Wonderful family Christmas

Santa Mikie at work

After a whirlwind week of family Christmas fun,  I took a quick look back through pictures...

My gift from Santa-studio coming together

A few creations from my new studio...

Blizzard in Evansville

Evansville got about 11 inches of snow the day after Christmas, their 3rd highest snowfall in one day.    Mike, mom and I stayed inside and relaxed with a couple of games of Scrabble.  

Family in Cincinnati...Alex, Diane, mom, Pam Adam and Ange

Dane's favorite white elephant gift

We had a great white elephant gift exchange at Pam's.  We laughed  a lot as a few gifts were traded including the Snickers bar and the gumball machine.  Hopefully no hard feelings...

Ange, Gary and Peggy opening gifts at mom's

Mikie at the craft table

 Beads + cookie cutters + toaster oven = fine works of art

Beads

Beads in cookie cutters

Melting beads in toaster oven...what is wrong with this picture?

Bead Art

We thoroughly enjoyed the game "Catch Phrase".  We laughed so hard at the descriptions of songs and artists.  Eric's impression of Stevie Wonder will forever be etched in my head...

Adam 's turn at "Catch Phrase"

And I thought often about dad over the holidays. ...seeing the Pepsi ornament on the tree (dad was a route salesman for Pepsi for many years) and the "schmoo"(his favorite 'Lil Abner character)  ornament on his wreath.  When we heard one of his favorite songs, "Whiter Shade of Pale" while shopping at Jungle Jim's, it felt like he was with us...











And looking back at 2012, it was a great (though not always easy) year!  After months of hard work remodeling my house it sold within 2 months!

After 4 years of being married and living in different cities, I finally moved to Indy to live with my sweetie!  And I am starting to learn about this retirement thing...

We got to see the world this year...from Temeculah, CA to La Salina, Mexico to Big Sky, MT  to Kinsale, Ireland, each beautiful in its' own unique way.

California sunset

And we stepped forward into new technology...smart phones and smart television.  As Mike says, hopefully they aren't smarter than us.  And Direct TV entered our house in Brownsburg!  YEAH for the the Weather Channel, CNN and HGTV!  And then there is watching Mike text.  I never thought I would see the day he would type "LOL"...

We had some wonderful visits with family and friends throughout the year.  And whether folks live in Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Montana or Mexico, we are fortunate to have such great people in our lives.   Thanks to all of you for making this such a great year!

Happy 2013!
Diane