A Couple of My Favorites

I think of Dad so often.....and even more so at the holidays. His passing left such a hole in my heart and in our family. We function; we have fun, but it's not the same...it never will be the same. We just do the best we can and try to appreciate what (and who) we have right now. 

These are a couple of my favorite pictures of Dad and me together. It reminds me of the happy, silly spark that lives in me and runs through my family. Any display of humor from Dad was actually rare and therefore so much more appreciated. He had his moments and we all loved them!

It Gets Better Every Year

The gathering at Marie and Tom's house for the annual Christmas eve party started out quite normal as you can see by this photo of Mom and some of the menfolk of the family. 

Everybody smiling and happy; taking pictures with their best friends...or anyone that happen to wander by.

But it wasn't long before the family trait started to show itself. We can only appear 'normal' for just so long. And if you find yourself looking a bit too closely or a bit too long....well, you never know what you'll see. 

Christopher (my nephew, the licker) did the family proud with this shot. Tess is nearly hysterical and David (the lickee) was clueless. We never told him why everyone was laughing. I thought it would be more fun for him to see the pictures the next day. 

Some of the guys decided to do a toast in Tyler's honor (he's a Marine and currently stationed in Okinawa) and David (Tyler's Dad) was finding that the shot was VERY heavy!

My sister's father in law was about to get a surprise from his girlfriend...he also knew nothing about what was going on behind him. There was a lot of that going on that night. (Big points to Lori! She's not even family and she's crazy!)

Then I tried to get a 'normal' shot of some of my siblings...but someone told them there is NO SANTA and this is the reaction they had to the news!!

We did manage to take an ALMOST normal shot.........

But honestly my family just can't hold normal for very long!!

And then I just HAD to get away from all the crazy!!