Christmas Smiles

You've got to love it when a child is this happy and hasn't even opened anything yet!

Christmas Morning

This is what Christmas morning looked like. I remember waking so early as a kid and as a teenager, having everyone gather in my room before going downstairs for Christmas. My parents had the tradition of lining us up with our eyes closed where we would all see the tree and then telling us to open them together. That's something that Joel and I do too. But our girls sleep in! (Until 7:00 or so.) There have been later Christmas mornings though. And earlier ones too I guess. But one of those was because Jamin and Lindsay were with us and Jamin had one of those rare jobs where someone has to work Christmas morning. So that year we WOKE the girls by 6:00 or something. Another year Tersa couldn't stand it and came into my room at 3:00 am(she was about 4.). I wasn't about to wake Mardi or Joel so I put on a movie for her and slept on the couch for a couple of hours.
Mardi isn't even looking at her gift! And before I finished taking the pictures I wanted to with them on the stairs, Shinara squealed, headed down the stairs and made a bee-line for Keddi's Santa gift! How bad do you feel telling a 3 year old that the gift she is at isn't hers! Shinara did ask for the baby doll, but Keddi's Little Mermaid Salon was irresistable. She took the re-direction well and was interested in and excited about the baby doll for a couple of minutes. Tersa's Santa gift was a $50 gift certificate to a girls clothing store in the mall. She's excited to shop! And Mardi's was a gift certificate to Build-A-Bear. She's been wanting a snow leopard they have there. I got a new printer/scanner/copy machine thing and Joel got a wheel cover and sunscreens for his car. (I made up for that with an ipod boombox thing.) We had a great day and ended it by going to see the movie The Nativity Story. We thought it was well done and simply appreciated that a movie was made about the birth of Christ.

Christmas Eve

Joel bought doughnuts for Santa this year. So the girls put one of each type of doughnut and 10 (?) carrots out on a plate for him. Then we left some warm wassil for him to drink as is our tradition. The girls all slept in the big girls room which made it a bit difficult when the big girls were fetched to be Santa's helpers. Tersa has gotten to help for two Christmas's now and this was Mardi's first year. Poor Shinara! Perhaps she will get turns when nieces and nephews come around?!?

Christmas Surprises

O.K. we loved this one enough to get her to recreate the look so that I could get a picture!
For a couple of years now one of Joel's clients sends him a gift of a tower of Christmas boxes. There are four boxes of varying sizes and Joel lets each of the girls open one of them. This year Shinara knew which one she wanted to open and when Joel handed her the gifts, starting with the smallest first, she handed them to the other girls. There are cookies, truffles, Moose Munch popcorn (our favorite), ornaments and pears to be found. When the largest box was left and it was Shara's turn I thought for sure she would be a bit disappointed. But instead she had a pleasant, surprised look and was speechless for quite some time. It was funny to watch and it seemed as though she was trying to figure out what to call the thing she pulled out and held so lovingly. I was about to help her out with the name of the object when she said "It's a.. a.. a pear...ot." In a split second I was shocked and impressed that she knew the name of this fruit that we don't buy fresh and in the very next second we were all bustin a gut at what she had ended up calling it. Well, she was on the right track and I am still quite impressed by some of the things that this girl says and does. Of course, that's true about all the girls!

Catching up

I'm sure that all of you know what I mean when I say that things have been quite hectic this week. So, I will continue our goings on around here from last Friday when we went caroling! O.K. On Sat. the big girls had a Christmas party with their Activity Day Girls group at church. That night Joel and I went to an annual Christmas party hosted by our friends the Flinders. We had a good time and I didn't think to take pictures even though I took my camera for that express purpose. Too much socializing going on!
On Monday we had our annual Family Night with the Wilsons. They go out of town every Christmas. so we do our gift exchange with them on a Family Night before they leave. The kids love to get together and it seems that the end of the year gets busy enough that they begin to have withdrawls. We've know the Wilsons for a long time and love them like family!
This week has been filled with trying to wrap up last minute Christmas stuff. But Joel and I took time out to attend a Vegas show called MYSTERE. It was fabulous! (We love it when the shows offer 1/2 price tickets to locals!!)
Tonight we attempt to make our traditional deliveries (we've planned to do it two other nights this week.). And to any who receive the gifts we sent late, I am sorry. I have just been very relaxed this year and have been enjoying the season in a way that I haven't in years. Merry Christmas everyone!!

SNOW?!?!?!

As my sister-in-law Marcie would say..."Are you kidding me?!" Imagine my surprise as I opened my blinds to find snow frosted round our patio umbrella. Then I imagine your surprise (if you know me well and know that I don't miss living in a place where it's cold and snows) at finding out that I gleefully ran out of my room and downstairs to open a blind in the living room so the girls could see the snow. It was lost on them though because from their vantage point they could see nothing. The umbrella is a representation of our greatest accumulation for our entire yard. Above you can see just how much snow was on the ground. We have a huge evergreen in the front yard which kept most of the snow to itself. However, the bottom picture is of the neighbors across the street. Now there's a sight you don't see often!! I asked the boys why they were so special as to get so much snow in their yard. (They are the only yard that doesn't have a large tree of some sort for about half the street.)

