december 29.adams family christmas

Tonight we had our last Christmas gathering - well actually we have one more in Jan (a 2nd Annual "Bad Sweater" Christmas Party hosted by Gary and Stacey - be sure to stay tuned for that one) but this was our final family oriented one for the season. I really thought everyone would be a little tired from all the other parties but much to my satisfaction the evening was quite eventful. I ABSOLUTELY LOVE watching Stephanie and Austin open their gifts - reminds me of the excitement I had as a child!! I never thought it would be more fun to watch a person open a gift than to be the one opening it all the way back then but it is SO MUCH BETTER to see the look on your niece's or nephew's face when you surprise them with something really good!!

The 2 kids looking pretty grown up - well, Stephanie at least.



We opted for pizza and bread sticks over the usual spread - Austin was satisfied!



Stephanie testing out her new MOON-SHOES!!

baby rammel.waiting, waiting, waiting

We are patiently waiting to hear word from Chuck and Mel when Baby Rammel is going to make his or her debut!! I really cannot imagine how Chuck is doing b/c patience is not necessarily one of his virtues. Quite honestly this pregnancy has flown by so fast, and so did Kim's with Clay for that matter. It seems like they told us they were pregnant and then BOOM - the babies are ready to be born!! It is very excited though and Sticky and I are just on pins and needles here!! Mel you have to take a picture of Chuck's face the first time that he holds the baby - or maybe have someone do it for you since you wil probably be a little busy/tired!! Good luck to you guys and call us anytime day or night when you have the news!!

Here is Mel in November. Is she not the most beautiful pregnant woman or what??



And it being Hoiday time of course there is always good news that we hear from friends and family. This year Sticky's cousin Katie was engaged on Christmas Night so CONGRATULATIONS to her and Travis. Wow, I believe that makes 4 of the Rammel cousins engaged right now, including Sticky who only has 8 weeks to go today!!!!! Well, if any of you guys need some local vendor advice please feel free to email or call me!!

Not as big of news but definitely note worthy is the recent Mini Cooper purchase by our friends Jordanne and Seth. Jordanne has always loved my car and I could not be more thrilled that she ended up with one of her own!! I cannot wait to see you driving that thing Jordanne!!

And then last but certainly not least I want to thank Kay, Emily, Molly and Jess for throwing a wonderful bridal shower for Miss Amanda at The Grill in New Bremen. It is so hard to put things together like this around the Holidays and I think that they did such a wonderful job. I could tell that Amanda appreciated it so much!! Before you know it you will be the one with 8 weeks left to go Amanda - time really does fly when you are engaged.

december 25.christmas day

YEAH - IT'S CHRISTMAS!! Sticky and I absolutely love this day - especially that warm feeling you have in the morning when you wake and think to yourself "wow, it's Christmas!" Stick and I had a great morning - we enjoyed our traditional Holiday Coffee and then opened a gift from one another. We headed over to the HUGE Rammel Family Christmas for lunch. We had a great time visiting with everyone, especially Ed and Amanda who live all the way out in Reno, NV - it is ALWAYS nice to see them when they make the trip home. Grandma Joan and all the ladies always have such a great spread there - per usual the spinach salad is my favorite. As for the traditional gift exchange I was lucky number 28 this year and scored some cool cleaning supplies (I know, does not sound like an awesome gift but I like cleaning supplies) and a retro drink tub. Stick landed a Lowe's gift card which I am sure he can find tons of things there to buy. After the Rammel's we headed over to the Baxter Family Christmas held at Granny and Wally's house. This one holds such a special place in my heart b/c so many of my early memories of Christmas are from this one and it is just so amazing to me that it is still held on the same night at the same house. Once again we enjoyed another TERRIFIC SPREAD (diet starts tomorrow!). And like just about every other year the gift exchange was full of laughter - it is always so much fun to pile in Gran's living room and open up presents!

Thank you to all for ANOTHER AMAZING CHRISTMAS!! Our families are both so dear to us and we could not feel more lucky to be able to share this time of year with both sides. We are lucky enough to have one more to go, the Adams Family Christmas on Friday. Can't wait for Stephanie and Austin to open up all those clothes we got them this year :-)

YUMMMMMMM............Holiday Coffee!



