured butterfly pictures.

September – Bobby took me to Boston with him on his business trip. Pictures were from China Town and a sunset.

October – A visit to the pumpkin patch.

I also spent a week with my parents down south… I’m sick I didn’t get any pictures from my trip but had a wonderful time no less!

October – On the 29th we had our first beautiful little snow.

November – Thanksgiving with my dearest was such a treat.

December – Bobby took me with him on another business trip to Boston. I had a fantastic time keeping warm and shopping in an amazing mall.

December – A little snippet of Christmas with my family.


December – A little pottery shopping with my mom.


We officially broke ground December 30, 2008! The top two pictures are the progress of clearing the lot…


We’re looking forward to the New Year and I send Happy New Year Wishes to you my friends!

Memorial Day

We had a wonderful Memorial Day weekend. We enjoyed a wonderful breakfast at my absolute favorite place where I had the best cinnamon French toast in the world and Bobby and I also visited the man (Allan) responsible for our move to NY. He’s been in the hospital since the 15th of May and his diagnosis is Severe Pancreatitis – an inflammation of his pancreas. Allan seemed to be in very good spirits considering he has not consumed any solid food since his Thursday dinner (5/15). The physicians have him on IVs with the goal of realigning his digestive enzymes other hormones the pancreas produces. Allan is expected to remain at the hospital through this week. When he is released to go home he will continue IVs for another 2 weeks.

Silly me asked Allan what he was able to drink and he said (pointing at the bag) this IV is the only thing I get. The poor guy can’t even have a drink of anything. However, he did say that this was his “BIG” day as he was going to get a Popsicle! His eyes seemed to light up just talking about a Popsicle! And as his wife stated his Mount Everest is the Jell-O liquid that he gets to drink this coming week. As soon as his pancreas is stable, he’s going to have his gallbladder taken care of as the lousy stone in there trying to pass is what they feel caused this whole flare-up.

We certainly enjoyed our visit with them and we look forward to getting together with them when he gets to feeling better.