Christmas 2007 Memories

(This is so typical of my life....I started this post on New Year's Eve and now it is Jan 11th and I'm just getting back to this. I guess I should just be happy that my head is on straight enough that I even remembered that we have a blog! Anyway, here it is)

(1-12-08 (I'm having trouble uploading pictures. I'll keep working on it, but if I wait to make this post it will never get done!)

With only an hour left of 2007 I thought I would share some of our Holiday Memories of the last week. (With a whole hour to kill and me being exhausted, this could get interesting.)

Let's backtrack to Sunday, the 23rd...

After going to church and hearing the beautiful Christmas music and readings of the Nativity story, we went to Terry's mother's side of the family Christmas Party. The kids love all the toys at their cousins' house (especially Adam as they have two boys and he's always stuck with girls here.) There's always good eats, lots of laughs and a gift frenzy that would wow Daddy Warbucks (sorry we just watched Annie today.)

This year was especially fun because we had Terry's brother Clint and his family back from Ohio. We've been so blessed to spend more of 2007 with them than in the last several years, and it has definitely made us miss them. They will be moving to Portland in January so we'll get to see them so much more and we can't wait!

Sarah was the truly the "Star" of the evening. She received a Cinderella dress and some very chic accessories. Her true Diva was able to shine and she played it well. Terry and I have often discussed her personality and whom did she get it from - she is something that's for sure.

Monday, December 24th - Christmas Eve...

We spent the day cleaning up all the presents from last night and trying to get the house in some order to have our holiday dinner then Birthday party for Adam. We were very lucky to have Grandma Pat, her friend, Tom, Papa Ted & B-Nana Werner, as well as Uncle Clint, Aunt Whitney and Cousin Van with us for the evening.

We order our dinner from Safeway then add extra side dishes and other stuff we like. I know this is a slap in the face to every true blooded American mother who slaves in the kitchen to feed her family a nice meal, but it just isn't my thing. I know Disney thinks anyone can cook, even rats, but they've never met me! Our time off is too precious for me to experiment with my poor family.

So on to Adam's birthday - on one hand it's nice that we're all together and home on his birthday but he's 6 years old and never had a regular birthday party. We've done the family thing every year, but I promised him one with his friends this year and once again we just can't fit it in. Life stinks sometimes. He got a cool train set from his cousins and we've bought some additional pieces for it which he thinks is really cool. But I think we're going to just celebrate his birthday in the spring or summer with the girls so he can have a real party with friends.

The highligh of the party was the ant farm! The kids all screamed while Terry put the ants into it then we went and scared B-Nana with it. What fun it's been to watch.

Tuesday, December 25, 2007....

Christmas morning came so very quickly, as it always does when you're up "late preparing" like we moms and dads do. We have a tradition where the kids all sleep upstairs (Adam's room is on the main floor right off the living room) and they can't come down in the morning until mom and dad say it's okay. I took this picture of them before they came down. Such angels!

Once downstairs, chaos reigned supreme while packages were torn into, toys were unwrapped and garbage piled up. Really it is always so cool to see the wide eyes and the smiles and to have them so pure in their belief for this short time.

So with another Holiday over and another year gone, I hope everyone has the hope and faith that 2008 can be the best year yet!