Christmas weekend

Wow, what a busy weekend. I can't believe it's already Sunday night and I'm thinking, I sure wish I had tomorrow off, but unfortunately I don't. I still have to teach Jazzercise bright and early tomorrow morning.

Friday was Christmas eve and we got to celebrate with the Hillebrand/Barrett families at our house. Its wonderful having parties at our house for one, it's a great excuse to deep clean the house and the 2nd, we don't have to drive anywhere. The party started about 4:30, we made the famous ham sandwiches that mom always makes and everyone brought snack food. 

Here are a few pictures that we took over the Holiday weekend.

Here we are waiting for everyone to come, Tom and Linda came up early to help get organized. We watched the movie Hairspray while we were waiting.

 Not sure what Tom's doing here, looks like he's picking something out of his teeth.

 Tom checking out the weather outside. It snowed all night and all day. I think he and Brandon were out twice plowing snow. Everything's all ready!

 Brandon playing with Patches. We got her tail coozie on, but she wouldn't keep it on.

 Family pictures

 Not quit sure what I'm dong here.

Micayla outside to clean off the satellite dish. We couldn't get a signal, can you see all the snow? It was like this all day and night. We finally got to watch TV! 

 The party has started!

 Christmas morning. Tom and Linda spent the night so they were with us while opening presents. They bring all there presents as well.

 Tom making waffles with his new Belgin Waffle maker, boy were they good!

 

 Brandon handing out the presents.

 Look at the stacks of presents!

 Brandon got the Kinect for XBox360

 Linda answering a text message.

 Micayla loves her "M" necklace!

 I think this is the ornament Tom and Linda got me. It was a "Christmas Story" ornament.

 Brandon listening to his new Tooks headset. It's a hat with built in speakers that can hook into his IPod.

 Tom opening up his new GPS. This will come in handy when they drive to Arizona next month.

 Tom's new Bears mug from Micayla

 Linda opening her new pots and pans for her new kitchen

 Here we are at Mom and Dad's

 And at the Hendricks Christmas. Dave Brauhn playing the guitar while we all sing Christmas carols before Santa comes.

Grandma and Grandpa Hendricks - wow are they missed!

 Here comes Santa!

 The 2nd generation "Hendricks" women, there were 11 of us that participated in the While Elephant game. I ended up with a new scarf and a pair of earrings. Loved it

 Dad, if you can find him back by Grandma and Grandpa, and his 4 sisters.

 We were the only ones here representing the Hendricks family. Hopefully there will be more next year!

That about sums up our Holiday weekend. The only thing that I'm missed this year was family pictures. I don't think we did any pictures up at mom and dad's. I would have liked a couple of the boys but wow, time just flew by and I don't think anyone got any.

Oh and I got exactly what I wanted, a new Bulova watch and a pair of earrings. Tom sure spoiled me, he's the best! I think the kids got exactly what they wanted as well. We played a few games of bowling on Kinect and I'm ready to learn some others. It's pretty fun!

Back to the grind tomorrow. I'm hoping next year I will be able to take a few days off between Christmas and New Year's. Tom's off all week, but he deserves it, he hasn't had any time off all year.

Pre Christmas Eve

Well, its been a while since I blogged so I thought since I have time and I'm all done cleaning for the night I would relax and do a little typing.

It was a busy week, even though we only had 4 days to work it still seemed like a long one. Nothing too exciting happened at work other than training our temps. They are finally on the phones and most of them are by themselves. It such a good feeling when this happens. The only bad thing is one of 5 temps we hired found a full time job so she quit. It really sucks, but it could be a good thing because maybe we can get a full timer in. We are 2 people short and it's really affecting our numbers, so hopefully by the 1st week in January we will have someone start. We narrowed it down to 2 people so now we left it in the hands of the boss.

