December Highlights

 Its hard to believe December is over! It seems like we just finished having Thanksgiving.
This has been a very relaxing Christmas and I've really enjoyed it. We started out with our Ward Christmas party where the theme was, "Night in Bethlehem". Our committee did a great job, but were a little disappointed at the attendance after all the hard work that went into it.

Wayne and Russ in full costume.

My dear friend Cheryl and me.

Part of our Nativity program

Sara & Evan have played Mary and Joseph for several years. It was fun to have it outside this year.

Our little town of Montesano has a celebration every year called, "The Festival of Lights".

They have a big parade with over 100 entries and have lots of events going all day Saturday. The High School Band always plays. All of our kids marched in this parade when they were in band. 

Our local grocery store is called Thriftway. Jacob worked there for a couple of years when he was in H. S. I love this GIANT shopping cart that they drive with a car underneath it.

The theme for the parade was, "The Seahawks"….kind of a weird theme for a Christmas Parade??? This cement truck always goes all out.

Most years we have a big Christmas party at our house with 25-30 people. We always have lots of finger foods, play games, catch up with each other and have a "white elephant" gift exchange.

Friends of Jared and Jacob who went all through scouts together. I had all of them in Cub Scouts when they were real young. They've all been on missions now:)

Many dear friends we have grown to love over the years.

On Christmas Eve we had the Sister missionaries over for dinner and then played Pictionary with them.  It was boys against girls and we won!! 

For as long as I can remember we've had a tradition to make "pluck it bread" late on Christmas Eve and then we eat it while we open our gifts. Its a couple hour process with letting the dough raise and rolling each ball individually and then dipping it into butter and then cinnamon and sugar. The boys were great help and we got it done real fast.

While the turkey was cooking on Christmas Day all of us went shooting.

Pretty handsome guys!!

This is the first Christmas I've had the boys both home for four years. I had so much fun with them!!!  We played a lot of games, ate WAY to much, watched too many movies, had some great talks, and laughed harder than I've laughed in a long time. I missed having the girls and their families here, but so grateful at least the boys could come.

For Christmas the boys put together this collage for us. They came up with it all by themselves.

See if you can read what it says….I love it!! One of my favorite things with the boys being home is seeing how much fun they have together and what good friends they have become. 

I'm so grateful for this time of year to celebrate the birth of our Savior, to hear from many of our family and friends, and to share a little of ourselves with others. My cup runneth over!