My sister and I

Josh and I went home to Michigan this past weekend for a friend’s wedding and to visit with family since we aren’t going home this holiday season.  We had a great time even though it was a very quick trip, from Thursday night through Monday night.

While we were there my grandmother was asking what to do with some crab meat she had in the fridge.  I love crab, it’s one of my favorite foods that I rarely get to eat.  She wanted to make a dip from it to use as an appetizer when she and my grandfather make the trip to Newaygo this weekend.  I suggested this recipe from my Aunt Chris (I had a recipe wedding shower and use some religiously).   Here is the recipe:

Hot Crab Dip
7 1/2 oz of crabmean, frozen, or can or imitation.  (Much better with anything but imitation)
1 Tablespoon milk
8 Oz cream cheese
2 Teaspoon Worcester sauce
2 Tablespoon green onion


Combine Cream cheese with milk and Worcester sauce.  Drain crabmeat. Add to cream mixture along with green onions.  Put into small baking dish, back at 350 for 15-20 minutes or until heated through, serve with crackers.
This is for 1 serving of the dip; if you are serving more than 4 people then double the recipe.
I also often add sauteed garlic and onion, or I just throw it into the mixture when baking
You can also serve with chips or bread.  Very yummy and a party favorite!

Wedding Day!!
My only sister getting married was a pretty big deal and I was nearly as excited as I was on my wedding day for her! Everything had turned out perfectly, the dresses fit, the jewelry was a hit, all the family was happy and healthy and here, and it was a beautiful sunny summer Michigan day! We arrived at Headliners in the morning for our hair up-dos and wedding make-up. It was so great to hang out with my cousins and sisters friends for the experience, I don’t see my cousins very much, but we always seem to pick up where we left off and have a great time together. I can say that about lots of my cousins actually on both sides of my family; the Raineys and Mahers are definitely a great family to be a part of.
We all got beautified at the salon, watching and commenting on everyone’s up-dos while eating breakfast and drinking coffee. After the salon we drove to the church to get ready, I was excited and antsy waiting for the festivities to start, fortunately my cousin Amanda had the foresight to order a pizza delivery to the church so we were able to get a bite to eat.
My sister had asked all of the girls to wear navy blue shoes of their choosing for the wedding, and being a nature girl myself, I chose a simple wedge with medium sized heel so that I could walk and dance easily; however all of the other gals chose heels that were crazy tall and I looked tiny compared to everyone else. I tried on Leah’s shoes and it was pretty comical watching me walk in those heels, but the other gals rocked theirs.
The wedding started out to be a tear-fest but somehow lightened up and we all enjoyed the ceremony without too many tears. For me, this was due to the 4 year old flower girl and Cody’s cousin Almy who sat next to me. She chose me as her new “BFF” (best friend forever) and continued to crack me up with her nonstop fidgeting and talking during the ceremony. The comic relief allowed me to enjoy the ceremony rather than fighting the tears while trying not to cry 
After the ceremony the bride and groom rented a stretch hummer limo for the large bridal party stocked with beer and champagne for the 3 hour time difference after the wedding before the reception for photos. I had insisted Laura and Cody spend a good amount of money on a photographer they really liked so they could enjoy their wedding photos forever. After our wedding photo experience, I wanted her to learn from my mistakes. Their photographer Vince was incredibly nice and had a great eye for urban shots; I cannot wait to see how they turned out!
Once we got to the reception the realization that I had to give my maid of honor speech hit and I got really nervous, but after talking to Justin, the best man, and finding out that he was even more nervous than me, I calmed down and knew it would be O.K. Both Justin and I promised each other loud laughter during our speeches and wished each other luck as I went first. The speech came easily to me and I enjoyed sharing it with the families; Justin’s was even better and received a lot of laughter from the family and a little embarrassment from Cody, as it should be.

After dinner the real party began as the DJ started playing music and I tried to spend time with family even though I could have spent the entire evening on the dance floor. My favorite piece of the night was talking with my cousins who I rarely see, and dancing with my grandparents including with my grandpa to Cotton Eye Joe, a fast bluegrass song.
It seemed the evening ended all too soon, and we waited impatiently with a group of cousins and friends for a cab to the Hunt Club for a nightcap and some deers ears (potato skins). Unfortunately the kitchen was closed and I insisted Josh call a cab so that we could drive through Burger King for some grub to soak up all the beer I drank all night. Fortunately the cab came quickly and we drove through the drive through before being deposited at the Country Inn for the evening. I hear the party at the hunt club continued till 2pm, then on into the evening for the true partiers. I, however, was ready for bed. What a great night, I wish I could make it back for the next big family wedding in August.
My parents had planned a family party for the 4th of July the next day to enjoy the out of town visitors for another day. This was a great idea and we were able to visit with family in a relaxed setting. I had a great time talking to my cousin Jim and uncle Rob, who I didn’t get to talk with as much as I would have liked the day before. We enjoyed kayaking in the lake, and then taking the boat out onto the lake for fireworks with the newly married couple to watch their first 4th of July fireworks.
After many tearful goodbyes we packed up our suitcases for the next leg of our trip with Josh’s family and to start our weeklong camping trip across the country.

