Yes, family & friends, it was only a matter of time before a Settlers blog post appeared.  In case you don’t know about Settlers of Catan, it’s a German board game that my family is obsessed about – or, that I am obsessed about winning.  Personally I think it’s like a cross between Monopoly & Risk.  Currently I am on a 3-month losing streak.  And, people, we don’t just play once in a while – we play at least once a week, sometimes more, and even more than one game in a sitting.  I am the official Settlers loser in my family, and I make sure to let them all know about it.  I stink!  I just don’t know why (they could all probably tell you), but I can’t seem to win.  Oh well, such is life.  And it’s just a game, right?

Today after Bert & Laura brought Emma back after her sleepover, we all had lunch at our house & played two games of Settlers.  Congratulations to Mom (Bonnie) & Bert on winning.  (You won’t be invited back, since you didn’t let me win).

In the photo above I’m the blue pieces.  As you can see at this point things didn’t look too terrible for me until Mom came full force with a massive road, cutting the entire land of Catan in half!  And Bert with his stinkin’ castles!  OMG!  How’s a person supposed to win with this kind of competition?  I even have Settlers of Catan on my iPhone so I can practice against highly-skilled computers but I just can’t seem to bring the winning into real life.  I’ll be sure to let you know when my streak ends.

Oh, and if you want to play with us, come on over.  We’re usually up for playing any day of the week, even into the wee hours of the night.  Sroka’s are always up for some competition!

Photos I’ve been looking at:  Melissa C.  She’s a person I randomly found though…you guessed it….Facebook!  I think I saw her comment on another 365 blog & clicked through to her blog & saw her photo of a crossword puzzle.  Immediately I thought of my dear grandmother who loves crosswords.  Melissa gave me such an encouraging comment the other day when I felt like giving up on this 365 thing.  Thanks for the push forward Melissa & I love looking at your work.  Keep it up!

*oh, and we’re such Settlers nerds that we bought Kids of Catan for our children.  Yup, we took it that far.

Well, we are officially done with all of our Christmas celebrations – our little Sroka family, Josh’s bigger Sroka family, my Smith family part 1, and my Smith family part 2…whew!  Is anyone else tired!

I love Christmas though – seeing all the family, extended family, catching up, playing games, playing dangerous games, and just the togetherness.  Thank you to all of our family for making this Christmas so great for us and our girls.  So, here’s a shout out to you ALL:  Thank you Josh, Emma, Brooke, Ruby (the dog), Nanny & Papa, Nanna, Mom-mom, Mom & Dad, Mom & Michael, Dad & Sharon, Aunt Teri & Uncle Bucky, Jennifer, Wes, Aunt Gail & Gary, Tim & Jill, Aunt Lena, Tony & Brittney,  Bert & Laura, Mackinzie, Delaney, Matt & Emily, Robin & Chris, Maggie, Leah, Matt & Ashley, Jake, Hailey, Becca, and Drew.

Here’s a little peek at what our days were like…

Cousins hugging after opening gifts to each other

Princess Jasmine

Sleeping Beauty

Delaney Mae

Bert with his Marshmallow “MForcer” gun

Matt showing me how his Marshmallow gun worked – yeah right!

Both boys testing out their guns

Emma opening her globe lamp with Amaw

Some of my grandmother’s many snow village scenes

Brooke & cousin Hailey playing with the snow villages

Nanny showing the kids her spinning candle thingy

It spins!

Josh’s favorite gift from Bert – the electric shock game

Josh & Matt waiting for the shock

Maggie getting shocked & Mom laughing

Papa laughing too!

Emma on her scooter

Showing off the accessories

Brooke whizzing by on her scooter

Some of Brooke’s accessories

If you don’t get the title, don’t worry about it.  It’s because my neighbors have the longest freakin’ name ever, & I was just trying to be witty.  These two lovelies, Anna & Kate, are two of our neighbors that make me never want to leave my little place in our townhouse community.  Each year I anticipate what outfit their mom (and my friend), Laura, will buy them for Christmas.  She has done it again.  And we have not one, but TWO outfits this year!  We decided to try the Annapolis Mall again this year simply because the day we scheduled to shoot it was pouring rain outside…again!  I know God needs to water the earth & all, but it’s getting a little soggy over here!  Anyway, I thoroughly enjoyed playing around the mall with Anna & Kate.  My girls absolutely love them & wanted to go copy them & have their own photo shoot just like Anna & Kate!  Needless to say, our Sroka Girls photo shoot didn’t turn out quite as well – what can I say!

Here’s Anna & Kate…