Picture of Alison's Zone

Our Christmas party!

We invited some of our friends to our house for a fun Christmas party. We had a great time.  First we had dinner from around the world.  We had Puertorrican, Peruvian, Chilean, American and Venezuelan food. Then we read from the Bible the story of the Nativity while the children, dressed up as Mary and Joseph, the angel and the shepherds and the Three Wise Men, performed for us the Nativity. Then we had fun singing Karaoke and some even danced.  After that the kids enjoyed decorating sugar cookies. We had a blast!!

Traditional Puertorrican food, Pork, rice and beans

beans and sweet plantains

Guava pastries, pumpkin pie

pumpkin and apple pies. We also had Puertorrican flan (not shown)

Peruvian Papas a la huancaina (potatoes in a creamy peruvian sauce), Potato salad and pasta salad (Chile)

Sugar cookies, frosting and sprinkles for the kids to decorate

Venezuelan pan con carne a bread stuffed with meat and other good stuff

crackers, carrots and dip

My wonderful friends, from left to right, Lily (Chile), Meiling (Dominican Republic), Katty (Chile), Liliana (Chile), Myself (Puerto Rico), Carmen (Puerto Rico), Natty (standing) (Peru), Johanna (Venezuela), Aixa (Puerto Rico)

Brent reading from the Bible the story of  Jesus' birth and the kids doing the Nativity scene.

I was brave and played the piano.  I can play just fine by myself when no one is around so this is a big deal because when people are singing while I play I mess up a lot!!

Brent reading

Karaoke time

We had so much fun singing!

The kids decorating their cookies!

Yummy!

I don't like feeling sick!

I have not been feeling good lately.  A few weeks ago I started getting all itchy all over my body which eventually went away but then my mouth started feeling weird. It felt like it was swollen and super dry. I developed a strange red rash on the inside of my mouth at the roof in the back of my mouth. It hurt to eat so bad! I went to the doctor and they did not know, I went to my ENT and he did not know. It was the day before my trip to Washington so I could not do much about it other than just be careful what I ate so as to not make it worse and I also tried to drink more water to keep it moist.  I came back from my trip and the redness was getting better but my mouth still felt dry, like I am not making enough saliva.  I had my physical exam and had blood work done to rule out some possible stuff so I am just waiting to see why my mouth is so dry. I also noticed the joint on one of my fingers is swollen and it hurts.  I noticed it a while back when I went to knock on a door!  The doctor said I have arthritis, I am not happy about that.  I also have this stupid bump on the other finger and it just looks like a bone sticking out through my skin it is weird, it is the same finger that I sliced in the shower. Hummm I don't know but it hurts.  They said to watch it that it could be some foreign object, part of the sutures they used to sew my finger and its making its way out!! WHAT??? And on top of all this I am having an episode of my Menieres!!!! AAAAHHH I hate Menieres!!  I am so dizzy, with a horrible head pressure and headache!!!! It is hard to focus and get anything done!!!!

I don't normally complain on my blog, but GOSH What the heck is going on??? This stuff is just DANG weird!!!

Cub Scouts

Conner earned his Bear Badge! I can't believe he will be a Webelos!!!

Santa Claus

We love to go see Santa at Downtown Disney every year. They allow you to take your own pictures with your camera and the setting is so beautiful.

Christmas decorations

Christmas shopping at Lowes.

We decided to keep things simple this year. I have not been feeling too good lately with my Menieres and other issues.

The Christmas tree. Conner loves to help put up the tree. Parker did not want to, I guess he feels too old for that. 

We kept the lights simple outside.

The tree at night.

Very thankful today!!!!

Today was a crazy day!  I had gone to the doctor's for my annual physical exam and was there for a long time because they have a new system which was slowing things down.  I got home and was getting ready to go to my piano lessons when Parker came in from school and asked if I knew what was going on because there were so many police cars by his school when he got out.  I had no idea because I never have time to watch TV during the day. Well we found out that there had been a fight at the school during dismissal in the bus loop area.  Two students had a fight and one pulled out a gun and shot the other one sending him to the hospital.  It all happened while Parker was getting in his car to come home.  So he just drove home as the police rushed to the school.  Because he had left he was not at the school when they had the locked down mode.  All the students that were there had to stay until late in the day.  I am so thankful that Parker did not witness the shooting and that he was safe!!!