Gratituesday: By George, I think he's got it!

Oh my...

I am a huge fan of George Takei.

Apparently everyone in the universe is as well.

Love, love, love the laugh I get every day from the stuff he posts.

The mix of cute and riotous humor is the perfect mix.

If you are looking for something to make you laugh everyday...George is your man.

Here are a couple of my personal favorites.





 

 


PS...computer virus kept me down on Tuesday...I am cramming now!

Whatever: The family that plays together...

As I said Monday, I survived the holiday weekend.

My sister, Jennifer and her adorable family was here from Wednesday on.

Middle Sister, as my nephew dubbed her, Karen came up for the day Thursday.

She brought her husband and two youngest kids. Her two oldest had other plans and decided to stay in the Nashville area with their girlfriends dad. We missed them, especially as I look back on the family photo and miss the tallest kid 6"1"! 

With both my sisters in the house AND Steve's brother-in-law and two of his three kids, along with several mother-in-laws, we were a large and loud group. The best part was the fact that the women outnumbered the men for once. Love it!

Thanksgiving dinner was lovely and we all behaved once we sat down to eat. 

After a short "break" to digest our dinner, we dove into a rousing game of Cranium, or more appropriately named... "yell at the top of your lungs". Literally, the windows were rattling. 

 

If you have never played Cranium, it is a game of knowledge, creativity, charade-like performance and words. If you would like the experience that we had I suggest you gather ALL of the most competitive and obnoxious people you know, give them several bottles of wine to drink, have them talk a lot of trash, pair them up with the unlikeliest alliances, then tell them to be quiet because the little kids are in bed. 

Most everyone in my family is very competitive. My baby sister has only recently been able to play games because she hates to lose. I personally have gotten more so the older I get. And, my nephew, who literally is the most competitive person I know, seems to bring it out in me even more. So, it is a bit of an understatement to say that it got ugly. 

Everyone was talking  major trash, beginning with our team names and going all the way to victory dances being pranced rather enthusiastically after each round.

(Although, to my great embarrassment, I am the only one who dropped the F-bomb.

Major fail...especially when my niece busted me for " Saying a curse word REALLY LOUD!")

 

  We were really excited to play, especially since all the "kids" are now actually old enough to play. Our children now range in age from 21 to 6, and all but the two smallest and one teen observer played.

  

We all took turns acting out people, places and things, drawing with our eyes closed and guessing at random trivia. 

 Intense is the not the right word for this experience, especially since we had an unusually high number of  "Club Cranium " cards when everyone had to play at once. Arguments and louder yelling ensued. Also, the 100th Club Cranium of the evening was the last straw for me, hence the now infamous uttering.

 After one spilled drink, many rounds of arguing over who was cheating and who was cheated, lots and lots of talking over each other, and much laughter we finally finished hours later after one major declaration of this being the worst game and biggest group of cry babies. EVER.

It was.The best game. Ever. 

Of course, I can say that because, my team won.

Go Team Cuddly Wolverines!!!!

Dirt: The group photo

In case you haven't noticed...

It is still November.

It is still the month in which we Americans give thanks for what we have received and for what we have in our lives. We had a lovely Thanksgiving, full of laughter and fancy dishes.

Grandmother's 20th anniversary china and mother's crystal

I am savoring the 300 plus photos I took over the Thanksgiving weekend.

I want it to last. At least longer than the turkey dinner did.

The hours and days I spent cleaning, shopping and cooking that culminated in just about 15 minutes of a meal on the actual day.  Sigh.

We had a minor speed bump in our plan to have dinner at 1pm. The original turkeys got too warm when defrosting, so we threw them out and started over.

Everyone was notified that it would be moved back 2-4 hours and it worked out great. We had snacks and lots of visiting and laughter to carry us through.  I was really happy to have most of both sides of our family together and everyone seemed to hit it off.

I am thankful for those calves

Bro-in-law and his mom

Middle sister and my mother-in-law

We had a speech given by a very eloquent speaker, who encouraged us to count our blessings before we sat down to a wonderful meal.

Amazing child

While we were waiting for the turkey to smoke, I went out on a limb and gathered everyone for a group photo. Something I wish we had been doing every year since Steve and I have been together. I had someone ask me for photos recently and I was sad to find out that even though I take the most in my family, I don't really have any good "groups". Steve and I have joined that adult group called "Adults without grandparents". The lack of photos from the holidays we celebrated with them is such a travesty as we were both extremely close to our grandparents.
So, while I can't get that back, I can create new photos for my children and my siblings children.
 

One thing to know about my family, we have a lot of women in it. 

A lot of smart and head strong women.

 So there were a lot of directions given to get everyone where they needed to be for the photo.

Negotiations began

No problem with self awarness

So, as of this year, as the official photographer of the family, I have decreed. We are taking the "damn" photo every time we get together. Mine are not as in focus as I wish they were, but they at least capture the "us" of 2012.

Including the dogs. 

Poor baby

Dirt: Still 12

Today we celebrated my oldest's 13th birthday with a party.

She is 12 for 10 more days and I am going to get a lot of miles out of that.

My girls are 21 months apart and for 3 months, I get to say my kids are a year apart.

The double takes are not as great at 11 and 12 as they were at say, 1 and 2 or 3 and 4. 

But, I still get that look of shock that flutters across people's faces.

Now, it is me who is shocked.

Shocked that she is going to be 13.

Shocked that she does not like Thomas the Tank Engine or want me to look at a "patt-er-en" that she created. Shocked that she does not wear her blankie as a cape  Shocked that she is as tall as I am and wears the same size shoes as me.

What I am not shocked by is the fact that she organized her own party. Created and sent invitations, kept up with RSVPs, made her own cupcakes and coordinated the colors.

I made her a banner and bought the candy. 

She is an amazing and independent girl, and I can see in glimpses the woman she will be.

I love her so much sometimes it takes my breath away and today, as I watched her walk off with 12 of her friends (and her sister and her friend) on her birthday scavenger hunt, it hurt just a little. She came back, but she did not need me to hold her hand or tell her where to go, and that is a little hard to swallow. 

13.

Huge milestone.

Huge deal.

10 more days of 12.

Sigh.