Ah! The Holidays

I love this time of year. All the parties, the fun, the laughter, the games. Our Christmas was a blast! (I have pictures I will do later.) Christmas Eve was we spent the night at my parent's house. Scott and the boys took all the tv's downstairs (we had brought ours and Chamrie's) and hooked up three x-boxes and played Halo 2. Chamrie, Doug, Lem, Chiya, and Ben all went home at 11pm. Before that we had our traditional Hoagie dinner with lots of cool dips and chips. After the mass exodus, Mom, Ryan, and I filled stockings, and put the presents under the tree. Then, exauhsted, we went to bed. Scott and my Dad played Halo 3 together, till 6am Christmas Morning. We had to wake them up at 8:30 am because Nate was calling us at 9.

We were waiting for all the other married family to come before we opened presents. Nate called, and we had to ask him to call back because Ben and Randee hadn't come yet. Finally, at 10:30am, we all got on the phone with Nate. It was great to hear his voice, tell him good news, and hear his stories. After the phone call, I was pretty hungry, so we made our traditional Breakfast, before we opened presents. My mother never made us big breakfasts. It was always oatmeal, and then as we got older, it was a free for all. So Christmas Breakfast is the one time during the year that we pull out all the stops. We have waffles, with fruity syrups, hashbrowns, cinnamon rolls, eggs, bacon, sausage, etc.

Finally, after we were all well fed, we opened presents. My poor little sisters had been dying, it was the longest wait they have had for christmas. Usually we open them at 8am, and this year it was almost 1pm. Daniel fell asleep for his nap before we were able to attack the presents, so we set his aside for him when he woke up.

All in all it was alot of fun. One of our traditions is that each of us gets a ping pong ball gun and we have a big fight, shooting eachother all over the house. As time has gone on, the ping pong guns have dissapeared, leaving the more expensive NERF guns as the only alternative. This year Dad bought seven of them, and pulled them out while we were waiting for Ben and Randee. It was so much fun! We passed the guns around, and watched all the guys get into it, jumping over couches, hiding around corners, and causing general chaos.

After all the festivities were over at my parents house, we headed to my In-Laws. They always have Christmas Dinner, which works out great for us. We had ham, mashed potatoes, cranberry jello, and my special yams. We had alot of fun visiting with all of our nieces and nephews, and chatting with our other family. We watched Bourne Ultimatum with them, and left to relax at home at 9:30pm. It was a full day, but lovely.

Gingerbread Houses

We started a new family tradition last year, and that was making Gingerbread Houses. This year at the Logan Family Christmas Party we made ornaments, gingerbread houses, ate hoagies and made a really big mess! This year we drew names to see who would make the house together. It was alot of fun!

My brother, Ben and I made this lovely house.

My Parents drew eachother, so cute!

Lem (Chiya's husband) drew Chalae, and my son

wanted to help with their house.

Scott and Cheyanne made a rustic cabin.

Chamrie and her husband, Doug.

Chiya and Chrystal (Chrystal worked really hard,

because Chiya had to keep leaving to take care of her baby.)

Ryan and Randee (Ben's Wife) made a Fire Station.

There is even a helicopter pad on top!

December and Christmas

Christmas has totally snuck up on me this year. Today is Scott's day off, and we need to do our christmas shopping, check on our house, go to the temple (as it will be closed for awhile,) and maybe hang out with friends too.

I blinked and Christmas is next week, and I am totally unprepared. Maybe it is because I do not have my tree up to remind me everyday. Because Daniel is really into pulling things off of other things, we have decided to put our tree up Christmas Eve, that way Daniel can wake up and have this cool thing appear in our living room. We were also waiting cause we might have been in our house, but it is looking like it won't be finished until after the first of the year.

This has been quite the exciting month so far. My sister Chamrie is buying a house too, so we have been helping her pack, but that is now on hold pending the underwriters. We are at the point with her that we don't dare pack anymore in case it doesn't go through, but we won't unpack either cause that is alot of work that might be needed.

Meanwhile, I am living out of boxes, and hoping that I can keep things organized enough to make repacking easy.

Also I have some good news: I am pregnant again! My due date is the 16 of August! I don't have morning sickness yet, but I am getting hints of it all the time. Waves of tiredness, moments of ickyness, and an occasional whiff of nausia. I don't think I will be without it very much longer, unfortunately.

Daniel is learning new words every day. He says Thank You, Car, Ball, Doggy, Kitty, Daddy, Mommy, This, Please, Water, etc. (of course, he doesn't say them clearly, they are still in the baby mode, but you can understand them if you try.)

I wish you all a Merry Christmas! And a Happy New Year! Hopefully I will post again before next year, but in case I don't take all my good wishes with you!