Some of the Baxter Family sporting their crowns from their crackers (notice Granny's OSU one):



Sticky and I in our crowns:



Brad received a "real nice" briefcase from Santa:



Me and Ash:

december 24th.christmas

Tonight Sticky and I opened a couple gifts on this uncommonly mild Christmas Eve night. We would like to wish everyone a VERY HAPPY AND SAFE HOLIDAY - no matter what it is that you celebrate this time of year we are all reminded of how GRAND life is and the people that we care about!! Thank you to all of our friends and family for making our Holiday special!

december 23.christmas at steve and sandi's

We had a grand time tonight for our annual Rammel Family Christmas! Sandi whipped one of the best meals ever and of course we scored some excellent gifts! Can't wait till next year when we will have a new addition courtesy of Chuck and Mel!

Clay in his barn constructed by Grandpa:



Maddie in her Santa hat:



Lexi trying out her pigtails:



Uncle Sticky hanging out with his nieces:



The Gang (minus Chuck and Mel):



Maddie loved the crowns from the crackers:



Lexi has had enough Christmas for now:

december 22.tree trimming

We ventured over to Kim and Randy's today for some great leftover food from the KAM Holiday Dinner and to help Kim finish up her tree. She has a few trees but the best one is the huge one in the living room that is covered with colorful glass ornaments. It looks magical when it is all done but it does take TONS of work!! Austin and Stephanie were there as well, I am going to have to say that Austin was a bit more helpful in the trimming department - I do not think that Santa will count that against Steph though :-)

december 21.sugar cookies

Stephanie and Austin came over tonight to help me out with some Holiday Sugar Cookies. There is always such controversy with these - soft or crispy cookie, almond or vanilla extract, thin or thick frosting...... regardless these are always good especially when your niece and nephew help you out!! Not to be ignored, Steve, Sandi and Lexi also stopped in to check out our Holiday decor. Sandi helped out quite a bit in the frosting department - Lexi will be able to soon I am sure!

december 20.holiday m&ms

Sticky and I divulge in M&Ms far more than we should and Holiday Season is no exception. And now the great folks over at Mars are more frequently distributing the Dark ones. YUMMY!!

december19.our christmas greeting

Yes, Sticky and I are complete dorks and we sent out a cheesy Holiday Greeting covered with pictures of each other that we took ourselves. This should not surprise anyone who knows us:-) Anyways, we had loads of fun doing this (especially the self portraits of the 2 of us together) and next year we are hoping to add the furry family. Enjoy!!

december 18.a christmas show

Tonight was Stephanie and Austin's annual Christmas Program at St Marys of the Assumption Elementary School. These are always just too hilarious to me - there is always one boy in every class who wants to MAKE SURE that EVERYBODY in the ENTIRE PLACE notices him and the one girl who cannot stop itchy that brand new Christmas dress that her parents just bought her. We had a great time and cannot wait to see what those kids have up their sleeves for next year.

december 17.wrapping night

Tonight we wrapped some of the Christmas gifts that we have purchased for our loved ones and really had a good time. Of course our playful kitty Cj had to get into the action by attacking the ribbon. Truly a Holiday tradition in our home.

december 16.wren light

Sticky and I made a little trip over to Wren (a speck on the map) to check out their Christmas lights. I think that Sticky was a little disappointed but I was pretty impressed considering that Wren is a one flashing light village. One thing that I will never forget about this trip is the BURNT GROSS NASTY COFFEE that we purchased from Burger King. We threw those out and bought two more from McDonalds which is pretty good considering that it is McDonalds.

december 15.elf link

IT IS AN ABSOLUTE MUST that you CHECK OUT this ELF LINK! ENJOY!!

