Christmas with Jonas...

It seems so hard to believe that my god boy Jonas is almost two. It is amazing how much fun it is being around kids. They say hilarious things and pretty much however it is they tell it. I am so blessed to be able to have such wonderful godchildren. For those who may not know Jonas is my best friends son. On Thursday, we did our annual gift exchange and boy was it fun. First, I was able to spend some time playing cars with Jonas. He was a little sleepy and I think maybe that is why he might have been a little more "clingy." It's not exactly the right word, but he would just come up and sit on my lap for no reason at all and say, "Aunt Dani play." How can you refuse such a cute child!

Jonas did a great job opening his gifts. It was so fun to watch the difference a year makes. He was able to pull the paper off all by himself. Next year Aunt Dani is going to try to remember not to be so tape happy, the poor boy.

The last time Jonas came over to Aunt Dani's house he loved playing with my small vacuum. It was the perfect Jonas sized vacuum. So naturally, I thought Jonas needed one of his own. Wow, I think I may buy him a vacuum every year. He was so excited, I could not get it out of the box soon enough. When Doug tried putting the batteries in for Jonas I realized next year I need to be more prepared. I think if I buy the kids toys that require batteries I might just take them out of the box and put the batteries in it before wrapping. These are all little tricks I assume you learn as a parent. I am learning slowly, but surely.

We were able to take a few snapshots of Jonas and me with his vacuum. Between takes though he was making sure the kitchen floor was immaculate. This is one of my favorite pictures. Doug (Jonas' dad) was in the background throwing stuff at himself to make Jonas laugh. In some of the other takes you can see me watery eyed from laughing so hard at Doug's antics.

Little man is so adorable. Up until he went to bed he was busy cleaning the floors. Not that there was anything to clean. His vacuum really picks up by the way. I think Sarah will be able to give Jonas a chore... vacuuming the house! Of course is it really a chore if you enjoy it... Hmmm. I will have to ponder that one. Just before Jonas' bed time he would vacuum a few spots and than turn and say "Dani, I lu you." Talk about melting your insides. The boy is going to be heart a breaker for sure.
After Jonas went to sleep Sarah and I had our own gift exchange where we watched "A Tanner Family Christmas" (Full House) between gifts. Let me tell you I got the best gifts! My friend knows me so well. Today, at work I am using my stress relieving dodge ball set. (Sarah - it is so fun). I just have to be careful not to throw the ball too hard, otherwise I have to go look for it as it bounces off my desk. I also got Some '80 story books that Jonas and Iris are of course going to have to sit through at some point. One of the most thoughtful gifts was the book, "The Dark Crystal." When we were younger my Nanna use to put it on for us. While the movie is a little scarier it holds great memories for me. Dad's family will get to see the sweater Jonas got me on the 23rd and my cute new barrettes. He did a great job picking it out and I can't wait to wear it. When Karie and I are in Florida I plan to read my knew book "Knit Together." I am so excited! Of course friends tree bark that she makes is delicious and I had half the can eaten on the drive home. He he. After the gift opening which was so fun since friend knows me so well, we went to the kitchen to make chocolate covered red vines. Mmmm. Bet you wish you were there - they were delicious. Unfortunately the clock struck midnight and our fun had to end. Why do all good fairy tales have a midnight clause or a similar plot stopper? Oh well, I had to go home to bed sometime. It really was so much fun. I can't wait until our next get together. Merry Christmas!

EMP Christmas Party

Well, it's been another great year at Electro-Matic. I will be celebrating my nine year anniversary in March. It seems impossible that I am almost a decade older than when I first began working for this company. We had a great time at the company Christmas lunch. Here are some of my table mates and co-workers. Adeeb was pretty funny. It was his mission to try every cocktail that Jeremy prescribed. (Dan, Dani, Damien & Adeeb)

Some of my table mates... (Damien, Sami, Joey and Dan). A side note here: Dan is also 50 % Maltese. We had a very Mediterranean themed table... minus Alan from China and Damien. Here are our big drinkers... (Jeremy, Andy and Adeeb). If you haven't noticed yet, yes I was the only gal at my table. I loved it. My peeps.Here are two more of my co-workers from the Warehouse. (Kris, Mike & Dani)Here is a photo of my boss, Steve, with Jeni and myself. We have the honor of assisting Steve in our respective buildings daily. I can honestly say that having a boss you respect and enjoy working for makes all the difference.
Here is a fun shot of Colleen (Steve's wife & my co-worker) and me having some laughs.
Last year the company hired a hypnotist that we all thought was pretty lame. This year however, we had a magician and he was pretty good. We enjoyed his antics and Witt. (Matt and the magician, Nathan the Great).

Thanksgiving

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving this year as usual. It was extra special because it was Iris' first Thanksgiving... to see photo's go to Karie's blog at http://azzo.blogspot.com/2007/11/thanksgiving-day.html

and also because it was the first Thanksgiving we have spent with Uncle Robert in several years. Thanks to an Angel, my mom truely believes it was the hand of God that brought Robert and the family back together. The gal that called and got the ball rolling is an unknown person to everyone involved. Therefore, mom believes "Jeanette" to be an Angel sent by God.

