Christmas 2009

Here we are all around the table Christmas morning eating yula kaka and drinking hot cocoa.

Then off to open the presents. David pretty excited!!

Rob and his mom and Jeff looking on.

Isaac going through his stocking.

Look in his new hat.

Sam pretending not to be happy!!

Then we headed to Grandma Julie's for more presents and lots of food. Jesse playing with his new toy.

We had some pretty intense games of Jenga going on!!

The kids looking at Chase's present, a new snake!! (Isaac, Cory, Teaghan and Chase)

Orey, Peggy, O.J. and Justine and a whole table full of food.

Ike, Chase, Kristen and Charlie and the same table of food.

The boys with Lorna!!

Orey showing Rob and OJ just how the meat cutting should be done!! We had ham, turkey, smoked turkey and roast beast!! Orey and his knife were very busy.

Charlie!! He is so darn cute and the hit of the party!!

Luke and Kurt showing off their cousin gifts. (Courtney in the background.)

Then we went back out to Rob's mom's for pie and more presents. Here is Sam with Hannah's cute bow!!

And to wrap it all up, Luke and his antlers. Yes Barbara is holding the afgan I made her!! My first completed afgan!! I am so proud!! All in all it was a very merry Christmas!! Millie

Christmas Eve

On Christmas Eve we had the missionaries over for dinner. They came early and donned aprons to help with the sugar cookie making.

First Elder Lemperle read the story "The Christmas Trees" and then we cut out tree cookies. After we had a baked potato bar (our customary Christmas Eve dinner) with Far Mor, Jeff and Carol and Sheila and Owen. The Elders shared a message and then had to run.

After caroling to our neighbors the Roots we came home to do our Christmas Nativity play. We put all the parts in a hat and everyone participates. This year Hannah was Joseph!! Here she is with two of our Wisemen. We video tape it and then watch it several times and laugh.

Then we each put a candle on the tree and Rob and Sam lighted them. Then we all sing Silent Night before Rob puts out the candles.

Everyone then opens a present which is always pajamas. (Growing up we always opened a present on Christmas Eve that mom picked out and it was always pajamas and a lot of the time they were made by Grandma Mecham.) Then off to bed to wait for Santa to come!!

Things that make me smile this time of year...

.....the nativity that Isaac and Luke made out of legos!! (We have no female lego characters so Mary looks a little masculine!)

.....our tree this year.

.....our new red and white outside lights.

.....the movie Elf!!

.....when people put wreaths on the grills of their big trucks.

.....a brown PT Cruiser with antlers and a big red nose.

.....playing Jenga with Renny, Rob, Hannah and Sam at mom's.

.....Luke loving the Santa Mr. Potato Head that Robbie gave him.

.....caroling to our neighbors the Roots.

.....being caroled to by the Laurels.

.....being cookie runned by the activity day girls in broad day light!!

.....my new nativity (thanks Rob, Cindi and Derek for the great surprise)!!

.....the primary kids doing such a sweet job on their nativity program.

.....Rob and the boys putting our new puzzle together.

.....all the new books every one got that I can hardly wait to read!! (I was good this year and did not read any of them before I gifted them!!)

.....Rob's mom loving her new afghan (yes I did actually knit an afghan and gave it away as a gift. I am so proud of it!!)

.....my children Christmas morning and watching videos of past Christmas mornings!!

.....our family nativity program and watching videos of past nativity programs.

.....the mess the living room is in for days after!!

.....homemade hot chocolate and yula kaka.

.....Isaac and Luke getting to go to the airport to pick up Hannah.

.....seeing all my laurels at they come home for Christmas and getting my hugs!!

.....Renny and Ethan on roll patrol!!

.....Orey in the kitchen carving turkey, ham and some kind of beef!! (Yes we had a lot of meat at our christmas feast including a roast beast!!)

.....watching the Grinch movie (the real one that is a cartoon!!)

.....being with all our family and then back home with just our little family Christmas night very full and content!!!

Merry Christmas every one!! Millie

Making Gingerbread Houses

Last night Arlee and Stu and the girls came over for Family night to make gingerbread houses and they brought Derek and Stephanie and Caleb with them!!

We had plenty of candy for decorating!!

It is very serious business!!

Some take a little longer to get started!!

David and his masterpiece!!

Raelynn and Luke with their houses!

Isaac and Caleb with their houses. Caleb's got a little top heavy and toppled over. The best part is eating the candy anyway!!

Sam's finished product. Always a beauty!!

Hannah and Raelynn with their finished houses!

A whole bunch of candy and a big box of graham crackers later....our houses!! Thanks for coming over Arlee and Stu and girls and Derek and Stephanie and Caleb. We love having you guys close by!! Millie

Hannah is Home!! Let the festivities begin!!

The Last Leaf

We have this huge maple tree in our yard. And every fall it drops about a bazillion leaves.

This year as part of a clean up the yard project Sam raked them all up. He got about 9 piles of leaves. And there were still leaves on the trees!!

The next day he and I picked them all up and put them in a pile in the field.

It was looking pretty good. And then that night a storm came up and blew the rest of the leaves off the tree!!

Then I noticed this little guy. He was the last leaf on the tree!! Honestly, there were no other leaves on the whole tree.

I did not think much about it until the next day I noticed he was still there. After about a week I took a couple of pictures of him. And the next day he was gone. It was like he was just waiting for me to take his picture. What a tough little guy. Millie

Who wouldn't want to live here?

Just wanted to share the view from our yard. This is looking up towards Far Mor's through the field.

This is off the patio.

And this is looking through the field to the south. We live in such a beautiful area. Especially at sunset time!!

Getting the Christmas Tree!!

Every year we go the day after Thanksgiving and get our Christmas tree. Here are some of the Christmas tree hunters excited and ready to go!! (Luke is not actually going to rob a bank or anything!! He just really likes this hat!!)

Here are Isaac and Hannah at the tree farm!!

Hannah and the bank robber, I mean Luke!!

Me and Hannah!!

Rob and Dave and Sam. Boys and their tools!!

This year we found a new tree farm to go to in outside of La Center where they have only nobles and they were all $20. We were very excited about this!! Now we just had to find the right tree.

It takes a lot of looking and contemplating and discussion to find the right tree. Everyone is looking for something special about the tree. There were so many nice trees it was hard to decide.

Rob always has the job of cutting down the tree.

Sam and David hauling the tree out.

Still hauling the tree out. I thought we were closer to the truck. Did not realize we had walked that far.


The tree safely in the truck!! It looks awfully big but there are actually two trees in there. We picked one up for Far Mor also!! We did have to cut off quite a bit to get it into the house. They never look that big out in the wild!! But we now have it tamed and in the stand and all decorated!! Pictures of that to come later!! Millie