Indy Visitors and Christmas Angels

This weekend Phil and I played host to our friends Jon & Erin and the Harberts for a birthday party for Erin. They all came up from Indiana to party with us. Saturday morning (well all day Saturday really) it snowed a lot. The girls and I went into Richland for a massage and some sauna time, then went off shopping to some antique and craft places. We also walked around downtown Kalamazoo and did some shopping as well. The site was beautiful with all the Christmas lights and the snow coming down. After shopping, we met up with the boys (who were at our house babysitting for the day… I know it’s a scary thought) and baby Lily for a quick game of Clue at the Camburn’s and then off for dinner in Richland.

Erin shopping at the craft store.


Heather, Erin and I shopping downtown Kzoo.


The boys stayed home and baby sat while the girls were out...scary thought.


Lily and Heather (baby and Mom), look at those cute leg warmers she's wearing.


Erin, Mr. Camburn & Heather in an intense game of Clue.


Jon, Justin, Rob and Phil at dinner.


Sunday we went out and almost finished our Christmas shopping, only a few things left to do. We had dinner at Phil’s dad’s house where we had an arts and crafts project before dinner. When Phil was little he made a paper plate angel of himself, so we decided to make paper plate angels of the rest of the family to go on his dad’s tree. It was too much fun.

Rob and Phil working on their crafts.


Here are all the Christmas angels we made.

Christmas Choir

Friday night and all day Saturday I spent with my friend Jess & Traci at Traci’s house. A few months ago Traci and I started our wedding scrapbooks and since I started school, they have just been lying around half done. So we vowed that on my Christmas break we would finish them…we didn’t quite realize what a big project they were. We conned our friend Jess into coming over too and making a scrapbook of her niece for her sister.

We worked on the scrapbooks from Friday night around 5:30pm until Saturday night until about midnight. There were a few breaks in there for eating, a quick run to Wal-Mart for pictures and supplies and some distractions by dogs, but other than that, it was pretty much straight scrapbooking the whole time. We were exhausted by the end, but good news is…it’s finished!! (well basically) There are a few more little details I need to do, but for the most part, it’s finished.

Sunday we went up north to see Phil’s Uncle Jan sing in his church choir. Phil’s dad, Phil and I made the trip to Durand in the morning. We saw the choir sing and then went back to Uncle Jan & Aunt Carol’s house for a huge feast. It felt like Thanksgiving dinner it was so awesome. We visited with them for a while and then I tried to convince Phil and his dad to take me to Frankenmuth so I could shop at the 7 acre Christmas store, but they weren’t having it, so we just went home instead. Oh well, maybe I can convince other people to go with me later. They have Christmas year round there!

Traci and Jess working hard on their scrapbooks... look at all that crap we have!


A few sample pages before they were finished.




Phil and Honey in Lansing before the concert.


Uncle Jan being... Uncle Jan


Rob (phil's dad) and Uncle Jan after the concert.

Wassailing Anyone?

Thursday night was the annual Richland Wassailing event. Of course I had to drag Phil down to check it out, since we missed out last year. For those of you who don’t know what Wassailing is (don’t be embarrassed, I didn’t know what it was either) it’s basically caroling. We did not do any singing, but we did take Tula down to see some live Reindeer, walk around the part and drink hot chocolate. All the shops were open with treats and goodies inside for people to check out. The best part of the evening was when a little chubby boy (probably around 9 or 10 years old) came up to pet Tula. He had hot chocolate on his face, a cookie in his mouth and another in his hand. I said “be careful or she might try to eat your cookie.” Then he asked if he could give it to her and I said “sure if you want to, that is fine.” He then changed his mind and said to me, I was going to give it to her but then I remembered that dogs can’t have chocolate. This might not be funny except the cookie he was holding was a vanilla crème filled cookie… no chocolate there.

After that, the boy proceeded to tell me that if Tula was his dog and was a boy that he would “name her Jerry Springer, because she looks like she could jump high”… ??

A little while later I was enjoying a cup of hot chocolate by the boy scouts table when this same little boy came up to get another glass. As he finished it off, he says to me…”hot chocolate makes me have to go the bathroom.” That was the icing on a wonderful Christmasy night.

Here is Tula doing her best impersonation of a Reindeer.

Phil & Tula in the town square.

The live Reindeer...they didn't look that happy.

Nose Picker

Friday night I went over to visit my friend Amy and her daughter Juliana. We had a fun girl’s night. We ordered pizza, played with toys and watched some kid’s videos. It was really good to see Amy again and spend some time together. It’s been a long time! Her daughter is getting so big, I can’t even believe it and she looks so much like Amy. She’s a ham too, couldn’t get enough of our attention, every time she would get in trouble she’d just break out that adorable smile.
Jon and Erin also came up on Friday night so Phil could have someone to hang out with and so Erin could study while the boys watched sports and played ping pong.

After my visit with Amy, I went home to join the party.

Here is Amy, Juliana and Me.


Juliana trying on mom's gloves.


The cutest smile in the world.


The end of the night.


Saturday we went to Phil’s dad’s house to cut down our Christmas tree. Then I met my sisters, my Aunt Sharon and of course Grandma to go to the annual Wings Stadium craft show. That place was crazy; there were so many people there. Overall, we did some good shopping, made a little dent in the Christmas list and had a great time.

Here we are with our Christmas tree.


Aunt Sharon, Jennifer, Grandma & Annie outside the craft show.


Saturday night, Phil and I went to my work Christmas party that was hosted at one of my co-workers houses… which is gorgeous by the way! He has a nice “man cave” in the basement, complete with a giant (wall size) TV, pin ball, air hockey, foosball and of course a bar. We played some games, exchanged white elephant gifts and ate a lot of food.

Phil and I at the party.





Tina, Stacey, Me and Holly.



Phil, Tina and Holly - trouble makers.




The man cave.





Phil and Stacey's husband playing foosball.




This is their dog... yes she is wearing a diaper (she's in heat.. i know gross)... but she did everything she could to get that puppy off.



Some of Phil’s girls from his soccer team are playing on an indoor team this winter and they had a game on Sunday, so Phil and I went to watch that. They also convinced him to coach their indoor team for the next session (it didn’t take much convincing… I think he misses them… or at least most of them). So I think that will probably start in January that should keep him busy anyways. After that we had dinner with Phil’s dad and then finally went home to relax. Whew! It was a busy weekend!

B - I - N - G - O and BINGO was his name-O

Thursday night Phil, Phil’s dad and I went to play BINGO with Aunt Merriell at a church in Kalamazoo. She goes every Thursday night when the weather is decent and asked if we would like to join her. So we all ventured out in the freezing cold.

This was my first experience with BINGO and let me say it was pretty fun. Some of those people are a little too into it if you ask me… perhaps addicted. They all have lucky charms and fun things they bring with them every time. Some people were even playing 30 cards at once!!! I couldn’t keep up with that.

We had fun and the night was a pretty big success. Aunt Merriell won $75 and Phil won the final game of the night for $250 (it would have been $500 but another lady got BINGO at the same time so they had to split the pot). Either way, that is a lot of money!! So we went away happy.

To celebrate our victory we went to Aunt Merriell’s for some sloppy joes and coconut crème pie.

Phil, Aunt Merriell & Rob pre-BINGO

Phil & his dad concentrating hard.

Phil with his winning cards & his winnings!