Christmas Eve

We had a very nice and fun Christmas Eve party at our house. There was a lot of delicious food. Thanks to good participation from family members, there was a fun program following dinner.

Thirty-seven people were in attendance at the party. My parents, all of my siblings and their families and our children and their families were invited to attend. We were missing Jacob's family of seven, Mark's family of seven and Zack who is serving a mission.

Here are some random shots of those who came.

The program began with Ben's claymation presentation he had to make for school.

Mike brought a package of Twinkies and wanted someone to stuff them both in his mouth. Dallas was willing.

And so was Spencer. Looks like Sarah was willing to take a mouthful as well.

The Golden family had a group sing-along.

Rachel played the piano.

Maggie played the violin.

Bryce did some air guitar playing.

Abe showed a funny Christmas sweats song while Spencer entertained us through the bars.

Dad told a Christmas story.

Lorene was our December birthday girl. She looked so beautiful in her blue outfit.

Glen and Dallas hanging out after the program.

Rachel and Maggie made some cute reindeer cookies.

Enjoying dessert after the program.

Topping the night off with a little eggnog.

Good night, sleep tight. Santa Claus is coming to town!!

Quotes of the Week

"Learn from yesterday, live for today, hope for tomorrow. The important thing is not to stop questioning."
 -- Albert Einstein

"The three great essentials to achieve anything worthwhile are: Hard work, Stick-to-itiveness, and Common sense."
 -- Thomas A. Edison

"Now if you are going to win any battle you have to do one thing. You have to make the mind run the body. Never let the body tell the mind what to do. The body will always give up.  It is always tired morning, noon, and night. But the body is never tired if the mind is not tired. When you were younger the mind could make you dance all night, and the body was never tired... You've always got to make the mind take over and keep going."
-- George S. Patton

Quotes of the Week

"You should never be surprised when someone treats you with respect, you should expect it."
-- Sarah Dessen

"You're worried about how you're going to feel at the end of your life? What about right now? Live. Right this minute.  That's where the joy's at."
-- Abigail Thomas

"I urge you to please notice when you are happy, and explain or murmur or think at some point, 'If this isn't nice, I don't know what is.'"
-- Kurt Vonnegut

Someone Has Come to Town and It's Not Santa Claus

Oh yes! About this time of year everyone anticipates a big jolly old guy stopping by for a visit. Well, the person we were anticipating is definitely a jolly fellow, but not quite as big and old as Santa Claus. He did come bearing gifts--the gift of his presence and his precious family.

Yes--the much anticipated arrival of Abe and his family has come to pass. They are in town for the holiday and everyone has been so excited to meet Abe and Klarissa's new son, Newland.

Abe and Klarissa came bearing an early Christmas gift to me--guaranteed to cure all that ails me...well some of what ails me. Thanks, guys!!

Posing for Christmas pictures (with me trying to hold my germs in for the picture with Newland).

Sunday family dinner all hinged upon when Jeff and Sarah got back in town from Cedar City. The night before we had been telling everyone dinner would be at 5:00. Sunday morning Sarah texted to be expecting them around 3:00, so we moved the meal up a couple of hours.

Apparently everyone but Rebecca got the memo (that's what she gets for not having multi-media texting on her phone...). When they got home from church at 2:00, they had all eaten and had just settled down for afternoon naps when it occurred to me she hadn't been getting the latest updates.

Here she is giving me the evil eye for the oversight. She brought Brooke and Caroline right over to join in the fun while Dallas stayed behind for a while with a napping Spencer. I'll say it once again, Rebecca--SORRY!! And it's a good thing you live so close to us now that you could do exactly what you did.

Abe and Sarah swapped babies to get a good look at their new little nephews.

Carson and Newland getting acquainted with each other.

Here we are in the quarantine eating space trying to keep our germs to ourselves. I found out today my whooping cough results came back negative. Just pneumonia. Isn't that comforting to everyone? At least I feel like this second round of 10-day antibiotic is finally actually helping me get better.

And of course Sunday isn't complete until Grandpa makes popcorn for all the grandchildren.

Newland got his first dose of all the kids gathering around the popcorn poppers while Grandpa sings the popcorn song to them while waiting for the corn to pop.

Fun times for everyone. More partying tonight at the Christmas Eve family dinner party.

MERRY CHRISTMAS to all!!!!