Happy Holidays!!!!

It's been a wonderful holiday season.  The last week before Christmas was pretty chaotic at work, but that's mainly because I was taking a week off between holidays and wanted to make sure everything was ready for whatever may happen while I was gone, especially since there was a supervisor  for my supervisor.  Plus, lots of my cases are kind of in interesting places - and we'll just leave it at that.  The absolute best part of the week was the finalizing the adoption of four amazing kids, but one absolutely incredible lady.  The best part of my job is getting to meet the wonderful people who are willing to open their hearts and their lives to make a difference in the lives of kids.  This was Machelle's first placement and she went from being a single woman to being a single mom with three kids and then we added one more just for good measure.  Needless to say, Stephanie, Jimmy, Ashley, and Jordan are in an amazing home and I am so blessed to have been able to work with them.  I look forward to getting updates on how things are going in their lives.

 Congratulations to the newly, legally formed (truthfully, it was formed emotionally awhile ago) Lake family.

After finishing up things for work, I went up to Smithfield to spend the week with the family.  Have I mentioned lately how lucky and blessed I am to be a part of them.  It was so good to just relax.  We had sleepovers with grandkids and parties and just good times all around.  The sad part is I really don't live that far away from any of them, but I just don't feel like I spend enough time with any of them.

Because Christmas was on a Sunday and most of the family was in town, Mom and Dad did host a Christmas Eve dinner.  Brandon's family was the only one that didn't join us as they wanted to spend their holiday at home and everyone else was already in the Valley - and no one was upset about that or felt like we were getting the short end of the deal.  We missed them, but totally understood their reasoning.  Mom cooked an amazing meal because that's the only kind of meal she knows how to do, truth be told.  Jen and Will were in town this year, which was also great.

I was put in charge of doing the table, with Mom's guidance.  She gave me all of the credit, but really, I feel like I just organized the stuff on the table and she told me what to use.  Truthfully, the only thing I really feel like I contributed was making the bow tie napkins after we discovered the Santa hair clips at the dollar store.

But didn't it turn out nice.  One of the funniest moments of the meal was when Briley opened her napkin to reveal there were actually two of them.  I guess I just thought everything was very thick.  Apparently this was the first time we had used these particular napkins in Mom's collection, so we discovered instead of the twelve we thought she had, there were actually twenty-four.  Always good to know.

After dinner, it was time for more visiting, opening a few gifts, namely our Christmas ornaments and Christmas Eve pajamas.  Anyone else have these traditions?  Mom actually wrapped my jammies and put them under the tree and wasn't sure which one it was, so I didn't open them until Christmas morning, but it is totally the thought that counts.

Ryder holding up my snowman that terrorized Russ last year - I loved it so much, I decided to do it again this year - and then left it up at Mom and Dad's, whoops.

Maya demonstrates yet another use for Mom's bracelet.  We have a lot of personality with our little grandkids.Then we had our new pajamas fashion show.  I was happy to just be a photographer.  Let's be realistic, I am always happy to have a reason not to be in the picture.

 Maya

 AJ

 Briley with Zach in the background

 Closer look at Zach 

 Ryder

 Shauntell

 Tyson - so he didn't get new jammies, but he was still put into his pajamas.

 The full pajama gang

 And maybe a little better shot of them all.

Christmas morning, Mom, Dad, Jen, Will and I went to Brian and Hollie's ward.  It was their Christmas program.  Hollie is leading the choir and Brian was narrating, so we made the sacrifice to sit with their sweet kids.  It was a wonderful program.  They all did a great job.  It was a great way to spend Christmas day.  We did open presents after church - I think Mom's new present of an X-Box Kinect was the biggest hit of the holiday.  It still amazes me that Mom requested this, but it was great fun to watch people try to do it.  I tried the Zumba and proved just how out of shape I am when I was completely out of breath after one song.  It's just sad.

Brian and Ryder demonstrate Mom's new toy. 

 While they played with that, I got to do a little bit of cuddling with Tyson.  He is so sweet and such a good cuddler.

 It also helped that I let him play with my phone - only under supervision.  And, at this point in time, my camera battery decided to die and not be recharged, completely die.  So, I got on to Amazon, ordered a new battery to be waiting for me when I got home, and started taking pictures on my phone.  In other words, there aren't nearly as many pictures as I would have normally taken.

The day after Christmas,  Mom, Dad, Jen, Will, Shauntell, AJ, Zach, Maya, Brian, Hollie, Briley and Ryder loaded up and went out to Hardware Ranch.  Since neither the idea of being out in the cold nor being around a bunch of elk held much appeal to me, I volunteered to stay in the warmth of the house with Tyson.  Tyson was starting to come down with a cold - and he's only thirteen-months-old.  I really think I got the better end of the deal.  He cuddled with me and even fell asleep on top of me, which was really nice.  I think he may have slept even longer if it weren't for the fact that I had to move.

Wouldn't you rather spend time with this little guy?

 

 We had lots of fun with this ball - I loved hearing his laughter and screams.

Wednesday was our family party.  We started out with brunch - can never go wrong with having plenty of food.  Then, family presents were opened.  There were a  lot of happy campers with gifts, me included.  I even used the fabulous jewelry I got from Brian and Hollie in our family pictures, which was the next thing on the agenda.  Shauntell's friend, Rebecca, did a great job - I'll swipe the previews she posted on Facebook and do another entry for that.

 It's not a Christmas party without our newspaper/dice game.  We started with the kids before going into the adults.  We didn't want to accidentally hit any of the kids - as Aimee pointed out she has hit AJ just about every year.

They did really well.  It won't be too long before Zach has to join us in the adult group.

They all cooperated.  And I think they each got a gift out of it, a few even got a couple.

Russ and Shauntell took charge and provided us with a few extra games.  They were all original and so much fun.

Stacking our nuts - yep, Russ is a mechanic.

The men's turn.

It's not everyday you get to fling reindeer poop, aka whoppers candies.

Or that you get to be put in charge of catching said poop.

Aimee and kids decided to spend the night so we could spend some extra time with us.  Hollie, Jen, Aimee, and I decided to do a girls' night and see Breaking Dawn, Part 1.  Mom wasn't interested and Shauntell had a prior commitment so they didn't join us.  I love girls' nights.  We need to do them more often.  Thursday we did some of the Cache Valley eating tour as we went out to Pepperidge Farm and Lower's (not sure of that spelling).  Jen proceeded to buy them out.  Will should have a very full freezer when he returns to California (they are a bicoastal couple at present).  After dropping the food off at the house, we decided to go up to walk around the temple.

Yep, the snow is missing, but I can't say that I am too upset about that.  There were a few brides out about, but we were still able to take just a few pictures.

Logan and Brooklyn posing with the temple.  They both loved the fact that it shared a name with Logan.

Taking a second out of the wind - and that's just about all the time we gave them.

 

I thought this was cool - sorry I can't figure out how to rotate it.  I think I need to go back and see it when the tulips are in bloom.  It has to be amazing.

It really was a great time.  We had  plenty of entertainment with kids and each other.  We are definitely able to laugh with each other and at each other.  I hope we don't actually offend anyone, but I think we are all used to each other.  Friday evening, Mom, Dad, Jen, and I drove up to Preston to see the lights.  I hate to think what some of these electricity bills must be when  they get it in December.  It's got to be scary to open that envelope.

And to close, enjoy a few videos of our entertainment with the X-Box.  It was great to watch.

I hope that all can report they had the same kind of amazing holiday that I did and are looking forward to the new year.