Merry Christmas 2018

(Christmas picture taken by Alex, while we all camped at Del Mar RV Park 

on the Camp Pendleton Marine Base!)

2018 marked our 40th anniversary! 

Our kids and grandkids surprised us with an impromptu celebration including a delicious chocolate ice cream cake shared amongst family and friends. To celebrate, we treated ourselves to a 15 day South Pacific Cruise, (ports in Papeete & Bora Bora, Tahiti, American Samoa, Western Samoa, Fiji, New Caledonia, Brisbane & Sydney, Australia).

We met a lot of nice people on this cruise!

It was a wonderful trip! 

Also during 2018, Nicole & David celebrated 15 yrs of marriage; and Alex & Angelina celebrated 10! 

During the summer we RVed across America on I-40, visiting 11 states: Arizona, New Mexico, the panhandle of Texas, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina & Virginia, for a total of 5500 miles! 

The south is so very beautiful, green and lush, but it also has terrible humidity (which we expected and never got used to)!

Our grandkids are growing faster than we’d like (Gigi-11½, Brody & Micah-8½, Hallee-7½, and Seth-5½), and they are all oh so busy with soccer, baseball, softball, and school.

  Wishing you and yours all the blessings of Christmas 

and a Happy 2019!

HAPPY 2018

Wishing all our friends and family 

a very happy new year! 

May 2018 bring you many blessings!!

Happy New Year from the Pavones!

We made so many memories on our travels in 2017.

We are truly blessed and fortunate to be able to travel.

Mid-January took us to Nashville where we met great friends and visited the Jack Daniels Distillery, in nearby Lynchburg, as well as a 'behind the scenes' tour of the Jack Daniels Fire Brigade; met friends in Las Vegas; a Caribbean Cruise, in February, with Kathy and Stan (my sis and BiL); and a few RV trips, including trips to Pismo Beach, Buellton, Rincon County Beach, Newport Beach, Thanksgiving week at Del Mar Beach Resort on Camp Pendleton, and our annual trip to El Mirage, AZ, for the month of March for spring training.

When we returned from AZ, we picked up our new puppy, Bailey, a 14 week Brittany, at the San Diego Airport. She flew down from Idaho to become a member of our family. She's a year old now and a great addition to our family, although we will be glad when she stops digging and chewing things that aren't meant for dog (like drip lines, dog beds, paper or fabric scraps!). She is loving and playful, and helping to keep Sydney (now 13) young at heart!

In July, we took a trip of a lifetime cruising the rugged coastline of Norway with Kathy, Stan, and our good friends, the Lauries. It was a fantastic trip. The Norwegian landscapes and fjords are breathtaking and spectacular (my favorite fjord, Geirangerfjord, is pictured on the front of this card). Norway is one of the most beautiful places we've ever seen. It meant so much to walk on the land where our fathers' ancestors are from (although our cruise didn't take us to Skien, 

the actual town, of my dad's ancestors).

Our Christmas gift to our family was taking all 11 of us on a Caribbean Cruise, in mid-December. A wonderful time was had by all, especially the grandkids. They loved everything about the ship, Oasis of the Seas (one of three of the largest cruise ships on the seas): the food, the buffet, swimming in the ships' pools, the Carousel, kids' club activities and more. They also had fun going ashore and swimming or snorkeling in the clear turquoise waters at the beaches of Labadee and Cozumel. It brought us such joy to watch the excitement on our grandkids' faces on this great adventure. Guess we've spoiled them; they can't wait to go on another cruise!!

Sadly, we said goodbye to my mom, Hope (she had Alzheimer's), at the end of Sept., three months shy of her 90th birthday.  She will be missed by so many, and always remembered with love!

            We are thankful for our family, our health, and our friends.

                        Wishing you and your family a very happy and healthy 2018!

MERRY CHRISTMAS FROM THE PAVONES

Highlights of 2016

Wishing everyone a very Merry Christmas and a happy new year!

I had the best of intentions for writing blogs, but alas, our busy life got in the way and I didn't make the time to write any! So, here are the Highlights of 2016. It was another busy year filled with family, friends and fun, traveling, RVing, quilting teaching, and much joy. 

