Welcome 2012

I think it was in 2010 that I committed to blog every single day of the year. If my memory serves me right I only missed a few days of not blogging. I thought about doing that again this year and then I quickly remembered that when 2010 was over I told myself I'd never do that again. So I'm not. It was fun for the memories but not fun doing it. Anyhow...

Anyone want a free dog? I've had issues with her tonight.

Anyone want free children? Just kidding.

Anyone want free chocolate? I have a stash that I desperately need to give away before I consume it all.

That's all the free stuff I have at the moment.

Backing up a week or so...

Christmas, let me talk about Christmas before I forget about it.

So on Friday, Christmas Eve eve...or the day before Christmas Eve, we headed over to Aunt Jennifer's house to meet up with all the cousins except the Colliers who live to far away...next year right Julie? All of us, yes grandparents and cousins and aunts and uncles and uncles girlfriends spent the night at Aunt Jennifer's house to kick off Christmas. Friday night we ate the best fajita's known to man...thanks to Uncle Ryan, the master of all grill masters. The grilled meat and veggies were amazing and we had all the fixings to go along with it and a whole bunch of other food to snack on through the night. After dinner the kids played and then got dressed up in their costumes to reinact the first Christmas night. Buster played Joseph, cousins Ashlynn was Mary, Boss and Crate were wise men, Randi and Brayden were Shepard's, Chloe was the star/angel and Saige was whatever she wanted to be. And of couse Lumber Jack was baby Jesus. Pops was the narrator, Mamie played the piano and the rest of us were the choir. This is a tradition that is like 100 years old in my family...every year the youngest generation gets to do this. It was sweet to watch them again this year.

Once that was done we bundled up and loaded in the back of Uncle Ryans trailer and headed off to do some caroling to a few older couples not to far away. Crate was in heaven riding on the trailer, the boys loved being silly and singing in a silly voice and I'm sure the neighborhood was more than happy to have us be back home. They all had a blast.

Everyone settled in to bed quickly for the most part and then Saturday morning we had a delicious breakfast made by Aunt Jeaniece, after which we opened presents from the grandparents, played around and headed out to come back home. The boys thought it was so cool to have everyone spend the night and they hope they can do that every year.

Christmas eve night we headed out east to spend the evening with Pops' side of the family. We ate yummy food, hung out, opened more presents from Grandma, the boys played and played with their cousins and then we called it a night and headed home.

In following tradition the boys got to open one gift on Christmas eve...which is always PJ's. Once again they thought their PJ's were "the coolest thing ever"...I think they were just overly excited. Then we made each person's bed in our master bedroom and they all fell asleep. Each Christmas eve we all sleep in the same bedroom...it makes Christmas morning happen for all of us at the same time. I like it that way.

Christmas morning came and before heading out to see what Santa left we ready Luke 2...which was funny cause the boys were quoting it as Pops was reading, I guess they've heard it a time or two. Then headed out to find a new bike for Buster and scooters for Boss and Crate. Lumber Jack was thrilled to find a ring toy...ok not really but the other three were pretty stoked.

Since Christmas was on a Sunday this year we needed to get moving after presents...honestly I wasn't every excited to hurry and get all dressed up but I have to say that the highlight of Christmas day was going to church. The spirit was really strong that day and the music really touched me. It seemed to make Christmas so much more special being at church. I wish every Christmas could be on Sunday. I was hoping to get a family picture of all of us dressed up but Pops had to leave about 30 minutes before us and he didn't get home until about an hour after us so that didn't happen but they all looked very handsome.

The rest of the day we spend hanging out with each other. I made a ham for dinner along with Pioneer Woman's green bean dish, a de-lish potato dish, raspberry salad and homemade rolls and raspberry butter. To top it off we had cucumber/lime water and ate at the dinning room table. The boys actually had descent manners but when the dinner was over I realized I forgot to put out the name plates I had spent an hour making a few days earlier...not cool. I will be saving them for next year.

Once again Christmas was so neat and fun for all of us. For me my favorite gift was the one I'm using right now...Pops surprised me with replacing my computer. I was so excited, and happy to retire my eight year old computer...now I just need to figure out how the Mac operating system works. Hopefully by next Christmas I'll be a pro at this thing.

I'm excited for a new year and think our focus word for the year will be "LOVE"...More on that later.

P90X~2 started this week. Holy Cow can you say intense? Must go to bed so I'm ready for the early workout.

P.S. I'm not proof reading this...it's too long so I hope there are no major mistakes. :)