Christmas Recap

I have to agree with the kids, it never really felt like Christmas this year.  I don't know if it is our unseasonably warm weather, or that the schools got out late for break this year.  Whatever it was, it just never really felt like Christmas.

However, even though it didn't feel like Christmas we still had a great time.  The season usually starts with the Church Christmas play and Maureen did an outstanding job with the kids this year.

 

Jason played both a Shepard and a solider this year.  He even had speaking parts this year.  He did wonderful and said his lines perfectly.  We had a potluck after, it is always a great way to start the Christmas season.



 

I was reminded this year, of why I don't like making and decorating sugar cookies.  Jason took the task very seriously.  Gotta love the kool aid stain on his face and the frosting all over his shirt.  I love this kids face.



Don't let the picture below fool you.   Look how serious she is, I should have stopped her right there.



See how she is standing and pouring the decorations in her hand.  See all the lovely cookies in front of
her.  She decided the fastest way to decorate the most cookies was to stand there and toss the sugar over the top of the cookies.  Some made it on the cookies and some didn't.  She was very pleased with herself and kept laughing as I made her vacuum the floor.



Here is a sample of her finished cookies.  I should have known when I asked her if she wanted to help and she got that smile of hers and said, "suuuuuure."



This year Jason did the Church Children's Christmas Choir again.  Here he is on the retirement home tour.  He is in the back with the green stocking hat on.



Again, but at a different home.
 


Back at the Church Hall for pizza.  He has serious hat hair.



Here are the kids on Christmas Eve.  Jason is getting ready for his solo.  Which he did perfectly and we were so proud of him.



Christmas morning was crazy and I didn't take a lot of pictures.  The kids were happy with their presents.  But Cheddar was extremely happy with his angry birds chew toy.  It lasted about 2 hours.



Poor thing, this is all that was left.



The kids got a PS3 and here is Megan helping Dad hooking it up to the TV.




Besides cooking, here is how I spent my day.  Helping Jason put together his Harry Potter Lego set.  It took us ALL day.




And the back side of it.



This picture is for my Mom.  Megan has the thickest hair and she is not crazy about using a hair dyer.  So after a shower she would walk around the house with wet, drippy hair.  My Mom sent her one of these so she can wrap up her wet hair.  Megan loves it, and it works great.

No pictures of Anthony here, because he got a brand new xbox game and was in his room trying it out.



Even though it didn't feel like Christmas it still was a wonderful day spent with my wonderful family.  This year really reminded us how fast the kids are growing up. It won't be long before our little family Christmas traditions will be changing.  I will keep these memories forever.

I hope every one's Christmas was as great as ours.

Cold Cold Morning

Another installment of what I like and dislike about this small town.

I love that I can get up early and head off for a walk.  I like walking as the sun is coming up, very pretty.  I love that when I walked out my front door and headed down the street I saw a bunch of deer.  They were so pretty walking down the street.

What I don't like about this town:  The sidewalks were really icy this morning.  The dog really wanted to say hello to the deer and pulled me down with him.  I went down on my knee and I am pretty sore today.  Hopefully, I will heal quickly.  Not a good time of year to not be moving around very well.

On another note.  Anthony is off to a wrestling tournament today.  He pulled his shoulder in practice yesterday.  This is an old injury from 2 years ago.  I really think he should have taken this weekend off to heal for next weekend. He, however, believes different.  His response to me was, "I have wrestled with broken fingers before, I will be fine."  I hope so.  He won't even tape it up.  Wrestlers don't tape things.

I will keep you posted on how things play out.  I will hopefully have pictures, but not sure how much I will be on the mats with my knee hurting.  Oh well, have a great day.  Remember Christmas is only 9 days away.

Happy December 14th

I don't really have anything at all to say today.   I just wanted to say that I posted.  HE HE

Wrestling Season Has Begun

Yep....it is here.  This weekend was the big tournament our small town host's.  Anthony didn't make it to the finals but he did really well.  His knee and shoulder held out great, but he is having issues with his elbow.   This is a very intense sport, and injury's like this are all part of it.

Right now he weight's 153 and is wrestling in the 160 class.  Wednesday night they had him move up into the 170.  As you can imagine that match didn't go well for him.  The school has a new policy regarding weight cutting.  According to his weight and body index he is not allowed to drop down in weight until after Christmas.  So he has been slowly down his weight until he can wrestle in the 152 class.  He weighed 158 during football, so the weight loss hasn't been to drastic.  He has just made some minor cuts in what he is eating.  He still does his favorite lunch of Kentucky Fried Chicken with Hayden.  Both of these kids could stand some weight gain.

He is very bummed that he will still be in the 160 class for a Washington tournament next week.  He has really been looking forward to this one.  It is a really tough tournament.  This weekend is a smaller tournament not to far out of town.  We like it because it is smaller and close to home.  Anthony usually places in this one.

Here are a couple of pictures from this last weekend.

Good Morning

I got up early to make sure the kids were off to school and I was going to sit down and write my Christmas letter.  I kept telling myself that I had lots of time. Pictures weren't here yet, then just waiting on Jason's picture.  Well, they are all here along with the Christmas cards and I still have not typed my letter.  I am half tempted just to sign the cards and send them out.

This Christmas is a little different for us.  We are really organized and could be completely done with our shopping this weekend.  Notice I said "could be".  We also have wrestling tournaments all weekend, Christmas choir practice and play practice.  Plus, Steve and I need to finalize one big gift for the kids.  I can't mention it here because the girl has been known to check my blog to see what her gifts are.

We are pretty sure the big gift is a go, but we just need to get it.  Then I can finish up the rest of the shopping.  All the stuff we are sending back to California has been purchased and wrapped, just waiting for that stupid Christmas letter.  Ok, that's it.......Getting offline to work on this thing. 

After I check facebook.   :)

A Month and 3 Days

That is how long it has been since my last post.  I think that might be the longest yet.  What in the world have I been up to?

Lots!!!!  As I discribed in my previous post, I decided to take the leap into starting my own business.  I am still in the very beginning stages and learning new things every day.  I have done a couple of family shoots, kids and a even a senior.  I still need to get one done for Anthony.  I have one that will be fine for handing out to people but not for his year book.

Sunday, we headed out to get a picture for our Christmas cards and one of Jason.  Since he is being home schooled we don't do school pictures.  It was sunny here in town but not where we did the shoot.  I had been there the day before and it was cold but not this cold.  Just overnight the river had frozen over.  We had to hurry because the kids were turning red.  Poor Megan didn't feel good but she was a good sport about it.  You can tell she doesn't feel good in this picture.


I managed to get this one and one other. The other one is going in our cards.

Here is the one I got of Jason.
 You can see his face is turning red from the cold.