We traveled throughout the year. In January our traveling included a trip to a very stormy New Jersey,  and a Caribbean cruise with friends. In July, we flew to Seattle & took a summer road trip with friends (not in the RV) thru the Olympic Peninsula; drove around the Lavender Festival in Squim; ferried to Vancouver Island; stayed in a quaint, boutique hotel close to the waterfront in historic Victoria; spent a day amongst the beautiful flowers of the Butchart Gardens; ferried to Vancouver, Canada; spent a couple days in Whistler; then continued on to the big city of Vancouver; then back to Seattle. The Pacific Northwest is so picturesque and a favorite of ours. Sept we went to Laughlin on our now “annual family vacation;” spent 4 fun-filled days on the Lake Mojave with our adult kids and 5 grandkiddos-always a great time! Oct we went to Santa Catalina Island on our friend’s sailboat. It was a wonderful, relaxing trip; had fun exploring the town of Avalon.

RVing included the month of March in Arizona for Spring Training again; in May, a weekend with family and friends in Julian; spent the 4^th of July in Oxnard with my sister and family, then onto Buellton to camp with friends; in Aug at Rincon County Park (on PCH but right on the edge of the beach; for our Annual Thanksgiving week of camping we spent it with friends and family at Del Mar RV Resort, on the Camp Pendleton Marine Base.

Nick did a lot of teaching all over So Cal for the State Fire Marshal’s Office; he worked on beautifying our yards, and helped with our master bath remodel, re-staining our vanity and tiling the floor. Karen went to the Broadway play, ‘Carole King’s Beautiful” with Nicole (a wonderful night of reminiscing back to my college days!)and went to 4 quilt retreats, making many quilts for charity.

Rounding out the year we tried to spend as much time as we could with all 5 of our grandkids (pictured above l to r: Seth-3½, Hallee-5½, Gigi-9½, Micah-6½, and Brody-6½). Every time we are with them it is always fun. They bring us much joy and happiness.

A Look Back on the year 2015!

Hoping everyone had a very Merry and Joyful Christmas, 

filled with much love. We enjoyed Christmas as we spent it with family and  

celebrated the birth of our Savior.

Another great year has flown by, faster than the last. 

It was filled with so many blessings for which we are ever thankful. 

It's hard to believe that Christmas has come and gone, 

and we will celebrate the beginning of another year! 

 Nick celebrated #60! Most Mondays he can be found riding his bike (20 miles) around Mission Bay. He tries to play golf at least once a week. He is "giving back" by doing interview preparations with firefighters who want to promote and teaching in the "fire community."

Karen still loves sewing, having made clothes for all 5 of our grandkids, and quilting!  

She also attended a couple of quilt retreats with her quilting buddies, Nancy and Lynn!

We love our times spent with family and the grandkids who are getting big, too fast. 

Gigi is 8, in 3rd grade, played softball and loved being a part of a team! 

Brody & Micah both 5, started kindergarten. They both love learning.

Brody played t-ball for the first time. 

Micah is in public school, doing skateboard tricks and ever active! 

Hallee, now 4, is basically doing kindergarten with Brody, 

goes to a home preschool 1 day a week, and started dance lessons. 

(Nicole continues to homeschool her kids.) 

Seth, now 2, is fearless, still running, talking up a storm, and knows his colors!

2015 included RVing trips to: Spring Training for Baseball in AZ; Julian; 

back to the state of Montana, for a month of camping @Yellowstone & Glacier Parks with good friends, as well as visiting friends who live in Montana; 

Santee Lakes & Pismo Beach; Del Mar Beach on Camp Pendleton, right on the sand! 

Thanksgiving week we camped at San Mateo campground-the inland campground that is part of San Onofre St Beach; it was one of the coldest Thanksgivings we've had, but we enjoyed our time together with family and friends. 

Our family vacation together took us to Laughlin/Lake Mojave, Nevada, for Labor Day weekend. All the grandkids loved riding in the boat (or helping Papa driving the boat!), playing on the big tube in the perfect, private cove we found. 

The big kids did some water sports (wake skating and wakeboarding), too! 

To top it off, Nick won big @ Keno! 

Best trip of 2015, was, by far, our 10 day Tahitian Islands Cruise. We sailed with my sister, Kathy and her fiance, Stan, and we had a fabulous time. Tahiti has the most beautiful teal ocean waters!

My mom, Great Grandma Hope is ever happy these days, albeit forgetful. She has Alzheimers but continues to have a healthy appetite and smiles a lot! She turned 88 on Christmas Day!

Wishing everyone a Happy New Year filled with family, friends, adventures and blessings!

