Fun at Christmas Time

Christmas Eve
For Christmas eve morning Tom, Uncle Geoffy and I went to spend Christmas morning at Lani and Steve's, since it was easier to not bring each other's presents to Provo to save space in our cars. Oh gosh, how much fun it was watching the opening of presents and taking of pictures! It was really dark in the morning (we had to do this before I went to work at 8:00). We could tell that no one was up as we sneaked up the stairs to knock on their door! Would've been fun to have had Santa's suits on. I would be dressed up as Santa and Tom as Mrs. Santa! I would've loved to have seen Steve and Lani's half-awake eyes as they looked at us thinking we must be a Nightmare before Christmas~! We stumbled our way in taking our snowy shoes off at the door as we were greeted with a warm sleepy welcome. Lani stumbled to put on the Christmas music on the laptop as Steve groggily tried to find the plug to put on the lights on the tree. After succeeding the ambience was providing a warm glow in the room. I could feel the excitement building so I went and fetched my camera to take a picture of the before and after of the hallway to show the kids coming down with their mom and dad, while Tom and Geoff waited in the front room. I was so excited I was beside myself. I felt like the little child! We could hear in the monitor Mom and Dad announcing the news of 'opening presents time' as they slowly awakened those sleeping munchkins! (There will be a time when they will be waking them for Christmas at 2:00 in the morning hehe). I took my shot of the empty dark hallway and as they were coming out of their bedroom, I found a perfect shot as I could see the little ones heading the Christensen entourage, with Amara taking the lead with her little legs! SNAP! There it was the perfect shot! Then boom came a sound and I could no longer hear little legs! I looked up from my camera and to my horror I had blinded the little leader with my flash! She was on the ground not knowing what happened to her and everyone else who was following her was also blinded while trying to avoid a Christmas Eve collision to the sweet playing music! All I could hear was "Oh No!", "Uh Oh!", "Watch Out" and "Grandma you blinded us!". I didn't think it was lyrics to the Christmas music. Everyone survived that near collision and forgave me quickly and off to open presents we went. As I walked into the front room all I could see in the warmth of the room was my husband shaking his head with a grin and a comment, "You shouldn't have done that, now we have to take the camera away from you!" Then he laughed and all was well.

Christmas Day at M M and J's!
Micah and Mandy so graciously accepted us as we asked to spend Christmas there with them at the last minute. We didn't know if we would be able to get to Christmas in Provo/Orem with the impeding doomsday winter storm that was going to hit while I was at work. Lani and Steve left early to beat the storm and I made it after work but Tom had to wait for Geoff as we found out he had to work. But we all cleared the storm and found ourselves awaiting Christmas morning. Since I arrived in the evening of Christmas and the children were with their dad at their uncle's house having a Christmas evening party, I decided to look around the old neighborhood with it's lights and lots of snow, especially in the hills! I got stuck but got out and headed to the store that almost closed on me ( I forgot I needed to bring salad for Christmas dinner at Jim and Debby's). It was a little hairy there for a moment. I got a call to be invited to Mandy's mom and dad's. I LOVED IT! Mandy has such a sweet and fun family! I sure got to luvin' them and glad I am a part of their lives now. We had lots of laughter and Jaxon just loved his train he got from grandma and grandpa ( I did, too!). It was such a cool train I must say! I hung out till it was time for Jaxon's beddy time and home we went. I love Jaxon's eyes as he would get excited pushing it! In the morning, I kept awaking with anticipation. I kept asking Tom who was dead asleep if he think he heard Micah or Mandy awake for opening presents time because I didn't want to miss a thing!! Light did shine in the morning front room with Geoff sleeping on the couch but no sign of life still. I was thinking... "Why am I thinking at this hour when no one else is?!". I did get very excited when everyone start coming out." I looked at Micah, then I looked at Jaxon and it was like de ja vu. I almost cried seeing and remembering Christmas when Micah was a baby like Jaxon!! OH NOW GET THIS... with Jaxon's famous smile he was in wonder and didn't know where to start till he seen his stocking! Yup, WE even had stockings, that was an awesome surprise!! A delicious one at that! Thank you M M and J for a Christmas worth having, everyone else joined us later that day to exchange presents and stories! At night, we had Christmas FANTABULOUS dinner at their dad's! It was decorated really nice and the food was all so exquisitely delicious! It was definitely memorable in it's own right! Thank you Jim and Debby for inviting us. It was so dang fun! I love our family! It was so nice to see our grandbabies not so sick anymore. Jarom's and Jaxon's first Christmas and we got to spend it with them! Thank you God for the blessing of having us move here so we could be a part of our family and have time with them! It was so cute and caring as Spencer calls me on Christmas eve to invite me to his family's home to play board games. I didn't get time to make it there but I can so appreciate to be made to feel included and thought of! That is what family is all about! Thank you Spencer's family for that, too! I did have one sick baby tho... and that was April! Poor thang. I did visit her and Spencer before going to sleep. I was so worried! I prayed for her several times that night. Always a mommy here. She has a good husband for sure who took care of her. She got to feeling better the next day as we headed to Salt Lake to eat at Spaghetti Factory! Whoa that was delicious! We missed having Joe, Lani and her family there and Geoff stood at Micah's cuz he didn't feel well he said. Maybe next time they can join us. We even took in Tucanos before we left back to Roosevelt our treat to our kids! It is always fun to hang out with our kids. Gotsta do some sledding with hot chocolate with whipped cream when it is not so cold! And I need to remember to send Mandy back her present I took accidentally while packing up to leave their house to head home. UGH! Stealing presents is not how you want to end your Christmas season!! Double Ugh! Bad bad mom!

