Birthday and Christmas Celebrations

Merry Christmas to all! I hope everyone had a great Christmas with family and friends. This is always a busy time of year for our family with so many birthdays and holidays with in 2 weeks.

Monday Dec. 21

Today Emily received her birthday package from Nanny and Papa. She got candy, a check for her savings account and a card that sings. She loved the card and I'm surprised that the batteries aren't dead because she's plays it often.

Tuesday Dec. 22

Today it was cloudy most of the day, and early afternoon it started to rain. With the rain we got some hail, and then it turned to snow. It dotted the ground and stayed there for about 10 minutes. Of course I took my dear sweet time and didn't get the camera until it melted! I was too amazed to move!

Wednesday Dec. 23

Happy Birthday Mom! I have been teasing mom for about a week that I had a surprise for her. She tried everything to get it out of me, she even had Kathryn and Jessica try to coax it out of me. We met at Mom's house at 6:30, had pizza from Papa Murphy's, then at 7:30 my cousin Lance pulled up in his LIMO!!! My mom was very surprised and we had the best time driving around looking at Christmas lights. Lance is such a great cousin to treat us to such a great night!

Thursday Dec. 24

The kids and I had last minute errands to run this morning, so we set off early. Nathan got grumpy so I handed him my camera. He took pictures of everything within his sight. So I decided to turn around and have him take a picture of me driving (don't worry, I was stopped). Then that night we went to mom's house and had our annual clam chowder and corn bread Christmas Eve meal. So yummy! Then we let the kids open 1 gift-jammies! We came home and Emily helped me set out chairs for Santa. In our house, Santa doesn't wrap presents, so we label a chair with our name, and that's where Santa puts our gifts. It's a tradition I grew up with. Then Robby and I finished up the preparations for Christmas, and went to bed early so we'd be able to get up with the kids.

Friday Dec. 25

Robby and I were both up around 6am because we had gone to bed so early, so we waited until 7:30am before we couldn't wait any longer and we woke up the kids. Everyone got dressed and we went in the family room to see what Santa brought for us. Then we loaded up in the van and headed to mom's house. We opened up gifts and then started breakfast. Robby made bacon and sausage, mom made holiday (funeral) potatoes, and I made breakfast enchiladas. The sausage smelled funny, but it was maple so we just went on. Robby tasted it, quickly spit it out, and then checked the expiration date. It expired in January of 2008! No wonder it was bad. Robby was the only one that ate any, and he got a little sick, but his iron stomach conquered it. We were very blessed with gifts that were given to us. Our favorites: Robby-money to get new Sunday shoes and pants, Kim-bagless vacuum (So cool!), Emily-Princess scooter, Nathan-Tricycle. Tonight we went to Aunt Linda and Uncle Floyd's home for the Hallsted family Christmas party. We had delicious food and caught up on family stories. Then we did the Nativity story with the kids playing the characters. Emily was Mary (she was a stinker and didn't want to put her costume on), and Nathan was a wiseman. Next we had a white elephant exchange. The theme was candy and Emily got her favorite-Cotton Candy. Then we had dessert and carried on Grandma Hukill's tradition of soaking a sugar cubes in lemon extract and lighting it on fire to see who's cube would burn the longest. So many people blessed our Christmas this year and I can't wait to get started on all the thank you notes! Tonight I vacuumed the family room to see how much my new vacuum could suck up. I just vacuumed last night, so I didn't think it would be much. Holy Yuck! It was so gross! I'm so grateful to have my new vacuum! Thank you mom! I only took 157 pictures today! Haha!

Saturday Dec. 26

I attacked the laundry and cleaned everything but the kitchen today. I was very tired by the end of the day. Mom, Kathryn and Jessica went to see New Moon (I stayed home because those books/movies don't appeal to me) and then I met them at Cafe Rio for dinner. SOOOOOOOO GOOD!!!!!! Kathryn calls it her new Matta's! That's saying something because Matta's has been her favorite restaurant for a long time. Then Kathryn and I headed over to Seagull Book and Deseret Book. I got some Christmas books for next year so I can read a Christmas story each night. We went back to mom's and Allison decided to be really, really cute.

Sunday Dec. 27

Happy Birthday Kathryn! I can't believe my "little" sister is now 25 years old! Today Nathan decided to scream through half of Sacrament meeting and Emily whined at the same time. They got better, but it was still frustrating. In Young Women's today we talked about setting goals, and I got fired up to set some great goals and start accomplishing them. Tonight Robby said he was bored and wanted to see how much he could get out of the carpet in the hallway and the 3 bedrooms. I was just excited to see him vacuum! But he got so much out of the carpet that it made me sick to know what was in my carpet that I vacuum at least once a week. Again, I am sooooooo grateful for this new vacuum. I'm sure it will make my home much cleaner!