Glimpses of Christmas

I love decorating for Christmas. Over the years I've collected quite a few decorations, and many have special meanings! Here's a few "Glimpses of Christmas" around the Pavone home.

These little Christmas trees are probably from the late 50's. They were always on display in my parents house, growing up. My mom gifted them to me in 2002.

This beautiful white Christmas tree was made by one of my mom's best friends, Dot, in the 60's. 

It was always one of my most favorite Christmas decorations so I was thrilled when 

my mom gifted it to me in 2002. Look closely and you will see it is made of all different shapes of macaroni noodles.

Hand drawn cherished Christmas Cards made by my dad, dating back to the first year he made them, 1976-2000, and the last year he made them, 2002. He made them for everyone in my family and my sister's family each year; they are treasured by us all!

I made these stockings for our first Christmas after we were married in 1978. 

They are so big it takes a lot of stuffers to fill them. 

I made this Christmas Tree Advent Calendar for our first Christmas in our first house, 1979.

 Individually wrapped candy canes count the days until Christmas Day. I made many more of these Advent Calendars for friends and family. I also made one for each of my kids' families. Our grankids love putting the candy canes in the calendar pockets.

Another of my first Christmas decorations for our first Christmas in our first house, 1979.

My mom made this Christmas bunny family for us in 1981, the year our daughter, Nicole was born!

My very dear friend, Judie Provansal gave this treasured Christmas tree puzzle to me the year our daughters were in kindergarten together, 1986. Our daughters met taking dance lessons together, starting at age 3, and they are still friends today! Judie was a 5th grade teacher and I watched her daughter Emily during the year of kindergarten. I think of Judie with such love and am reminded how precious life is. Judie went to be with our Lord when my daughter and Emily were 11. Her two daughters, Emily and Nicole have grown into beautiful women of faith.

Another of my mom's cute handmade Christmas creations

 A new "Crazy Eights Table Runner" adorns my dining room table this year. 

(I finished quilting it before Thanksgiving.)

My newest Christmas decoration. For years I had a Santa cookie jar (in which we put doggie cookies not people cookies). The Santa was retired last year since it had a few too many chips.

A favorite of mine!

Merry Christmas!

Happy New Year!

2013 was a very good year filled with much joy & memory making for the 

Pavone Family. 

 Alex, Micah-3, Angelina, Seth, Hallee-2, Brody-3, Karen, Nick, Gigi-6, Nicole, David & Sydney

The biggest joy of the year was the birth of our 5^th granbaby,

Seth Robert Pavone, born June 3rd!

We enjoyed RV trips that took us from Arizona for Spring training; to Fort Bragg

for Ab Diving; on a 5 week trip from SD to Sisters, OR to Sequim & Seattle, WA,  

with a day trip to Victoria, BC; to Julian for apple picking; to Lake Havasu with Gigi;

and our annual beach camping for Thanksgiving week.

  We also had a fun filled year of travels with friends, spending a week in Cancun,

and a two-week driving trip from Gettysburg, VA thru the Amish Country of PA,

NJ, NY, Conn, Newport, RI, Cape Cod and Boston, MA.

The highlight of our travels was an 18 day adventure & cruise to

Australia and New Zealand!  The people of these countries were so friendly.

We loved the beauty and awe of "Down Under'!

We are definitely loving retirement!

We are so thankful for how God has blessed us with our wonderful family.

We hope your Christmas was a special one.

May 2014 be extra happy and healthy filled with wonderful memory making moments!

Pinterest to Real Life

I know I am not alone when I say I enjoy using Pinterest, and love all the inspiration I can "pin" for things to do in the future, recipes to try, crafts to make, or places to go. This past Christmas season I actually made the time to do a few things I have"pinned" on my Pinterest Boards!

I knit these Colorblock Hand Warmers, aka fingerless mittens, for my daughter, Nicole.

The pattern is found on the purl bee! I knit these using only variegated yarn rather than several colors. They were easy, well, once I figured out how to cast onto 4 double pointed size #2 needles; the figuring it out was not easy.  I must have cast-on the yarn about 20 times before I finally figured it out!(for those who aren't familiar with knitting needles, #2 are very small, which added to the difficulty of starting the project!). Thanks purlbee.com for the free pattern. They turned out very pretty and Nicole loves them!

I, also, made matching Super Hero Capes for our two grandsons. Thanks to CraftBuds for the free downloadable pattern.  Here's Brody "modeling" his cape (as well as his new "Ninja" headband.

