Some of our Favorite Christmas Moments

We had a fabulous Christmas this year. It was our first Christmas that we have spent in Tennessee. Jeff's sister Holly came into town from Dallas with her cute family. We loved having them here. We really missed everyone in Arizona a lot. Wish we could have Christmas in both states. But, we are grateful we have family here. We've had many Christmases without any family. It's much better with. The week started with the kids making Aunt Laurie's famous graham cracker houses. They always have a great time doing this. Once again, I had a great time eating the candy while they were creating! Here's Brennan, McKay, Kaisey, Abby Blackham (friend), Uncle Ben, Jadyn, Bailey, Taelyn, Brooke, Regan, Emma, Gracie, Scott. Fun group of kids! Monday night we got together with the Danielson gang. We were going to go Christmas caroling. Unfortunately, Jeff's Grandma Stay passed away that day so the mood kind of changed. On top of that, it was around 13 degrees outside that night. SO, we decided to carol to ourselves and share favorite Christmas moments. Very enjoyable.

Christmas Eve we decided to do a progressive dinner. We started at our house for appetizers and a cousins' Christmas piano recital. Very talented group of kids. Then we went to Mom and Dad Danielson's for yummy dinner and the nativity. Here's our group below. We then walked across the street to Laurie's house for dessert and play. It is so fun to live so close to each other where we can do things like that. Afterwards, we went to look at Christmas lights and had the kids open their jammies. It was such a fun night. Here's Jeff trying to get a little Christmas action. Think he got lucky?

Christmas day I heard someone up at 6 a.m. I walked upstairs to the game room and found Brennan. Turns out the kid woke up at 12:30 am and never went back to sleep. Crazy boy! Had the kids open presents then had the Collierville family over for our traditional chili egg puff breakfast. YUMMY! Can't break tradition. Especially when it comes to food. Our Christmas miracle....Brooke got some boobs.....

Cutie Jadyn with her new slippers.

Look at the cute sisters sharing the love.

Jeff got these awesome pants from a friend in the ward...."SEE THESE PANTS?" - Napoleon Dynamite

Our wonderful children must have been good this year since they didn't get any coal from Santa. The rest of the day was spent at the movies, being with family and a small adult party playing games with chips, dip, and salsa once the kids were in bed. Good Christmas!

Party, Party, Party!

It was a week of party party party. Sound familiar? But first, this is an advent calendar my mom made us years ago. My kids absolutely LOVE hanging up the ornaments day by day and counting down the time for Christmas. Each child takes their turn and looks forward to it. As you can see though, the top of the tree is up pretty high on the wall. Last Sunday I got a glimpse of this....

My sweet Brennan had Regan on his shoulders helping her put the ornament on for her turn. He's a great big brother! My primary class earned a party for good behavior. They decided to make sugar cookies, have pizza and watch Christmas movies. We had a great time. We did miss Carson though. Wasn't quite the same without him (our only boy). I just love this class and feel blessed to be their teacher. Wednesday after school, Brooke's 3rd grade teacher had her class bring gifts to the Adult Alzheimers home here in Collierville. They then sang a bunch of Christmas songs for them. It was really cool. Afterwards, Brooke got in the car and said, "I feel so good inside Mom. Can we go there again sometime?" I'm grateful she has a teacher that gave them such a wonderful experience.

On Thursday, both Brooke and Jadyn had class parties at school. Here's Brooke decorating her cookie.

Jadyn's class also had a little Christmas program for us. SOOO CUTE! Jadyn did a great job and loved dressing up for it. She also has an amazing teacher. What a blessing!

Friday night we had our ward Christmas party. Santa Claus came for a visit. Regan seemed to enjoy it. Jadyn loved talking with Santa too.

Brennan thought he was too old for Santa, but liked being a goof ball with him.Brooke, on the other hand, wanted nothing to do with Santa. She was afraid of him and didn't like everyone starring at her. Here she is after we forced her to atleast stand by Santa for a picture. NOT HAPPY AT ALL! I also got to go to a cookie exchange party with some of the women in the ward. Also enjoyable. Although busy, we had a fun week spending time with family and friends. Aren't we blessed?

