Bowling in the New Year

On New Year's Day, my siblings and our families (minus Joseph, Brad and Reed) spent the afternoon bowling. I think Sam was the best. Check out that form!

Alex and Will used the ball stand to help them out.
A ball or two went flying backward!
That is a look of concentration.
Chris was probably saying something smart here. :)




Emily and I were excellent at gutter balls.




It is very rare that we hang out without the rest of the family these days. I hope we can do it again soon!

A Very Gibbsy Christmas

On New Year's Eve my side of the family celebrated Christmas. It was an extremely warm day and as a result of the sudden weather change we had some nasty storms and a tornado nearby. Will seemed very anxious as the sirens continually blared. In true Gibbs fashion, many of my family members stayed on the front porch.

The cousins exchanged gifts and the siblings played dirty Santa. It was fun! I think we will make that a yearly event.

All of the boy cousins (l-r Alex, Oliver, Reed and Will)
All six Gibbs (Sharp) grandchildren.
My brother Joseph is the only one who hasn't married yet. This is him and his girlfriend Andrea. We think she's a keeper and hope they make it official soon!

Some interesting things took place. Here, Andrea is combing Joseph's beard with a teeny comb that was in a party popper.
My dad tried to eat Reed's fingers!

But he needn't eat the baby. There was tons of food! We opted to have hor devours instead of a traditional meal and everything was so good! We had twice baked potatoes, sausage and cream cheese crescent squares, fruit with caramel toffee dip, a delicious cheeseball, bacon wrapped sausages, veggies and dip, and no bake chocolate cookies (I forget the name Emily had for them - cow patties?).

It was such a nice evening with my family. We don't get together often enough!

Merry Christmas!

Peppermint Bliss Christmas Card

Shutterfly Christmas cards "

View the entire collection of cards.

Christmas Day

We spent Christmas morning at our house (and I can't find the pics!). Will and Reed got a power wheels f150 from Santa and it was so cold that Reed and I only stayed outside for a few minutes testing it out. Will and his daddy stayed outside until their noses started to fall off then headed inside to play with the various trucks and guitars and other noisy toys we exchanged. It was a nice relaxing morning. That evening we went to Brad's parents house. Look how pretty their tree looked!

My husband is a pretty quiet guy and doesn't show many people his true colors. For example, he does a great Bill Clinton face:

Brad's brother Andrew and his wife Sara were there, too. We are so excited that they will soon have their first baby!

We tried to take a family picture.

There's always next year, right?

Canton Festival of Lights

The weekend before Christmas we went to the Canton Festival of Lights with Brad's parents. None of us had been before but it was so much fun! We will try to make this an annual event.

Canton is a popular location for filming movies. The square is picturesque and every year they decorate it with thousands of lights at Christmastime. The gazebo has a beautiful tree that has no inch untouched by a light. It is a popular place to pose and you have to wait your turn!

There is a huge tree that plays music every few minutes. Will really liked it.

Grandfather and grandsons.

Father and son.

Me and my Reedie pie.

Our family in front of the white tree.

I couldn't find Reed's gloves, so I had to stick some socks on his hands! It was freezing!
Reed was upset that he didn't get to ride the rides. Isn't his hat cute? His cousin Julie made it for him! Will has a matching one. Too cute!

Riding the carosel.

Will REALLY loved driving the cars. Luckily there were few people in line after his first ride so he was able to stay on for a second one.

I pretty much had to drag him away after the second ride. We were out of tickets and it was late! We stopped for one more picture before heading home. Will wouldn't look because he was still mad!

A Visit from Friends

My friend L. brought her 3 girls to visit one evening. Reed was fascinated by her youngest. She and Reed are just over a month apart. They should have been nearly 3 months apart, but Reed decided to come early. Can't tell now, though!

Sweet loving.
Her middle daughter was not too impressed by Will! They are about 6 weeks apart in age, Will being the younger of the two.
Her oldest daughter is just too cute and too smart! Looks just like her mama!
Miss S. still wasn't having the picture session with Will! He was still oblivious to her!
It is so fun to have friends over. We don't do it often enough!