fuller family christmas and last weekend

here are the pictures of the fuller christmas eve party that i promised (better late than never is my motto):

 dennis took this picture, it is blurry because he didn't know you push the button down partway and then wait.  i guess he thought that by sheer brute force he could mash the button down, resulting in three blurry pictures.  he was panicked, thinking that the camera took bad pictures, but we reassured him it was just him.

 i tried to get pics of everyone but realize now that the only picture of jarret moulton is this little sliver of his face.  he must be camera shy.  i guess melissa is camera shy too because i can't find one picture of her even though she was the hostess of this feast.  where were you hiding melissa?

shannon is not camera shy, praise be.

and now for photos of the spaghetti dinner hosted by melanie:

 i think dennis got a hold of the camera again because here is another blurry picture of dominick.

 jared was puzzling over my ipad in this photo.

 glad we got a better shot of jarret.

 and melissa could run, but she couldn't hide this time.

 our only pic of the cook, she was moving so fast this was the best we could do.

i have other pictures but they are either so blurry as to be unrecognizable or truly unflattering and i am a merciful woman.  if only i had gotten some pics of grandma in the hospital, but i bet she's glad i didn't.

a funny story, as per request

 a.a. called me sometime in early december.  part way through our usual desultory conversation this exchange took place:

aa:  so, did you get that email from stacy?

me:  what email from stacy, i don't recall getting an email from stacy.

aa:  you know,  she wants us all to write our memories of someone so she can give them a memory book

       for christmas.

me:  nope, i didn't get that email yet.  who did she want us to write about?  

aa:  i can't remember.

me:  i wonder whose name they had for christmas.

aa:   i'll have to look at that email to see who we're supposed to write about.

me:   yeah, and then tell me.  i have john and rebecca, i'm trying to figure out what to get them for 

         christmas.  it's so hard, everybody has every thing.  a memory book is a good idea.  i wonder

         why stacy didn't email me.

         

aa:  uh... um...  uh oh.  

me:  what?  

aa:  uh, now that i think about it, i think it was you.

me:  me?

aa:  yeah, i'm pretty sure it was you... (laughing) hey, you're going to have to act surprised when you get

      this on christmas.

me:  yep. you're kind of a dope aa.  reminds me of me.

aa.  yep.  

so, here are just the first few pages of the book about which aa spilled the beans.  thanks for such a beautiful book.  i know whitney was a big help.  she told me she and banner sustained overuse injuries to their hands from punching all the holes.  thanks again, we really appreciate it.

  

this is just a picture of something i was inspired to make after seeing similar items online. 

 added bonus, another funny story:

at work yesterday i was on my way down the hall to take care of something when a lady in the dining room called to me and asked for help.  i asked her what she needed but she couldn't really think of anything.  this often happens at work.  people want something that they can't really explain or maybe they just want someone to stand there and talk to them.  anyway, i said, "hey, i'm on my way to take care of something, but i will tell an aide you want help as soon as i see one",  and turned to walk away.  as i did, i heard her say in a loud and disgusted voice, "well, that's just the LAST of the MOHICANS!"