Weekend Recap on Monday....

I have had a wonderful birthday celebration, starting three days early on Thursday. The photos from our trip to the Italian market in St. Pete were posted on Friday, but here they are again with a short synopsis....

Thursday, we introduced our friends, Ann and Tom, to Mazzaro's Italian Market over in St. Pete. We spent more than three hours there, including lunch. Had a really fun time!

Friday was my lunch-bunch girlfriends' annual Christmas lunch.  Cindee hosted at her house.  Melody couldn't come down this year (2 1/2 hour drive for her) and Terry couldn't get away from work but there were four us who enjoyed a delicious lunch.  Cindee's husband was home and he actually waited on us and cleaned up the kitchen so we could keep talking and laughing. What a guy!!

Shirley, Cindee, Heather, and me...

Cindee's house is decorated beautifully for Christmas.  I took a few photos...

She bought these stuffed animals for two of the grandkids and had to show us!

They are as big as she is!!

Friday night, Joe took me out for dinner at Olive Garden. Delicious!  Saturday, I got to sleep in (yay!) and just putzed around the house until dinner time.  Joe took me out to Fish City Grill for a delicious low-country boil, which is my favorite meal. Crab legs, shrimp, corn, sausage, potato, hush  puppies. Yum.  Sunday, my birthday, we invited Helen and Cheryl to come for dinner. I made pasta with meat sauce, a salad of tomato and fresh mozzarella cheese, and my favorite red velvet cake. It was a lovely evening and a nice end to my four-day celebration. 

 We lit the third Advent Candle and prayed before dinner.

I wore this t-shirt for my 60th birthday and dug it out to wear Sunday.

Of course, Sunday being my birthday didn't keep me from getting the laundry done.  Just another day!!  I did get birthday calls from my sister Patti, BFF Elaine, former DIL Kathy, Joey & Darlene, and grandson Tristan. Our youngest son Jeff called Saturday with a surprise!  He is coming down for Christmas!! We will only have him for two nights, but we are so excited. It's been years since he could be here for Christmas because of his job.  I told him I'm glad he called on Saturday because we were going to mail gifts on Monday!  Texts and Facebook greetings kept coming all day long! I feel so blessed!

This week will seem very long after having two days off last week.  Thanks for your visit today!  

Peace & hugs!!