Here is a great picture of my mom and some of her siblings:

(from Left to Right: Christine, Robert, Bob, Janet and Paula).

Here is a family shot that includes my Grandparents. There are two siblings that were unable to make the trip for Thanksgiving this year. (Not pictured Karen and Art).
Here is a family tradition: We all gather around the dinner table and review the "Black Friday" sale ads. This was Robert's first Thanksgiving with us in over ten years.

It is great to see him in these photos.

Here is a great photo of Robert, Karie and myself. Uncle Robert is deaf and Karie and I were thrilled to be able to practice our sign language skills or lack there of. I have to admit there were a few occasions where I had tried to make up a sign for something. Thankfully, Uncle Robert showed me the correct signs. Here is a picture of my grand folks with Robert. I think it is so touching that my Grandpa was holding Robert's hand.
Grandma was a little more interested earlier in the day of getting her kisses from Wrecks and Tiki. (This one is Tiki).

Here are the boy cousins doing their thing. They were very well behaved and wanted to get their picture taken with Tiki as well. Well, technically they wanted to get their picture taken with Wrecks, but he wouldn't stay or come.

Of course tradition also states that we must watch the Lions vs. the Packers game too. We had Packers and Lions fans as usual. Makes for an interesting day.

Thankfully, there were no big disputes.

Some of us ate a little too much turkey and that sleepy enzyme/hormone took over.

Last, but not least... I was able to obtain a video confession. Aunt Janet if you are wondering why your pan lids may no longer fit your pans you may want to watch the following...

The Boyfriend - the musical

On Friday night, Amy and I went to see her brother, David, in a musical called the Boyfriend. I have not heard of this musical before, but it was quite funny. David did a great job. Here is a video of one of David's numbers. Beware at the end of this video the gal in it gets dropped from the lift. She ends up having to get stitches in her chin after the play that night. The play is a spoof on life in the twenties and the need for a boyfriend...

Here are a couple other pictures, just in case the video does not load properly. Here is David in one of the musical numbers (He is on the right side wearing a purple shirt).

Here is Amy and Rinka during the first intermission...

Here is Pastor Paul holding Rinka... She made it through Act I and Act II, but by Act III she was getting a little too sleepy.

Jennifer's Wedding

Here is a picture of Jennifer and her new husband Kevin. Congratulations, cousin!

Mom and Dad had a great time at the reception. I love this picture of my folks.

Jennifer's first cousins and my third cousins seemed to have a great time on the dance floor. These three were a riot. Okay, the whole Hoch clan was a crack-up.
This is a rare, but sweet picture of my grandpa and his brother.
And here they are with their wives. (Lee, Janna, Ted and Ruth)
Here is a lovely picture of my mom and her youngest sister Janet. They look so innocent, right. I guarantee they are plotting something hilarious.

I suppose the same could be said for me and my sister, Karie. We sisters sure do like to have some fun.

Our Kentucky Trip...

We recently went down to Kentucky for a leadership conference. Which by the way was phenomenal. I decided to photograph some of our trip, mostly car ride antics and the like... I hope you get a kick out of some of these shots.

These are some scenery pictures that I thought were kind of interesting, but wait when you head south you get some really interesting stuff. For example, what would prompt two young adults to ride in the back of a pick-up on a busy expressway at 70 miles per hour... I am not sure either, but here is the proof...

And of course just for fun we decided to take pictures of us on our adventure. Here is one of many pictures we took. Yes, we were using a flash at 9:30 at night. Not our brightest moment. We were sleep deprived from an exciting weekend of learning and this was the result.

Action shots of the M.A.G.O.

Here is a great shot of Dad Teeing off.
Dan did a great job - I was greatly impressed with his drives.
Well, I actually think we used this shot.

Here is a shot of Uncle Tony teeing off.Here is a great thing about playing a scramble. You have several eyes reading the lie of the ball. One of us has to have the right lie, right?

The Maltese American Golf Outing "Shots"

Well, I think these two yahoo's were having fun. If it weren't for Uncle Tony laughing in the car behind them you might actually think they were going really fast. Too funny!

Uncle Tony and I had fun too. As you can see there was no crazy antics aboard our cart.

Golfing with our Daddy

Karie and I were able to go golfing with dad not too long ago. Here is a picture of our fun day out... I thought I had grabbed a pair of running socks, but instead it appears I grabbed a pair of knee highs. Oh well some golfers do wear high socks, right?

M.A.G.O. Teams

The Maltese American Golf Outing... was a lot of fun. Thank you, Tony. I think there will be a bidding war to have Vince on our teams next year. Here are a few pictures of the teams. If I get a chance later I will update some more pictures to this site.















Just for the record our team may have finished third, but we sure did have a lot of fun. We also got a lot of exercise chasing down, or searching depending on how you view it, my golf balls. He he. I will get better for next year.















Thanks to Dad and Dan for carrying our team this year we only ended up +3 (I think). I thought that was pretty admirable.
















I certainly look forward to next years event.