Santa's Helpers

Mix together a lovely group of fun filled, life loving floozies, assorted hats, delicious treats, Kendall's annual "surprise" beverage, generous doses of laughter and kind, loving, giving hearts and an annual Flamingo Floozie Luncheon takes place with fun had by ALL!!!

Thanks to the Lauren that stood in for our errant photographer. Tom had errands to run...hmpf

He generally hides out until he is called for the photo ops.

The hostess with the mostess (the Diva) and her partner in crime (the princess of quite alot)!

Since the Floozies are an extraordinarily blessed group...in lieu of purchasing each other gifts we decided to purchase Christmas for a dear family... a single mom with two lovely very young daughters. Thanks to generous offerings of the Floozies and diligent shopping by the Princess of Quite Alot and the Diva, each child will receive a toy, several pairs of shoes, a winter coat and an extensive winter wardrobe. In addition, a gift certificate will be purchased for their Mother.

Woohooo!!!

Let the wrapping begin!!! Santa's helpers busy boxing and wrapping the gifts in the Flamingo room.

A Very Happy Birthday to Rhetta (far right) ! Can you put your thumb here for just a sec! I was taking pictures and making gift tags.

All enjoyed watching Rhetta open her birthday gifts! Ellie looks like she wants a set of those!

More birthday festivities! The Diva played the stereo this year instead of her beautiful piano!

Sometimes a picture is worth more than a thousand words! We all lead such busy, diverse lives but we come together in the spirit of fun, friendship and giving.

Our friend Bonnie had another committment and could not attend...we missed you!

A moment was shared by several of us remembering our dearly departed Dot Dot...she would have loved this party the best!!!

May each of you be blessed with gratitude, love, and friendship this holiday season.

And The Award for the Ugliest Hat Goes To....

Apparently this is the ugliest hat in existence. If you do not believe me, just ask my mother-in-law. She did not mention this once but approximately five times. She just didn't like this hat.

It felt wrong, the color was wrong and on and on. She hated for me to take it back but she JUST DID NOT LIKE IT! Said chapeau was her Mother's Day gift along with a lovely scarf with muted tones of blue, chocolate brown, off white. She generally wears extremely neutral colors. As to the scarf, her first response was " I have tons of scarves", however, she did like the scarf and kept it. Whether or not she will wear it would be a blog post for another day! I take great pleasure and a ridiculous amount of time and effort selecting just the right gift for someone. I only select items that I myself would wear or enjoy. Most of my friends appear to be thrilled with their gifts. I put together really nice baskets. I have people ask me to do gift shopping for them. At one point in time, had she expressed displeasure with a gift I would have to leave the room or go home and cry! I have toughened up some. I guess this comes from eleven years of really bad gifts. How in the world can I get this wrong every time for every occasion? My mother-in-law is a kind and loving person, truly she is, to be fair she is recovering from cancer and her hair has not returned from the chemotherapy treatments. Once seeing the hat on her, I realized her head is a lot smaller than I thought, as she always had a permed, curled & teased hairdo. I can deal with the size being wrong. Could we just leave it at that? OH NO! I was out to dinner with friends, Jayne and Cindy and told the story of the hat. Jayne said, "Why don't you blog about it" I really thought that none of this bothered me, but I realized I have been on a slow simmering, stew on the back burner. Yes, my feelings are hurt. Can you just say thank you for your thoughtfulness??? So anyway, I have NO idea where the receipt or tags are for the awful hat so I will keep it for myself! It is waterproof, I LIKE the color, it has a soft cotton lining and is adjustable. It is perfect for hiking, rainy weather and keeping the sun off my very fair complexion! Her birthday is next week..........