Happy New Year!

Wait, it's February?!?  It seems like this year is already off to a quick start since Valentine's Day is next week.  Where does the time go???

I realized the other day I never did a post on our Christmas and New Years festivities.  And we had plenty of festivity!

This year for Christmas we went to Bristol to spend the holiday with Chris' family.  We are so blessed that we were able to spend Christmas with both families since my Mom came to Bristol for Christmas too.

After Christmas we came back home and two days later went to Lynchburg for New Year's.  This was a special time because my brother and his family were there for New Year's.  We hadn't seen them since they moved to California the year before!

We had so much fun with both families over the holidays.  Here's some of what happened in pictures.

Marty enjoyed hogging the couch and sniffing the ornaments on the tree.

There was a candlelight service on Christmas Eve.

There were nerf gun wars with Charlies Angels Uncle Ike's Angels.

There was sushi being eaten for the first time.  And with the Royal Order of the Baby Octopus club.

Dancing and wearing silly New Year's Eve tiaras.

Slumber parties in Aunt Suzy & Uncle Ike's room with disco lights.

And lots of silliness all around!

Can you tell we had a good time.  It was great to be with family over the holidays. 

I Would Walk 500 Miles

Do you remember that song from the 80's, I would walk 500 miles and I would walk 500 more, just to be the man who walked 1000 miles to fall down at your door?

Well Chris and I drove 500 miles, actually 555, this past weekend in about 34 hours. Why did we do that? Well we didn't fall down at someones door, thank goodness.  Although we felt like falling down at our door when we got home. We drove so many miles between Sunday afternoon and Monday night for Ike's Great Aunt Mary. She passed away late Friday night at the age of 97.

Aunt Marty was spunky. Actually spunky would be an understatement for her! She was amazing. She lived alone, still drove her car and drove it well, and everyone who ever met her called her Aunt Mary. She was the last one his Grandmother's generation. She outlived all of her sisters, her husband and her brother-in-laws. We laughed because we knew she wanted to be the last one so she could be sure all of their wishes were followed after they died.

Aunt Mary lived an amazing life. Her father died when she was 18 so she took care of all of her younger siblings and made sure they received a good education, (many of them had a better education than she did), were able to be on their own as an adult, and she continued to look after them her whole life.

She was mostly healthy until the last 10 days or so. She went into the hospital with congestive heart failure. After a day or so of receiving meds and feeling better she insisted on going home. So she did. Ike's Mom was like a daughter to her. She took Aunt Mary to her doctor appointments, took her out to dinner, had shopping dates, took her dinner every night, and made sure she stayed out of trouble. Last Friday my MIL and FIL went to Aunt Mary's house to take her dinner. My MIL had just seen her earlier in the afternoon and she was fine. When they went that night, Aunt Mary had died. It was quick, and the paramedics felt she didn't suffer. We are grateful for that.

Everyone who met Aunt Mary had an "Aunt Mary" story. We have plenty of them ourselves. But even after she passed away, she still had stories to be made. Most of them were in her last wishes. Before she died, Aunt Mary put the clothes she wanted to be buried in, in a box with instructions. She told everyone where it was so they would be sure to follow her wishes. She told my MIL that she didn't like wearing a bra when she was alive, and she sure didn't want to be in one when she was dead and they better not put one on her when she went in the casket!

Aunt Mary chose to be buried in a satin nightgown, a matching pink robe, her knee high pantyhose, and her slippers. We loved it! It was so HER! She had instructed the minister who would be doing her funeral a few months ago that she did not want an open casket when the family received friends. She felt that was crass and people look over at you and say things like "she looks so pretty." Aunt Mary told him that was all lies! How can you look pretty.....you're dead! Aunt Mary also to the minister that she only wanted a graveside service and it better not be longer than 10 or 15 minutes. And he better not try preaching her into heaven, because she would already be there! I have so many other stories about her.

The instructions she put in her safe for after she died, the people she did and did not want included in her obituary (yes she specifically wanted some family members left out), and leaving specific notes for her family. But the thing that was said most about Aunt Mary was that she lived her life to the fullest. She enjoyed every moment she was given. She reached out to others.

She left a legacy by touching everyone she came into contact with. I can only hope to live half the life Aunt Mary did in her 97 years. And if I only had half, that would be a pretty full life if you ask me.

