Saturday, January 2, 2016

Christmas in Connecticut

For Christmas this year, the five of us went to Connecticut to celebrate with my Grandma, Aunt Jeanne, Aunt Alice, Uncle Charlie and his family! It was so wonderful to spend time together and to see my grandma! She looks so good and it doing so well!

Christmas Eve
We stayed at this fun house in Litchfield and it was right on the river! Such beautiful views!



We spent a lot of time in the car because our house was an hour from Grandma's house. The three of us were always in the back seat so here we are trying to make the best of it!



The three siblings with Grandma

Grandma's beautifully decorated tree

We let Grandma rest some while we went to Aunt Jeanne's house to hang out and wrap the multiple presents we sent through Amazon to her house. She's the best! :)

Beautiful sunset outside Aunt Jeanne's house

After having Christmas Eve dinner at Uncle Charlie's house (sadly I did not take any pictures), we headed back to Grandma's house to stuff stockings.

Grandma's tree at night

All ready for Christmas morning

The stockings were "hung" by the chimney with care

 Christmas Morning
We all wore out pajamas to Grandma's house to open our stockings.
Santa and his elves

The Five Fab Rads

Grandma opening her stocking

Audrey, mom and Alice with their stockings

Paul and Ellen opening stockings

After we opened stockings, we headed to Aunt Jeanne's house to prepare Christmas dinner. I had way too much fun making the yule log!

Before we knew it, it was time for Christmas dinner! The Charlie Radcliffs joined us too!



After Christmas dinner, we went on a walk around the neighborhood!




Then we came back and opened presents!






On Saturday, we stayed in Litchfield and toured their cute downtown shops! What a fun area but definitely felt like it was more for the well to do people!

On Sunday we had a devotional with Grandma at her home and then we headed to Grandpa's grave site to visit him. We had not seen his headstone yet and it was encouraging to see it.


We also brought Grandpa some treats- he loved pizza and summer sausage with cheese so we shared that with him as well.

Grandma and three of her children

Grandma and two of her grandchildren

We spent the rest of the day Sunday going on a walk, resting and finishing Grandma's scrapbook from her 90th birthday party.  It was neat to watch her look through it.


After visiting with Patti, we headed back to Litchfield to pack up all of our Christmas loot. Then on Monday we stopped by Radcliff Wire and Grandma's house to say our goodbyes and then we headed off to the airport to fly home. What a wonderful trip visiting those we love!

Friday, December 18, 2015

December in Tunisia

December has been a busy month but one filled with fun! And the best part is tomorrow I am heading home to see my family for Christmas! Man have a missed them and cannot wait to see them and hug them in person!

My car has not been in for maintence in well... a while. So my friend Catherine and her husband took me to a trusty mechanic who took care of my car. Katie's car was also having problems after a very bad mechanic experience at the VW dealership. So one Sunday morning the four of us got our cars fixed together. It was a long day but lots of fun spent together!

Catherine, Katie and I went to a produce stand and got some fresh orange juice while they were working on our cars

All better!

On Tuesday, Dec. 8th, a group of my closest friends went out for dinner to celebrate it being a year since my open heart surgery! Karen and I got there early so we had drinks while we waited!

It was a very special night with very special friends!
Katie, Karen H, me, Cheryl, Karen T, Kelli

The Harrison clan came over to generously help me set up and decorate my tree! This was much more fun with the three of them than doing it by myself!
Liam and Karen putting the star on the tree

Karen stringing lights

Liam the super decorator 

Ta-da! Mila, Liam, Zoe and the finished tree

Karen and Mila snuggling

All done! And is sure adds such Christmas spirit to my house!

This cat has suddenly adopted me and will not go away. It comes each night begging for food and will not leave me alone. She has tried to come into my house several times. And Zoe afraid of her so she doesn't scare them away. 

Got to snuggle with these babies on Saturday morning!



I made sugar cookies for my cookie decorating party. I did this last year and one of my friends asked if I was going to do it again so I thought why not! 

All done and ready for the party!

Friends decorating their cookies


Friends showing off their masterpieces!
Tamara

Katie

Michele and Cheryl

Karen T

Kelli

Lucie

Alice

Alex

Awawu

Catherine

Ashley

This was a fun party spending time with people who I don't always get to see as often as I would like!