Weekend fun!!!

Hello friends.... I love December!  There are always so many fun events and parties this month.  I can't believe we fit all of this into one weekend but we did it!  I love weekends full of fun.  

Thursday night two friends and their husbands did a fundraiser at their law office for family services.  They raised $35,000!!!  It was a great night and many people in our community will have a Merry Christmas because of them.  

 

Friday night Ava had a basketball game. Thankfully G was there and my friend L took pics.  She did great and scored 6 points.  

 

I couldn't go because I hosted our monthly craft night.  Our December craft was a huge success!  Here is one of the signs  one of the ladies made.  I am doing a full post on our craft night tomorrow.  R and I have been planning our 2017 craft nights.  We have lots of good ones coming up next year.  

 

Saturday afternoon we went to the Rotary Christmas party.  Ava has been going through the interview and selection process to be an rotary exchange student.  Saturday we went to find out where she will be next year and we leaned she is going to the Czech Republic/Slovakia.  She is so excited!  She leaves next August and she will spend the next 8 months learning the languages of both countries (they are similar but not the same).  We are so proud of her!!!! 

 

 Saturday night I went solo to our friends annual Christmas party.  (Graig was reffing-story of my life in the winter-ha ha!)  M and B always have the best parties!  This one was no exception.  They had a photo booth and we did a naughty or nice Christmas gift exchange-so fun!! 

 

 

 

Sunday morning Ava and I got up early to go to the Otesaga for breakfast with Santa.  We went with R and her boys.  It was lovely morning.  

The kids look miserable here but I promise they had a great time-ha!

 

The decorations are always so pretty at the Otesaga.  

 

Ava took a selfie with Santa.  Both of my kids have seen this same Santa for years in Cooperstown.  He is the best!  

 

 Saturday afternoon I had to work a bit.  I'm the advisor for the College's leadership honor society and we had our yearly induction ceremony.  We have 62 new members.   

Here are the officers before the ceremony.

 

Right after the ceremony Ava and I went to see our community theater's  production of the The Wizard of Oz. We knew so many people in the play so it was fun to watch.  

 

To round out our fun weekend Ava and I went to a sing along at a local bar/restaurant with some friends.  We went to this last year and we had a blast!  So many people were there and everyone was in the Christmas spirit.  We had a fabulous time!  

 

 

I hope you had a great weekend!

Xoxo 

Cookie swap

Last weekend my friend M hosted  her annual cookie swap soirée.  It was a fabulous afternoon of friends, fun, laughs and cookies!!!

M is a fabulous hostess and she does an amazing job organizing this party every year.  There were about 50 ladies there so she had to do a lot of coordinating to make this party happen.  She used a megaphone as a joke to keep us all organized and it worked!!  We had a gift to exchange and cookie swap.  

 

Here are four of my beautiful friends :-) 

 

More beautiful friends :-) :-)

On last picture before the swap!

 

Look at all of these delicious cookies!! We each made 7 dozen of the same cookie to swap.  Each person made something  different so after the swap we all had many different cookies to take home.  

 

 

 

I came home and wrapped up half of our cookies for my friend Julia.  I put the other half in the freezer so we would have them for Christmas Eve. 

The cookie swap is one of my favorite holiday traditions.   Thank you M for hosting it!

Xoxo 

Tree Lighting

After dinner we headed over to the Tree Lighting.  We had a special pen on the side of the ice skating rink so this is a picture of everyone in pen.  You can see the unlit tree in the background. 

Ava with her dear friends Dani and Arianna.

 

We walked over to see some other friends that came to see the tree lighting.  I'm glad we got a picture with them!

Our Mayor and his wife came for the tree lighting too so we took a quick picture with them.  Their daughter lives in NYC so she was there too.

 

 

We had to pose for a few pictures and do a few interviews before the tree lighting.   It was dark but with all the flashes it looks like daylight. Ava wanted to do interviews with us so she came with us too.

 

I snapped one last picture of the tree without lights.  I can't believe this tree was in our backyard!  

 

We stopped for a quick pic with our friend Erik who is the one that finds the tree every year.  One of the best parts about this whole experience has been getting to know him and the whole team of people that work with him.  He's great and I'm sure we will stay in touch with him in the years ahead.  

 

We did a few interviews before the tree lighting.  I was fascinated by the number of foreign press that were there and that wanted to talk to us.  I took a few pictures of them with us.

This reporter was from Bangladesh.

Here we are with a reporter from Italy.

 

After our interviews we headed back to our pen to watch the performers and tree lighting.  We were thrilled that our family and some dear friends got to come and share the night with us.

 

 

Graig invited his current boss Todd and his former boss Greg to the tree lighting.  He admires and respects both of the guys so much I was happy they along with their wives  were able to come and be with us during the tree lighting.   

 

Grandma Jan with her bff Phyllis. 

 

Graig and I waiting for the big moment!

 

I am so thrilled my sister and her husband and their daughter were able to be with us at the tree lighting.  It was so great having them there.

 Sarah McLaughlin was one of the musical performers. She looked beautiful and sounded amazing.  I loved seeing her performance.

 It was so exciting when the tree was finally lit.  Everyone was so happy and excited! 

 

Grandma Jan and my sister in law Anne.

We took a big group picture in front of the tree before heading back to our hotel.  It was a magical night and we will never, ever forget it.

 

 
 

  Xoxo

NYC-day 1

We left bright and early Wed to head to NYC for the tree lighting!  Here is our group before we left home.  We had snacks and watched Christmas vacation in van on the way down to the city.

 

 

While we were driving my sister Shelby and her family were flying up from Texas.

 

 

We dropped our bags off at the hotel and then my sister in law Anne, My dear friend Inez and Ava and her two friends headed to the Rockettes.

 

It was Santa Hat day at the Rockettes so we all got Santa Hats to wear.  

 

 

I love the gorgeous chandelier in the lobby of Radio City Music Hall.

 

The Rockettes show was amazing as always!

 

 

The manger scene at the end is always my favorite!

 

After the show we met Graig and my sister and her family for a few quick pictures before our dinner reservation.  It was pouring rain but we didn't care.  It was great to see our tree in Rockefeller plaza.

 

 

 

After seeing the tree we headed to our dinner reservation at Del Friscos.  We were in the private dining room and it was fabulous!  

 

Out niece Ainsley loved hanging out with Ava and her friends.

We had a blast with our dear friends Reggie and Inez.  

 

It was also great being with my mother and sister in law and my mother in laws friend Phyllis.

 

After dinner we headed to the tree lighting.  I have tons and tons of pictures from that and I'll post pictures tomorrow!

Xoxo