CLICK HERE FOR A GREAT HOLIDAY TREAT!!!!!

december 14.archie and willis

Well today Archie came over to play with Willis and somehow they ended up with a Santa hat. It was just TOO FUNNY!! Those two running around around - one had the ball and the other had the fur. It kind of looks like a Santa massacre but it is still so CUTE!

december 13.favorite ornament

We have this tree in our dining room that is made up of all silver, white and clear ornaments. It is so pretty - kind of vintage and really sparkly!! Most of the decorations are the usual - balls, snowflakes, icicles, etc. But a few are somewhat cutsie and my absolute favorite are THESE SHOES!! Now if you know me than you know that I LOVE SHOES!! The hours spent on the Internet alone looking for the perfect wedding shoes was just ridiculous!! That is why I love this ornament so much - I cannot help but smile when I see these b/c hey remind me of wedding shoes and how before too long I will get to wear mine!! And if anyone needs a last minute gift idea for me I would love a pair of ornament shoes for our red and black tree!

december 12.junk mail

This is the time of year when opening up the mail is fun - you know, not the usual bills but all of the wonderful Holiday greetings that are sent your way from loved ones. We have received quite a few already (forgive us, we are still working on ours - it may turn into a New Year's card) but yesterday I knew we were in trouble when I saw no return address and a postmark from Jacksonville, FL. My Mother's cousin Kathi and her husband Gene have been such wonderful family members to keep in touch with. Kathi, however, is unfortunately a Gators fan and for those of you who do not know the Gators are playing our beloved BUCKEYES for the National Championship. So Kathi thought it would be really cute to send this junk mail to all of us Buckeyes fans:



Of course none of us know how the game is going to turn out on the 8th of January. We can however speculate and I have this message for Kathi and her Gators:



Thank you for the greeting Kathi and Gene (aren't you a Bulldog fan Gene??? - how dare you support another team) even though it is by far the ugliest one we have ever received!!

december 11.you're a good man charlie brown

Sticky and I watched this a week or so ago and I wanted to blog about it but forgot. This is by far our favorite Christmas tv special!! How can you not love this??!! Poor Chuck Brown gets beat down by everyone but still manages to save Christmas! Don't get me wrong, we also enjoy the Rodolph and Frosty specials but they just do not compare to Charlie Brown and the Gang.

december 10.holiday shoots

I typically do not shoot on Sundays but today was an exception for a couple of reasons. The first being that I asked my friend Jordanne if I could shoot a bridal of her and today seemed to work best for us and second being that my best friend Krista needed to have her family's Holiday portraits taken. I felt really tired by the end of the day but I had SO MUCH FUN!! Jordanne did an AWESOME job on her make up!! Her sister in law Saige came with her and we just had a blast shooting!! I cannot wait to go through all the images!! It was so crazy going from a fashion forward bridal to a family shoot but I kind of liked it!! We took all sorts of images in the Etzler home - Krista is INSANELY CREATIVE (and GORGEOUS OF COURSE) and her home always look absolutely beautiful. Here are just a couple from today!

december 9.stew

I was feeling bad for our other kitty b/c he had yet to be featured on our 25 Days of Christmas. He is not as frisky as Cj but the fact that I caught Stew sniffing the tree as opposed to just sleeping under it is pretty good. Actually both of the Kitty's have grown accustomed to under the tree sleeping - it's really cute!

december 8.sparkling tree

Just a couple of our tree. Still feeling a little under the weather - I apologize for the lack of creativity in the post. It is suppose to warm up a bit this weekend so hopefully I will be able to get some great holiday images! I hope tha everyone stayed warm today!!

december 7.let it snow

Hello Everyone! Today was the first "pretty" snowfall of the season! Call me crazy but I love it when I wake up and see a beautiful stream of snow falling down outside the windows!! I unfortunately did not manage to take a lot of pics b/c we were in Fort Wayne most of the day plus I have had one of those all day headaches - UGH! Regardless, Stick and I were leaving a store and could not resist snapping one in the beautiful snow! The other one is from Stick and Willie's evening walk - I love that it is sweet and creepy at the same time!

december 6.santa 2005

Since Stick and I ventured on this blog in February of this year we just missed out on blogging our Christmas 2005 memories. Well last year both the Rammel and Adams households were blessed by a visit from Santa. As you can see Santa was wearing his everyday suit on the 23rd which is when we celebrated Christmas over at Steve and Sandi's with the Rammel clan. And then on Christmas Eve he had his Christmas best on for the big night - he even curled his beard and everything! Both visits were grand and of course the kids just loved it. I will never forget Austin running over to the window looking desperately for the reindeer drawn sled flying away into the night - yet another reason to have a camera on me at all times not matter what!! Enjoy the pics!