Wii Game Night

I received Dance Dance Revolution for the Wii as a Christmas gift from my sister Lu and I couldn't wait to try it out so we decided to have a Wii game night at my house on Friday night. Brian was out with friends, so we had the big screen to ourselves. We started with bowling and played that for about an hour and then we put in the Dance Dance Revolution. It took us a while to figure it out, but then we got the hang of it and had a great time. If nothing else, it's a great workout!


Lisa and Jeff bowling


Lu feeling the music


Jeff showing off his dance moves


Tina getting her groove on!

Christmas Day

We started the day with my siblings, my cousin George, and Lisa's friend Paula. We had a GREAT Christmas dinner of authentic Iowa pork cutlets, mashed potatoes and gravy, corn, broccoli rice casserole and rolls. The first time that Brian had pork cutlets with my family, he says that he almost lost a hand while trying to get one of the cutlets. It really wasn't that bad, but he loves to exaggerate the story to make it funny. We were just a bit hungry is all. :-)


Watch your hand Brian!


Lisa, Paula, Tina and George playing Outburst(again)

After lunch we played Outburst and then Brian and I left to have Christmas with his family. We pitched in along with many other family members to buy Tom his very first computer, a laptop. Brian set it up for him ahead of time, created an email account, and also made a cool picture collage of all the family members and set it as the desktop image. When Tom opened the lid, the collage was the first thing that he saw and it so sweet to see how moved he was. I think he was a bit overwhelmed at first, but he'll be addicted in no time!


Tom and his new laptop


Gracie with Brittany in a headlock


Naughty (Brian and JD)


Nice

Christmas Prank

Many years ago Brian was celebrating Christmas with a girlfriend and her family. Midway through the gift giving, the girlfriend's mother jumps up realizing that she forgot to get Brian a gift. Brian is telling her that it's OK and not to worry about it, but she won't hear of it and runs to the back of the house. She comes back about 5 minutes later with a gift bag and gives it to Brian. Brian reaches into the gift bag and pulls out a very used and very old brown doorstop at approximately the same time as he hears a door in the back of the house slam shut. I think the best part of the gift is that Brian is able to tell that story and make people laugh.

This year, my sister Lisa decided that she would pull the same type of prank on Brian and see if he fell for it. I was passing out gifts and all of the sudden Lisa starts freaking out like she's forgotten something. She runs to her bedroom and while I'm still passing out gifts, she's in the back rustling papers, slamming drawers and doors and saying things like "I'm such an idiot". We're all playing along and yelling at her to come back out so that we can get started unwrapping gifts. She finally comes out with a poorly wrapped gift and hands it to Brian. We all take turns opening gifts and Brian finally opens Lisa's gift. He had already guessed that it was a calendar just by the shape of the gift (Brian had asked for a space/astronomy calendar) and when he opened it the calendar had puppies on it. As he was looking at it, I could see the wheels turning in his head wondering why he was receiving a puppy calendar and then he looked in the bottom right corner of the calendar and saw '2008 Wall Calendar'. We were all laughing at this point and Brian was smiling and sort of laughing as he flipped through it and noticed that on every page of the calendar it said "Canyon Creek Cleaners"! Not only was he given a worthless calendar that he could only use for 6 more days, but it was a FREE calendar that Lisa received from her dry cleaner. We were all laughing hysterically and we kept up the act until everyone was finished opening gifts. Lisa eventually went into her bedroom and came out with two real gifts for Brian and it was only then that he realized that she'd pulled a prank on him. We all got a good laugh out of it and Brian has said that he's got a year to plan his 'sweet revenge'. Watch out Lisa!


Brian and the 2008 Canyon Creek Cleaners Puppy calendar

Christmas Eve

I'm not sure how the tradition began, but every Christmas Eve my family eats chili for dinner before going to Christmas Eve Church Service. We come home after church and put out a bunch of snack food, including "Mom's Famous Dip" and tamales, pour some champagne and toast to another great year. After the toast we open gifts from each other and spend the rest of the evening playing a game or two. Every year I try to buy a new game for us to try and this year I bought Outburst Remix and it was a hit! We played almost every day while everyone was still in town.


Traditional Chili Dinner


Decena family




Lisa and Bella


Tina and Jeff playing Outburst

Christmas Tree Barbie

This is my second year to collaborate with my friend Julie in designing a Barbie for auction to benefit the Starlight Foundation. There were approximately 20 Barbies at the auction and Julie and I were very excited to learn that our "Christmas Tree Barbie" was the 2nd highest selling Barbie.

December Birthday Celebration

Brian's family is full of December birthdays, so every year we go to dinner to celebrate all of the birthdays at once. This year we went to Gloria's for the celebration. Happy Birthday Ron, Robin & Mary!


Ron, Mary, Ed, Gracie, Robin, Brittany, and Brian

Christmas Party

We kicked off the holiday season with the annual Fletcher Christmas Party. It coincided with Sonia's birthday, which added to the celebration. There is a tradition that every year we sing "The 12 Days of Christmas". The days are passed out randomly and when it's your turn, your group sings their part. This year, our small group of 3 was "a partridge in a pear tree". To make things interesting, we changed the tree every time it was our turn to sing (oak, apple, Christmas, etc.)
























Gettin' a little crazy!


And crazier!




FIIIIIIIIVE GOLDEN RINGS!

Introducing Bella

Bella is our new niece! Well, ok, she's a dog, but she's still our niece! Isn't she cute? She's my sister Lisa's new dog and she's so sweet.


Sweet Girl


What a pair!

Daddy's jacket is our new blanket

Big Boy

Seat Warmers

I was snuggled in my blanket on the couch earlier today and left my seat for just a second and this is what I found when I got back...

Happy Thanksgiving

We went to Robin and Ed's house for a true Thanksgiving dinner on Sunday. Robin prepared an awesome meal with all of the fixings and had an entire table devoted to desserts. We had a great time and I'm so thankful that Brian has such a wonderful family.


Stuffed Turkeys


Karen, Gracie and Brittany

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas

Brian and I spent most of Saturday decorating the house - he decorated the outside (for the first time) and I watched Christmas movies and did the inside. Decorating was complete when Brian added the star to the top of the tree and I put the "SSCAT" under the tree (SSCAT is a motion sensor that will spray the cats when they get too close). It works like a charm and our tree has remained intact for the first time in 4 years. Let the Christmas season begin!


Arranging the lights


Hanging ornaments


Final touch


Brian's hard work paid off


Merry Christmas!

Friends Forever

My friend Wendy and her husband Paul were in town for the Thanksgiving holiday so they and our other friend Nola came over to the house to have dinner and to hang out. We always have a good time together and this time was no exception. We watched a movie and looked at some old photos that Wendy brought (I can't believe how big my hair was in the 90's!)


True Friends


Our 'MySpace' picture (Wendy's phrase)

Black Friday

We got up early Friday morning to take advantage of the "Day after Thanksgiving" deals. The pictures say it all...


Great deals here we come!!


What am I doing up??? (Notice the time on the stove, that's 4:24 AM!)