I Will Honour Christmas In My Heart

I will honour Christmas in my heart,
and try to keep it all the year.
I will live in the Past, the Present, and the Future.
The Spirits of all Three shall strive within me.
I will not shut out the lessons that they teach!

~ Charles Dickens, A Christmas Carol

Friday, January 4, 2019

Looking Back on the 2018 Holiday Season

 Welcome to my Christmas Blog, A Debbie-Dabble Christmas!!

Well, the 2018 Holiday Season is now over and it has been put in the books........

Now I know that many of you take offense by the phrase Holiday Season and not Christmas Season......

For our family, The Holiday Season is not just Christmas.........

The 2018 Holidays Season for us started on November 18th, when Joe and I continued our Christmas Tradition of seeing Trans Siberian Orchestra in concert at the Mohegan Sun Arena at Casey Plaza, 5 minutes from our home!!!!
We had the privilege of enjoying the show this year with my nephew John, his wife Renae and our Great Nieces Cortney, Caitlin and Carly!!!
It was the first time they had ever seen the show!!!
We then celebrated Thanksgiving with our family of 5.........
Enjoying a turkey that our oldest son, Joey, won in  raffle at work......
Next, on November 28th, our youngest son, Jim, and his long time Love of 10 years, Danielle, got married in a simple but lovely ceremony......
We had a simple dinner at home to celebrate.......
Joe made lobster and we also had shrimp, scallops and chicken tenders........
It was quite a few months for these 2........All I am at Liberty to say is that Danielle was very lucky when she bought a Pa Lottery scratch off ticket winning a significant amount of money!!

On December 5th, Joe and our oldest son Joe, attended a concert at the F.M. Kirby Center in Wilkes Barre...
Ghost is the band that they saw which is a Grammy winning Swedish Heavy Metal band!!!
Joe will always be a Rocker!!!
They had a great time!!!

On December 7th, we celebrated our son Jim's 35th Birthday and I forgot to take pictures!!!!!

On December 16th, Joe had the pleasure of going to a Wilkes Barre Scranton Penguins Hockey game ( we have Season tickets) with our nephew John and his family!!!
Even though they were fans of the opposing team!!!!
This is little Carly!!
Joe even had his picture taken with Santa and Mrs. Claus.......
We then celebrated with a family Holiday party with my nieces and nephews!!!!

I am never good at remembering to take photos at a party!!!
Joe, my nieces Lisa, Renae, Heather and my Great nieces Caitlin and Carly on the other side of the table.....

Caitlin and Carly......
Danielle and Jim......
Joey, our oldest son, my nephew Dan and my Great niece Cortney......
Caitlin, my great niece, by my Craft Room Tree......
My nephew John.......
We also had some new friends and wonderful old friends visit........

We had a little luncheon for, what I call, our St. Maria Goretti Friends!!!!

These are the friends we made through our church who were always there to lend a helping hand when Joe and I ran our Church's Flea Market and Craft Fair......

Barb and I.......
Barb and Mary.....
Me and Carol......
Mary and Carol......
Mary, Carol, Patty and me.....
Carol, Mary, me, Patty and Barb.....
Carol, Mary, me and Patty.....
Me and Carol......
Joe coming home with pizza for all to enjoy!!
All of these photos were taken by our friend, Barb!!!
On December 22, I had the pleasure of checking something off my Christmas Bucket List!!!

As a Mom of 2 sons, I have never seen a production of The Nutcracker.........

Joe and I were thrilled to attend the production of the Nutcracker put on by The Conservatory of Dance, which my Great Niece Caitlin is a student of ballet......

Caitlin is in front of the Tree......
Caitlin is on the left.....
Caitlin is on the right!
 We were so proud of Caitlin and what an honor to see The Nutcracker for the first time with her performing in it!!!!!

I would have never been able to do that at the age of 13 years old!!!!

We then celebrated Christmas Eve at home with a semi-Traditional Polish Holy Supper......

Pierogies, shrimp, scallops, whole potatoes and mushrooms......
The non-traditional is chicken fingers as my oldest son does not like fish and Holy Supper is supposed to be a meatless meal......

On Christmas Day, I woke up with a fever of 102 and feeling like crap but I could not let my family down so I still managed to make kielbasi, ham and a 10 pound turkey breast of Christmas dinner along with sausage stuffing and mashed potatoes.....

Again, I forgot to take photos even though I did feel a bit better as the day went on......

Here is everyone having fun scratching off Lottery tickets that Santa gifted to everyone!!
Joe won $50, Joe won $23, Danielle won $10 and I won $3 and Jim won $2!!!
I ended up being sick for almost 2weeks after Christmas with a fever of 102 for 5-6 days and then the diarrhea started and that has lasted for 5-6 days causing me to be seen at an Urgent Care Center!!!

My son Jim was also sick with a fever of 102!!

Unfortunately, I was forced to cancel a visit with my good friend Anne Marie and also our traditional New Year's Eve and New Year's Day family dinners.......

We did manage to celebrate my oldest son Joe's 37th Birthday a few days after his actual Birthday!

I am finally feeling better and will be returning to work this weekend.

So up until the time when I got sick, we had had quite a great Holiday Season.....

Next week, I will start to take down my Christmas decorations and start to decorate for Winter and Valentine's Day.....

I am now posting back over on my regular Blog, Debbie-Dabble Blog...

Click HERE if you missed my post on My One Little Word for 2019 and find out why 2018 became the year of "Unexpected Occurrences"......
I wasn't able to even get out to do any Christmas Clearance shopping this year so I really will not have anything else to post on this blog for quite some time....

So I hope you will visit me over on my regular Blog, Debbie-Dabble Blog!!!


And thanks to those who took the time out of their busy day to spend a little bit of time with me!!

If you do not have a blog, PLEASE  give me some way to reply to your comment, maybe by including your email in your comment.  If I can not find a way to reach you, I will reply on the post where you commented so please check back......

However, if you are a vendor and insist upon leaving a comment with a link back to a website, You have forced me to now moderate ALL comments so do NOT even try it!

Hugs,
Debbie
  I am linking up to these parties:

 SATURDAY
 Saturday Sparks
 Pink Saturday-Anything Goes!!
Best of the Weekend Party

SUNDAY
Snickerdoodle Sunday
 Sundays at Home
 Silver Pennies Sunday
 Happiness is Homemade Linky Party
Nifty Thrifty Sunday
The Fabulous Party

 MONDAY 
Inspire Me Monday
Inspiration Mondays
 Dishing It and Digging It Link Party
Busy Monday
What'd You Do This Weekend?
Cooking and Crafting with J & J
Metamorphosis Monday
Project Inspired Weekly Link Party
 Celebrate Your Story Monday Night Link Party! 
Make It Pretty Monday

 TUESDAY
 Tuesdays At Our Home
Inspire Me Tuesdays

Ducks in a Row Wonderful Wednesdays Blog Hop
Sizzle into Summer Party
Talk of the Town Party
Party in Your PJ's
Dream Create Inspire Link
 Waste Not Wednesday
Style Showcase

THURSDAY
Vintage Charm
Home and Garden Party Thursday
 Share Your Style Thursday Link Up Party
  Inspired Creations Linky Party
Thursday Favorite Things Blog Hop 
 Grace at Home Party

FRIDAY
Home Sweet Home Friday
Friday Features Linky Party
  Feathered Nest Friday
 Funtastic Friday
 Friday Favorites
 Home Matters Linky Party
   Flaunt It Fridays
  Sweet Inspirations Link Party

Please take some time to visit these terrific hosts and all those joining in on the fun!
Related Posts with Thumbnails