Life in general

Well geesh I just realized I haven't written since June and I have a lot to tell and some sad news too.

I am now the Warden for the Rebekah Assembly of Virginia which is the ladies lodge of the Odd Fellows to find out more go to http://www.ioof.org . Warden is like a Jr. Vice President and part of my job is to visit lodges in the state of VA and share with the members the different programs that the Odd Fellows and Rebekahs support. I will serve next year as Vice President and then as President.

I am no longer Convention Chair for Rising Star but am still serving as an advisor to the ConChair and as Dealers Chair. I am also Dealers Chair for Technicon 26. You can find out more about these at http://www.rising-star.org and http://www.technicon.org.

The week of Thanksgiving was a very stressful and sad week for my family and friends, my mother in law had open heart surgery the Monday of Thanksgiving week, one friend lost his grandmother and another friend lost his mother in law. My mother in law is home and doing great and will make this a great Christmas.

I have been spending lots of time with family and friends celebrating Christmas the past couple of weeks. My husband's family celebrates on the first Saturday of December with a pot luck dinner that is enough to feed a small army and a gift exchange, then the Monday following I celebrated with my International Association of Administrative Professionals chapter, we had good food and did a gift exchange. On that Wednesday the office had a luncheon and that night the Campus Scouts had a supper.

Then on Saturday December 13th my hubby, son and I went to WV to celebrate with friends from our StarFleet chapter where we have lots of good food and exchange gifts and one of the fun things we do is a dollar exchange where everyone who wants to join in the fun brings a dollar gift and we put our names in a pot and someone draws out two names and those two people exchange their gifts, I enjoy going and picking out the little dart guns or something that you can shoot or spin or drive. Sadly on the Sunday after this event one of our friends from this group passed away and will be missed by us all.

This Saturday is my family Christmas at my mom's home and I can't wait to see all the family, 25+ people will invade my mom and her hubby's home (she remarried) where we will get to spend wonderful time together, eat good food and play dirty Santa, you put the packages in the middle of the floor and then everyone draws a number, the person with the number 1 goes first and opens a gift of choice then the person with number 2 can take the opened gift or open another if person number 2 takes the first person's gift then the first person gets to open another gift and then the person with number 3 can take person number two's or one's gift then that person can take the other person's gift (3 takes 1's and then 1 can take 2's) or 3 can open another but a gift can only be stolen 3 times and this can get right down funny and is lots of fun after the last person has gone the person with the number 1 can keep their gift or trade with someone else. There are 6 children (2 teens, 2 almost teens, 3 yr old and a 2 yr old) which most of us buy for since the game is really for the adults.

My son who is 14 yrs old has only asked for video games this year and some accessories for his video camera maybe getting an electric guitar and maybe if I can find an affordable Ipod one of those as well, he is very deserving of this items as he has been a big help to his grandmother (my mother in law) and granddad not to mention he has been a big help to me as well. My hubby deserves a good Christmas too and I hope to make it so.

Wishing all a very Merry Christmas and a very Happy New Year. May you be safe as you travel and may your time with family and friends be great.