I can’t believe that I’m still settling down from the holidays, and here we are printing the February edition! We had a lot of fun traveling, seeing our families, and eating, but it’s nice to just be home and relax now.

For Thanksgiving, we went to Nebraska to see my husband, Josh’s, family. Then we headed to Kansas over the Christmas holiday to visit my family. So we’ve done a lot of driving over the last few months.

On Christmas Day, we went to my aunt and uncle’s home to celebrate with my mom’s side of the family. My mom has nine brothers and sisters, each of whom have families of their own with children. So there’s a huge group of us when we get together. Josh and I were running a little late, but we got there just in time for a huge Christmas dinner of turkey, ham, green bean casserole, and homemade creamed corn.

I had signed up to bring dessert, and I made an old standby of mine that travels well. It’s a Sopapilla Cheesecake that is great to take to potlucks because it can be served at room temperature. I think everyone was craving dessert because there was a whole table of them! We snacked all day and enjoyed some wine.

Playing games are a large part of our family gatherings, and this year was no different. The guys gathered around the dining room table to play cards. It’s usually poker, but this year Josh got pulled into a card game he had never played before. It’s called Dingbat, and it is a game I grew up playing. It is very similar to Spades. Josh said he wasn’t very good at it, but he sure had a lot of fun.

The ladies usually go in the den to play a board game, and this time someone brought a new game called Logo. We had fun shouting out the answers to questions about popular brands and logos that we as consumers see every day. I teamed up with one of my cousins, and we turned out to be real pros at this game. It certainly helped that we’re all savvy shoppers!

After being at my aunt and uncle’s house, we got in the car and drove further east in Kansas where we hung out for a couple of days with my dad’s side of the family. This group is not as big as my mom’s, but they are every bit as loud! We dug into some of the family recipes at the dinner table, including a German dish of hamburger meatballs wrapped in cabbage. Everything was delicious, and we came away stuffed.

All in all, we had an awesome time over the holidays, and we got to hang out with some aunts and uncles that I hadn’t seen in a couple of years. With our travels behind us for a while, Josh and I plan on settling in and taking it easy at home for the Valentine’s Day holiday coming up. Cooking a romantic Italian dinner together and opening a nice bottle of wine sounds pretty good to me. Happy Valentine’s Day everyone!

Special Notes

Join Revival Aesthetic Medicine for their grand opening on February 9th from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m., and take advantage of their terrific specials. For more information, check out their ad on page 13.

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Does your child need braces? Dr. Townsend with Chapel Hills Orthodontics, which uses state-of-the-art technology, is offering $250 off. See page 14.

Thinking about building your dream home? Check in with Barbara E. McGrath Custom Home Builder and prepare to be wowed. The ad is on page 22.

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Positive Thought of the Month

“I still find each day too short for all the thoughts
I want to think, all the walks I want to take, all the books
I want to read, and all the friends I want to see.”
—John Burroughs