We got out of work early today, it's always nice getting out the day before a holiday. We got out at 2! The only thing that kind of sucked was I still had to teach Jazzercise at 4:30, but I came home and got a few things done around the house then went to Jazzercise. I always feel so much better once I'm done and I need the exercise. I have a feeling I will be eating a lot the next couple of days so exercising is the thing to do. After Jazz tonight me, Tom and Brandon headed out to Menards. I was surprised but it was not busy at all. Tom wanted to get some bird seed and it was on sale so we ventured out. We headed home after that to clean.

I got both bathrooms done and dusted. Now that's a chore! Tomorrow I will vacuum and just do some tiding up before the Hillebrand/Barrett clan come over to celebrate Christmas. I love having it at our house. Tom and his mom and dad came up today to help make up the ham and cheese sandwiches and Tom made a couple dips, uncle Dan's dip, Kristi's pretzel dip and an Artichoke dip. I think we'll have plenty. I'm hoping for some left overs to take to the Hendricks Christmas on Sunday. If not we'll be making something else.

I'm hoping to get some pictures so I have something to post tomorrow!

Merry Christmas to all!

Few Christmas Photos

Today I picked up my pictures from Disneyland and they turned out awesome, most of them I posted but I got one picture for one of my new frames I got in CA, not Disneyland, but if I was thinking, I should have bought a picture frame for a couple pictures. Well, here's one of my ornaments. I got a couple wallet size pictures of the ones with Leah and I and it worked out perfect for this frame.ornament. I can't believe how much I miss her, yes I can, duh, she's adorable and such a sweetie. I got my hair done today and was showing my pictures and one of the girls asked if she was mine, I just said "I wish" LOL but one day I will have one little munchkin running around. 2011's going to be the year!

Here's a few other pictures of our house all decorated. My house isn't very clean so these are the only pics that I took.

I'm so glad tomorrow is Friday, it's been a super long week and I'm just ready for the weekend. I have been training all week and it's so exhausting. The 5 girls are finally in there own office doing some work, but there's a couple who's not quite ready yet. Hopefully next week!

We are playing "secret Santa" at work this week, it's so fun. Monday I got a "smores" candle. It looks like a smore without the marshmallows melted. The base looks like a graham cracker then on top of that is a piece of chocolate then there are 2 marshmallows with the candle in that. Super cute! I don't really have anything decorated in my office so now I have a little something. One of the girls was saying I need to bring some pictures in or something so I brought one of my wedding pictures. I will have to start "decorating". Tuesday I got a huge rice crispy treat, almost as big as the one Leah was eating on the way home from Disneyland. Wednesday I got a candy cane filled with sweet tarts. I didn't get anything today, hmm, I wonder who was off today, I might be able to figure out who my SS is. On Monday we get to reveal who our secret Santa's are and give and get a little bigger gift.

I kind of spoiled my person I had, I bought a few things out in CA for her. Monday I got her something cheesy just because I wanted to put it on her desk before I left Friday so it would be waiting for her on Monday, so I went and just got her some candy - Rolo's! Tuesday I gave her some cozy socks with a scented Santa ornament, Wednesday I got her a gift I bought at Home Goods in CA, it was some hot chocolate in what looks like a big Christmas light bulb. I have to say it was so funny, because I put it on her desk while she was on break and when she came back she said she thought it was a "vibrator" you have to know Deona, it was so funny! But she loved it. I guess if you look at it like that it could look like one. Today, I got her some Girradeles Caramels, not sure how to spell that, but they're so good! I had to get a bag for home too. Hopefully Tom didn't eat them all, or the kids! I'm excited for Monday because I have a couple things for her, a new necklace and a bowl and dip spreader, super cute. The necklaces are made by Linda, Tom's mom and his aunt Sandy Bush, that's for you Steph, They are so creative, I know they got the idea from a craft show but I think its amazing how they do all the work. I got to pick on out for myself and I'm going to wear mine on Monday, so when I give Deona her's everyone will want to "buy" one. Lucky for them I will have several on hand just in case. Hopefully I can make a little money for Linda and Sandy.