2006: The Year in Review

Highlights of the year 2006

• Matt turned 33!
• Calli slid down the hill in February, straight into a sign! First concussion!
• Our basement flooded during a bizarre thunder/wind/hail/snow storm. $6000 later - basement is dry and recarpeted (please God, don't repeat this)
• Annual Rau Cottage get-a-way for Papa Bob's Birthday and my 34th. Snowmobiling, sledding and all around winter fun!
• Calli lost her first tooth
• Brady turned 2!
• Tyler played baseball and Calli started her first year of t-ball
• Cheer camp and tennis camp
• Tyler turned 8!
• Dance Recital #2
• Camp Osto! Floated down the river, camped, new pump, 4th of July festivities!
• Annual Grand Haven vacation at the Upper 10! Sun, swimming, mini-golf, and memories.
• Rau Cottage Summer vacation - fished, swam on the island, tubed behind the pontoon, caught turtles
• Calli and Tyler took golf lessons at Elks
• Papa Dan had 2nd heart surgery at UofM
• Matt was "Tobacco Free" for one year! Hooray! Celebrated with trip to Cabelas.
• Lots of trips to Nannie's and Papa's house
• New School - Tyler started third grader, Calli started first
• Tyler moves to Bear in CubScouts, Calli started her 3rd year of dance
• Calli turned 6!
• Matt ran the 3rd Annual Marshall Run in memory of Trooper Kevin Marshall
• Papa Bob almost had a heart attack - new stents saved his pipes
• Halloween - Pirate, Witch and Indian
• Tyler started basketball
• Hunting, hunting, hunting - nice buck with the bow
• Griffin's Game
• Nana and Papa head to FL and came back for Christmas
• A wonderful Christmas!

What did I forget!?! What a wonderful year.

Happy New Year!

Wow, 2007! I can remember writing 1987 when I was an 8th grader, now here it is 20 years later. Strange thing is, I still feel like the same person I was in 8th grade, just a lot more tired and without the big hair.

2007 brings with it my 10 year anniversary. We're trying to plan a special vacation to celebrate. That makes my New Years Resolution easy to ID:

Eat better, excercise more, get in shape for the Mexican beach!

Happy New Year!

Christmas Day Recap

Christmas Day means SANTA! While I was not shy about waking my household at 5:30 am as a child, my children are much better behaved and awoke us at a reasonable 6:50 am. (Sadly, I was lying there awake since 6 resisting the temptation to go wake them myself!) We had so much fun seeing what Santa brought and opening the presents the kids carefully picked out
for us. Matt received an Eagles T-shirt from Tyler and a statue of an eagle on the American flag for his desk at work. Tyler picked out a necklace that spells "MOM" for me (think serious bling) and Calli chose a cute snowman figure for me.

Later in the day, we packed up and headed to BC for Christmas with Nannie, Papa, Gee Gee, Chris, Melissa, Katie, CJ, and Charlie. There we again had great food and too many presents to open. We certainly are blessed with wonderful families, traditions to pass on, and to celebrate with four generations of love!

Christmas Eve Recap

Christmas Eve was the usual get-together with the Osto/Hunter clan.
We eat, get ready for church, take some family photos (usually involving too many chiefs and not enough indians). Then we head to the 4 pm Catholic service to enjoy the jampacked Christmas eve chaos. This involves sending someone early to save a pew to seat 10, control our patience in the parking lot, keep track of Chooch, plan an escape route in case of fire, and all the while remember the Reason for the Season! Not being Catholic, this has become one of my favorite and most bewildering Christmas traditions, especially the part where we get to leave early! On a serious note, we had a great time with the kids, Mike and Kathy and Grandpa H. in addition to Nana, Papa, Mark, Missi, Riley, Hunter and us. Great food and better memories every year.

Christmas Memories

Waking up at 5:30 and shaking my brother awake yelling, "Santa Came, Santa Came!"

Mom saying she just needed a cup of tea first...

Dancerella Doll, Mandy and Jenny dolls, Cabbage Patch Dolls

Christmas at Yellowstone

New Skis

An antique clock from Tootie

The Rau cabin with my 5 cousins, where we all received new Carter's pajamas and a stocking with an orange in the toe, a deck of cards and some cash from Grandma. Galen is crying in every picture!

Chrismas eve candlelight services

Tinsel all over Gramma Nana's Tree

Laying under the decorated tree because it smelled good and made me happy

Decorating the tree with ornaments my kids have made

My mom's Christmas cookies

My dad putting on Christmas music before we could open presents

Telling my mom what my dad got her (she could always get me to tell)

The year I was the Robot in the Christmas play (yes, Robot!?!) and Dad helped me build a costume out of a cardboard box, a wastebasket for the head, dryer duct for the arms and he even put working lights on it that I could switch on and off!

Cutting down our own tree every year

Singing Christmas carols with my kids

Listening for Santa's sleigh bells and looking for Rudolph's red nose.

Chrismas Eve with Matt's family and going home on Christmas Day.

What are your favorite Christmas Memories?

O Christmas Tree!

We made our annual tree trek this weekend and found the perfect blue spruce in the "grand valley" area.





I have 8 other pictures of Matt that look exactly like this, one from each year we've cut our own.













Chooch enjoys some snow.















Putting the finishing touches on the tree...

December

Don't you just love December? All the Christmas and holiday hubbub, the first good snowfall of the year, decorating, finding the perfect tree....

We're in full swing at our house. House is all decorated, the lights are up outside, although they go out everytime I run the hairdryer! And we're heading out this weekend to cut down our tree - one of my all-time favorite holiday traditions. Lists have been made and presents ordered (no insane mall trips for me). Just need to get the tree up and decorated and make some Christmas cookies and then get to the good part - seeing our families and friends.

Remember your blessings and that you don't have to do it all (I'm telling this to myself too!)

Annie

On Wednesday before Thanksgiving, Calli and I had a girls' night out. We got all dressed up and headed downtown to a fancy dinner and then to see the play "Annie." As a kid I loved Annie so much. My friends and I would put on shows in our backyard (and charge admission) and one or two Annie songs were always featured. I played my Annie tape until it broke. To this day my brother says he still cannot stand Annie or Grease (sorry Chris). It was so much fun sharing my memories with Calli, who loves "Hardknock Life" as much as I did and still do!