Since he has an older sister who loves to play "dress-up" he likes to wear his cape.

Micah was a bit more reluctant about modeling his cape, but he still looks cute. He isn't quite into "dress-up" yet!!

I love this pinspiration for displaying Christmas cards using clothes pins and decorative ribbons and then hanging them on a door or the cupboards in the kitchen

and on our pantry door.

The original idea came from the Greener Grass blog. (I'll be posting a picture of mine in a couple of weeks, so check back to see then!) Thanks, Melissa, for a great idea that I plan to use for years to come!

I was hoping to make the "deadline" for  Simple Homemade's "From Pinterest to Real Life" link-up last week;  but, alas, I was traveling on the deadline. My daughter is the Editor and once a month she blogs about her "pinterest-inspired creations" and invites others to "link-up" their posts on their creations made from pinterest inspiration.  If you do love Pinterest, you can see what other creatives have made by heading over to Simple Homemade!

Merry Christmas!

                  Now that it’s December it’s time to recall the fun we shared in 2012!  It’s been a great year spent with family and friends, traveling and camping (RVing), and enjoying our retirement! We’ve really loved spending lots of time with our 4 grandkiddos.  Gigi turned 5 in May and the whole family joined her for her first visit to Disneyland. There is nothing sweeter than seeing Disneyland through the eyes of a child! Brody and Micah are 2 ½ and talking up a storm, while little Hallee is 18 months, climbing on everything and displaying some not so cute “terrible two” behaviors early!

                  We ventured to a new location and enjoyed a fantastic week, truly relaxing by the pool which was right next to the amazing teal-blue ocean waters of the Caribbean, at an all-inclusive resort in Cancun with great friends. We traveled back to Washington DC, in the early fall, and meandering through several Smithsonian Museums. We visited with friends at their “beach” house in beautiful Currituck, (near Outer Banks), North Carolina, and in Virginia. We took a day trip to the picturesque colonial settlement of Williamsburg. It amazes us how much there is to see back east and all the history there is to absorb. So we know we will be going back several more times in the future.

                  During 2012, we used our RV even more. We went to Spring Training in Arizona for a month and attended our first Good Sam Rally held at the Phoenix Raceway (never seen so many RV’s in one location-literally 1000’s)!!  We spent several weekends at Newport Dunes RV Resort, to visit with Alex, Angelina and Micah who live nearby. We ventured to northern California for our now annual week of camping in Fort Bragg for Abalone Diving with our longtime camping buddies, Lynn & Rick. This year Nicole and David and kids joined us; it was a great week of camping reminiscent of all the years our families have camped together (although a few of our kids couldn’t make it)! Summer vacation took us back to Bend Oregon (such a beautiful area) where we attended the Annual Sisters Outdoor Quilt Show. Great show, although we didn’t get the chance to see all the quilts because it was rained out for the first time in its 37 year history! We spent time in Redding with Lynn & Rick, (Lynn and I got to do some quilting while the boys went fishing) before a week of camping at Lake Almanor, meeting up with more camping friends. We spent a quiet weekend in our RV at KQ Ranch in Julian late fall before our Annual Thanksgiving week of camping at San Elijo State Beach....And did I mention we got a new diesel pusher in the Spring! It’s got 4 slides, a roomier layout, more power and better storage!

                  Nick has traveled quite a bit to Sacramento this past year and stays very busy now that he is working with the State Fire Marshal’s office on fire training curriculum. He’s also traveled to Northern California and Tucson with several other retired fire professionals for fire teaching and advising. It’s his way of giving back to the fire profession to which he dedicated his life’s work.

                  I attended several quilt retreats this year with my friend Lynn (for a couple of retreats our hubbies joined us for the weekend and we RVed at Flying Flags RV Resort).  I made many quilts for gifts and charity this year -my way of giving back!

                  Nicole, David and 3 kids moved in with us in September because the owners wanted their house back.  3 weeks turned into 3 months, but they moved this past weekend into their “new” condo. They are very excited to be first time“homeowners” and to have freshly painted the walls!

                  Alex started a new t-shirt design business and has his own online store (http://fiftyfivesouth.storenvy.com/). Check it out--he's got some "awesome" designs. But the best news of all is that Micah’s “only child” status “expires” next June when we will welcome a new Pavone into the family!!

                  Wishing you and yours a very Merry Christmas.  

                                    May you richly be blessed by God in the coming new year.

                                                      Love & Joy,
                                                      Karen & Nick