Tea Pot

The awesome Tea Pot I couldn't post Here
Justine made it in her college pottery class.
She gave it as a Christmass gift to Sarah.
It's just so Sarahish...

I find it just P E R F E C T and B E A U T I F U L like it's creator

Dangerous kids

 This was naughty, dangerous, disobediant and not smart!

But they hey sure had fun...

Crazy kids playing Tug-of-war with the dogs!

Let's not mention how dirty this dog toy is!
Gross Gross Gross and Gross

Loads of laundry

The Daily Loads of Laundry!

With 3 families, sledding trips, snoman making, trip to the pool,
muddy forest walks, 

we had to keep on top of it. 

Or we would have been buried under it...

Oh... let's not talk about the socks!

Can you spot the 3 dogs?

Exhausted Puppy

All that running in snow every day and playing with her best friend Libby pooped Chloe out!

Hospital Pass Time

Games and more games...

We got some board games for Christmas and brought them to play with Alexi.
I'm glad this time we were able to spend some time with him while he was in the hospital.
He usually finds these stays quite boring...
This time he had lots of visits! :)

 

Hospital stay

Alexi had a 'Holiday' stay at the Hospital.

He got a Staph infection in his blood.
He is now on antibiotics for 4 weeks but had to stay in his steril room for a week.

The good news is that he had a nice huge luxury suite!

Emric stayed four nights on the couch, kept him company and played video games with him.

He was quite happy to make this sacrifice to be with his big brother.

(all night and day gaming, he was one happy camper!)

I just love this picture of Mike and Alexi!

Christmas Day @ 10:44 pm

Feast and Famine Board Game

Sugar and more Sugar Consumption

Sleeping

Watching Movies and more Movies

Puzzled by the Puzzle

Christmas Morning

Sarah Invited the Browns to stay a few days for Christmas.
It was so nice of her.
I'ts not easy putting that many people up for that long.
Sarah is so AWESOME!
She is a giant of a friend! So caring and unselfish...
I wish I was more like her!
:)

The Waiting for everyone to get out of bed...

some are more eager than others!
We had waffles following the opening of presents.
A Nakata tradition.

Muddy Forest Walk

Today, being Sunday,
 we got to see all our fellow church friends from the Liberty ward.
It was so neat giving hugs and greetings

After Church, our Men and our kids tagged along with Sarah and I
on our daily walk in the woods with the dogs.

The kids were actually dirtier than the dogs!
They had so much fun hanging on a huge tree vine and got really muddy!
They played the Hunger games...
And some of us had so much fun cleaning up all the mud on the clothes and the shoes...

Christmas Puzzle

The Johnsons have a tradition of doing a puzzle before Christmas day.
This one was a challenge! A challenge that I didn't even try to atempt!
I normaly love to do puzzles.

Shelby Farms Dog Park in Memphis Tennesse

This is tradition, we stop here for Chloe every time we make the trip to Ohio.
Shelby farms dog Park is awesome.
It even has a hose you can clean them with.
(Of course it doesn't work in the winter months)
But I was prepared with water less shampoo and towel.
It must be the biggest funnest dog park for our furry darlings in America!
Pure dog heaven.
Gives us a chance to stretch our legs too.

Road Trip...

Again...
I vowed I would not take another trip this year after the adventurous summer trip.
Well I lied.
We hit the road to spend Christmas in Ohio,
with Alexi, the Johnsons and the Browns
(Sarah invited them too)
It went pretty well, only one incident when I texted Sarah
"Someone please shoot me!"
Not bad, not bad!
Let's see if the return will be even better with no sibling unkindness...

Chloe is the best little traveler... may I say better than the kids? 

Justine is Home...

She got home around midnight last night, after 33 hours of travel, airports and flights.

(She has been trying to get home since last Friday.)

We are so happy she is here, especially since we are hitting the road for Ohio tomorrow.

She brought home lots of stuff for gifts.

Ukuleles, jewelry, Hawaiian hand fans, tee-shirts, and my very very favorite;

Some homemade pottery she made in her Beginning Ceramics Class.

I LOVE it! She is really good at it! 

More will be coming in a month, she shipped it from Hawaii.

One of my favorite pieces will be posted after Christmas,

 cause it's going to be a surprise gift for someone.

I am now going to bed after a very busy day of laundry, 

pulling out winter clothes and shoes from the garage storage bins, 

packing, a dentist apt for Justine and cleaning up the house, 

basically getting ready for our trip.

we are so excited to see our friends in Ohio and our boy Alexi!

So goodnight...

Mario Kart Fun

We finished our little Family home evening playing a few races of Mario cart

I'm really bad at it!

Amelie came in first every time.

Mike and I battled last and next to last place every time.
We just kept falling of the tracks & going under trucks.
I thought I was doing tricks and it was a good thing. Well it wasn't.

A Beautiful Story Reading

Tonight for our Family night, Amelie read us a book.

You Are Mine 

By Max Lucado

Amelie is such an incredible reader! 

She reads better than us!

Her intonations are right on the spot!

I was in awe listening to her read to us...

By the way this story is perfect just before Christmas.

Well worth the read.

Flooding of Memories in One Unexpected Bite of French Goodness

(Well, these were actually from Italy)

Tonight for our date, my Man and I went to see the movie the Hobbit.

After the movie we had to go validate our parking ticket at Hubble & Hudson!

So we got a couple of my favorite drinks:

 Izzi and Orangina

I happened to look up on a random shelf, and what did I see?

Some boxes of Marrons Glaces!

(Glazed Candied Chestnut)

OH MY HEART!

3 min later, I was savoring this french delicatessen at 11pm at an outside table in front of H&H, 

under a lit up tree, in 70+ degree weather!

(I did share one with my man, just one and forbade him to eat anymore...)

I almost cried at the first bite!

Memories of my dear grandma Henrillette and past Christmases 

in my home land enveloped me!

 I miss my Grandma so much!

She was so lovely and kind, I've always felt a strong bond for her and still do.

She knew her grandchildren and loved us by always having little goodies for us when we visited.

Some of my favorite childhood memories were sleep overs at her tinny one bedroom appartement.

Going to the market and grocery shopping, 

Waiting for the Bread Van that would honk in front of her apartment building everyday. 

I would run down the 6 or 7 flights of stairs so fast to get her her daily fresh bread 

and little yummy buttery croissants, a treat for me!

During my high school years, I would visit her and my beloved grandpa Gaston, 

 every week during my 2h lunch hour or after school.

I ALWAYS felt welcomed, loved and special in thier home and heart.

I want to be a grandma just like her someday...

So, why so emotional, as I savor this marron glaces?

For Christmas, she would get me a box of these Marrons, 

because I was the weird one that did not like chocolate!

Here are photos of her, goodbyes, and a poem I wrote to honor her.

I love her so much and can't wait to see her again in the next life!

I know she will be there to greet me.
She will be one of the first persons I will look for.

I can't think of heaven without memere Henrillette or pepere Gaston!

I feel so privileged to be part of thier family.

I love family ties, because they never die or leave us.

Ward Christmas Party

This morning we had our Christmas Bruch Party

With a little live Nativity play with songs. 

We had a very nice time.

I brought cut up apples with caramel.

I liked what they did with the deco.

Amelie was a lucky little angel.

On a sadder note, Justine didn't get her plane...
today doesn't look good either...
But that is to be expected with buddy passes.
The tickets are way cheeper, but you have to be prepared to wait for a seat,
sometimes a few days.
I was stuck once in France for 10 days!
Hopefuly, it will not be that long for Justine!
She would miss Christmass!
We do not want that now, do we?