Christmas at the Flahertys

I've gotten a little behind on my blog again. Back up to Saturday, Dec. 12th...

After Kylah's Birthday Party at Safari Sams, we went to the Flaherty's for our annual Christmas Party.

The living room is always filled with presents & people

The adults played a different type of gift exchange this year.

We rolled dice to see who got to choose the next gift.

Ivie Rose

Dawn & Renee

Destanie, Thomas & Baby Thiago

Tracie & Dylona

Martin & Jason

The Flahertys

G'night Kallie-bug

Merry, Merry Christmas!

We headed to Garibaldi on Monday night and have enjoyed the last couple of days here. We've had beautiful Oregon sunshine, cold, but sunshine! We've walked on the beach, we've taken pictures of the sunset, we've laughed, we've exchanged gifts, we've laughed some more...always good times in Garibaldi.

We're headed to Aunt Tami and Uncle Kent's house in a few hours for another gift exchange and more laughs. Then Jamie, Makena and I will head home. Santa will be arriving tonight and then Makena will go to her dad's early Christmas morning. Jamie and I may come back to Garibaldi after we help serve breakfast at the Washington County Girl Scout Christmas Breakfast for the Homeless. We haven't decided yet if we want to spend time curled up on the couch watching tv at home, or if we want to be curled up on the couch at my parent's house.

Either way, I'm looking forward to another few days of relaxing and enjoying my life.

I also get to enjoy my life with a NEW wide lens for my camera!!! Jamie surprised me with a new lens last night - the wide lens I've been gawking over.

We decided that we weren't doing Christmas gifts this year, but I should have known...

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

Celebration Ct is better...obviously

We live on Celebration Ct.
Our rental house is on Lilac St.

Celebration Ct is a T shaped road.
Lilac St is a cult-a-sac.

There are 8 houses on Celebration Ct.
There are 20+ houses on Lilac St.

All of the house on Celebration Ct are 2 story.
All of the house on Lilac St are ranch style.

The houses on Celebration Ct were built less than 10 years ago.
The houses on Lilac St were built more than 30 years ago.

We know all of the neighbors on Celebration Ct.
We know 3 of the neighbors on Lilac St.

The yard on Celebration Ct is just the right size for us.
The yard on Lilac St is 3 times that size.

I love working in the yard on Celebration Ct.
Not so much on Lilac St.

Most of the large pine trees have been removed from Celebration Ct.
There are several different types of large trees on Lilac St.

The small trees on Celebration Ct drop leaves that are required to be raked once a season.
The large trees on Lilac St drop leaves that are required to be raked once a day.

We hope to live on Celebration Ct for several more years.
We hope to rent out the house on Lilac St within the next year.

We are very happy in our house on Celebration Ct - our home.

Volunteer work with the Girl Scouts

My Girl Scout Troop helped hand out toys at the Washington County Christmas Breakfast for the Homeless on Sunday. Sunday was "Family Day" - families that came received bags of clothing and toiletries, boxes of food and a toy for each child.

The girls had much more fun handing out toys than they did sorting clothes last year!

The troop collected items during the months of November & December, and we brought our items on our volunteer day. I had planned to get a picture of all of the girls unloading the truck...I never get pictures when I "plan" for them ahead of time.

I did get a few pictures of them choosing and delivering toys. I noticed that there were sticky finger prints all over my camera (when I got home) so the pictures are not very clear. The finger prints possibly appeared during dinner the night before...sneaky kids. : )

Cadette Troop 41054

McKenzie, Jessica, Hayley, Hailee & Makena

There are always the good and not-so-good parts of volunteering. The girls got to experience both sides of this on Sunday. Even though there were some very ungrateful people in attendance, there were also several smiling children receiving toys. Hopefully those smiles are the things the girls remember!

Happy 29th (again) Birthday Dawn!

A bunch of us met up at Old Spaghetti Factory on Saturday night for Dawn's Birthday dinner. Good food, good laughs, good friends!

Kylah & I did the Word Search

Dawn & Tracie

Dawn was so (not) impressed when we all sang to her.

Happy 6th Birthday Kylah Teagan!

Kylah's 6th Birthday party was held at Safari Sams again this year. ALL kinds of fun for the kids!!

The beautiful Birthday Girl!