Friends

I love to read my family and friends' blogs. It is such a fun way to catch up with everyone and see what goes on in their lives. Interestingly, it seems like lately there has been a reoccuring theme with everyone.....friends. Funny thing is, I've been wanting to post about the same topic for a while now. Now I'm even more impressed to blog about my friends. Ever since I was a little girl, my mom has told me to pray for good friends. I have always done that. I must say, it works. I have been blessed with the most AMAZING friends a girl could ever have. It has been such a huge blessing in my life. Here's a picture of one of them. Miss Elizabeth Cluff (aka Libby).

Elizabeth and I have been friends for 20 years now. We met each other at Ricks college our first year out of High School. She followed me to Arizona after that. Elizabeth has been one of my sweetest, dearest friends. We have been through A LOT together and she has always been by my side. No matter how far a way we are from each other, it doesn't matter. Our friendship has always been strong. Through roommates and boyfriends and getting married and trying for children and then having those children.... she has been there. Right now Elizabeth if fighting breast cancer. Once again I have been amazed by her. Don't get me wrong. She has her bad times, she has her pain, but she is such a source of strength to all who surround her. Despite all of her trials and difficulties, she remains positive. She is such a blessing to all of us. I can't imagine my life without her. Thank you Elizabeth for years of laughter, tears, joy, frustration, and more laughter. You are an amazing blessing in my life! I love you! This girl below is Heather Biggs. She and I have been friends since the 7th grade. She has also been through a lot with me too. Heather was around when I lost my father. I can't tell you how much she meant to me during those dark, dark days. She stood by me through the most difficult time in my entire life. Through the years after college we stayed in touch, but our lives went different ways. Recently, we have gotten to be close again. It has meant the world to me to have our relationship strong again. She too has had a lot of health problems lately and lots of trials and difficulties associated with it. Once again, I stand in awe as I watch how she faces these problems. She too has her bad moments, as we all do. But her overall attitude is so optimistic and full of faith. She is such a wonderful example to me. I am so grateful to have her in my life. When I'm having hard days, she is one of the first I want to call. Heather, I am so grateful for you. Thank you for putting up with me over the years, not giving up on our friendship and staying a huge part of my life. I love you!

AND THEN, I have all of my OTHER friends. I seriously could write a blog devoted to all of them. I have had so many special friends that have shared such important parts of my life. I have friends that are there with me in my own trials, laugh with me in the good times, friends I can confide in and know they will be there for me no matter what. To Stephani and Shelli... thank you for filling my days in Texas with so much joy. Your friendship means more to me than you'll ever know. To all my friends that live here... you are an amazing bunch of women. I am so grateful to be surrounded by such fun people that enjoy having a good time and yet strive to live a good life and stay close to the Lord. I just LOVE, LOVE, LOVE the friends I have here. Thank you for all you do and who you are! To all my friends in high school... thank you for supporting me through such difficult years. I couldn't have survived it without you. To my very best friends (besides Jeff)... my sister and my mom... no one gets me like you do. You are my favorite people to be around. I can never thank you enough for EVERYTHING! Okay... this is way too long. But my point is, I am very, very blessed. To all my friends ..... THANK YOU. My life has been touched because of you.

Gingerbread Houses

Regan's fun Aunt Laurie has a tradition of having the preschoolers to her house to make "Gingerbread" Houses made of graham crackers. She puts the little houses together before the kids get there and all the moms bring a bag of candy to share. We had about 12 kids there this time. The kids had such a good time putting the houses together and use their creativity. The moms had a good time eating the candy and chatting. It really is a win win situation. We love doing this. Thanks Laurie!

Here's Regan with some of the kids.... Ryleigh, Alayna, Regan and Cara. Such cute girls. Of coarse Laurie's game room was a total disaster after they played in there. I went up to get the kids to clean up. The only one cleaning was Cara Rees. I told Regan she needed to get up and help clean too. She was in the corner standing by the rocking horse. She just looked and me and said, "No Mom. I need to stand here and watch the rocking horse to make sure nobody gets on it." What kids will say to get out of cleaning! You gotta admit, she's creative.

It's the most wonderful time of the year!

