Christmas Past and Present

This is my sister, Stacy and I on Christmas day, 197?. We usually got a variation of the same thing and loved it! However, one Christmas Eve, we just couldn't sleep. After laying in bed with our eyes wide open (well up into the wee morning hours) and several trips to our parents room, our mother finally decided to take us into the living room and show us what we got. We weren't quite sure how to take that but, one thing was for sure, we were not getting any sleep until we knew. And SLEEP was the one thing that our mother just happened to want. Now, I know this sounds extreme but, we had older siblings who were very out of the excited stage and we also had a certain tradition in our home every Christmas morning before gifts.

We always held a testimony meeting in our parents room. So, with seven children and two parents, you can imagine how long and how short some of those testimony's were. However, we did not know any different, it was what we did on Christmas morning. The only family testimony meeting we ever held during the year. Looking back, I think it is one of the things that has kept us close. My own little family has adopted that tradition and they do not know any different either. In fact, I think they look forward to it just as much as I do. Thank goodness my kids can sleep on Christmas Eve, though.


I had to show this picture because Troy is actually putting garland on the tree. He'll help with the lights sometimes but then he lets us take over. Yeah Troy! He even put our outside lights up just a day after Thanksgiving!


Last year we had a "MOM" tree and a "KID" tree but this year we only did one so, I relinquished my decorating to the kids. It was a lot of fun and our neighbor down the street even joined us. I will be sad to have to put everything away in January. However, it will be nice to have snow to preoccupy me.

Flying Jingle Bells

Here is the first snowfall of the season in front of our house! It just started coming down in big flakes, beeautiful! I love the warmth of the summer but, there is something to be said about the first snowfall! Maybe it's the way everything looks so clean and pure or the way it just FEELS more like the holidays or the fact that I grew up in the desert and wore shorts all year long! Never quite experienced the whole, "White Christmas" thing until I moved away. I came home that night at about 10:00 p.m. and the kids were still playing in it.


The following night was our Ward Christmas Party in which the Primary presented a Talent Show. Here I am as the MCee. I asked a couple of other people to do it, who I thought would be great at it but did not luck out. It was a lot of fun watching the kids perform.


Here is Luke in the green, as an Oriental influenced, ninja, shepherd boy, so we were told. That's what happens when your mom isn't inclined to sew.


Alexis and Monique did a skit using balloons that they came up with on their own. I thought they were very cute and very brave. Way to go girls!


The last number of the night was, "The Dance of the Sugarplum Fairies" made up of several of our very own Moses Lake Fairies. Kate and Ellie enjoyed getting their hair put up like a ballerina (shocker) and twirling around on stage. I want to give a shout-out to the Mom of the Year, Jessica C. for staying with the girls and dancing with them. Some of them WOULD NOT perform without an adult with them and Jessica stepped up to the plate! Yay Jessica!


Ellie and Santa! One of our few children that hasn't screamed on Santa's lap. Before Santa came in, I gave all the nursery and sunbeam aged children each a jingle bell bracelet (like the one in Ellie's hand) to shake while we all sang "Jingle Bells." I had pictured this in my head a couple of times before that night and thought it would be so cute. I didn't consider the strength and boredom of some of the boys and decided not to turn around when one of them sent theirs flying across the room at some unbeknownst bystander. I also couldn't hide the grin on my face as I thought to myself, "NOW, it is officially one of the most memorable Children's Christmas Programs."

"Growly Faces"

I should be going to bed right now but I feel like rambling so bare with me. Every night I read to Kate, Ellie and Luke. Sometimes it is a chapter book and sometimes it is one of my favorite Dr. Seuss books. Well, right now we are reading a series of Junie B. Jones books, which I highly recommend! I love Junie B. She is full of Kindergarten questions and enlightenment. Her bestest friend (that's what she calls her) is Lucille. Throughout the series, these two, and others like, (mean boy named Jim) and Mrs. (her school teacher) have their disagreements in which Junie B. makes a growly face at them. However, once they get things off their chest, they always make up.

I thought of my best friend in kindergarten and how I thought she would always be in every class I was in, for always. I still remember the feeling in my gut when 1st grade came around and she wasn't there. OUch!

I also thought of a family that my family was good friends with when I was young. They had a kid pretty much the same age as every kid in our family and a few extra. We always did things with them and called each other our bestest friends. We spent every Thanksgiving with them until they moved away... Yes, they moved, crummy huh? I was devastated and in the fourth grade. Well, when we lived in Carnation, we were very close to a couple of families, one of which pretty much had a kid for every kid in our family and a few extra until....we moved. Yes, crummy again! The kids were devastated! I have to admit, so was I. However, I knew from experience that we would keep in contact and stay close anyway.

Now, we are getting to know some great people here and it is wonderful. It is nice to feel comfortable around other families. I often think of how sometimes, just like Junie B. Jones and Lucille, we can find connections with people that will last forever. What a blessing.

I've Been Tagged...

...by a long, lost friend of mine, Carrie. It has been so much fun catching up with her. She has always been a lot of fun! I love that technology gives us ways to re-connect with people.

I am supposed to post my fourth photo on my file so, here it is! I am putting the candles on Kate's 3rd Birthday cake. I always have my kids pick what kind of cake they want me to make and she wanted pink flowers. We were at my sister-in-laws house in Ellensburg because my nephew was also getting baptized. It was a good day!