Its been a crazy beginning and end to this Holiday season, needless to say it turned out to be a great holiday, It began by spending Thanksgiving with the Heinolds and then the Kennells which turned out to be a blast, I think that my favorite story during the Thanksgiving holiday was when we were all sitting around Grandma Kennells table playing apples to apples i believe while at the same time the Bears were on TV, Dustin the youngest of the kennell kids was the only one watching the Bears while the rest of us were in the kitchen playing apples to apples well needless to say Dustin got excited when well, pretty much on every play, so every couple minutes we heard noises from the other room including things like "fumble" or "touchdown" , at the sound of these words every Kennell kid, followed by Bryant and Lisa would run into the TV room to find out what happened. well after a few times it started to get kind of funny, and then grandma kennell brought out this amazing cheese spread along with crackers everyone was into the crackers, well then Dustin yelled "TOUCHDOWN" from the other room, and everyone went running, so Mike and I decided to get in on the action and we jumped around yelling and screaming. Well little to our knowledge did we know what had just happened in the kitchen, Rebekah and Dale decided to steal the crackers and cheese first by trying to eat them as fast as they could and then just piled them into their laps. All the while Betty laughing uncontrollably needless to say the whole situation was rather funny. Well after thanksgiving Mike and I bought our fake tree from the local wal-mart and gathered all of our hallmark ornaments and decorated for Christmas, we finished our classes for the semester and before we knew it, it was time to leave for the first of the family Christmases. Our First stop was the Great Heinolds on Christmas Eve- we enjoyed some great chili and then since we were rather late getting there and everyone had already opened their presents Mike and I opened the presents we brought for ourselves and to be funny since everyone was watching we switched gifts, so that I opened a pair of men’s dress shoes and Mike opened my shirts that I had got. Everyone laughed it was kind of funny. Christmas day we had two places to go, the first stop was grandma Kennells in the morning where we had a great meal followed by some great presents followed by a circle full of things we are thankful for, and the beginning of "Lester" When it was Rebekahs turn to share what she was thankful for Rebekah said "I'm thankful for laughter, and then grandma Kennell yelled out "Who's Lester?" which was followed by much laughter. we then headed to the Heinolds in Goodfield where we enjoyed a great meal along with some more wonderful presents and some interesting present s that were given to josh, I’m not sure but I’m guessing that he had an eventful year. As dec 26 approached we enjoyed Christmas at the Heinolds in lacon where Mike and Joel got Drills, along with remote control cars which they drove off the porch, and we all got beautiful green sleeping bags. Dec 27 James came into town!!!! but not till late so really we didn’t see him until the 28th which on the 28th we had the first family Christmas with me mike and James Annie Pete, and of course mom and dad and then Mike found the pickle, Dec 29th I turned 21!!!! Eleven of us enjoyed some great times at olive garden! Dec 30 we all went to church. Dec 31 James left and it snowed so we took a lot of pictures in the snow including the ones below where I have my new bangs. Also in these days we experienced some games including telephone Pictionary, king elephant, and the new famous the Christmas tree toss, which I think Mike won in the end, not too sure on that one. We also tackled making snow covered pine cones, (Fake snow, real pine cones from Colorado) Making white chocolate covered pretzels with blue sprinkles, and then stuffing the boxes, I do not think that we did ever find out who received the lump of coal we hid in one of the 225 boxes, that may be a mystery that will hang over the Cerf center for the many years to come. New year’s night was spent with Annie Pete Rebekah and Joel good times had by all.
