Happy Birthday Tiffany!

Happy Birthday Tiffany! This is my amazing sister in law Tiffany! She is the most wonderful sister in law ever! She has kept me from the loony farm on more than one occasion! She is generous, kind, great psychiatrist, sweetheart, beautiful inside and out & fun person! I truly love her and don't know what I'd do without her! I'm glad she consented to marry my brother Randy! I admire her so much. She has been through alot over the years I've known her. I admire her faith, how hard she works to live the gospel of Jesus Christ. I admire what a great mother she is. She truly is a woman of God. She strives to be the best she can! (Even against amazing odds sometimes!) I hope you had the best day! I'm so glad to call you my sister and my friend! I love you!

Christmas Morning!

We had a most relaxing and enjoyable Christmas Day! Our girls slept in until 9am! Yes, that's right! 9am! I came from a family of boys that woke us up at 4am. It was crazy! I think 9am is a little late, but it was nice to catch so much zzz's!

We opened gifts and then Hillary and James joined us to open a few more gifts. Our girls draw names and it was fun to see how each one of them tried to think just what that sister would like to receive.










































Then we watched a new movie we received - "Kung Fu Panda". Later in the afternoon we went to see my parents and give them their gifts. It was a fun day and I was so sad when it was over! We work so hard and then in a blink of an eye it's over!

Grandma's Jammies

My Mom has been making pj's for all the Grandchildren for years now! It is a Christmas gift that they all look forward to. They really missed the pj's last year as she was on a mission, but true to form she worked hard and got all 24 pairs of pajamas made! WOW! She bottled each of us married kids (6) and the married granddaughters (2) quart and pint jars of pinto beans for our food storage and then she lovingly made TAMALES for each of us! YUMM-O! They were so good! You could just taste all the LOVE that went into them! My Mother is amazing! I love that she tries to give gifts of the heart! They are the best gifts!

(The lovely hair extensions on the older boys aren't real! They usually look like good looking future missionaries!)

Family Christmas Parties

We had such fun family Christmas Parties! I totally forgot to take my camera out of my purse at the Durfee gathering! It was really fun. I loved doing it before Christmas day. It was fun to see everyone and feel more relaxed and rested than in the past. Check out Hillary's blog for pictures! She was the smart one and took pictures!

Our Moore Christmas Eve was a huge success! There was a sweet spirit there and our "program" had a more spiritual feel! I loved it! It started out hillarious with the five snowmen singing and dancing, but got a little more solemn as it went on. The highlight was Colby singing a song she wrote! It was beautiful! I'd post it, but guess who didn't have their camera! Oh well! We had lots of fun!

Ready Or Not - Here It Comes!

Well - we are in the final count down! Only 3 more days left before Christmas! Whatever isn't done, probably won't get done!

I'm pretty much done with everything but wrapping! I wish I liked wrapping. It is so NOT my favorite thing to do! I'm thinking of putting everything in boxes and letting the girls wrap tomorrow! Not the best idea I've ever had, but I'm feeling sort of desperate! Frankly, I just want it done!

I also have some baking tomorrow. But then I will be officially done! Tuesday we will clean and get ready for the Durfee Christmas Party!

Wednesday I think I'm going to just lay around and relax! YEAH! Right! Ha ha ha! I'm sure there is something I've forgotten! Whatever it is, I plan to get a little R&R in! Although there will be some food preparations for the Moore Christmas Eve party!

I love Christmas! I can't wait to see my kids faces Thursday morning! And just to be able to forget the cares of the world for a whole day! To watch movies, hang out with my friends and family, read, maybe catch a nap or two!

Who am I kidding... the kids are home from school...Well, maybe it won't be relaxing, but it will be a different pace of life! Did I say I love Christmas? 'Cause I DO!

Merry Christmas From Our House To Your House!

Merry Christmas from our house to your house!
All the joys of the season to you.
May this day find you healthy and happy,
May your dreams and your wishes come true.

May your tree be as bright and sparkling each day,
As the Christmas star above.
May your stockings be filled but mostly we pray,
May your house be filled with love.

May each room ring with holiday laughter.
May your hearts sing with holiday cheer!
Merry Christmas from our house to your house.
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Merry Christmas to You!

(written by Larry Beebe Sung by the Durfee Family Singers)

12 Days of Christmas!

I love traditions and we have LOTS of them! Some of my favorites are ones we have at Christmas time! I thought I'd share one of my personal favorites! This one was adopted from my friend Theresa. It has been modified and fine tuned to what it is today!

