Christmas Weekend

I hope everyone had a great Christmas. Ours was really nice. I had the 23rd and 24th off, so I had time to finish up little odd and end shopping and prep. Christmas Eve is James' brother Roberts Birthday. So we go out to Mom and Dad's to celebrate that. This year The birthday dinner at the request of Rob was at the Chinese buffet in Brigham City that is currently a great hit with our family. :) This place is so good and it has many,many surprises...like James Mr. anti (your not cooking that while I'm in the house) fish, going up and getting SUSHI not once but TWICE! This hasn't been his first time either. I just don't get it I really don't. After dinner we went back to the house for presents and cake. We had a hit and miss and then a another hit when all three siblings gave Rob gift cards. The first one was Nikki she gave him an Applebees gift card so we hurried and gave him our Chili's one only to find that Lisa had a Chili's one for him too. :p Cake was a rich, creamy, death by chocolate tuxedo cake. Ah... so good! After that Nate had brought his Despicable me DVD that he got at the white elephant. So we put that in and well all watched and made Christmas Breakfast for the next day. Then it was the kids turn to open their Christmas Pajamas. After that they didn't stay to much longer because the excitement of Christmas was setting in. James and I didn't stay for to much longer either. We still had presents we needed to wrap. On the way home though we decided to stop by Willard Bay. Every year they do a light display called Fantasy at the Bay. They have a horse drawn wagon, Santa (but of course being Christmas Eve he was gone), Food and tons of beautiful lights to drive through. We caught the very end of the night. It was so much fun and really added magic to the Christmas season. Here is a few of our favorites...

They are adding a new section to expand the lights so we were able to go through twice. It was fun, and there weren't a lot of cars there so we were able to go slow, and take everything in. After the lights we went home to start the wrapping. It didn't take us as long as we thought which was nice.

Christmas Morning was a lot of fun I woke up around 8 and couldn't get back to sleep. So after the usual routine of taking the dogs out, I woke up James so he could see the big surprise I had waiting for him. :D I was SO excited to see his reaction... I forgot to take into account the sleepiness factor. :p His big Christmas Surprise is that I took his road bike to his best friend Alan who fixed the tire and adding his own little extras. James has been talking about getting his bike fixed for awhile now, but we've just never had the money. Alan was able to fix the bike plus extras for more than half of what the guys at the store I went to did. THANK YOU ALAN!!!!!! it looks like a brand new bike...so pretty. :) Anyway so I was so excited watching him to see his reaction and this is what I get...But again I didn't take into consideration the fact that it was 8 in the morning....which is pretty early for James...I guess. Well we had a great Christmas. The dogs got new treats and a couple new toys along with their "Christmas meal" (a can of wet dog food). The cat just got his "Christmas meal" and then went outside. I got James the next season of the Simpson's and How I Met Your Mother, Avatar The Last Air Bender...both the movie and the series. The Call of Duty game that he really wanted. (if you got it don't forget to turn on the filter or else you get the F bomb dropped a few times in the first 10 min of playing) As well as a few other little things. James got me the Cabellas hunting game ( so fun), despicable me, a set of 3 pearl earrings, and a few other things. After the presents I made the Christmas breakfast we had put together at moms. As well as french toast eggs and sausage. Then James rode his bike over to Nikki's house. By the time I got there everyone was there and in full Christmas swing. We watched as the kids opened their presents from the aunts and uncles and grandparent and then we did our exchange. James got a couple to awesome shirts from Nikki. one is a plaid button up (which I will be stealing sometimes) and the other is a blue t-shirt with the monopoly guy on it with his hands out and it says Broke?. Hee hee LOVE IT! So did James, and the two really go together. I got the movie Eclipse and a dance game for the Wii from Dad A. Again two things I wanted so I was really happy....but the best thing about my present is what was tied to it. My grandma Perkins loved music boxes, globes...pretty much anything that played music. I have gained the same love and have a small collection myself. Well earlier this month when James and I went out to Mom and Dad's. I found a small silver carousel with small horses on it, and it played We Wish You a Merry Christmas. I knew she was going to list it on Ebay and I thought I didn't convince her to sell it to me early. So for the next 2 weeks I watched her Ebay listing like a hawk. but never saw it. It was tied to my present. :) I am so excited about this cute little carousel. our Whole Christmas was so much fun. We played games both board or video, we had an awesome Christmas dinner of smoked turkey and all the fixin's. It was nice and a really great Christmas. :)Merry Christmas Everyone!!! And a Happy New Year!!!!

Closure of Another School

James got a call from Sensei Debbie this week. They decided to close the school.He is so upset. I feel so bad. This school was really a great school and he was having so much fun. He also had some wonderful opportunities in this school. He had his own class on Saturdays that he taught he was learning a lot of new and fun things and making friends. Well the search for a new school begins. Goodbye Dragon and The Phoenix...we will miss you!

MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL!!!! :)

Holiday Fun!

