Catch up post # 2,374

(Doh! I went to add in all my prewritten commentary about these pictures but I can't cut and paste for some reason...I had a description written for each picture on a word document and I thought I could just add them in after I downloaded all the pictures...silly me!

Oh well, such is life.)

I wanted to try and catch up with a few months worth of events in one post here so it will be a longer post with a lot of pictures! This is totally guilt motivated. I am finding it very difficult to keep up with this blog! Now that I'm on facebook, it just seems redundant. But really, I don't put much on facebook either. So I better try to keep a record somewhere.

Jasper and Polina had a wedding reception here in Boise in October. The venue turned out to be perfect and the weather cooperated too! We were very lucky!

This is a rooftop event center here in Boise with a wonderful view of the surrounding area.

We were very fortunate to have friends and family come in from all over just to join us. These are my good friends Nettie and Kathy. Kathy came in from El Paso to attend the reception. Can't get enough of these two..so happy and perfect for eachother!

Here is the other happy couple in our lives and we feel very content with our complete family.

Thanksgiving came up next in our event calendar. We hosted 18 at our house. It was snug to say the least but very fun. Everyone brought food so it wasn't a big deal to provide a few side dishes to go along with the main courses. Jasper and Polina came over early to make the stuffing and set up chairs and things. I snapped this mid-blink and I ordinarily wouldn't put a picture up that has the subject blinking but it's so rare that I get Jasper in an apron and cooking that I thought I better not press my luck by trying to get a perfect shot.

Following close on the heels of Thanksgiving was an event of many years tradition. I think Nettie and Kari and I have been having this annual birthday/Christmas dinner for at least 10 years. We all have birthdays around the same time so we came up with this solution long ago to combine the celebrations to save us all time during the holidays. We've long ago stopped exhanging gifts per-se (Nettie always manages to sneak a gift in somewhere!) but we spend hours over dinner at a nice place (different every year) just catching up and enjoying each other's company.

This year was no exception to Nettie's stealth gift giving...she got this tiara for Kari since she turned fifty this year. Ok, I admit, I gave them each a little plaque with a saying on it! No big deal. (but I wrapped them so cute!)

And it's not the holidays without my Annual Ladies Christmas Brunch! I have started noticing a pattern in that this event typically falls on the first Sunday of December. So I think I will just make that the annual day of my party. We did glass candle globes this year and also paper ornaments with glitter and paint...still cleaning up the glitter weeks later...the sign of a really awesome party! The only downer about this whole thing was that one of the guests lit her candle in the glass globe and all the little decorations caught on fire!

This made Kevin feel very vindicated since he had warned me about maybe some of the decorations being flammable! To my partial credit, I HAD tested some of the items that were to go into the globes and they just melted but I DID issue a general (and not so adamant) warning at the beginning of the craft portion of the festivities that they were to light these candles at their own risk! So anyway, I had to call or text all my guests and warn them to just use these as little decorations and not light them.

Ok, moving right along, and leaving the subject of flames behind...I went with Polina for a quick overnight stay to Phoenix where she had an interview for PA school. I visited Jeri while Polina was in the all day interview. Then we went to lunch at this great outdoor patio Italian place to celebrate her getting through the interview in one piece. Look at the weather! We are in short sleeves! It was so beautiful down there...too bad we had to leave right after this picture was taken and head back to the airport...back to Boise where it was raining and cold when we arrived! Oh, BTW, Polina WAS ACCEPTED!!! We are thrilled for her. This has been a dream of her's for a very long time. She is still waiting on the Idaho school to let her know her status since she interviewed with them as well. But either way, she will be in PA school next fall.

Well, I feel better now. Whew! I will be trying a little harder in the next few months to be a little steadier poster since I really like it when I can look back and see everything that has been going on in my life.