TIME TO BREATH! ITS NOW 2008
Jan 1st we went to Rebekah and Joels for a Heinold, Zehr, Lamborn, and Kennell get together. Where we played some great games including King Elephant and I give Ryan Kennell the award for the best improved first time player and Josh Lamborn the award for worst hand and rhythm coordination, Jan 2 was a big day because Joe, Aaron, Lori, Owen and Olivia, along with Mr. and Mrs. Nelson(Pete's parents) all arrived on this day. Later that afternoon Nadine and I went to the store where she spent 83 dollars on peanut butter M&Ms, life savors, and peanut butter. Jan 3 was Christmas Time again, at least we didn’t have a repeat of last year when Uncle Joe was jumped on at 6:45am by owen saying “Uncle Joe wake up its Christmas Time!!! So we had another Chally Christmas which involved mainly gifts for Owen and Olivia. Owen got some cool stuff including Thomas and Olivia got some really cool American girl stuff along with her very own American girl doll named Kit then we headed over to Grandma and Grandpa challys house Aaron and Lori wrote this amazing play in honor of Grandma and all of her hard work putting on Christmas plays throughout the years. We gave her a certificate stating she had received a long time achievement for play writing and then we acted out a play about Christmas, Neil Diamond, and some gross green that Aaron actually tried to eat and almost threw up I think. Everyone laughed it was a great time. but us ladies had to leave somewhat early from Grandma and Grandpas because we had to get ready for annies personal shower. I won’t go into any details- all I will say is that we had a really great time! Jan 4 day before the wedding i remember being busy doing things and stuff. first picked out the flowers that she wanted us to carry for the wedding I gave her a hard time and told that we were going to be carrying tree branches because it was a lot of pine. well from all of the trees that we had stolen off the road (Christmas tree's that is stolen) and we cut them up and so the night of the rehearsal they brought us actual tree branches from the trees we had cut up to carry. My words indeed came back to haunt me. we carried real sticky pine that night. after the rehearsal we headed over to Washington where we had our rehearsal dinner we had chocolate candies that looked like rocks on the table that were really good, but they had to make an announcement that you were not supposed to eat the big rocks because they were real. When annieannie and Pete gave out gifts to everyone, I got a really cool mug (that i love) and owen got this really cool gun that makes noise. and a lot of people cried. after words we quickly tried to get out of there to head out the bachelor ette party. While all of us girls were having a great time talking and laughing i get a phone call and its joe, he says "Hey where are you ? we are coming, and don't tell the girls!" so i quickly give him directions to where i was and soon enough Pete came walking in which a paddle and a nurse outfit and on the back it said spank me I'm getting married tomorrow! well after a somewhat late and exciting night we got up the next morning and headed to the salon for hair make up and painted toes and fingernails. Before we knew it Annie had her dress on and was on her way to meet Pete. A little later we met at Mikas and then for a coffee break and some pictures. Right before the wedding started Annie and the girls sat waiting in the little nursery. Annie said her goodbyes to Zach Morris (from saved by the bell) and the rest was kind of a blur from there. We cried we laughed, and then Annie and Pete got married. Well we made it to the Cerf center I realized that i soon had to give a speech to my older now married sister. Being under presser and having about 200 people looking at you, i knew what i wanted to say and hopefully said the right thing. Although I did forget to raise my glass... sorry. well the dancing began, and I think I danced with Pete two or three times, I danced with my new father-in-law for the daddy daughter dance, then Owen my nephew wanted to have the next couple dances which was so much fun, although it was funny when my husband tried to bud in and Owen said no, so we danced some more! Aaron and I later danced and had a dance off with ray and mike; I think we won by far. Us chally's have some good moves. after we cleaned up and the newly weds headed out we came back to the chally house and engaged in a large game of telephone Pictionary, The next morning was an early and long morning, I packed up Nadine into my little car and we headed to the Chicago O hare airport she had a long day of traveling for her. Then after coming back home to Bourbonnais, Mike and I took Annie and Pete to their hotel in Chicago.
WOW so much info for just a couple weeks- to conclude what turned out to be a great holiday – Just wanted to extend a thanks out to all of our family, the Challys, Browns, Nelsons, Heinolds, Zehrs, Lamborns, Kennells, Kindreds for giving us a wonderful 2007 Christmas and a wonderful New year with a lot of love and memories. Have a great Start to the new year !!! 2008!!!!!