Katie and her fiance, Chris

Katie and Chris are on a trip to England for her to meet his parents for the first time. He is from a little town, Hartlepool, which is north of London. They are planning a July wedding. We are all excited to welcome Chris into our family and to be having a wedding in New York!

More of Adelyn

Make a Smilebox greeting

Make a Smilebox scrapbook

Getting to know each other

Christmas time

It has been a busy and fun week here in Birmingham. We started the week off at Bill and Jennifer`s new house for a cookie/dessert party on Monday night. It was an early Christmas get together for the McMahon side of the family. The house looked beautiful, the food was good but the company was the best! We all had a great time visiting and being with the two newest members of our family, Heston and Adelyn. They even had some bonding time with each other and the cousins. Tuesday night, Bill and his family came over to our house for dinner. Lindsey helped with the parfaits for dessert, just like Loisie use to make for the grandchildren . We enjoyed having them over so much. Wednesday night, Bill picked us up to go the candlelight service at Shades Mountain. His family, Jane, Tom, Lara, Brent and Rebecca, Tommy and Heston were all there. Heston sat in the back and had to get up a few times because of his new found way he likes to talk, loudly. We think it is cute but his Mom and Dad are trying to pipe it down a bit! It was a beautiful service.
Today was a great Christmas with everyone. We missed Billy and his family but we had already had our Christmas with them and we know they had a nice day at his house. We missed Kevin and Megan and Addy at Jane`s house for lunch but saw them later in the day at Anne`s house. Anne, believe it or not, was "COOKING" supper for them at her house tonight. Now, those of you who know Anne, know that she no longer cooks. She doesn`t enjoy any part of it, in fact, that is why she works, so she will not have to cook. (That is a direct quote from her?!!) But today, all bets were off and she was cooking for Kevin and his family. I`m sure it was good. We enjoyed having Katie home with us. She made it in yesterday , even going through Chicago with the bad weather. I was grateful to have all my family in town and together this week. Merry Christmas to all and Happy New Year!!! Gaga

Good memories from Richmond

As the year is coming to an end, I am reminded of good memories that happened during 2008. One of my most memorable ones is my trip to Richmond to visit with Meddie and her family. The girls drove me up there to visit for a few days and we had the best time, going down memory lane with the Pattersons. We go back a long way, they moved next door to us in 1964 and we all were best friends from the start. They moved to Richmond 6 short years later but when we are together, it is just like it was all those years ago. We are all a bit older but in our hearts, we are all still the same best friends that we were back then! Meddie celebrated her 90 th birthday this year and has 4 grandchildren and 5 great-grandchildren. We had a wonderful time. There were many other things that happened this year, 2 new great-grandchildren for me, Billy and his family moved closer to me in a beautiful new house, Katie got engaged, and best of all is the fact that all my family is here in town with me.. I am actually finished with most of my shopping and wrapping and that is a good feeling!

Have a good 1 1/2 weeks before Christmas. More later

lindsey

Add Glitter to Pictures

Heston`s first Christmas

Merry Early Christmas!!!!!!!! Heston seems to be enjoying his new hat!!

We are all looking forward to Christmas this year. It will be so special with two new babies!! Here is a little glimpse of Heston by the tree. I`ll add more of Addy when I get them. Have a great week! More later, Gaga

Glory to the Newborn King

She was as pretty from the back as she was from the front!!!

Last night we went to Briarwood to watch Lindsey perform in "Glory to the Newborn King". It was her first time since she has moved up to the older group of dancers. We all enjoyed the show. The costumes were beautiful and the sets, great. It is a first class show. Our favorite part was when the Ballet II group came on stage for their dance, which was Lindsey`s group. She did great. She had a beautiful white, flowing outfit on for the first number. Then the next outfit was white with red little flowers on it, and a full net skirt. Of course, I am her Grandmother, but if I do say so myself, she has a big future in ballet cause she was the best!

Papa even stayed awake during the whole show. Here are some pictures to share. Enjoy!!

Beach weekend

The girls gave me an early Christmas present and brought me to the beach for a few nights. We left Birmingham early Friday morning, stopped in Fairhope for a short walk around town, lunch at Sandra`s then on to Foley. We did some serious damage at the Foley outlets!! We had a good dinner at Cosmos then on to the condo to unpack. The parking lot was almost empty here. We didn`t have any trouble getting a close place to park by the door to unload our purchases and bags. It is really chilly here tonight. After getting ready for bed, we ate s`mores and watched, "Say yes to the dress". It is Anne`s new favorite show and she made us watch it. I dozed off several times during it and she woke me abruptly each time by yelling,"Gaga, wake up"!! It was finally over and they let me go to bed!! I slept good and didn`t get up until almost 8:45. We got ready and headed out to go for a quick bite to eat at McDonald`s before we returned to the Outlets. We went to a few more places there and returned to a few then on to lunch at our favorite pie/sandwich place. Imagine our disappointment when we got there and realized that they were closed for Saturday. No Sweety Pie lunch for us, which meant no piece of pie either! No problem, we went across the street to the Drug Store for sandwiches and soda fountains and my favorite part, $0.10 coffee!!

We came home to an afternoon of Alabama football, which we were very excited about but we couldn`t quite pull it off today. Oh well, we still had a great season. Now, Anne has been playing on the computer all afternoon on some stupid elf emails. She laughed so hard, I thought she was going to wet her pants!! Lindsey started the whole thing by sending us one of her and Reed. Anne just had to go and create one for every possibility of family members. Oh well, it kept her busy. I`m sure you can get a copy of one of her masterpieces if you really want to see it!!

We are late for dinner, so I will close for now. We are out the door for seafood and our last night out. A great big thanks to Tom and Zack for watching Papa for me so I could get away.

More later,

Love,

Gaga