At the last minute we were able to get tickets HOME for Christmas!!! We were so glad to be able to go home, but it was a short whirlwind trip to visit all the family and friends we could!

To the left is our little Charlie Brown tree, but if you put enough ornaments on it, it looks alright. And we were obviously packing for the upcoming trip to Michigan on the 21st when this was taken.

We woke up early on the 21st for our trip to take the dogs to Heather and Mary’s houses and then drove to the airport to park. We actually made it to the airport early and had time to grab some breakfast before boarding the plane. Our flight was uneventful and we landed early in Detroit; we were not so lucky on the flight home.
We spent the remainder of the 21st and 22nd with Josh’s family. We were so happy that some of our friends went out of their way to visit us at Peggy’s house;Brian, Hosha and Erica. It was great to see everyone again, even thought we were just here in September for a visit.
Aleecia has grown even more and talks a lot more, she just turned 2. The rest of the nieces and nephews are getting big, some are teenagers, crazy! This makes us feel old. But Josh had a great time wrestling and playing with the kids, Josh is the biggest kid himself; we also went bowling at the persistence of Alex. That was a fun evening, it has been years since I last bowled, and I am just as bad as always. Josh beat all of us every game…argh the bragging he got to do.

The next morning we were up early to go to my parents house for the Maher Christmas. We arrived before 9am and helped my mom get things around (sort of) for the festivities later that evening. My good friend Robin and her two boys Gideon and Orien came to visit us, it has been over 2 years since I have seen her and I miss her so much!! My sister and Cody came around 3:30 and we sat around and talked with them until company started coming around 5. Laura didn’t know we were staying until the 26th, and she thought this was the only day she was going to see us, tee hee!
The Maher Christmas was lots of fun, as always! My cousins get older and it’s great to talk to them about their lives and accomplishments My cousin Amanda is talking about a backpacking trip through Europe and her brother Jim has a really awesome girlfriend Noc who I really enjoy talking to. Meghan, the closest cousin to me in age has two children Jenna and Kyson who are getting so big! Those two kiddos are hilarious; the last time we saw them was in 2007 when we were home and Kyson was an infant. And I am always impressed by my cousin Courtney who is a senior this year in high school considering going to school at WMU next year.

As always, the evening flew by and I barely got to talk to everyone for a few minutes. We said goodbye’s and went to bed to get up and do it all over again on the 24th, Christmas Eve. The best part of the Maher Christmas was hanging with my sister, she gave me her gift to me that night because she didn’t know that we were surprising her and staying through the 26th! So I was tickled the entire night we were going to surprise her.

We had breakfast at my parents house on the 24th and as always dad gave me a bunch of books to take with me, so I was stocked up for a few months. Mom made a great breakfast, we packed up and were on our way again.
Next we visited Steve’s house, who is Josh’s step-dad and his family Lori, DJ, and Kaylee. Kaylee had just been diagnosed with type 1 diabetes and she had spent a lot of time in Bronson hospital in November. It was good to see her looking happy and healthy! I always enjoy going to their house; both Steve and Lori always make us feel at home and are so glad to see us.
We were able to spend a few hours at the Brenke house before we left to go to Peggy’s for Christmas Eve, plus we wanted to stop at Josh’s cousin, Gina’s house on the way to Peg’s… whew!

When we lived in Michigan, we spent a lot of time hanging out with Josh’s cousin Gina and her husband Joe, but we haven’t been very good at keeping in touch with them while living in Colorado. Mostly because Josh and I both don’t often talk on the phone, and they didn’t have email. Now they are on facebook and we were able to reconnect with them. I was really glad to see them both and their daughter Kailey, who we only saw once as an infant. They now live in Hillsdale, in a cute house they inherited from Joe’s gramma. I think Kailey, Jenna and Aleecia would all be good friends, all three of those girls are very girlie and love princesses, dress up, shoes and all things girl