It's that most wonderful time... RUN, RUN, RUN as fast as you can to be at all of the wonderful events that pack the month of December. I really do love this time of the year, but sometimes it gets a little crazy. Last week we got to go to Brennan's Christmas Choir concert. I'm not really impressed with his choir teacher, but the kids did a good job with what they are working with. It was fun watching Brennan sing. I love hearing him sing and am glad he finally is embracing that talent...even if he is only 1 of 4 boys in his middle school choir. Go Brennan!

I also got to go to a couple of Christmas parties this week. One was for my Jazzercise class. Kinda funny to see how much really junky food people bring from an exercise class. Oh well. It's Christmas, right? Here is the husband and his "helper" of the lady who hosted the party. They were a crack up!

On Saturday, Jeff and I had the privilege of going to the Temple to do sealings. Once again I was reminded of what wonderful blessings are in store for us if we keep our covenants. It amazes me how much our Heavenly Father loves us. The spirit was SO strong. It bore witness to me once again that this is truly His work and His house. What a blessing!

This month was also our wards month to clean the temple. So, when we were done with the sealings, we cleaned with a large group from our ward. IT WAS SO COOL! There is not much more rewarding than cleaning the Lord's house. It made us feel incredible inside to be a part of it. On top of that, there is nothing better than cleaning clean. I was in heaven! (Are you jealous Laura? Remind you of your old job?)

It amazed me how clean the place is. I mean there wasn't even a particle of dust coming down from the ceiling fans that I dusted. INCREDIBLE! It made me realize though that my house that I think is usually very clean probably isn't as clean as it could be. The whole experience was really cool. Something I highly recommend if you ever get a chance!

A Time of Thanks

We had a GREAT Thanksgiving week. Luckily for us, we have the blessing of living by family and had lots of visitors this Thanksgiving. Jeff's brother Joe and his wife Melanie came in from Pennsylvania with their two kids. Laurie had some cousins from North Carolina come. Then, while we were playing games at our house on Thanksgiving eve, the doorbell rang. We were surprised by a visit from Jeff's other brother Carl from Utah. It was so much fun having everyone here.

Wednesday we went bowling. Here are the cousin bowlers and the adult bowlers. We had 4 lanes for two hours. In the end we decided that two hours was way too long bowling. I was hurting that night. Used muscles I don't normally use I guess. We had fun though. That night was when we did games and had the cousins spend the night.

Thanksgiving morning all the grown boys went to play football with the ward and got beat up, but had a good time. I made breakfast moms (or breakfast jacks) for all the little girls in my home after I went and grabbed a newspaper and a beverage (my favorite tradition). We watched the Thanksgiving Day parade as the kids circled what they wanted in the newspaper ads and I made homemade rolls. We then headed over to mom and dad Danielson's for a DELICIOUS dinner. These pictures are of the girls making Grandma's traditional apple turkeys. Also Jeff with ALL of his brothers. They haven't been all together for a few years. The Danielson Boys - Jeff, Steve, Carl & Joe. That night we went to my house for a movie and went to bed stuffed. Friday Jeff & I hit the stores for all of the sales. We aren't die hards... we left our house at 9 am. We (or should I say I) just like being out with Jeff after being home all day. I kinda go stir crazy staying home for that long. We had a great time together and got a lot of shopping done. That night, Laurie & David (her fiance), Rommyn's cousin Eric and wife Christa, Jeff's parents, Carl and Jeff & I went down to Beale street to BB Kings for yummy food and wonderful music. When in Memphis you have to do BB Kings. It's so Memphis. Anyway, Christa, David and I had a fun time doing the "Electric Slide". Later on I had this old guy that seemed to be 100 years old call me out to the dance floor to dance with him. IT WAS SO FUN! He was such a riot. He wanted to dance every song and kept pointing to different women to come dance with him. It was a great time. Saturday we spent the WHOLE day setting up for Christmas. All in all it was a wonderful week. I am SO grateful for everything I have and acknowledge that it is all from the Lord. One of the biggest blessings - family. I'm so grateful to have such a wonderful family. Both the one I came from and the one I married in to. How blessed am I?