Kelly's Shower

The Saturday after Christmas we threw Kelli's shower at my Aunt Bev's house.  She had it decorated gorgeous and we had a pretty good turnout (considering the holidays and all).  We had a "Tea and Cookies' type theme (it was at 2pm and we figured everyone had been eating for days), so we had light food and tea and coffee.  It seemed to go off just right!  I'll again let the pictures do most of the talking (and I'll just do a little bit!  :)

The Spread

The Guests

Emily and Bev (the other hostess)

My great aunt Barb and my Gramma (sisters - its so obvious!)

Jackie and Julie

Stacy and Zoe

Grammy - my mom! 

(um...has she mentioned yet that she is gonna be a grammy?  b/c she is sooo excited!)

Then Kelly got to the business of opening gifts (and there were alot of fantastic gifts)

(this wrapping paper says "Baby O" - so appropriate)

this was a onesie...so adorable!

 

Wonder who this next one is from?!?!

She loved the Clemson onesie

Then she had the greatest reaction to the handmade quilt!  Doesn't she look so excited!  That was awesome!

(I was soo excited to show her all my handmades for them!)

The finished quilt I made for them!

The Great Grandmothers looking on

All the Oberholtzer women  :)  (I LOVE my family!)

Finally the last thing I have to show you is the favors we handed out.  I made all of them from some great link ideas on One Pretty Thing, and matched the jar labels to the invitations.

I called the little pies "Cutie Pies" and the cakes "Baby Cakes"

Aren't they cute?!?

Getting close to being up to date on my posts now! Hope everyone is still enjoying the holiday posts!

Christmas Morning

All the excitment of Christmas...wrapped up in a post with very few words (you're welcome).

I love when Santa comes!!  So pretty and exciting - no matter how old you are!

 

Kelly and Chad got some great Ohio State stuff for the baby from Beck

 

(its a sign that says "All because two people fell in love... The Spreng Cottage)

(Grammy and Gramps got him a hedgehog)

(Mom started crying...its her camera for skype "So I can see my grandbaby...sob, sob")

And then the highlight...

that's right, light sabers!!  He compared this to the Christmas we got the Nintendo - WOW!

Then it was off to the Oberholtzer Christmas...

 

the kids table

 

the "grown-up" table (look! look! we are sitting at it!!)

(and finally the "we ran out of tables" table)

And all because these two people fell in love....

Hope you had the Merriest of Christmases too!! 

Christmas Eve

Okay...so I am really far behind, and I am sure everyone is tired of reading about Christmas everywhere else, but I still want to show you all the fun we had at home.  Maybe I'll just post three times today and get it all over with - or maybe one a day over the next three days. 
Anyway - with out further ado... here is Christmas Eve.

We started the day by hosting a huge cookie frosting event!!  (really there were alot of cookies so we needed alot of hands to help frost.  The Florida crew was there and ready to help!)

 

ha ha!  Frosting Face!

Then after the cookie frosting event, the boys went outside and had a snowball fight...

 

 

And the girls stayed in and made Kelly's diaper cake

 

 

 Which she loved by the way!!

Then we had our traditional candlelight immediate family dinner (with my FAVE  - ham! and cheesy potatoes (yum!) and Eric's fave green bean casserole.  My mama takes such good care of us when we are home!)

Afterwards we attended the Christmas Eve service at church and had our normal eggnog Christmas Eve Party at the house.

 

 

(this is going to be on his poster when he runs for office...I swear the kid is meant to be a politician - but not the sleazy kind....)

 

Our family!  :)

 

 (picture of us with Jody and Nina - who were up from Ft. Lauderdale for Christmas - yea!)

As always - it was a good time!

So tomorrow, Christmas Day and then its on to baby showers - oh you know there are always babies in Ohio!!  (must be because its so darn cold!)  :)

Snow dog

I decided to start chronologically to tell you about our trip home (I'm an engineer - sorry - I have to have a plan and order to everything I do).  So chronologically - the first fun adventure on our trip was a stop on our way home.  We stopped in Virginia and there was still quite a lot of snow.  Our dog loves cold weather - and apparently the snow.  (which we wouldn't know since we live down south where it gets cold but never seems to snow...) 

Anyway, at our stop in Virginia we found a great area (a little too close to the highway for mama's liking...) that was untouched snow and big enough for the dog to get off his leash and he and Eric to play a bit.  They had a blast.  Eric let him off his leash and was throwing him snow balls.  Mason LOVED it.

Without further ado...the fun pictures mama took and a dog's recipe for snow fun...

Mason says "You have to concentrate, really concentrate on that snowball Daddy has...

Watch very closely...and get ready...

Then when he throws the snowball ... JUMP!

Sometimes you have to jump really high...

and catch!!

Then play around some more....

and repeat..."

Wow!  What fun they had in the snow.  Too bad when we actually got to Ohio there was very little snow (compared to this 6" or more in Virginia).  He still got to go out and play in it some - romp around with my parents dog and the boys as they had a snowball fight.

But mostly he reverted to his FAVORITE hobby - looking out the window watching squirrels.  He was here most of the entire vacation...

It makes me want to sing, "How much is that doggy in the window?" 

 

"Ruff Ruff!"

lol.  Mason had a great vacation.  I will tell you about our half of it later too.

There's No Place Like Home...

Well, we are back home - from going home.  :) Isn't it nice to have two places you love and call home?!  We had such a GREAT time in Ohio (well minus the total lack of sun that always accompanies a trip to Ohio).  And we were so fortunate to have a lot of time off from work to get to spend lots of time with friends and family.  It usually seems like we are in such a hurry to see everyone in the two or three days we are home, it was nice to see everyone and then still have some time to spend with my family!  We got to spend an entire week in Ohio at my parents house, a day in Knoxville (Avetts!!!  yea!!), and we were still home in time for New Years Eve, and three days of decompressing (read:  watching lots of football, doing laundry, cleaning the house, getting ready for 'real life' to start again). 
Christmas break highlights though... while home we enjoyed Christmas Eve,

Christmas Morning,

Kelly's Shower,

Erica's Shower (a reason for all my HS friends to get together and catch up!)

and snow...

all before heading home.  I will try to do a longer post on all the events...but just wanted to check back in and say hello!  Hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas - and a Happy New Year!!  Is it really 2010?!?  Amazing...wonder what it has in store for us?!  :)  Hopefully all good and wonderful things.  I am looking forward to it!

Winter Solstice

My astronomy loving uncles might be able to tell you what is actually going on today - something about the tilt of the Earth and the angle of the Sun, but in layman's terms for the rest of us - its the shortest day of the year.  AKA - "It was dark when you left for work, it will be dark before you leave work to come home and you'll be lucky to catch the (cold) sun for even a minute today".  Sorry to sound all doom and gloom - but  I, for one am VERY glad that the days are going to start getting longer again. 
I have been combating the winter blues with Vitamin B-12 (thank you Beth!) and with a healthy self medicating dose of "get off your a@# and do it anyway!"  I have been trying to make plans and get out of the house (and make cookies!)  and hold onto my motivation when I walk in the door and its already dark....  I have been doing an okay job the last week, but I think there is something else making my winter blues fade...

How can you be sad or blue when you daily receive a card or two (or four!) - and fill a refrigerator full of friends and family.  Each card brings a smile, a story and thoughts of memories shared with each person.  Its growing kids,  new babies, happy smiles and amazing thoughts of how long you have known the people.  There are warm fuzzies that you are still friends, across the years, across the miles...

There are amazing blessings to be thankful for even in the darkest of winter!

Thanks be to God!