Christmas 2008

Christmas was a blast this year. I decided that less is more and it proved for a fantastic day. Typically there would be junk everywhere from all the toys and things and by noon I'd be a crazy lady looking at the mess. But this time it was neat, clean and wonderful! As the kids get bigger so does the price tag of the gifts so you can only get a little before your budget is gone. And Santa thought we needed some "active" video games so that was a big part of our gift giving. Everyone has enjoyed playing Mario Kart on the Wii and I am terribly disturbed that I can't win. I used to be the video game champ when I was a kid, now my kids are showing me what winners really are! And the Rock Band has given us hours of fun together as a family. We have two guitars now so all of us can play together. Our favorite song . . . Eye Of The Tiger!!

Jordyn's highlight was this awesome stereo system that she can plug her iPod into and listen to tunes. It really rocks the house! She's so excited and loves the new tunes Santa brought her too.


Kayden was all over his new lego set. It's kind of like a Mars city and there a guys that fight each other and everything. He loved it, and loves watching mom put it together for him. What? That wasn't supposed to happen!

This is the kids having their Christmas day toast. Dad always cooks us a great breakfast (yes, Dad - mom cleans up) and the kids broke out the wine glasses to do it up right.

This ranks up there as my one of my favorite gifts that we got this year. Don and Deb gave us a goody basket with stuff to make dirty bananas . . . yum. But the funnest part of the gift was the life jacket for the bottle of rum! Last year in Lake Powell we wer all hanging out and Don was mixing his usually yummy blended goodies when Todd tossed him a bottle of Bacardi. It didn't quite make it to Don and we all thought it would pop back up out of the water. Bottles float right? Wrong. That brand new bottle is at the bottom of the lake! We laughed so hard when Todd was trying to figure out how to get down there and get it. Ha! So this little number brought back a great laugh.

But my all time favorite gift this year was from each of my children. This new fun wind thingy (I have no idea what you call them) hangs outside of my window in my office and I can look at it and think of each one of my kids. Kayden gave me the silver one on top and the butterfly in the center of it represents his free spirit and how he flutters around and touches everyone's life. The center one is a beautiful sparkling red that reads "faith", "hope" and "love" and it was for Zack. The gold one at the bottom was from Jordyn and the sun in the middle shines as brightly as she does. Todd's really getting good at the meaning behind the gifts wouldn't you say? I am amazed at the blessings that have poured in upon us this year and continue to come. I look forward to a fantastic new year full of happines, health and hopefully weight loss!