Our Christmas Tree

Judy untangling the village lights.

Bob decorating the tree.

We finally broke down and got an artificial tree a couple years ago. We put it up last Sunday along with my village.

Grandma Mattila's 90th Birthday

Grandma Mattila with her birthday crown and cake.

I had to "steal" this picture from Tim & Cody's blog

because our camera is dying & I didn't get a good picture.

(Sorry guys)

Eva & Berlin give a "cousin" hug.

Berlin

Dave & Grace

Owen doing his part to decorate the tree.

All the "kids" have a stocking at Grandma's.

I don't know how many more we can fit on this mantel!

Emma

Eva & Lindsay decorating the tree.







Every year we go to the Mattila's to celebrate Barbara's birthday & set up & decorate the Christmas tree. This year JoEllen set the tree up ahead of time & put it in a different spot!!! We're messing with tradition here! But it did make the job go faster & gives us more room for this growing family, which will be bigger by two next year as we are expecting two more grandchildren this summer thanks to John & Heather and James & Amanda. (Yippee!)








This was a special birthday as Grandma turned 90 years old. She asked the caregiver in the morning, "Do you think I'll make it to 100?" That would be something!

Gingerbread Houses

Eli just enjoyed eating the graham crackers.

Berlin working on her house.

Kaylee eats candy while she spreads frosting.

Grace added a two-story cookie porch to her house

Eva & her gingerbread house




We babysat Kate's girls overnight so we decorated gingerbread houses for fun. Kaylee & Grace really got into it and spent a lot of time put candy on their houses. Eva put some on but enjoyed eating the candy more. The girls also enjoyed jumping on the mattresses. I remember their mom and aunt & uncles doing the same thing! A few days later I watched Berlin & Eli. Berlin decorated a graham cracker house. It didn't have enough time to dry & started to fall apart but she had fun.

Thanksgiving

Timmy & Erin

Grandma Mattila

Dan, Jo & the caregiver (forgot her name)

Grandma Polsgrove & Kate



We spent Thanksgiving with the Mattilas. Timmy & Erin were able to come up from KS to be with us. My mom also spent Thanksgiving with us-I think there were 26? of us. Lots of fun. The kids also came over Friday evening after the girls all went "Black Friday" shopping so they could spend more time with Erin & Timmy before they left on Sunday. We played Party Pictionary.

Autumn Fun

Sir Owen

Egan the dragon/dinosaur

Monkey Eli

The kids came over to celebrate Bob's birthday on Nov. 1st so the grandkids wore their Halloween costumes and Bob and Tim took them on a "hayride" in the trailer behind the lawn tractor.

Caseville

The girls-who are going to hate me for posting this picture :)

Amanda, Kate, Erin, Heather, Cody

The Guys-John, James, Tim, Dave, Bob, Timmy

It's a real challenge to get a picture of the grandkids where everyone is looking!

Egan, Owen, Berlin, Grace, Elijah, Kaylee, Eva

Building a sand castle.

We take up a big chunk of beach!

Erin and Timmy came in from Kansas City over Labor Day weekend! We had a great visit. The whole family went to the state park in Caseville at the tip of the thumb for a beach day. It was wonderful to be together. We also went to Arts, Beats and Eats in Pontiac with Erin and Timmy.

Hocking Hills

"Emma's Lunchbox Cafe"-an interesting place to eat!

Margaret had a book of "Ohio Oddities" and this was one of them! There was

a whole field of concrete corn in front of an office building.

A topiary garden in Columbus, OH based on Georges Seurat's painting

"A Sunday Afternoon on the Ile de La Grande Jatte"

Judy, Sue, Kathy and Margaret

Every year I go on a long weekend trip with my roommates from Eastern. This year we went to the Hocking Hills area of Ohio. Very pretty. We always have a good time exploring, shopping, eating and playing Mexican Train dominoes.