Finally,feeling blessed in time for the holidays

Tree pics!!!
Rory decorated it - almost completely by herself- with ornaments from Ri&my childhood.

Yes, maybe I am feeling more in that winter Holiday Spirit.



& Rory is watching Aladdin which she suddenly(today) decides she likes ,despite years of her owning the movie and not wanting to watch it.

Last night, after Ri came home, and right about the time I started getting ready for bed- Ben called.
He was having a rough night of sorts and wanted to stop in and hang out with Ri.
It was the anniversary of the death of his grandfather(who raised him), and he wanted to go have a beer at his grave,and company. I stayed up for a bit, but then headed for bed- I still needed to wake up early for the parade.
I feel asleep listening to Ben tell Ri how blessed he is with Rory.
He thinks Rory is the greatest kid he has ever met. He ALWAYS tells us he can only hope his child is half as cool as she is .While reminding us that he is an only child and Ri is family to him. - He even said something about wanting to give her the world,- As much as I knew these weren't the ramblings of a sober man, it was nice to hear.
I think Rory is amazing, but I am obviously biased, it is nice to hear it from someone else.

Ri said they stayed up till well past dawn, he even made sure that Ben got home safe. He had trouble getting to bed so late in the morning- said he almost made breakfast for us,but just laid down until he fell asleep instead.

He should have made breakfast my day got off to a rough start.
Rory woke up later than I expected, I started rushidly trying to toss things together...

Opened the dryer (where I had put the clothes for us today on last night) , my clothes were wet,huh, I figured I didn't put them on high enough last night and restarted them.
So ,I started getting everything else together while I waited - went ahead and put Rory in a different outfit.
Can't find the bra I want- destroy the house looking for it.
Run to the car to get the car seat out.
Get Rory a bowl of cereal,turn on a movie,and find out the dvd player remote is broken, sigh.

Check the dryer- and notice it isn't tumbling!
No NO NO NO !!- my dryer is broken!!!... the clothes I wanted to wear, and loads of others I would have worn ,wet and warm in the nontumbling dryer. CRAP!
So, I take everything out of the and lay it over all the chairs ,and upright surfaces I can find.
Toss the jeans and shirt I want back in, and hope the warmth itself helps- and mange to find my bra while I wait.
I ended up ironing my damn outfit ,(trying to get it dry-)
managing to burn my thumb on the iron,and slice up my foot on Noobies massive bone (that should be outside)!

-ugh, I was JUST finishing my make up at 10:50- whew-!!
--AND then topped it off by managing to forget to pack my cell!!!



Rory was super excited to go. Val brought Rory a little pink purse someone gave her. Rory LOVED. We chatted and headed for Welaka.
We should have brought chairs, but we sat in the grass. It was a nice sunny day, not near as cold as expected.
Seth kept saying he just wanted to run and get in line for santa. Santa gives out gifts after the parade - and people WERE lining up well before the parade.


Terah walked right past us- I wasn't sure it was even her... then I wasn't sure if she saw us.
I know her and Val haven't really got along in sometime, and was nervous to walk over there,-but I also knew Rory would love to see Lynnix&Lyric ,so I walked over. From the look on her face I knew she hadn't seen us when she walked past.
Terah ended up standing with us, Val and her chatted and seemed to get along- pretty awesome actually.



Bad pic timing on my part, Val was telling Terah about a friend who passed :( ...but it is a good pic of them still

...and how does a parade in Small Towny FLA start , you ask
Psh.bikers of coarse!... all decked out for Christmas tossing candy.

Rory Loved the grinch!

For some reason there was a large gap between the bike and the rest of the parade- Jen showed up with her CUTE little ones






....yes no small town holiday celebration would be compleate without that the Jesus dude being mentioned with no respect for other denominations...
-cough- The Jmans bday is in june folks--



Rory really loved the bellringers too for some reason.





Soo much candy was tossed !! Holy cow!
Rory was mad for a second because she only managed to catch a mint and a fireball- and missed gum and lollys- DID NOT last long- So much candy she ended up getting loads of everything,and she made trades with the other kids for tootsies instead of mints.




Yes... there was a golf cart decorating contest.-why is that so funny to me??

With this pic I realized Seth moves to much to snap a decent pic of, and Brad is getting too big!

Love Lynni's outfit
Aww.. a few of the carts were tossing toys- Rory was starting to pout about not getting one- I just told her "No big deal santa will give you something, later"- but, the next cart tossing toys tossed one her way, when he saw the big boys catch it , he got out of the cart and directly handed her ,and Jens boy ,Damian , little bears.



Aww. doesn't he look like little mini boy Terah?



I.have.no.idea.



Hey! i know that guy he is good buddies with my parents :) We rode in the catfish parade on that "float" airboat

SANTA





We turned and made our way in line- Jen had left the parade before us and had a spot- Me and Terah felt weird about skipping ahead, but we did.... everyone else was- well I know that is no justifacation, but yeah... LOL

Awwww!


I was really amazed how huge the line grew... and that were handing out soo many gifts.


Seth- getting the same hess truck he got last yr. - but he was still happy.

Jen somehow managed to get all three of her kids on Santas lap ,AND smiling!


We had to tell them our childs age (so they could pic a gift) .. I said 4.Rory was surprised, i said You are almost 4.She was more excited to realize she was four than to meet santa... she ran right up and told him something, but I am not sure what.




She got a cute little mini hello kitty doll, and some books and coloring books- she was happy and said Santa knew JUST what she needed :)

Rory liked watching everyone open up theirs tooo-
Terah says she IS living really close and will plan on stopping in sometime to see us.That would be awesome. Rory and Lynni are just the right age to play.


Val drove us home- but Rory was a bit upset about coming home- she wanted to go to Vals. I think she would rather be anywhere but home 90% of the time,esspecially if it means she can be somewhere fun like Vals :)

It wasn't even 2pm when we got home. RI was still in bed even! I should have made him go, he would have had a blast. I am glad he got some rest though.
I made a huge heaping pot of veggies(broccoli and carrots) ,to go with the candy Rory was eating as fast as it would unwrap.
After Ri went to work Rory crashed out for a bit, all cuddled up with her FAV new toy,
not the purse,
not the books,
not hello kitty


She even got me to take this pic.

I woke Rory up lighting the tree for a pic, on purpose mostly,I don't want her up all night.
It wasn't long after that a car pulled almost into my house,scared me. It was Mom&Dad, with an early present for me. A check to help pay for Christmas.-awesome. Our car payment is so late Ri was getting worried, really worried as we bought gifts on credit.
Mom also said she will pick us up next weekend to do it all over at Porkys christmas party.
woot.

I am feeling pretty blessed between my awesome kid, my sweet friends,and my family.
even feeling a little holiday spirit
How about some music?
-
Gotta love Frosty, and Fiona!
well,
I just made a huge heaping pot of pasta, and I am tired.
Night folks
PEACE AND TOFU CHICkEN GREASE,
BABYHELLFIRE