Christmas

Hello friends,I know we are already almost into February,but I like to do a recap of the holidays even if I'm the only one who reads it,because in time it's nice to look back through the years at the memories.

Christmas Eve we always start by having a ham dinner.We use the ham the next morning for our traditional eggs Benedict.We also always have strawberry Belgian waffles and candy cane cocoa.Not sure how many years ago this tradition started I'm thinking like 10yrs ago and we've had the same breakfast every Christmas morning since.

We also either go to candlelight service or if we can't make that we watch a church service on T.V. and listen to Christmas concerts and watch some Christmas movies.Although I'm going to have to start doing those earlier in the month.We always put them off and then Christmas Eve and day are so busy we end up hardly watching any of them and after Christmas we just don't get around to it.Some of our favorites are:

A Christmas Story, ELF,The Santa Clause,Christmas in Connecticut old and newer version, Jingle All The Way, A Charlie Brown Christmas,Christmas Vacation (clean made for t.v. version) The Muppet Christmas Carol, Frosty The Snowman, Rudolph The Red Nosed Reindeer, Santa Claus Is Coming To Town
How The Grinch Stole Christmas, It's a Wonderful Life, Meet Me In St.Louis, Holiday Inn, Home Alone, White Christmas and some Hallmark gems Trading Christmas (One of Ariel's and my favorite Christmas movies) and Pete's Christmas.

On Christmas Eve we open stockings and usually one gift that is usually new pajamas.

Christmas morning after having our traditional breakfast we open gifts with Christmas music playing in the background.We all watch each other open the first gift and after that then we go to town unwrapping like crazy.

Ariel got a lot of Winnie The Pooh stuff, My Little Pony and Lego sets that her brothers put together for her.

 

Daniel it's usually hockey gear and maybe some movies he likes.

Michael it's artsy things like sketch books, colored pencils, paints, gift cards, movies

Nick mainly gets clothes and gift cards since he's on base and can't take a lot with him.I did find him this awesome blanket that I bought from The Key Peninsula Veterans.

                    Daniel's favorite NHL team.

  My guys got me some great Bruins jerseys and Ariel got me a beautiful red faux fur lined coat.

 Daisy was all prettied up ready for the festivities.

Gilbert it's Cabela's cards,Bass Pro cards and baseball hats,oh and an Army sweatshirt.

After watching movies and looking at the gifts we received we called all the relatives to wish them Merry Christmas and started on dinner.We do the traditional Turkey dinner with all the sides.Instead of making tons of pies like we do on Thanksgiving we eat all the Christmas goodies like all the cookies we made the day before,fudge things like that.We might have a cream pie or lemon meringue.

It was a lovely holiday and I am so thankful that I have such a wonderful family to share it with.

Holiday happenings

Hello friends, Well the holidays have come and gone.I don't know about you ,but I always get a little sad when Christmas is over. We had a lot of fun this holiday season. I would have liked to see Ariel get out a bit more than she was able to, but we still had a wonderful time.Here is a recap of some of the events we did.

One of the first things I did this holiday season was to go to the Food & Gift Fair at The Tacoma Dome with my cousin Deanne.I learned several things going to this. #1 Wear comfortable shoes especially for this one because it's huge #2 Sample and look around before you buy #3 Don't buy anything until the end.I made that mistake and ended up lugging something heavy around with me all day, so lesson learned .We had so much fun looking at all the pretty trees and cute ornaments and other craft items and trying all the yummy food samples. Soup, fudge, cocoa, dips, chocolate, cookies, we practically had lunch before we left.

Another thing my cousin and I did was to go to the cute little town of Poulsbo, well the historic part just chock full of Viking folklore and all kinds of Norwegian items. You can even get Lutefisk Tacos, Ummm, no thanks! 

This little guy was just so cute we had to stop and pet him.

 

Skating with The T-Birds was the next thing on our list.I'm sure you all know several of our family members are hockey junkies.We just love it and have gotten pretty involved with The Seattle Thunderbirds.Skating with them in December is always a fun.

    We brought our friend Robert and the guys had a blast.Even though the ice was so crazy busy that it
    was a bit like skating on the freeway,lol! 😅 They even had their picture shared on The Seattle Thunderbirds official page.

                We also went to a team party.

 

Next on the agenda was our annual zoo party.

 

 

 

 Of course any Marrero holiday has it's share of drama there has never been a holiday without some, so we had our share of seizures, injuries and even a surgery for Gilbert, but we didn't let it ruin our fun.😊

 

Ariel at her Neurologists office

 

Ariel at urgent care after her seizure injury.

 Next it was off to Port Gamble for the annual tree lighting and fireworks show.

 Always great to have hot chocolate when you're at this event, because it's freezing.

 

I made this video many years ago it shows Ariel when she was not having so many health issues.

We always have so much fun at that event and then go to Central Market for chili dogs and pizza afterwards.

Cookie decorating is part of our annual tradition.The guys get pretty creative and sometimes gruesome with their decor, why?, because their guys and they think it's fun, lol! 😉

                  Breakfast out with my guys.

Shopping with my girl. Ariel only needs the wheelchair when her seizures are really bad like in November they were awful.

                    Having some fun at Ocean 5.

                  Going to the hockey game.

               Hanging out at the movies.

We also went out to eat quite a few times and shopping. Nicholas was happy to be eating something besides fast food or base food. We didn't do everything I would have liked , but we did quite a few things and had a lot of fun. Nick had a great vacation off.
What are some of the things you did for the holidays?
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