Christmas Eve 2009

We usually spend Christmas Eve with my side of the family, but with this crazy weather and Mom having to work until 4:00PM!(who does that??), we decided to celebrate Christmas Day(which then got postponed until Sunday). We were so happy that our dear friends the Parrinos, who live in Des Moines, invited us over for dinner! (pictured above, Rick, Sue, Christine, baby Dominic, Autumn, Matthew.)

Blizzard or not, were were determined to go! It has rained and sleeted all day here, but Des Moines temps hovered at 32 most of the day, so it wasn't a bad drive, if you took it slow. We arrived to the fabulous smoky aroma of Rick grilling fillet steaks - MMM-MM! And the rest of the meal was just as mouth-watering, with salad, baked sweet potatoes, garlic bread and green bean casserole.

After dinner we gathered around the tree. Rick and Sue have become like family over the years and we were so glad to be able to share this special night with all of them. Rick and I met when Deb and I were first gathering donations for our first BRAVE raffle house in 1997. Rick was one of the incredibly generous sponsors that said "YES" right off the bat when we asked for help. And every house after that he was there to not only donate materials, but build walls, help me with plans and even joined the BRAVE Foundation Board of Directors. The icing on the cake was meeting his super nice wife, Sue, during a cold winter day on the job site. And the rest, as they say, is history!! This was Rick and Sue's first Christmas as Grandpa and Grandma to their new grandson, Dominic. What fun to watch and listen to the little guy. Doesn't she look SO HAPPY to be a Grandma!!
Rick and Sue's oldest son, Matthew is a proud Daddy! Matt will be heading back for another deployment in Afghanistan in May.

Here Mommy Autumn and Auntie Christine sit by the tree and listen to Dominic talk up a storm!

Auntie Christine and Domi making happy faces!

And then it was time to dig out the games... tonight - GESTURES! Autumn and Matt had other family to visit yet tonight, so it was just us five left, but that didn't hamper the fun! It's really like charades, but you have to act really fast before the cards disappear. It was girls against the guys ... and, oh, man, did we have a a ball!! We all laughed so hard our sides hurt!

And at the end of both of the TWO games - the GIRLS WON!! Uh-huh, uh-huh, uh-huh-uh-h-uh!)

We could've played for hours, but Jim poked his head outside and said the snow was starting to come down pretty good, so we had to go. What a wonderful time we had!! Thanks so very much, Parrinos, for sharing your family Christmas with us!!