It's time to say good-bye to 2009. It's been a good year with lots of changes and triumphs. Here are some photos from November and December.
Rachel enter the PTA Reflections competition again this year. The theme was "Beauty is...". Her painting of an orangutan entitled "Beauty is in the eye of the beholder" went on to REGION this year! Rachel is very excited.
My parents celebrated their 40th Wedding Anniversary on December 13th. All 5 of us (my brothers, sisters and I) put together a little surprise celebration the day before Thanksgiving. We were all able to be there--which was great. My niece made these sashes for them that say "40th Partiers". Cute.
Jean spent the weekend knitting these awesome gloves!
The Cousin's Table was THE place to be for Thanksgiving dinner...Thanks Carrie!
We celebrated Carrie's birthday the day after Thanksgiving at Brick Oven Pizza in Provo. YUM!
This picture is only funny if your last name is Day...but I couldn't resist!
Decorating the tree...I think Sam must have had some bad memory about pre-school when he pulled out this ornament he made when he was 4! We've been getting real trees the past couple of years...and I don't know if I'll go back. The SMELL is my FAVORITE!
These little Christmas cherubs actually made the naughty list this year after they found all of their gifts under my bed! (They did redeem themselves, though.)This year was a little bitter sweet...see those cute gingerbread people that hold treats for Santa? Well, they didn't get used this year for the first time ever. I now have a house full of non-believers--and my kids didn't even PRETEND to want to put treats out for Santa (sigh).
Sam was overcome with emotion when he met up with his beloved 1st/2nd Grade Teacher, Karen Steele. The former class had a little surprise holiday gathering for her downtown. Mrs. Steele will ALWAYS hold a special place in Sam's heart (and ours, too).
Rachel received this hat in the mail from her BFF in Pennsylvania, Julia. She wore it for 2 days STRAIGHT!
We found that we were able to lure Dr. Stress-Pants away from his laptop with jigsaw puzzles. As soon as he finished this one (in 1 day), we bought him another one!
Our Christmas Eve traditions include having a grand Buffet--each person chooses two favorite things (no limitations). This year's buffet included: flank steak with mushrooms (aka Andy's Yule Log), mashed potatoes, spinach salad, chocolate dipped strawberries, pizza, root beer in a tall glass with ice, chicken pasta and crescent rolls. The rest of what you see here are some favorite holiday treats.
Another favorite Christmas Eve tradition is opening family gifts. In this photo Sam and Rachel are overcome with emotion upon opening Mario Kart. They were convinced that they had been seriously deprived up to this point because we didn't have it!
Isn't this disgusting?! We didn't have the energy to clean up as we opened things on Christmas morning. Perhaps the reason is that our Christmas cherubs got up at 4 (yes 4) to open their stockings. They weren't allowed to wake us up until 7. They came in at 6:00 and then at 6:59. By the time everything was opened, we went back to BED!
We've had a very lovely, relaxing time the past few days enjoying our gifts and each other (and yes, cleaning up the mess).
We are so very thankful to have each other and to be surrounded by so many loving friends and family members. We love you all! Merry Christmas and Happy 2010!
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