Finished By Friday

Yes, I realize it's been quite some time since I posted anything. No, I don't feel too bad about it! :-) This past weekend, my parents and little sister came to visit! It was their first time, so it was fun to show them around the apartment and some of the area attractions. They arrived in time for supper Friday evening and stayed over until Saturday afternoon. Unfortunately, all my good picture taking intentions were kind of forgotten over the weekend, but we had a good time anyway!

Twelve adults/teen and four kids! How's that sound? I wish I could have recorded the noise and the chaos for you all to enjoy! If you don't think that sounds like a wonderful, enjoyable Christmas, then I guess it's a good thing you're not in the Montgomery family! As for us. . . that's home. My feeble attempt at capturing the chaos . The sled slide Bud and Jon made for the kids. Ah and the bunny ears - gotta have them. I just thought it was funny 1) that nobody realized what was happening and 2) that it was one of the senior members of the family using such tactics! Just like old days! HA! Mamma used to line us up in front of our stockings at Christmas. We decided to re-live the memory only in height order. Bud is actually the 4 th child; Becky the 2 nd ; Me 5 th ; Rachel 1st; Lynette 3rd; and Joy (6 th ) has a ways to go before she catches up with anyone! So sure, there's the noise and the mess and the utter chaos , but then there's this. The whole f...

Catton Christmas. . . The tree and stockings (notice the little red one to the left of the tree. I made it for Brier.) The stocking ritual Brier and the toy he got in his stocking Brad as Santa (The nation's financial distress has thinned him down a bit. :-) Melissa and her snazzy new 4 GB thumb drive He almost didn't guess that it was a cheese cutting board, but got it at the last minute. Jon opening Wall-E (notice the bad thumb - the one not being used) "Grandmother" - Fist the tears now the excitement! Brier had had enough! He fell asleep with one toy in his mouth and his new toy close by!

This year for Christmas, Jon's brother Brad and his wife Melissa gave each of the other four of us extra special gifts. For Mom C. it was a Willow Tree figurine of a "Grandmother" holding a baby; for Dad, a songbook of 100 best loved children's songs; and for Jon and I, these t-shirts. Congratulations were given, and now we all eagerly await the arrival of the new little family member - expected sometime in July!

Why do banks charge you a " non sufficient funds" fee on money they already know you don't have?

Pictures. . . Here are just a couple favorites. Shhh. . . Don't tell the security guard! We kind of stepped over the little rope things to sit in Santa's chair at the mall. I LOVE this picture!! My family (in Massena) wanted to do their part in spreading the spirit of Christmas. We decided to take in this homeless man and treat him as one of our own. . . :-)

It has been a pretty busy Christmas season! Jon has been off work for a few weeks because of his injury but I worked right up until Tuesday, Dec. 23rd. We exchanged our gifts Monday evening. Christmas Eve, we gathered up our gifts and overnight things and headed for Mom and Dad Catton's house for Christmas. We opened gifts that night and had family in for dinner on Christmas Day then we loaded up our loot and headed home. :-) Friday was supposed to be a day to re-organize and get ready to head to the Montgomery Christmas, but Jon spotted some bad weather headed our way (thanks to weather.com) so we got around and headed out to beat the storm. We spent almost a whole week in Massena (as did most of the rest of the family). It's been a while since we were ALL together for such a length of time! Here are just a couple pictures from our house. I'll post others with more detail later.