Christmas Dinner(s) at Liz’s

Christmas Eve dinner hosted by Elizabeth!

Elizabeth enjoyed hosting all of Christmas. She hosted Christmas Eve as well as Christmas Day. We had spaghetti dinner in Christmas Eve. Then a brunch the next morning followed by Christmas dinner. 

Prep with the girls in the kitchen 

Butch taking a nap before doing the cleaning after dinner. 

Christmas dinner with Christmas crackers was quite good and entertaining. We had a spatchcock Turkey, Ham, green bean casserole, potatoes, gravy, asparagus a

D Brussels sprouts. 

She set the table with my placemats fro Sally, my moms plates and my gold flatware. It set up a great dinner!  Beautiful!  She may inherit a few pieces to use for parties if she going to host :)

Moving and plotting and box heaven

What are the marks on the wall for?  This is for the new TV and where it will work best for the position and where the studs etc. the TV IS huge. 

The TV as it sat on the floor

And mounted on the wall. 

And the new rug for the living room. 

AND in the 22nd the movers we finally HERE!!  Yay!!

9 crates the bow - they spent a LOT of time getting it all OFF the trucks… then we had to dig out. 

And curtains used again from Germany. There are others that we will reuse on Butch’s office. The ones in here are going in the dining to contrast with the dark blue. 

Butch left to get Sally from Fort Walton for Christmas. He didn’t come back until Christmas Eve day. 

South Carolina and the Ashwood’s

For New Years this year we went to Robin and Donalds new house in South Carolina. We had a rainy trip north but the weather whole we were there was beautiful and mild!  We were only there from Friday to Monday as I had work and was avoiding taking leave. I want to maintain at the higher overseas rate as long as I can as it’s 120 hours MORE than they allow stateside. IF I can maintain that amount I can retire and be paid out that extra amount which is a good chunk of change!

They have a cute three bed two bath in a new community to the west of their town. Cute homes. Nice neighborhood and they have close friends who live in the same neighborhood that they knew from their time in the DC area. 

Did I take ANY pictures?  Nope!  Did I have a great time?  Heck yes!  It was a nice visit and a great weekend. I’m glad they are so much closer now. Only 5 hours or a little more. We did take one picture. Don took it on his phone. I’ll see if I can add that soon!  Robin always decorated her house so pretty so we took a picture in front of her beautiful tree!

. 

Dads 90th, family get together, Utah fun

It was a short LONG weekend jam packed with family, family and more family!!

It was a SUPER rainy ride north. I MISS well marked German roads. See there were a few GOOD things the Germans had!!  Either way we made it. Even though I apparently have the bladder of a 9 year old and had to stop and pee. 

I also got to watch Christmas stories on the flight!  Fun!!  I watched a Candace Cameron Burke show. It was cute. 

We also had a few spare pilots ON the flight. Bonus for us!  ;)

Utah was snowy!!



I saw Santa!!!  It looked better when he had his hand up and you could see his plush suit and white gloves. Lovely. He was a GOOD Santa too. I hollered “SANTA, SANTA, SANTA! I know him!!!”  Ha!!


THIS IS Martin and Marilyn with their grands and great grands that we’re able to attend. As Linda points out a LOT were missing from this picture!  They have a BUNCH of greats and a BUNCH of great grands!!

Cousin love!!

My how tall you’ve grown Mike!!

After the get together at Sandi’s we drove down to Cedar Vitg and visited with mom and dad and Linda. 

This is my moms old wedding dress. It was originally Aunt Flo’s dress as well as Carolyn Koenig’s as well. We just came across my wedding dress in storage. It’s in the garage currently :). Guess I should move it!



After a dinner on Monday night. In order if height - purely by accident. 

In chronological order. 

And just like that we were headed to Vegas to fly out. 

Vegas valley. A big dusty. 


Flying out. Until next time.