Happy Holidays!

I've been MIA for a few weeks and I apologize. I have been in a black hole since Thanksgiving and there is now light at the end of the tunnel. First I woke up the day after Thanksgiving with a horrible, nasty cold. I was the last one in our family to get it and it knocked me down real good for about three weeks.

On November 30, my father passed away from double pneumonia. He had been in a nursing home for four years, but to the end he was my dad. The Sunday before he died he joked with my niece about how crappy the Minnesota Vikings were playing this and that their year was over!

Here are my mom and dad on their wedding day - January 11, 1947.

The entire family, with the exception of one great grandson, including my three brothers and all their children, me, my sons, DIL and Mr. E made it to the service in MN. Mr. E had his second airplane trip and loved looking out the window the entire time. He also got to spend time playing in the snow. Here he is being King of the Mountain.

And trying to make snowballs.

It was the first time in 25 years the entire family had been together so we took the opportunity to have family photos taken. Here is my wonderful family (left to right): Brandon, my youngest son, The Hotel Man, my DH, Mr. E, me, Tasha, my DIL and Geoffrey, my oldest son.
Mr. E surprised all of us with his newest behavior: saying "Cheese!". He started doing it while we were having family photos taken. He stood in front of everyone who had a camera, posed and said, "cheese". He had everyone laughing!

My whole family

This is my lovely mom. Isn't this a fantastic photo of her?

If you've made it this far I wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. If you don't celebrate Christmas, then I wish you Happy Holidays!

Sweet P