Happy Holidays 2012

As usual, the Haydens enjoyed a busy holiday season full of gatherings with family and friends.  I have always felt like we were light on tradition, but as I wrote this I realized just how many holiday traditions we do enjoy each year.  We are certainly blessed as we head into 2013!

December 3 - Junior League Holiday Social at Piazza Del Pane.  Below is a pic of me with the rest of the 2013-2014 Board of Directors.  Next year I take on the role of Board secretary!  This was a fun little social designed for girl time, cocktails, and a "favorite things" gift exchange.  A great way to kick off the holiday season!

I'm in the back row, second from left, in red!

December 7 - PrideStaff Christmas Party at Fort Washington Country Club.  This is our favorite holiday party every year -- PrideStaff never disappoints!  Somehow I missed getting a picture of Chad and I together, but I got a few with the girls and PLENTY with our special entertainment: Elvis!  Local Elvis impersonator Jeremy Pierce has been a regular at the PrideStaff holiday parties for at least 10 years and he never gets old (literally and figuratively)!  He's also an old debate buddy of Chad's, so it's fun to say "We knew him when...."

Sarah & Dani. Love the dress she loaned
to me...and then GAVE to me!

Elvis in the house!

December 9 - Gingerbread Houses with "the cousins."  We are really enjoying this holiday tradition that we've graciously been included in!  Each year we get together with my aunt/uncle/cousins (and their spouses/kids) to decorate graham cracker "gingerbread" houses.  It's super fun despite the fact that our structural integrity and artistic flair are devolving as the years progress.  Year one we had the standout house, year two our roof collapsed, and year three I spent so much time working on a house that would stand up that we lost precious decorating time.  OH WELL!  Although next year I'm going to suggest that we all come with our houses pre-made, blank on the outside, so that we can concentrate on eating candy decorating them to the hilt.  Here's a pic of this year's masterpiece, omplete with half-marshmallow pseudo-snow tufts on the roof.

December 14 - PrideStaff RiskManagement Department Christmas Party at Nathan and Trish's.  Since our department has gotten so big in the past year, we thought it would be fun to have our very own Christmas party.  Nathan offered to host it at his place, so we made it into a potluck.  His wife, Trish, planned out some very fun games and prizes for us and when we finished "Christmas Pictionary" we were all sore from laughing so hard.  It was a really fun night and we came home with a super plush "sherpa" throw for our couch that matches our living room perfectly.

Clockwise from top left: Nathan, Danielle B., Danielle H. (Dani),
Beverly, Me, Shirley, Maribeth, Rachel.

December 21 - Forensics Christmas Potluck at Christiana's.  How do you know you're a fantastic teacher?  When your students still want to hang out with you over the holidays and/or long after they graduate!  This has turned out to be a new holiday tradition for us -- a get-together with all of the forensics students from class of 2011 (those who graduated and also those who were on the team with those who graduated). This year instead of going out to a restaurant we had a potluck and white elephant gift exchange at the home of one of Chad's favorites, Christiana.  She's a sophomore at Duke this year.  (This is a totally separate topic, but MAN these class of 2011 kids are SMART.)  We had a great time catching up on their latest college adventures and I brought home a Mr. Potato Head for Tess!

The group, minus a few who couldn't make it.

With Christiana ~ she captioned this photo "Two people I really
look up to." Aww! She's about as great as they come!

December 23 - Holiday Open House In Hollister.  We had a last-minute opportunity to spend the Sunday before Christmas with Chad's extended family (the Drydens) in Hollister.  We enjoyed great food and great company, got to hang out with some of our favorite cousins, and Tess got to see her great aunts/uncles and great grandpa.  (On the Dryden side of the family we are up to 6 great granddaughters and 2 great grandsons!)



Here's Great Grandpa ("Pop") with 5 of his 8 great grandchildren.



 December 24 - Christmas Eve Cookie Baking.  Holiday sugar cookie making/decorating is slowly becoming an annual tradition with my Mom (Grandma Melody), and this year we got together at my house along with her sister (my Aunt Debbie) and cousin Valerie.  Tess enjoyed eating the dough and playing around with all the supplies....at one point her hands and mouth were completely red from getting into the sprinkles!

Tess wearing her first little apron and helping
press out the shapes with the cookie cutters. 

December 25 - Christmas In Reedley.  Another Christmas tradition for us is spending Christmas morning in Reedley with the Unruh parents and Uncle Dick, Aunt Debbie, and cousin Valerie.  We typically open our stocking stuffers first (all individually wrapped!) and then have breakfast before opening gifts.  Each year Valerie makes a delicous "stuffed blueberry french toast casserole" with homemade blueberry syrup.  YUM!