Caroling- 12/15/06

The Wellborns (friends in our ward) have a tradition of going caroling every year. They invite several families each year and this year we were invited
to join them along with the Hones and Nutigs. Unfortunately the Hone household was attacked by a virus so they didn't come. But we all met for dinner and socializing at Wellborns and then went caroling to several of the families we visit teach, home teach, etc.... (Tersa forgot a jacket so she is wearing a rather large sweatshirt that Bro. Nutig offered her.)
Keddi obviously had great fun but the rest of us had a good time too.

Keddi's Kindergarten Christmas party

'Tis the season for parties and such and here is a picture of Keddi at her school Christmas party. The activities are the same as they were when Tersa and Mardi attended, so Mom knew exactly what to do. These boys are in Keddi's group so they are the ones that she spends her time with in class. (Drew, Quinn and Fernando, who goes to our ward too.) But, they are also the ones she spends much of her time with period since her friend Leah moved. There are others she talks about and spends time with though and I got to meet a few. Shinara got to come too.

Tersa's first babysitting job

Tersa had her first babysitting job on Sat. night. It seems that the couple didn't realize how young she was until they came home and were talking to her and found out she just turned 11. (Even though I did tell her that when she called.) She did a great job and the kids really enjoyed having her there. But the parents were a little nervous about her being that young so I don't think she will be doing this again until she is 12. Which is fine with me and more than fine with Joel!!

Ice Skating in Vegas

Despite the fact that it has gotten up to around 70 degrees several times this week, it has gotten quite cold during the night. So, when people water their lawns and the water runs down into the gutter, it freezes. And the south sides of the streets in our neighborhood don't get the sun exposure that we do (great for summer, not so great for winter!) Thereby making a fabulous little ice rink just across the street! Ya take what you can get. OOOPS!

Decorating the tree

On the first Family Night of December, we decorate our tree. So, I spent the end of last week decorating the house and got the tree up. Last night we decorated it. Joel unwrapped ornaments, the girls hung them and I tried to get pictures in the low Chritmas lighting. Not an easy task with children moving all the time. But I got a few. Our living room and a wall in the kitchen are looking quite festive. But for some it is just not enough. Several times this week Keddi has told me that when she gets big she is going to decorate inside AND outside. (I'm actually all for more decorations but no place to store them!) We hope your entire month can be filled with the Christmas Spirit and will continue with you throughout the coming year!

Tersa's Concert

Can you find Tersa? I'm kind of taking a while to get through our Thanksgiving week but this is the end of it! We went to Tersa's concert (which was outside and I didn't know!) and we had to round up some blankets for people to wrap up in because some of us left without coats or jackets. We saw friends from our ward there and Joel and Jed Spendlove made "comments" about the myriad of songs sung about Hanukkah, Kawanza and some traditional Christmas songs. But there were no songs about the birth of Christ. (The Hanukkah song was about the miracle of the oil that burned for 8 days.) I think Tersa told me that their concert on the 12th will include Joy to the World. We will have to see what that concert will be like. The kids did pretty well and Tersa knew all the words of every song. She has quite a talent for singing.


We celebrated Joel's birthday friday! One of his co-workers brought in a cherry pie to celebrate and he came home early. (While we were wrapping his presents.) Luckily I was just finishing the last one and he didn't see anything! I made a requested dinner and right when we finished, our friends the Wilson's (who join us for each birthday because they are our family away from family!) came for cookies and ice cream. We like cake, but usually only for birthdays and the leftovers sit around until I finally throw it away. The Wilsons are the same way so I made a big cookie and it was all good! Then we left Tersa in charge and the Wilsons took their boys to a friends while we went to a movie with them. The new James Bond movie. Joel said he enjoyed his birthday.

More bowling

I thought this one turned out so cute so I posted a couple more pictures from our bowling outing. Matthias isn't comparing his belly to the ball, he's "airing." He discovered the fan that allows one to dry a sweaty hand before bowling and it was just right for belly blowing! Before leaving, we stopped at the arcade area and Shinara found this game where you ride motorcycles. Umm....scary!
After bowling, Lolly, Randy, Lindsay and Matthias and I went shopping. We made two mall stops and got home in time for Lolly and Lee to go back to their hotel and prepare to leave. So we said goodbye to them and packed everyone up in the car to go to the Ethel M chocolate factory. Tersa's school choir group gave two concerts there that night. Everyone left after the first concert except for Tersa's friend Rachel, Tersa, Lindsay and I. We had a good visit on the way home. Once we got home we had some time for the adults to sit and chat before Lindsay, Randall and the boys headed back to the hotel. We said our goodbyes because they were to leave straight from the hotel very early the next morning. It was great to get a short note from Lindsay this week that expressed their enjoyment of the visit. But especially satisfying was to hear that the boys really enjoyed it too! Thanks for coming we loved having you!