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.