Well I am a little back logged because of that week I lost due to a horrible cold. But that's what updates and catching up is for right? :)

Dec 11- Two great things happened this day. Our nephew Nate decided to join The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. He was baptised this day with friends and family there to support him. Nate is such a sweet, light hearted little guy. It was neat to be able to support him in this big step. Congratulations again Nate! :) Later that night after the baptism my family came out for a little gathering. Once a month my sisters and I try to get together and have lunch, well with December being as crazy as it is. I thought it would be fun to do a family thing in loo of the sisters lunch. So we had our house packed with family for a short time. then after a quick run at Taco Bell for dinner we all headed downtown to the Christmas Village to enjoy some Christmas lights. It was so nice to see my family and spend that time with them. They all really seemed to enjoy Christmas Village and have a great time. :) my throat was feeling a little soar that day and then Sunday James said he couldn't even wake me up to go to church. I was sick Sunday till...well I still am but I started feeling a little better Friday. So Friday I tried my hand at getting some of my Christmas shopping done. I got a lot of it done before I just lost my energy and had James take me home. Saturday I was able to finish all my shopping which was nice, but I overdid it a little. :p Sunday Dec 19 was our Family Christmas party at our house. The house looked awesome thanks to my wonderful hubby. He was even able to clean up one of the basement rooms so we could have a make shift rumpus room for the kids to go play in. Complete with dart board, Foosball table TV, DVD, and video games. The kids loved it. I cooked a turkey again this year. I was really worried cause when I was seasoning it I thought I accidentally put to much of one seasoning...but it turned out really good. After dinner we did our White Elephant exchange. James was the first one and right off the bat he unwrapped a body pillow and a bag of truffles...this present was going to be the envy of all. :p The way we do white elephant is all the normal rules apply. If someone gets something another person wants it can be taken away. the only difference is we get "real" gift not white elephant gifts....if that makes sense. Everyone had a great time and it was a nice party. :) Monday (Dec 20) I tried out a gingerbread recipe my sister gave me. My first time doing gingerbread cookies....they turned out AWESOME! So yummy! If you want some come on up for a visit. :)

Sorry

Hey everyone. Sorry I haven't done an update, I got sick last Sunday and have been bed bound all week. I'm feeling better now and I will be able to get you an update as soon as I can...hopefully Monday. Again sorry all is well with us.

Birthdays

Dec 18- This is my brother Jason's birthday. Jason is a fun father of 4. He loves sports and spending time with his family. Jason has a happy smile that you cant help return.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!!

Dec 20- My nephew Tanner turns 10 this day...see how excited he is. :p Tanner is such a sweet boy. He is a little shy but when you get past that you make a great friend who'll be your friend for life. :) he loves spending time with his family and friends. He loves sports, mostly football and played on a team this year with his brother Jeremy.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!!

Dec 24- My brother in law Bob has the allusive Holiday birthday. :) Bob loves the outdoors and always loves trying new things. He loves spending time with the family...especially Abby and the boys.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!!

Update

Well the holidays are upon us and we've been busy, busy, busy already. We had a great Thanksgiving with James' family. I love them so much. I will admit though I did miss Mom and Dad. It's weird not to be going to Monticello for either Thanksgiving or Christmas. Well Because of the "blizzard" warning (that James and I stocked up for thinking we were going to be stuck in the house for 2 days) Both the College and the Printing Division closed early so James and I had a little longer holiday. The college closed Wed because of the storm and the printing division closed Tues. James had to go in on Wed. Thanksgiving dinner was at Uncle Kim and Uncle Gordy's. We took our wii over as well as a few games to keep the kids occupied and the adults played Cataan after dinner. We had a great time. Thanks Kim and Gordy for hosting Thanksgiving this year it was great! The rest of the week and weekend was nice and relaxing. I kinda tried the black Friday sales but since my alarm clock was set for 4:30 PM instead of AM I didn't get to enjoy the craziness like everyone else...oh well one of these years I WILL try black Friday. :) I did go out for a little bit after I woke up and still found some awesome deals. The first week of December was chaos and got me a tad confused for awhile. I was surprised when I realized on Sat that it was only the 4th. :p Dec 1st was our Relief Society Christmas party. We've been working on this for awhile so I guess that's why it felt like the middle of December rather than the beginning. I was in charge of desserts and some decorations. Our theme was based off the book 100 dresses. It's the story of this little girl who wears the same tattered blue dress everyday and how she is teased and bullied because of it and she tells them that she has 100 dresses. We decided to raise 100 dresses for a local branch for the death as well as other needy women and girls. we decorated with the dresses we got. We hung them up on the walls and had little paper dresses around a vase filled poinsettias. It was a huge success and everyone loved the french pastries that we made. :p Thanks again to Mom and Lisa for all your help! When we counted the dressed right before dinner we had 129 but the number was more than that because ladies kept showing up with more and more dresses that night and Sunday as well. Because I am on 2 activities committees in my ward after this party was done I moved right on to the next...the Ward Christmas party. This party is this Thursday and again I am in charge of decorations and the ornaments to be given out to all the family's....which leaves us making them. I have one lady doing 150 and I have another 150. So that's pretty much what I am going to be doing this week. :p Then maybe I can turn my focus on family preparations. :D We are all decorated inside and out. The tree is up (pictures to come) stockings hung as well as lights and we even have a present under the tree. Now all we need is snow :) Merry Christmas everyone and many more to come.