A new tradition is started.

In lieu of expensive gifts, the women of our families decided to start a new tradition. We emptied our jewelry boxes of what we no longer wear and set up an exchange. Everyone got into the act, although one sister didn't play fair! She's never played fair!!! Lisa brought jewelry for us to "look" at, but she wears it all, so only gave away a couple of pieces. It was so much fun looking at and trying on all the different things. I got to bring home 3 new pieces to wear and was thrilled to give all but 3 pieces of my unused jewelry away.

Why don't we do this more often?

This beautiful group of girl's are some of my buddies from highschool, class of '84! Melissa, fourth from the left, was thoughtful enough to set a date and send out messages for the gathering. I used to do that, but have dropped off through the years. We met for a holiday luncheon on 12/5 and had such a wonderful time catching up. Hannah Prince (Warnick), Mitzi Hensen (Todd), Shannon Bullock (Kelly), Melissa LaGue (LaFollette), Barb Kimmel (Briggs), Sandy Eddy (Spaeth) and myself. We hope to make this an annual event and see more come next time.

A very special day.

This young lady will always have a special little piece of my heart! Her name is Breelyn Kaye. Her middle name is the same as mine and was also my mother's middle name (for whom it was given). She is Janin and Amie's third child, born on 12/2 at 10:27 pm. I love all of my nieces and nephews equally, but this makes the second one that will hold very special memories for me. The first was Cy, born 1/16/06. He was my birthday present as that is also my birthday. Breelyn was quite a gift as well, as I had the privilege of attending her birth and seeing her come into this world. She's very beautiful and quite petite. Her big brothers are SO proud! Getting to see Breelyn born also reminded me of my precious mother, as she had been in attendance at Lauren's birth. Her comment: "It's very different seeing it from this end", has a lot of truth to it! :)

Giving thanks for many things.

Well, it was a busy Thanksgiving day on the Carlson side of the family! This great photo was taken at Jody's where we gathered for the day. This is the 'grandchild' generation photo and as you can probably tell, we're a productive clan. Of course, I started much earlier than the 3 boys....thank heaven! There are a total of 11 in this picture, but as of the 2nd of December, there are now 12. FUN is the best word to describe these get togethers, and CHAOS is another one. The agape love that my brother's and I have within our immediate and extended families is a blessing that can only be surpassed by the Agape Love our Heavenly Father bestows upon us. We are so thankful for our families, our health, our friends, our jobs, our warm homes and all of the other little things we tend to take for granted. We do, however, look forward to the day that the adults can actually sit down and have a complete conversation................