Ashleigh in Israel

o.k. so I feel like sending my children to Israel is like a revolving door (Sam is on her way backas I type)... and that is not a bad thing... so I have had 2 pictures of her on the trip sent to me and I just couldn't wait to show them off.

do you think Shomer should be jealous

The Story of Shomers 3 years

I made some collages for Rodney while he was in the Netherlands.... I mailed them and forgot them... but I realized that they were way to cute to just keep for him.... so here they are Shomers first 3 years

My life as a revolving door

They come and they go and they come and they go... and my best intention of recording it for all to see has gone right down the tube..... now don't get me wrong... I took pictures and planned it all out in my head.... but we all know one of my favorite phrases..."Man (Mom) plans God laughs"

So what has happened since I last sat down and finished an entry Barry is recovering nicely, we have had a few set backs but he is doing good.

Celia: that's right she made it out of Portland and came down for a great visit, and a job interview. Yes you read that correctly the plan is for Celia to be down here no later than Presidents weekend.... not a drive that I am looking forward in participating in (it is long!) but I am excited about the end result.

Originally she was just coming down for a quick holiday visit. 4 days but we squeezed a lot into those four days.

Visits with friends.... A special performance of the Nutcracker Suite and of course the family Hanukkah party.

and then just a quickly as she arrived..... she was gone... but not for long.

Nathan: no recent pictures (hint hint Nathan) but he is in Florida and is the go to guy if you are interested in buying or preparing fish... he will also be starting EMT school in January.



Sammie: Sammie did come down for a great Thanksgiving dinner with Gledhill and Indian Hill Lane. And then she was gone.... back up to Davis for a short 3 weeks... but they were a very busy 3 weeks finals, packing and the return of "Just a Friend Rodney" who has officially been upgraded to "Boyfriend Rodney"...who has been in the Netherlands for a semester, but now he's back and Sam wanted to be there for his arrival. Finals were over on the 11th and they drove down on the 12th which really made Shomers night.... because he just loves Rodney. But It was a short gathering because Sam was gone again .... on the 14th let's be real she was only here for the the 13th because by 6:30 a.m. the morning of the 14th she was on her way to New York and then yes you guessed it ..... off to Israel!

Bubbie asked her "Why are you going to Israel this time?" and Sam said "Because I can!!!!"

She is having a great time and will be home for a short moment on Dec 30.
now for those of you who have been listening to the news Sam has said that they have had some of their activities altered because of the Gaza bombing but on the whole they are doing great and there is no danger.

Morgan: didn't come out for winter break......and she was missed.... so what is she up to...she is getting ready to be an ADULT that's right in just 1 month I can't believe it. Oh yeah she will graduate High School in June!

and that leaves....

Ashleigh: who is sailing on the Mediterranean as I type, but again I am jumping ahead rather than bringing you up to date. Well one of the exciting things as far as I am concerned is that Ashleigh has started blogging.... yes she has her own blog. it's a work in progress but it is being worked on and that is the important part.

So Ash and Shomer have had a busy couple days since that last post, mostly getting ready for her trip to Israel. Yes there are two of them there at the same time but again I am ahead of myself.

so she was with us when Celia arrived.

then She went with Celia to see Paige dance in the Nutcracker and then to family party and before we knew it it was December 25th and we were off to the airport...

So way back in March of this year we had a visitor...Ashleighs partner from Israel and now it was her turn to visit. This time we didn't have to leave as early as we did for Sam... so when someone asks what we did for Christmas..... we (Barry, Bubbie, Ashleigh and I) will say we went to LAX... to say good bye.... which brings me full circle. Ashleigh called us at 3:00 in the morning on Friday morning (Friday night her time) to say she had arrived safely and was looking forward to her trip and that Shira's dad was going to take them sailing on the Mediterranean Saturday afternoon.

So the only ones left to write about is Barry and me...and we are just enjoying the peace and quiet and working on getting all those jobs done around the house that we have been putting off.

Tis the first night of Hanukah

And we all gathered at Gledhill

to light the first light

with Latkas, Doughnuts and Blintz Casserole too!

The families had gathered for

good times and good food

with only one of us missing

there was paper and ribbon and ripping and tearingand o

oohing and aaahhhhing but not very much sharing...

o.k. enough trying to rhyme.

The kids got into the ripping of wrapping paper.

Ashleigh just enjoyed being with her Bubbie.

So did Tracy

I had made all the little people these cute funky little scarf/hood/pocket things

and then we had the infamous.... Leslie Slut Sweaters

o.k. so maybe they are not to slutty this year... and in some cases they are not even sweaters But they were all loved... especially since they came from Leslie and Bill.

The whole evening was great fun... especially when we got down to adult games. It was Calli's first year as an adult so Bubbie showed her what to do. How to do the white elephant and then what to do with the gift?

Calli did pretty good for the first time... Morgan you better ask questions cause next year your an adult....

Samantha on the other hand is in Israel (yes I know when isn't she in Israel) and she had Barry as her person to buy a gift for... so this is what she gave him and t if you need to know more... I guess you will have to ask.

but when the evening was done .....we were ready for bed.

do you know what your looking at?

I know that everyone always is joking about how I am the one always taking pictures.

I have also been given the nickname as "The Picture Nazi" (it is only said with love, right Sam)

And when Barry went in for his knee surgery (today) we were laughing that I would find a way to put pictures on the blog.....I didn't really think that I would find a picture to put up after all

a bandage is kind of boring... but when he came out of surgery today there they were pictures waiting for me to put on the blog.

so yes you are looking at pictures from inside Barry's knee. oh yeah... He is doing just fine.

My Kitchen Helpers

How many of my entries in the past year or so have lamented about my empty kitchen... and how lonely it is to cook by my self.



And some of the cooking was still done alone (waiting for the arrival of Samantha and Ashleigh on Wed night) So I made the pies alone....

Barry and Shomer offered to help









But on Thursday it was different actually it was back to good old days
and I am thankful for all my helpers


























To all my kitchen helpers

THANK YOU !!!



The only thing that would have made the day better would have been if Celia, Morgan and Nathan were there with us

The Big Girls Table

I know most of us remember the little kids table

when we were little we were very content to be there

then somewhere around 13 years old we start to complain

we don't want to sit at the little kids table

Then we hit 17 or 18 (depending on how many little kids there are after us)

and we are allowed to sit at the big peoples table... Yeah!

But this year we had more big girls than little girls at our Thanksgiving table


so we did it a little different, we put Paige and Jello at our table (the big people) and gave Samantha (20), Calli (18) and Ashleigh (16) their own table and they were happy to be at what we will now call "The Big Girl Table" and it can be something that all the little girls aspire to.

I hope your tables were filled with big girls and little girls and lots and lots of love.

Sammie is home

And shomer couldn't be happier....