A Very Merry Christmas

This year was one of the funniest and jolliest Christmases in memory. Everyone was in a good mood, generous, and cheerful. Friday we left home to celebrate the season with my husband's dad and their family. We stayed until the morning of Christmas Eve and had a wonderful time.

The sky on Friday as we left for home.

Our niece Mikaela opening her present from us. Coloring books and crayons. Apology to the family for not taking more pictures. You know what they say... time flies when you're having fun! I promise to do better next time!
Christmas Eve...

Christmas Eve we opened gifts at my mother's house. Here we are receiving the most versatile gift...money!

Here is my mother trying to explain the gag winning lottery ticket to my grandmother. We all laughed so much our stomachs hurt!

Here is my sister and mom laughing about some of the gifts my grandmother gave everyone. Apparently she wasn't wearing her glasses when she went shopping...Mom got a #1 Dad pen. (So did Jonathan by the way, but none of the hopeful grandparents should get any ideas!)

Mom looking at our gift to her. A calendar with pictures of the family.
More Christmas Eve at Jonathan's mom's house...

Jonathan and Ricky doing our favorite thing...playing video games.

Me and my little (bigger) brother-in-law, Ricky.

Jonathan opening my gift to him. Fuzzy fleece PJs.
Christmas morning at the Roberts gathering...

Here is Jonathan entertaining everyone...

Rachel, Jeremy, little cousin Annie, and Grandpa Roberts.

Krista opening the gift to all of us kids...Guitar Hero! We all will get too much use out of that gift.

The Santa mom with mistletoe over head. She was very festive this year and is very much appreciated by all of us!

Lydia, Jonathan, Ricky and Jeremy doing a little off the cuff jam. Thank you everyone for the greatest Christmas. We love you all and wish you a Happy New Year!

Snow and Family Fun

My grandmother Fran, sister Amanda, and brother George after a lovely breakfast on Saturday morning.

My 13 year-old sister wearing my clothes and taller than me.

My big brother George.

The Fry family.

Enjoying the snow together.

Snow falling on Saturday afternoon.

The cozy fireplace at my mother-in-law's with "the stockings all hung by the chimney with care..."

What a fun weekend! Jonathan met with a cherished professor after breakfast on Saturday. We had a blast all weekend playing Mario Party and Mario Kart (I lost miserably on Mario Party; so much so that everyone felt sorry for me!) Saturday afternoon my mother treated us to a matinee showing of Alvin and the Chipmunks. It was a cute movie and brought back lots of memories. Amanda stayed with us all weekend at Jonathan's mom's house. Lots of love to Amanda, Lydia, and Ricky! See you all next week!

Graduation

My sweet romantic husband surprised me with these just before Graduation. Aren't they beautiful?

Graduation was December 14 at 7:00. It was very nice and kind of surreal to finally be graduating. It seems rather anti-climactic though, to work four years only to hear "Jayme Nichole Cisco, Bachelor of Arts Spanish, Summa Cum Laude", then shake a hand and you're done. But it felt so nice to have family and friends there to cheer me on. Thank you to everyone who was able to make it that night; it meant a lot to Jonathan and I. We had a wonderful little get together at my mother-in-law's house afterward and we all had a great time.

So, on to the next chapter. Grad School here I come!

More lovely ice...

We woke up Monday morning to a world of ice. School was cancelled so Jonathan was at home, working on lesson plans and more Math.
Here you can see some of the ice that came off our car.

Look how thick it is!

A tree in front of our house covered in ice.

Zoie, completely oblivious to the weather.

An Icy Weekend

View of the ice from our little balcony. The driveway was covered with a solid sheet of ice.

Below: Finishing "Little Women", which I read every year during the holidays, with a sleepy Zoie on my lap.

Wow, did we have a nasty ice storm this weekend! Saturday night I woke up to sleet hitting the windows, thunder, and lightning! It was a bizzare combination. Sunday morning Jonathan and I spent a good 30 minutes trying to get the car ready for me to do the weekly grocery shopping. We had a nice weekend, though. We ate some yummy Papa Johns on Friday night and watched all of the Star Wars (except Episode II which we don't have). Jonathan worked away on his correspondence course and finished two weeks worth of lessons in two days. I did lots of cleaning, cooking, and reading. Now we are getting ready for my graduation which is Friday! Yea!

Winter Wonderland

'Tis the season!

Look at those flakes!

Traffic was terrible, there were accidents everywhere. We were so glad that we had nothing to do but stay in and watch the lovely winter weather after work!

Nice weekend

Zoie was particularly good this weekend. Very cuddly but still meowed at 5:30 am to be fed.

We are very much in the Christmas spirit. I did a little bit of Christmas shopping and loved the music and decorations!

Our front door with pretty wreath.

A meal I made Saturday night. Grilled salmon (Jonathan's favorite), brown rice, and fresh steamed green beans. Followed by gingersnap cookies and cocao. I tried other new recipes this weekend, one of them being pumpkin soup. It may sound strange to us North Americans but it is something that we got hooked on in New Zealand. I found the NZ recipe on my favorite recipe website, recipezaar. It turned out lovely.

Thanksgiving

The first snow this year in Kansas City.

Little Grayson, eight months old.

Jonathan and Gavyn playing internet games together.

I think he got the bad guy.

We had a wonderful time visiting family for Thanksgiving. Highlights: Great food, good moods, and cute niece and nephews.

Zoie

Our little Zoie as a baby. Isn't she cute!



















The infamous Zoie. (This was taken last year. She is now too fat to sit in the tree without bending the branches to the ground.)


















Zoie opening up her Christmas present last year.


















Zoie loves to curl up in strange places.