What a Christmas!

Whoa! We finished up the last of our Christmas celebrations with my family today. Let's start at the beginning though..... I worked the night of the 23rd so when I got up the afternoon of the 24th, Russ and I exchanged our gifts to each other. Russ set up some nice plates of fruit and cheese and a couple of glasses of champagne to wash down the yummy treats. Then we went over to his parents house for a nice Christmas Eve dinner before going to hear Carolyn sing in the Stone Church service. We went back home to spend time with uncle Steve and his family. We visited till past midnight because we were having so much fun drinking egg nog and sharing stories. The next morning we exchanged more gifts Russ's favorite gift was the guitar world tour, picture included) and then went to Grandma Betty's house for lunch. Little cousin Karin was too cute! Russ and I talked her into calling her new babydoll Baby Eric just to give the real uncle Eric a hard time! We went back the the Pearson's and watched a movie before we headed home. We had another Pearson get together Saturday evening of food and games. Today we spent the day at the Passman's for another gift exchange. Probably our most memorable gift is the painting from my parents made by a dear family friend. Jeff was the candle lighter in our wedding and is very special to us. Him and his family are absolutely amazing and inspire you to the good that they have done.

Max and Lilo's Wedding

I've been behind on my blogging! A couple of weeks ago our friends and neighbors got married at the Dolphin Art Studio. Liliana's family came in from Mexico and it was great to meet them. It was a small and intimate service because their ceremony will be in CANCUN this June! We are very hopeful that we will get to attend another destination wedding again this summer. Not bad, Dominican Republic last year and Cancun this year. Liliana of course looked beautiful and their smiles spoke a million words of how happy they were. It could not have been sweeter! They are a wonderful couple. We wish them both a very happy marriage and are so glad that they have become our friends!

In Sickness and in Health

Friday morning Russ had his wisdom teeth removed. He was pretty nervous because just about every person offered up their worst wisdom tooth horror story when he told them he was having his taken out. I stayed with him up till the last minute and then out to the waiting room I went. I couldn't believe that it took less than half an hour! We took some pics to document this little journey. He was funny and out of it when I got back to the recovery area. He kept asking me to take a picture of him. He sounded a bit like when you shove marshmellows in your mouth and try to say "chubby bunny." When we got home he informed me that he was not tired but preceded to nap for about the next 3 hours. I fed him water and chicken soup with a handy syringe they had given us. He tried to drink water and take ibprofen right away from a cup without success because he couldn't feel his tongue or lower lip. All and all he has done great! (way better than I did). We actually ventured out of the house for awhile last night and got our Christmas shopping done today. The couple of people that have seen us this weekend said they can't believe how good he looks for just having this done on Friday. What a trooper!

Getting into the Spirit

Thought I would post a couple of pictures of the outside of our house and our tree. I think the picture makes are tree look "frosty." It doesn't look that way at all. Oh well! Hope all of you are enjoying your holiday season!

A Photo Shoot

This year we spent Thanksgiving with my parents and decided to take Winston and his neighbor girlfriends down to the lake for a little photo shoot. I am thinking this is probably a similar situation trying to take pictures with little kids. In my mind I thought, "Oh it would be so cute to sit them on the bench and they will wear reindeer ears." Boy was I wrong! Winston just looked frightened and the girls would hop of the bench as soon as you sat them on it. Oh well! We still got a couple of good shots and had fun doing it. Thanks Polly and Anna for playing! What dog doesn't love a good walk!?

Jingle Bell Run

This last Saturday Team Tilley and Team Pearson raced to the finish line at the Jingle Bell run in Lee's Summit, MO. Ok, I'm kidding about the racing part of it! I was a little nervous about this run because Matt, Rebecca, and Russ all run. Not me! I surprised myself and everyone else by running the first 2 miles without stopping. My tricky sister kept telling me "Not yet" when I asked if we had run a mile yet. The last part I told Rebecca to keep going on without me and I ran/walked the rest of it. I finished in 36 minutes. Maybe this isn't impressive to those who run on a regular basis, but I was proud of myself. Russ and I are seriously hurting today! I feel like I am 90 years old! But, it was a good time and I think we will have to run in another race sometime soon.

Halloweenies

Connecticut was awesome. Our cousins Rachel and Jeremy are way into Halloween (especially Rachel) and they had decorated the entire house with ghoulishness. For dinner we ate eye of newt soup, flesh bites, bloody victim meatloaf, and coffin cake. Yum! There were cobwebs everywhere, creepy candles, skulls, and real bones just lying about. Even a fresh graveyard in the basement... very realistic.

It was a great turn-out too, almost everyone dressed up. Some guy dressed like a barbarian won best costume, and a dude who just threw on a cape won the worst costume award.

Very fun times. We just wish they lived closer! Come back to us R+J! Kansas City is your home!