I didn't get many pictures of the kids playing because I was too busy loving on 1 month old Baby Thiago. Thankfully, Nikki took some pictures with my camera.

And, Santa showed up! Kallie told me that she had already seen Santa and didn't want to see him again. : )

"What?? We HAVE to see Santa!" I said "I haven't seen him yet this year."

"Let's go!" She started running.

Miss Ivie wasn't as comfortable with Santa as the other girls were. She sat with him, so that's progress.

When all the water isn't falling

Jamie, Moxie and I visited Multnomah Falls last week to take a few pictures. The temps were just below freezing - and that's exactly what it felt like! Moxie was none too happy that we brought her up to the bridge, closer to the falls.

The falls were beautiful though!

Hello, my name is Amber and I'm an addict

You know those days when stupid shit just keeps happening and all you really want to do is just climb back in to bed and pretend the day didn't start?!?

Well, I've had two of those in a row now.

And there just isn't enough Zoloft in my pill bottle to OD on them. Damn.

So I've decided to eat bags of peanut butter M&M's and drink an extra (or two) bottle of Mirror Pond before bed.

I believe I've become addicted to the M&M's. I. just. can't. stop!

Either my teeth will fall out from the sugar or I will soon begin throwing up from the amount of chocolate and peanut butter in my stomach.

Neither one of them really sounds fun.

One Family's Difference - Day #14

Millions of people lost all of their belongings in the tsunami.

Count the number of shirts blouses your family owns, and gratefully give .01 for each one.

Thankfully, I have a day job.

We had our annual Christmas party at the Flahery's yesterday. I decided to bake and frost some sugar cookies and a Lemon Glazed Spice Cake. I also decided to make some Rice Krispie Treats and Gingerbread shaped mini-muffins.

I've never claimed to be a baker. I often pretend that I can cook, but it's all a show. Baking, well, that's an even bigger show for me.

I couldn't get the Santa shaped cookies to bake resembling anything that looked like Santa. So, Jamie and I ate those before frosting the cookies...

I couldn't get the red food coloring to get to a shade of red - only brighter pink. Or get the green to get to a deep shade of green. Bright pink and light green it is...

The good part was that the kids didn't care what color the cookies or the Rice Krispie Treats were - only that they were there! Wheeewww - they thought I was the best!

The Lemon Spice Cake was a bit too lemony. Plus, my cake didn't look exactly like the picture of the real baker's cake either. Hmmmm....

The Gingerbread mini-muffins, well they were the worst. They looked more like a giant blob with a few blueberry speckles in them. I ate all of those as not to scare the kids. Yes, I know, how thoughtful of me.

I walked around the house to find things for me to enjoy other than baking.

Christmas presents under the tree.

Christmas cards arriving from friends and family.

Yummy beer given to me by my Aunt Tami. (Notice it's an Amber Ale)

My wonderful treasures from a recent shopping trip with my mom & sister:

My new baby dolls look perfect at their new home.

Which just so happens to be in the highchair that my sister gave me for my birthday last year.

An old stocking. Jamie, Makena & Kylah told me that it just looks like a dirty old sock. (They just don't see the beauty.)

A cute little postcard that fits perfectly in my laundry room.

Another postcard perfect for our master bathroom; in my newly painted boxes from Good Will. I also found the small mirror during our shopping trip - it says An Abundant Life. There are still a few special items missing in the boxes - I'll know them when I see them.

One Family's Difference - Day #13

In Uganda, 1 out of 5 children die before they reach their 5th birthday.

Gratefully give .50 for each family member who has lived beyond age 5.

One Family's Difference - Day #12

In garbage dumps around the world, poor people scrounge for their food.

Gratefully give .05 for each meal your family had last week.

One Family's Difference - Day #11

Every day 2000 babies are newly infected with HIV.

For every healthy child in your family, gratefully give .25.

One Family's Difference - Day #10

In Oregon and Washington, more than 1 million people have no money for dental care.

Gratefully give .15 for each dental visit your family members had in the past year.

Happy Birthday Jamie!

Kylah and Kallie spent the day with me yesterday. Kylah wanted to make a birthday card for Jamie's birthday - she did such a great job!! She had helped me wrap one of his presents and then wanted to tape the card to the box. When Uncle Jamie got home, we let him open the present because Kylah's card was on it and she was there.

So cute.

So proud.

Happy 37th Birthday Honey - love you!!