New Year's Tradition

Hello New Year. A fresh start, a clean slate. The walls look a little bare, but most of Christmas is down. It feels like we extended our Christmas quite a bit by traveling to the Los Angeles area to visit my folks and meet up with my sister and her family. The padres never fail to impress with their celebratory decorations and holiday food. The kids and I had a nice trip. There wasn't too much L. A. traffic and even though it is a long drive, we seemed to make it there without hardship.  Emmy even participated in driving a little. She is turning out to be quite the helper. 
I was happy I was able to get my nails done while there and a great car wash at Whitwood Car Wash. I love their indoor outdoor cleaning package. It isn't too expensive and really renews the look of the car! We had a great time with the family laughing, playing games and spending time together. Some wonderful highlights were; Newport Beach, Downtown Disney, and walking with my girls.

We have gone to L.A. for New Year's for many years, it is a great tradition. I was really glad Tanya and her boys flew from Hawaiian to be with the family. We hadn't seen them since last Near Year's so it was a special time!

Getting relaxation in through the Chaos of Christmas

Christmas was nice. The kids helped wrap all through the month. We had a family time where we watched the history channel's version of the nativity story. Mary was a bit more emotional than in previous stories, but we had to turn it off quick when the story changed to Herod killing the babies in Bethlehem. We were able to enjoy many festivities before so it was nice to relax on Christmas Eve and Christmas day. Celia had an ear infection, but we were able to get into the insta care and get her pink medicine. The kids went to sleep early and Santa did his/her duty eating cookies and drinking the eggnog.:) Spencer seemed more aware this year. He was quite happy with his toys and pushed and looked away from his clothing presents. Joseph was up at 3am and waited until 5am to get the rest of us. We had yummy Swedish pancakes with berries and powdered sugar on them. Everyone seemed to be very happy. I'm glad the sickness didn't hold anybody down and we relaxed, played games and cleaned up after it all. There is something to be said for Christmas at home.

Cold Air and Warm Hearts

Boy is it colder than normal around here. I was in the kitchen and noticed some ice and light snow dusting on our grass and rooftops around here. Last night Brian and I went to his work Christmas party. I thought I'd wear my red open toed shoes, Brr! It was drafty in there and my little toes were cold! The Christmas party was fun though, we had a gift exchange( came home with 6 different kinds of hot sauce) and there was a steak dinner and karaoke. There also was a slide show of Christmas parties past . I told Bri someone would notice if I wore the same thing as in other year, hehe.:) We stopped off at Marshall's after to look for some great bath stuff, because I love my bubble baths.~  On our way Brian's car warned us of the cold, it dinged if it get below 39 degrees. It kept dinging! It is nice that despite the cold weather we have the holidays and warms of family to keep us cheery.


Spence loves Antelope and did so great visiting the Antelope fourth ward's Christmas party. Once we found a table he sat, ate, laughed, looked around, and generally was a good quiet boy for two hours. That is unheard of with him. We can barely get him into the church at our current ward building. We heard a professional singer sing all the classic holiday songs, it was really good! Then, there was a program and at the end Emmy accompanied singers on her flute to a variation of silent night. It was pretty, she was nervous a little. I would be too, there were probably over 400 people there to hear her play, no pressure.:) After dinner, dessert, and the program Santa came and Celia perked up to see him. I'm glad we got to go and have Spencer have that great opportunity. Maybe we should visit that ward for church for Spencer.~  Joseph had Brian to go and watch him in his winter concert at his school. Joseph is getting really good and the trumpet and can read music now, it makes me happy.:) It is early in December, but we are partied out already I think. Time for focus on the family and serving others.

Tacky Sweater Christmas Party

I didn't have a tacky sweater, but I dressed up in cheetah antlers for the party. A bunch of girls  I know from church got together at our local mall and hung out. We all had food from the food court. I had an extremely delicious mixed berry crepe with crème cheese topping on it. We exchanged gifts, stole ones and had a delicious homemade sugar cookie. The host Amanda Waite is so creative and fun. I really just enjoyed sitting and chatting with these ladies and relaxing there. Cute idea for a party and pretty fun girls night out!

Happily Hosting Thanksgiving with my folks.

Thanksgiving was great. I felt the support of my parents as they helped make meals and decorate for our dinner. The kids loved playing Just Dance 4 and relaxing off school for a week. It is a great thing to be together. We enjoyed shopping at DI and Tuesday Morning. The kids sure enjoyed our 711 stops and Spencer wanted to come in each of the stores. Spencer was a good boy that week with the Grandparents here. He took naps and went for rides and played in his room. He was excited to get back in the groove of his school routine though. I'm so happy he has been sleeping through the night so well and holding back his frustration(acting out) a little better lately.

Emmy, Mom and Dad, and I went shopping for Black Friday. We were surprised and pleased to get a free Disney mickey snow globe at JC Pennies and a ten dollar gift card at Dimple Records. Getting good deals makes me happy. The kids loved wrapping gifts for their siblings too. They begged me to wrap the presents.Joseph can't wait for Christmas even more so than Celia, it's cute. Grandma decorated our Christmas tree this year. She gets a A grade for decorating. Speaking of Grades Emmy with the help of Andrew finished her roller coaster project for honors physics. It worked featuring a 360, hill, loop, and funnel event for a marble to pass through. I'm glad Emmy could get that great help from Andrew. Celia earned a trophy from me from having great behavior at school an d being nice to her friends.. She was pretty happy to earn it and was glad she received her first trophy! That makes for a good start of being nice for December.:)