10 Days of Christmas

Merry Christmas Everybody! We made it home safely late last night (Christmas Eve) and I wanted to post the pictures and share the events of our trip. I will call it "The 10 Days of Christmas".

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On the 1st Day of Christmas: We flew into O'hare Airport about noon. My Dad picked us up and we had Nick's Pizza with my Grandparents.

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On the 2nd Day of Christmas: We had our Schumacher Christmas Party at St. Catherines Church (in the school gym). Here are some pictures attached. I have listed names of everyone.

The game of "P-I-G"
Everyone playing inside the gym.

My cousin Tayna & her husband Tim

My cousin Michelle & Aunt Janet

My Uncle Franz & his daughter (my cousin) Kayla

My cousin Steph & her mom (my Aunt) Annette

My cousins Jeff & Rachel with their mom (my Aunt) Sue

My Uncle Rick and his daughter (my cousin) Mal

All cousins (L-R): Ricky, Jeff, Marty, Ryan & Brenden

My Mom (Janet) & Dad (Kurt) - Aren't they cute!

These are all my cousins that are under the age of 18. They are sitting in a circle to do a gift exchange.

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On the 3rd Day of Christmas: We went to my Mom's house to visit with her. We ended up going to Woodfield Mall to shop a little. For lunch we ate at P.F. Changs and Rick made us dinner. It was very busy & very fun!

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On the 4th Day of Christmas: We visited with our friends Crystal, Kim, Steph & Mark. It was SO great to see them. I didn't get a picture of Kim (sorry). Later that evening, Crystal, Kelly, Steph & I all went to Spring Hill Mall to do a little more shopping. I had a really great time seeing and spending time with ya'll ;)

Malachy - I love this picture!

The Stanger Family - Aren't they so cute?
(L-R): Steph, Malachy & Mark

My friend Crystal & her daughter Maddison - so cute too!

This is Maddison's brother Frank & sister Emily (all 3 are Crystal & Scotts). They were so good and super polite too, I still can't believe how big they are. It was so great to see everyone and catch up!
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On the 5th Day of Christmas: We stayed home for the most part and were bums (although we did manage to go out for lunch, it was Kelly, Steve & I - we had Nick's Pizza again). My Dad & Mom had to work, so Kelly, Steve & I just hung around home and waited for Jackie to get home from school. Later that evening, my Dad took Steve & I to my mom's house so we could spend the next 2 days with her. Rick, Donika & I met my mom at work right when she got off and went to Fridays for dinner.

Kelly lounging around on the couch!

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On the 6th Day of Christmas: We made a huge turkey dinner at my moms. It was really good, and the best part was learning my Grandma Billings stuffing recipe. Thanks Mom!

My Mom (Karen) & husband (Rick)

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On the 7th Day of Christmas: We chopped all my hair off :) - My mom cut & highlighted my hair. It's really short & I love it. We looked at old pictures & had pizza again for dinner (yum)! Later that evening my Mom & Rick took Steve & I back to my Dad's house. The rest of our stay we were at his house. Thanks Mom, I had a wonderful visit!

Donika is doing her new move - "The Whip"
(R-L): Donika (my sister) & my Mom (Karen)

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On the 8th Day of Christmas: My Dad & Mom only had to work until noon, so we hung around the house a little and then went out for dinner. We went to a place called "Cruisin". They have great food & a really fun environment. After, we came home and opened presents. It was such a wonderful night, we had a fire going too! Thank you Mom & Dad!

My sister (Jackie) & Dad - right before we opened presents

My Mom & Kelly - right before we opened presents as well.

Jackie handing out the presents to everyone. She did a GREAT job!

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On the 9th Day of Christmas: (Christmas Eve) We had dinner with my Grandparents again, it was very good, a place called "Ritzies". Thank you Grandpa & Grandma for dinner, it was delicious! After dinner, we headed back to Las Vegas. I was very sad to leave, but I will be looking forward to starting the process to move back home. Once we start that, time should fly by.

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On the 10th Day of Christmas: (Christmas Day) We headed off to Steve's Moms (Lil) house here in Las Vegas. We had a small delay (there was a car accident) but we finally made it. It was great to see everyone and chow on good food!

Steve & his brother (John)

Sylvia (a good friend to the family)

Tom & Steve's Mom (Lil)

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Thank you to everyone for making our trip so special. This will definetaly be one trip I will never forget. It was filled with joy, sadness & excitement. Joy - for all the wonderful days we spent with our family and friends. Sadness - because we had to leave and we didn't get to see everyone we wanted too, we just didn't have enough time. Excitement - because if everything goes smoothly we should be moved back by April/May. We hope everyone had a fun and safe holiday and we are deeply sorry if we were not able to make it to see you.
Merry Christmas and have a great New Year in 2006!

Christmas Decor

We decorated for Christmas today. It's all done, i'm so excited. Here are a few pictures that I took while we were putting everything up. The last picture is REALLY funny.

Steve bringing in the decorations. Dakota jumped in the bin as Steve was carring it.

Our tree.

Crystal posted some of her favorite ornaments. Here are a few of mine. This is an ornament my sister Kelly made for me. It's one of 3 ornaments I have that was made. It's my favorite one :)

This was one of the first ornaments I recieved as a gift (it came the first year we were married and we didn't have any ornaments for a tree), it was from my parents & sisters. It's one of my favorites too :)

My parents send me a lighted house every year for Christmas. They started this collection for me when Steve & I first got married. It's really grown now, last year I had to tell them to not buy any more houses because it was too full. I need to find a bigger table first. It's so pretty, I love having them all together. The lighthouse flashes, it's pretty cool!

This picture cracked me up! After we were all done decorating, Steve sat on the couch and both dogs jumped up on him. I took the picture not knowing they were going to be up there. Ha, ha... That tounge is funny!

Happy Holidays everyone!

New Camera

Hey everyone, I just wanted to say that I got a NEW CAMERA!!! I'm SO excited. I lov e it! I had an older one that was a 3.1 MP that was ok, but it wasn't good enough quality to crop. Walmart was having this huge after Thanksgiving sale and I noticed in their ad that they had a 6.1 MP Kodak digital camera. I didn't go in stand in the lines, but I did order it on-line. It was only $199 so I thought that was a great deal (especially for a 6.1MP).

I brought it in to work today and at lunch Brooke & Trish (my friends who I work with) were playing around with it. Here are 2 pictures they took of each other.

Above is Brooke!

Below is Trish!

Aren't they cute?? They are awesome friends. I'm so lucky to have such great people to work with. I love going to work just so I can hang out with them (minus the work part :) !

I'll post again soon (hopefully).
Sara

Thanksgiving Pictures!

Sorry this has taken me so long to post. I hope everyone had a GREAT Thanksgiving! Steve & I went to his Uncle John's (butch) house to spend our Thanksgiving. Dinner was delicious! Here are some pictures of that holiday.

Steve's Brother John & I watching the football game.

The Mildrens (Steve's Sister Amy & her husband Matt)

Steve's Uncle John (Butch) and his Mom (Lil)

Steve's Aunt Patricia

Steve's Grandma Elizabeth

Good Friend to the Family, Lucy

And the BEST pictures of all... the sleeping beauties!

Lil's friend Tom (sounds asleep)

An this is my sweet husband asleep on the floor ;)

Well, it was a great day. We had a lot of fun. We missed everyone back home though. Hope you all had a great Thanksgiving as well.