New Year's Eve 2007

Well, here I am again! The ONE PLACE I swore I'd never be again on New Year's Eve -- Scottville, Michigan. It's not that I don't like being here, don't get me wrong. It's just that I'm one to want to DO something to ring in the New Year and aside from dinner and Dick Clark on the TV... not much going on. And around 11:30 PM every year, everyone goes to bed. Sure enough, by about 10 PM, everyone except a few of us stragglers, were fast asleep. My favorite New Year's Eve was spent in 2000 in Aleppo, Syria -- now that was a party! And the Pine Cone Drop in Flagstaff, Arizona -- that is cool, too! Ah well, maybe next year....

Hope your New Year celebration is all you want it to be!

A Cozy Christmas Eve

We spent Christmas Eve in Vegas. We opened presents and had a steak dinner with Adam and Michelle. Tomorrow we fly out to Philly to pick up Sarah and then on to Michigan!

Disneyland!

As an early Christmas gift, Mitch sent me to Disneyland with Michelle for a weekend. I really, really wanted to do Disney during the Christmas season... and apparently so did the entire population of California! Holy cow was it CROWDED! This was my second trip to Disneyland and about my 10th time (at least) to a Disney park and I have never seen anything like these crowds. So be forewarned: DO NOT GO 2 DAYS PRIOR TO CHRISTMAS! There, I warned you.

Other than the crowds, we had a great time! And I took 171 pictures... but I won't put them all up, I promise!

Germs!

Well we seem to have caught something that is going around, but thankfully not the flu! Just a head cold or something. Ella has a fever and I am just blah and not able to breathe through my nose. Thank goodness Christmas break is right around the corner -- we need our man of the house at home!! He makes everything better.

Sorry for the lack of blogging. We've been busy cuddling on the couch and sleeping!

I'm going to be an Aunt (again)!!

FINALLY I can post it!I've been busting at the seams over here. The Campbells are adding to their clan and I had a hand in revealing the big news -- it was so fun! We're hoping for pink this time around and the baby knitting has already begun. Once I get little Benjamin a well deserved lovey, that is.

It's so fun having all my friends pregnant. We had 3 babies due in my women's Bible Study group -- and one came a few weeks early this past weekend (a baby boy). One more is due in 2 days (a girl) and another one in early March (another boy). Then the Campbell baby in July or August. Maybe one day I'll get over the memories of 9 months of nausea and do it myself again... or maybe not! :-)

A big Congrats to Stephanie and Christopher!

Cyber Tree

I thought this looked fun! You can leave me a present under my tree below! Go get one of your own, let me know, and I'll leave you one as well!

Cyber Christmas Spirit!

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Happy 8th Birthday, Sarah!

Eight years ago at around 3:40 PM, Sarah Nancy Gabel made her debut at Andrews Air Force Base (according to her, she was born in an airport -- pretty close!). We can't believe how mature you are getting! You are growing in to a beautiful young lady and we are so proud of you. We're sorry today wasn't as special as you'd liked it to be, but we hope that your Chuck E Cheese and Libby Lu parties will always be wonderful memories of this 8th celebration. We're looking forward to another fabulous, glamorous, fun-filled year of Sarah!

Happy Hanukkah!

Hanukkah began tonight at sundown and although I didn't get out the menorah this year (I need an electric one due to curious hands), I did make latkes, salmon patties, and noodle kugel. I happily found a short cut to the all day potato shredding for the latkes -- shredded potatoes for hash browns in the refrigerated section of the grocery store. That cut my prep time by about 75%! A very tired Ella had her first latke and seemed to enjoy it (hard to tell when they are that tired). Ella was in bed by 6:30 PM and all is quiet as we enjoy this first night of lights!

Utensils

Ella is very pro-actively conquering the world of utensils. Last week she attempted spaghetti with a fork, and did very well! Of course, what's really fun is to spend 15 minutes getting the food on your fork, and then dumping it off on to the table.

Going Shopping

Ella has taken to getting out this purse, putting her phone in it and saying "bye bye". Huh. Wonder where she got that.....

Bye, bye, Sarah!

We said good-bye to Sarah this morning as she headed back to snowy, chilly PA. We'll see her again in one month for Christmas in Michigan! We usually have a big night out on Sarah's last night, but after our long weekend, we opted for a quiet night in. We had Raising Cane's chicken fingers for dinner, a tandem bath, and movie night. It was a very peaceful end to a very fun, very busy week!

Road Trip!

After sending off Babcia and Dzia dzia on the Friday night after Thanksgiving, we piled into the van early Saturday and headed off to the Grand Canyon! We anticipated about a 4 hour drive, and it took us around 5 hours (plus pit stops). It took an hour less to get back home.

The shortest distance between Vegas and the Grand Canyon entails a trip across the Hoover Dam. Sarah jumped out to get a few pictures taken!


After way too many hours in the car, we finally made it! Aunt Jen met us in Tusayan and came with us for a short visit to the canyon.




We spent the night in Flagstaff and on our drive from the canyon to Flag, we passed a herd of elk along the road! It was so cool! Unfortunately, we didn't get any photos. Daddy, Sarah, and Aunt Jen went up to the Lowell Observatory for a little star gazing (Pluto was discovered here).

After breakfast at Cracker Barrel on Sunday morning (we don't have any in Vegas), a little reminscining around Flagstaff, and we headed back to Vegas. Along the way we stopped for lunch at Mr. D'z in Kingman, AZ. Mr. D'z harkens to Route 66's golden days and was most recently made "famous" on the Oprah show. We had the infamous Mr. D'z root beer and some delicious hamburgers. It was a fun stop along the way!





On the drive between Kingman and Vegas, we were lucky to spot a mountain goat/ram in the rocks near the Hoover Dam! I've driven over the dam many, many times always looking for a ram and I FINALLY SAW ONE! My Hoover Dam crossing life is complete.

It was a long, but fun weekend. Ella got a chance to spend more than 30 minutes in her car seat -- practicing for the 5 hour plane trip out east over Christmas. All I can say is PLEASE PRAY FOR US AND EVERYONE ON THAT PLANE! :-)

We're now busy planning our next expedition -- Lake Havasu, Zion National Park, Oatman, AZ and the San Diego Zoo are all on our "to see" lists! Now we just have to decide where to go next...

The Magical Forest

After the movie, we gathered the troops and headed to the Magical Forest. It is a beautiful winter wonderland of lights, decorations, and rides.



Sarah rode the really big slide and Ella took her first turn on a carousel.





We all rode the Magical Express train and got a picture with Frosty the Snowman (who apparently is not nearly as scary as Santa!).



And then we walked through the Magical Forest itself.