Words cannot express today how thankful I am to the men & women who have served & are serving the United States.  A very special thank you also to those that gave their life for us.

On this Memorial Day, I’m also remembering the victims of the recent tornadoes.  My thoughts & prayers are with you!

Lindsey, Mom, Shelby, & I - 5/7/11

Happy Mother’s Day, Mom!

You are the best mother any child could ask for.  You are a great role model and help me more than I’ll ever be able to make up for.  I love you!

Love, Tara Ann

Each year, we spend Christmas Eve with my mom’s side of the family and then Christmas with my dad’s mom.  This year was no exception.

This year I was off work on Christmas Eve since Christmas was on Saturday.  That meant I got to go to my grandparents’ house early to hang out (and, this year, help cook).  This year we decided to have Mexican food.  My uncle made chicken enchiladas and I made beef.  Yum!  (I got one of Trisha Yearwood’s cookbooks for my birthday and decided to give her jalapeno bites a try too.  I’m still partial to the bacon wrapped cream cheese stuffed jalapenos but these did go over pretty well and were easy to fix.)

This year we decided to make sure we took lots of pictures of the family and make sure there were several with my grandmother & grandfather included.  I’m pretty sure we spent a good 30 minutes taking all of the pictures.  We even managed to get multiple pictures this year of some that practically refuse to have their picture taken.  Here are a few of my favorites.

Me, my younger sister Lindsey, Mom, & my youngest sister Shelby

Lindsey & her husband (my bro-in-law) Grayson

Me, my sisters, & my grandmother “Nana Pat”

Me, my sisters, & my grandfather “Papa Jay”

The Grandkids (minus Jeff, who lives in Scotland)

Nana & Papa Kissing under the Mistletoe – I’m just gonna say that I’m not sure I’ve ever witnessed my grandparents kissing.  Expect for the occasional adorable hand holding that we witness, they just aren’t into PDA.  Evidently, earlier in the day Christmas Eve before anyone was there to witness it, they did this.  Nana had him reenact in front of all of us.  It was hilarious but so adorable!  I’m glad I got the photo to remember it.

Shelby & Papa “Dancing” – We call this dancing.  It lasts only about a minute but Papa gets into it and, as you can see by the smile, has a blast.  It’s moments like this one that I so enjoy witnessing.

Unfortunately, we didn’t take a single photo Christmas Day.  It was a great day, though.  We also have the traditional Christmas dinner – turkey, ham, dressing, mashed potatoes & gravy, etc, etc.  Mom made a lemon pie this year, which was yummy!

I hope you each had a great Christmas holiday.  Thanksgiving & Christmas are the best times of the year for me.  It’s just a festive time and I love getting together with family and friends.

If you want to see all of the pictures we took on Christmas Eve, check out my Christmas photo album.

I hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving with your friends and family.

Today is Veteran’s Day here in the United States.  Spend today thanking veterans, active military members, and their family members for the freedoms and the life we have.

Thank you!

Shelby turned 18 on the 17th.  My youngest sister is actually 18.  That’s crazy!  We had a party for her at my parents’ house.  It included pizza they had delivered all the way from Gino’s East in Chicago.  Yummy!

Happy Birthday, Shelby!

Dad’s birthday was the 26th.  We went out to eat at Red Lobster to celebrate.  We had a great waitress.  She had several of the wait staff sing Happy Birthday to Dad.  He got a kick out of it.  After supper, we went back to my parents’ house and had cake.

Happy Birthday, Dad!

Day 2 – Sunday, July 4, 2010

Happy Birthday, America!

On Sunday, we decided to take a 90 minute boat tour down the Chicago River and onto Lake Michigan.  This would allow us to see the sights.  I don’t think we quite thought it through as thoroughly as we should have.  It was HOT in Chicago.  We started our boat tour around 11 and were on the top deck of a floating sun/heat magnet.  The heat was pretty unbearable for the beginning of the tour.  When we got out onto Lake Michigan, though, the wind picked up and it really felt good.  I did get a bit of a sunburn, though.

On to the tour…

The tour took us down the Chicago River.  The tour guide told us stories and pointed out buildings of interest.  It’s definitely a different perspective to see some of the buildings that way as opposed to on the street walking by.

To get out onto Lake Michigan from the river, you have to go through a lock.  It was interesting to see the lock system at work.  Lake Michigan is 2 feet taller than the Chicago River.  When the lock into the lake opened (after the lock into the river closed), water came rushing into the lock and we were able to watch the water level rise on the dock.  (Likewise, we could see the water level falling when we were leaving the lake.)

Lake Michigan was gorgeous.  It was like you were on an ocean because there was literally water as far as you could see.  It was a gorgeous color of blue.  Like I mentioned above, the wind really picked up (as did the waves) when we got out on the lake.  I would have loved to have been able to jump in the water for a swim.  The view of the Chicago skyline from the lake was awesome.

I definitely recommend a boat tour if you are in Chicago.

After the boat tour, we were all pretty hungry so we went to eat at Giordano’s Pizza.  We were all looking forward to eating some Chicago style pizza.  Giordana’s didn’t disappoint.  It is a stuffed pizza.  Basically, the layers are…crust, cheese (and lots of it), crust, topping (i.e. pepperoni), sauce.  The sauce was a marinara-style sauce, really tomatoee.  (Is tomatoee a word?  I might have just made that up.  I basically meant that it tasted mostly like tomatoes and not many spices.)

Here is a link to the photo album from my trip to Chicago.

Happy Birthday, Lindsey!

I hope you are having a wonderful time in Washington DC this week.

Happy Father’s Day, Daddy!  I love you!

(The photo above was taken in January 1981.  I’m not sure that I was even a month old at the time.)

This was the view out the front door of my house on Christmas morning.  While I remember a couple of Christmases where it snowed a little bit, I don’t remember actually waking up to a blanket of snow.  It was a gorgeous sight!  I was glad that everyone was coming to my house Christmas, though, because there would be no way I would drive myself anywhere in this!

As mentioned, my immediate family and my dad’s mom came over for Christmas dinner and gift exchanging.  Having a house to host dinners in is something new for this holiday season so I was excited to have everyone over.  I got some great gifts for Christmas.  My dad built me a dining room table that seats 8 with a bench that seats 3.

How were each of your Christmases?