After a short visit with Joe and Gina we headed over to Josh’s mom’s house for their family Christmas, which is always celebrated on Christmas Eve. All of the Shawn Mason family was there, Josh and I, Miranda and Aleecia. There was a lot of Wii bowling, I wish I was as good at regular bowling as I am at Wii bowling . We got Peg a wireless print server for Christmas that Josh couldn’t get to work. Josh spent hours on it, and it never connected to the router. That was a bummer! She had to send it back.
The Shawn Mason family said their goodbye’s and all left early on Christmas Eve; we spent the rest of the evening with Aleecia, Miranda and Peggy playing Wii bowling. I am starting to like the Wii a bit, maybe someday we can get one.
On Christmas morning we had to get up early to drive to Kalamazoo to my sister’s house for the Bob Rainey family Christmas, then drive to Newaygo for the entire Rainey family Christmas. We said our tearful goodbye’s to Josh’s mom and got in the car for the drive.
My sister didn’t know that we were going to be at her house for Christmas, so it was really fun to surprise her!!! I love surprises! She was in the bathroom when we came into the house and when she opened the bathroom door and walked out she spotted Josh! yay! fun! It was great to have the whole family together on Christmas morning! Dad had tagged all of his gifts to mom with funny things like; To: Ma From: sled Jockey. It was pretty comical! She got lots of gifts from Rite Aid, haha! (they got a computer as their gift to each other).

After eating a yummy breakfast cooked by dad on Laura’s new griddle, we got back into the car for the 2 hour drive to Newaygo. We arrived first at the Doug Rainey family house and shortly after us everyone else came too!
My grandparents also didn’t know we were going to be here for Christmas and just before we walked in the door my sister did her best “shocked gramma” impression and it was spot on when Gramma walked in the door and saw Josh and I. The Rainey family is blessed with such wonderful roots, my grandparents are some of the most interesting & amazing people that I know and I love them so much! After everyone arrived the festivities started! Each time we are home with our family everything picks up where we left off and it feels like we see each other all the time, rather than just once per year. Again, we had great food, wine and conversation. My cousins are getting so big, and now there are two family dogs, Fred and Ella who celebrated Christmas with us. I love having dogs around, they make everything more fun! One of my favorite things about the Rainey Christmas’s is hanging out on the deck outside with my uncles and sister and talking. This is a great photo of Tim and Laura outside! —->
The next morning we woke up, had breakfast and packed up to head to the airport. Due to the festivities the night before, the next day was pretty brutal for me, then our flight was delayed and eventually after being de-iced during the blizzard, took off and landed just fine. We didn’t get home until 9pm after picking up two very excited dogs who were very glad to see us. It was such a great trip and we were so glad we made it home. Happy New Year! Here are a few more photos from the trip.

Since Josh and I moved to Colorado from Michigan in January 2003 we have never been able to make it home to Michigan for Thanksgiving. Because many of our friends don’t go to their respective “homes” either, we have come up with the tradition of “friends” Thanksgiving. Every year we celebrate the holiday at someone’s house and each bring a passing dish to serve for Thanksgiving dinner. It’s been my favorite traditions since moving to Colorado, and each year I appreciate my friends more and more. They are truly our *family* in Colorado and I am thankful for all of them.
This year there were 12 of us celebrating, including the first *baby* at Thanksgiving dinner, Jillian! You can see her crying in the photo above; I don’t know what Russell is doing to her as she is usually very happy. We spent much of the evening trading off holding Jillian and filling up the beer pitcher with the Golden City Nut Brown from the kegerator.

I was excited that this year with the addition of the downstairs in our house, we would be able to set up a table large enough for all of us to sit down to dinner together. But since we don’t have a large table, it was a series of small tables put together in our living room, and it turned out great! Each person in the group was able to bring a chair or table, tablecloth or napkin and we ended up with an eclectic mix of tables and chairs.
I credit Martha Stewart with the beautiful table decorations that are flowers in a glass filled with cranberries, very festive and colorful! I added the nuts myself

This year we had quite a feast with Jim doing the turkey which was very juicy and moist. We also had cheesy potatoes, green bean casserole, mashed sweet potatoes, homemade foccita bread, salad, avocado grapefruit salad, homemade stuffing, cranberry sauce and beats, pumpkin pie and mousse! I am sure I am missing something else good too
Jess took some great pics of the food.

No Friends Thanksgiving would be complete without a pack of dogs running around the house. This year there were 6 dogs, and the adult human to dog ratio was 1.8 to 1. The dogs enjoy the gatherings as much as we do, as they are all friends too! Heather was able to get a photo of all six of them together, it might top the human group photo.

It was such a wonderful day, beautiful and sunny Colorado with great friends and great food and I am thankful for each minute of it.