Thanksgiving at the Cafeteria!

I am backing tracking just a bit as you can see. Noting this on our blog is worth the typing for sure. For Thanksgiving 2008 we got to do a first. We ate Thanksgiving dinner (Lani, Stephen, Amara, Lily, Uncle Geoffy, Tom and I) at my work Cafeteria. How memorable is that?! Well, I think everyone should try this at least once in their lifetime. It was memorable becuz we ate our thanksgiving dinner on take out styrofoam plates where we had to go in the kitchen of the cafeteria to pick it up~ andddd we ate our dinner as a family pretty much with us having the whole cafeteria to ourselves! It was a company cafeteria that offered that day to fix a free meal to families who worked there. The company was of course the best and the meal was super delicious and we didn't need to worry about fixing OR CLEANING a thanksgiving meal. Very relaxing, too.

Because we didn't eat with all our children at Thanksgiving and this was our first Thanksgiving here in Utah with all our kids, we chose to 'extend' our Thanksgiving celebration with a sleepover from our loving kids and our cutie grandbabies! Ohhh my gosh, it was just as memorable as our Thanksgiving but even more! We somehow pulled off a Thanksgiving dinner with Micah making this delicious turkey (worth the wait for sure, I think he winged it but not sure) and everyone came in with everything else yum!! I was so full and so was my heart! We had sick grandbabies poor thangs. It reminded me of when the kids were babies themselves! I actually missed that! I probably wouldn't have said that when I was going through the sleepless nights and exhausting days with worry but I had a great husband to share those moments with, so it could've been worst! I truly can't believe I missed having sick babies now that I am a grandma! My heart really felt for their parents as well. I remembered what they were going through as I watched them take care of their own babies. I love my children!! They are the best! It was sad to see my children go back to Orem/Provo when they had to go home. BUT I am glad to know they are just 2 hours away and not12! phew! We are so happy to be near them, all the sacrificing to move was worth every memory! I'm already missing all of them. Even Lani and her family and they just live next door~! I love you Jakes, April, Spencer, Joe, Missy, Malia, Jarom, Micah, Mandy, Jaxon, Lani, Steve, Amara, Lily and Geoffrey!! May you always know that! I am also grateful for my husband who cares and loves them, too! Who wants to become a better stepdad and grandpa by moving closer. I appreciate his efforts!

2009 is HERE!

The question then becomes "Where did I go?". I must admit if Jacob can write in his blog more then me, that's just wrong! But he inspired me to write more often. I couldn't get Jacob to write in his journal when he was young and here he is pushing through and writing in his blog often. Others family members who go online also inspire me to become better at this. I was really hoping I could find my camera cord to download pics to this blog becuz so much has happen since my last blog and pictures say a lot (and saves me from typing so much). But Jakes has almost no pictures in his blog so shame on me and no excuses here.

Where did I go? Well, since the last time I wrote we have moved from Tucson, Arizona to Roosevelt, Utah. We sold our home in 2 1/2 months and found ourselves camping out at Stephen and Lani's front room for a month while we looked for jobs. We tried to buy the groceries for the time we were there but nothing could compensate for that sacrifice they gave in letting us live there for a time. They even gave up a closet (precious storage space for a small apt.) to us. The food prepared was as wonderful as the cook! Geoff always had a compliment for Lani on the food and we loved it, too! It was so memorable to wake up to our grandchildren every morning, bouncing on our air mattress. ( I wish I could have that every morning with ALL my grandchildren). We were very blessed to find a 3 b 2 bath apt. in Lani's backyard for $650! It's awesome being close to our children. Other apts. in the area seemed more then that if not twice the price. The move was great as we had ALL our children and grandchildren with us to help move us into our home from the storage we are renting. After the move, we were able to find a smaller storage shed. Thanks kids for making the effort to help us!!! It definitely was a great help and they were our first guest in our home, too since we moved!