All dressed up for Christmas Day.

A tired Christmas Tess enjoying one of her favorite gifts.

December 28 - Christmas With The Eastons.  Our dear friends Michael and Sara Easton were in town for the holidays, and they threw a fun little holiday get together that included a variety of mutual friends we've met over the many years we've known them.  Many guests were people we hadn't seen in years so we thoroughly enjoyed catching up.  We had a delicious dinner, played "tele-pictionary" (hilarious!) and took turns sharing about 2012 highlights and 2013 hopes.  I took my camera but was having too much fun and forgot to take pictures!

December 29 - Christmas Tea At American.  Cousin Valerie just returned from about 3 months in Germany, and a few weeks ago she mentioned she was having a tea party with some of her girlfriends.  I thought it would be fun to put on a tea party, too, so we decided to have one with our mothers and picked the Saturday after Christmas to do it.  The table was set with china and serveware that is full of family history and while we ate we talked about where each piece came from and why it was special.  On the menu: salad with a variety of flavored balsamic vinegars and olive oils, homemade yellow split pea soup, homemade cranberry scones, lemon curd and clotted cream, and Christmas tea from Germany.  Tess was with us and managed to make it through the meal without breaking anything, and ate almost an entire scone by herself!

Table set for beautiful Christmas Tea.

December 29 - Christmas With The Haydens.  Chad's brother, sister-in-law, and our nieces came down for the weekend so that we could celebrate Christmas with the parents on that side.  Although I couldn't make it to breakfast at Geoff and Toni's, we did share a meal with Chris, Kristi, Elise, and Everlee at Paul and Barbara's.  Whenever we do Christmas dinner at the Villescas home we spice it up with Mexican food!  This year was delicious taco salads.  Tess got to play with her cousins and open presents with them.  It was a fun night!

Tess in her Christmas outfit from Grandma V.

The little cousins having dinner together - so cute!

December 30 - Christmas With The Suiches. Our Fullerton family made a day trip up to Clovis to share a holiday meal with us and exchange presents.  Chad and I made a delicious pot roast, mashed potatoes, green beans and garlic bread for dinner and we had an assortment of holiday goodies for dessert.  We had a quiet day around the fireplace television and enjoyed each others' company. Thank goodness for low-key holiday events, because we were approaching burnout!

December 31 - New Year's Eve With Friends.  It's been several years since we went to an actual NYE party where we could cut loose and count down with other people.  This year we marked the occasion with some dear friends made through PrideStaff, whose daughter is also Tess's favorite babysitter.  We ended up staying night at their place (all three of us) and spending a relaxing New Year's morning recovering together.

Happy New Year from the Haydens!

January 1 - New Year's Day With The Unruhs.  Each year the extended Unruh family (all 30+ of us) gets together on New Year's Day to eat up the last of the holiday goodies and do a name-draw gift exchange.  We started doing this many, many years ago when we got too big to get together on Christmas Eve/Christmas day due to other family commitments.  It really works out well because it guarantees we all see each other and is a nice finale to the holiday season.  This year we got together at my Uncle Dave and Aunt Gloria's new home in Sunnyside, and every single family member was present (a rarity!).  We managed to get a group picture without too much trouble, but we're so big now that it's hard to get time with everyone in just a couple of hours.  Even so, it's a wonderful way to start the new year.

This is ALL OF US!  Wow.  Shocking we fit into one pic, and we didn't have to use the wide-angle lens!

Tess has a thing for hats...so cute!

Visiting Friends In AZ

This past weekend we packed up and headed for a warmer climate in Arizona.... or what we thought would be warmer, but was unusually chilly & windy! (Chilly for me is below 70 degrees.) The purpose of the trip was to visit 2 sets of very dear friends -- Michael & Sara in Tucson, and Jason & Stacy in Phoenix. We had a GREAT time with all, and packed a lot of fun stuff into 4 days. It really felt like a mini vacation, which was much-needed. In Tucson we relaxed and read, had coffee, wine tasted, the girls shopped (while the guys had cigars), and went for a wonderful desert hike. In Phoenix we girls shopped & got pedicures (while the guys watched Avatar), visited Cornerstone church, enjoyed plenty of time outdoors, and spent time doting on our new "nephew" -- he arrived in February. We feel blessed to have such genuine and hospitable friends to open their homes to us. Thanks to the Eastons and the Coyles for such fun and memorable times together!