~~ODNEAL FAMILY BLOG~~Port of Readlyn, Iowa

Hope everyone had a great Christmas and have a very Happy New Year!  I am so enjoying being off work for 10 days with Bruce.  We actually did spend yesterday afternoon (after a big breakfast with the boys) watching movies all day long.  We decided after the fact we should have traded off couches so we didn't feel "couch butt" on the same cheek.  If we would have moved around regularly we wouldn't have that.  We know now that if we are fortunate enough to get one of those days again this week we need to do that!  So anyway for the most part our Christmas was awesome.  All our kids and their significant others should feel like we gave them a great Christmas.  And I do know that most of them do for sure!  I know when I was their ages I didn't get anything near what they do.  Our family is both blessed and spoiled.  Most of us know that we are far too fortunate during the holidays!  I probably will not post again until the new...

So we had the O family Christmas last Saturday at the Ponderosa (aka Sharon & Bart's cool house) and had a wonderful prime rib prepared by Chef Bart. Everything was awesome as usual and I think noone went home hungry. If they did they didn't eat enough! Everyone had a good time and we got our "happy new year" cards done within about 3 minutes outside. Yep that is the way my boys like to do pictures. So anyone wondering where their Christmas card from us is (as we ALWAYS send one-hello photographer Sharon in the family!!!) it will be sent out next week before the New Year! Can't wait to see how many people weren't going to send us a card and then get ours and send a Christmas card afterwards. Yep good friend gauge for sure! So Bruce is already off after today until January 3rd and after tomorrow I am for the most part off until then too. I am going in a couple of times to check mail, emails, make sure V gets payroll done and pays bills, and just am on call...

This was the last regular Thursday for Grandma to pick up little Ava from daycare today. Here is just one picture I snapped of the big girl tonight. I will miss having her 2 afternoon/evenings per week, but man I cannot wait to get back to "my" schedule and going to Jazzercise 3 afternoons per week. Miss the class and all of my friends. So glad Ashley was able to finish her teaching certification and very proud of her! Now she starts her working full time and just maybe the PERFECT full time teaching job will show up for her so that she and Ava can enjoy the time off for holidays and summer together. Oh and maybe some little siblings for my favorite granddaughter! I think she will need a baby brother soon! No pressure or anything. Everyone have a great weekend. We have our O. family Christmas and I actually took the day off to get everything done and ready. Not used to having a baby anymore and sadly my stuff wasn't ready so I will be enjoying not having to wake up to th...

So my Chiefs coach got fired. Well at least I know that Bruce totally knew what he was talking about when he was yelling profanities and "Haley needs to be fired" at the TV on Sunday. I cannot even write all of the other words he was yelling at that 50" screen. Okay our Chiefs aren't doing so great and at one point we ended up leading our division this season. What happened? I don't know. But I think the biggest upset of the season will come this weekend when we kick the Packers ass. Yep I said it! This bad boy will be lit up in all his glory in my window once again and I will be Christmas shopping and not have to witness the ugliness if it turns out to be a very different outcome from what I above predicted. Hey one can always hope and have confidence, right? I always say how I never win anything and won an awesome giveaway on a blog I follow Friday so anything can happen. More on that when I get my loot! It is freakin' awesome. Have a great Wednesday and r...

Her Momma & Missy kept it from me that they were letting her have real snacky foods. So I've been hiding mine in the pantry from her Momma because it said they could have when they were having solid food. Well she isn't quite there yet but the girl likes to eat her baby jar food. So once I knew they were giving them to her I let her have her wafer things that I got and she LOVED them! Of course I tried them first to make sure they did disappear in the mouth like they claimed. I also wanted to make sure they didn't taste like crap. To me they tasted like communion wafers. But Ava liked them so much I am going to look for the vegetable flavored ones this weekend when I pick her up some more food. She was a good little girl tonight as usual but had about 35 minutes of screaming and yelling that Grandma couldn't help at all. She was pulling at her ears off and on and some baby tylenol seemed to make her feel better. And of course when her Momma got here to pick her up ...

Ava got a lot of love this past weekend as she always does and just had to share the fun pictures of her. She was a trooper putting up with her Momma and me baking each day until dark. Hope you have a great Wednesday. I have so much to get done around home just getting ready for the holidays that posts will probably be few and far between from now until the first of the year. My tree isn't even down from the attic although all of my baking is done. Do I do that backwards? Probably but oh well. My hubby still hasn't moved the dining room table and chairs for me so I really have no place to set the tree. Oh and he did deer hunt last Saturday, Sunday, and Monday so maybe he hasn't had time. I can deal with that. Well I woke up at 3 am Monday and couldn't fall back asleep so I think I will end this post. This chick is tired. Everyone have a good week and may you all get your shopping done without hurting anybody. My family is always grateful when I can do that as I am no...

This is what I did ALL WEEKEND. The guys go deer hunting the first weekend of December for first season shotgun and I bake and bake and bake. The best part was that I got to spend the days with with my DIL Ashley and granddaughter Ava. She will for sure be a good cook and baker by the time she doesn't want to hang out with Grandma in the kitchen anymore. However I am hoping that she never stops wanting to hang out there since that is my favorite place. So glad that I got all of my baking pretty much done and had a blast doing it. I will do a few more batches of stuff between now and Christmas but it is nice being able to share or send a plate with friends or relatives to enjoy! I didn't take enough pictures to do all of my work justice but you get the idea from these. Wish my deer hunters would have been as productive as me. They had a rough year unfortunately. Guess we won't be eating deer bacon every weekend next summer! Bummer. And our sausage is about gone I think. Oh w...

It is deer hunting season around our house and when coverall bibs and stuff gets layed out and tried on Gizmo decides to get comfy. She actually ended up crawling down the leg and checking it out. Yep she is a character. Enjoyed having Ava here Wednesday and Thursday but this Grandma is whooped and needs to hit the hay. Have my work Christmas party tomorrow night which we will make an early night since the deer hunters need to get up so early. And doing some of my fun Christmas baking on Saturday (possibly with Ashley and Ava!) so I'm looking forward to the weekend. Also looking forward to sleeping in a bit each day. And I'm hoping for some big deer to get shot by our group, but also will be praying that all hunters this weekend stay safe. I know my guys have their blazing orange ready! Everyone have a great weekend! Can't wait to share my baked goodies with family and friends! Gimme time in my kitchen cooking anything and I am a happy gal!