Rest in peace Aunt Mary. We promise to never forget you. How could we? There are so many stories of your antics and love for others.

Merry Christmas!!

Welcome to another Icenhour Christmas newsletter!

This year has been one where we've packed our suitcases, traveled a lot, and even used our passports!

In January Chris went to Ecuador for his job with The Gideons.  We had several posts about it on here.  If you would like to go back and re-read them click here and it will take you to them all.  Here are some pictures to give you a feel of the trip.

He had a great time, even if it did mean a lot of long days.  But there was a lot of good food...especially fresh fruit and veggies!  The local Gideons there tried to convince him to stay and not come home.  He said was a little tempted, but declined.  When he got back he told me he wanted us to go back sometime because he left a piece of his heart with the people of Ecuador.

The spring and summer kept us busy too.  We had adventures with friends in Gatlinburg, Susan had a girls weekend with friends in Charleston, and we had lots of adventures around Nashville.

Chris stays busy with his work at The Gideons.  Last May he started having severe migraines on a daily basis.  Unfortunately he hasn't gotten completely rid of them, but they have gotten better.  He has been seeing the top neuroscientist in Nashville and has found acupuncture to be a big help.  He likes to joke around about being a human pincushion.

Susan keeps busy at work for the Bishop with the United Methodist Church.  This year she got a new boss, so it's kept her on her toes at the office.  She still spends lots of her free time knitting!  If you're facebook friends with her, then you'll see some of the pictures of her work.

Marty keeps up to his middle name of "mischief."  That dog is crazy and he has some of the craziest ears ever.  We can totally read his mind with his ears.  Laid back means happy.  Straight up means trouble.  One up and one down means you better look out, he's gonna pounce on you!  Here are some of our favorite pictures of him from the past year.  I can't believe we've had him for almost six years now.

This fall we went to our youngest Italian sister, Sara's wedding....in Italy!  We were so blessed to go with Chris' parents and be with our Italian "family" again.  Last year the oldest Italian sister, Sonia, got married in the states and it was fun to go to another wedding!  Here are a few pictures for you.

We had an amazing time.  The wedding was beautiful, and so different from American weddings.  We were at the wedding and reception from 10 am until 9 pm!  And they partied into the wee hours of the night!

In November we spent a weekend with Susan's Mom in one of our favorite places, Gatlinburg.  The leaves were absolutely beautiful!  We always have a great time together....especially when a trip to the Pancake Pantry is on the agenda.  Here are some pics from that weekend.

This year for Christmas we will be traveling to Bristol.  We will be blessed to spend Christmas weekend with Chris' parents and my Mom all together.  There is always a lot of laughter involved when our Mom's are together.  Then for New Year's we will be traveling to Lynchburg.  Susan's brother, Doug, and his family will be there to celebrate the holidays.  We can't wait to see our three growing nieces!  They moved to California this past February and we haven't seen them since they moved away.  We *might* be a little excited about our time together with them.

That wraps up most of our year.  It's been eventful, and busy as always.

We wish you and your family love, joy, and peace in the year to come.

Love,

Chris, Susan & Marty

Cookie Extravaganza!

This weekend we are doing our annual cookie baking extravaganza with our friends and their two kids.  You know we always go overboard with how many cookies we make! I don't know what this years total will be, but I'm hoping we finish before 10 pm this time.

Here are a few of the cookie recipes I'll be using.

Source: kraftrecipes.com via Susan on Pinterest

Stained Glass Cookies

Source: bettycrocker.com via Susan on Pinterest

Peanut Butter Blossoms

Source: bettycrocker.com via Susan on Pinterest

Snicker Doodles

Source: bettycrocker.com via Susan on Pinterest

Spumoni Chuck Cookies (a must bake)

Source: bettycrocker.com via Susan on Pinterest

Fiesta Fudge Cookies (one of my favorite cookies of all time)

Those are some of our favorites.  What's yours??

They say it's your birthday!

There's a birthday at our house today!  Today is Chris' birthday.  It's looking like we are gonna be celebrating his birthday all weekend long!  We started last night with dinner out with a friend and the dinners go all the way until Sunday night. 

In honor of  his birthday today, I compiled some of my favorite "goofy" photos of him.  We all know he can be quite the goofball.  And that is one of the many things I love about him.

Happy birthday to my favorite cheeseball!  Love you!