We have three little trees set up in our family room. Hanging on the tree's are 12 tags. One for each of the 12 days of Christmas. My kids really look forward to seeing the tags get put on the trees! On December 13th we start the 12 days of Christmas as a family. The idea is to spend time as a family enjoying the Christmas season as a family! It's so easy to be stressed and busy and not take the time to relax and enjoy each other. I used to buy games, puzzles and movies as gifts for Christmas that we never played or had time to do together! Our 12 days of Christmas tradition stretches the fun and anticipation throughout the month! We have learned to adapt the 12 days to activities that we have like Ward parties, concerts and family parties, but we still take the time to do things with just our family!

This year we are spending our 12 days of Christmas like this:

1. Baking Day (We had so much fun Saturday making cookies together!)
2. Puzzle Night (Vaughan & I choose a new puzzle, I wrapped it and we opened and started putting it together yesterday! They are working on it as I type! This is fun because they will spend the rest of the month putting it together! The kids LOVE this one!)
3. Holli's Choir Concert (We just got back from this amazing concert! It was fun to listen to beautiful Christmas music and support Holli too!)
4. Game Night (I bought a new game...It is wrapped under the tree and ready to be played! We will spend the evening enjoying our new game together!)
5. Story Night (I like to buy a new Christmas book every year. We have a very neat collection of Christmas stories. Some short, some for children, some longer! I put them out each year and we re-read them through the month.)
6. Temple Lights. (It wouldn't be Christmas without a drive to see the temple lights and then a drive around town to see light displays in various neighborhoods! We like to sing Christmas songs and end up at home for hot chocolate and donuts!)
7. Shopping Night. (Some years we have done this earlier and shopped for our "giving tree" recipients. This year we had to modify it - Mom already bought the giving tree gifts, so we will go shopping for our "sister gifts".)
8. Ward Party.
9. Movie Night. (We love Christmas movies at our house! I try to buy a new one each year. This year I bought "The Nativity" - I thought Sunday would be a good day to have our movie night!)
10. Deliver Goodies. (We like to make treats for our neighbors! We will deliver them tonight!)
11. Durfee Family Party. ( The Durfee family is making a change this year and having our Christmas party on Tues instead of Christmas Day! I think this will be fun and make Christmas Day a little more relaxing!)
12. Moore Christmas Eve. (We will have our traditional FIESTA Dinner and gift exchange. We have a family talent show after dinner and then the cousins exchange their gifts! Our talent show is pretty low key - basically you perform if you want to and it's one per family! We have music, a story and singing! Sometimes it is pretty hilarious!

Crutches Aren't Fun!

The Tues before Thanksgiving Heidi hurt her foot at dance. She called the house and asked us to come get her from dance - early. So we picked her up, looked at her foot and determined that yes, she had hurt her foot - put ice on it and it will fix it up! It was swolen and bruised, but not to crazy. By the description of what she did - some kind of turn and her foot rolled, we figured she just pulled something - strained something - no big deal.

So we decided she should go to school Wednesday and then she could stay off of it and nurse it for the long weekend. Well, Wed afternoon it wasn't looking too good, so we called my brother Marc, who is a physical therapist and asked him if we should bring her in. He had Hillary do some things to check it and said it was probably some pulled something or other and to ice it (which we were) put an ace bandage on it and stay off of it and he would check it the next day at Thanksgiving.

So, Thanksgiving night he comes over and takes a look at it. By now it's a lovely shade of purple and blue and it's not too swolen. But it hurts to walk on. He took one look at it and said, "this isn't what I thought it was. I'm pretty sure it's broken and she need's to have it checked." BUMMER! So, I ask him if the podiatrist isn't open on Friday could it wait until Monday when they open again. He thought that would be ok as long as she didn't walk on it at all. Until then she had been hobbling around on it. So we continued the ice all weekend and got her some crutches and on Monday morning (I let her stay home from school this time!) we went to see Dr. McKay. YEP, it's broken! So, the poor kid had been hobbling around for almost a week before we did anything! There goes my chance at Mother of the Year!

We were blessed that although it's a pretty bad fracture - one that takes alot of time to heal - everything was still in place, so she didn't have to have surgery. Also, he put Heidi in a removeable cast. She is so lucky to be able to take a shower and not have one of those miserable plaster casts! She has to have it on 24/7 unless she's bathing. She is on crutches for at least 3 weeks. We've already gone for the 2nd visit and he threatened her with the plaster cast because someone told on her... (I really didn't know he would make such a big deal of it, or I would have kept my mouth shut!) She had been taking the cast off while she was laying there doing homework, but apparently, that's NOT ok! She has been very good since that visit! We go back in a week and she may get to lose the crutches and walk on the cast. I think she will be very glad for that day! Of course, school will be out for Christmas Break, but at least there will be no crutches for Christmas! I told her Santa would have to take back the skateboard he got her. She didn't seem too concerned!

Luckily, dance is over for the month of December. And the recital isn't until April. So, she will be spending January observing. She also will miss being in the Fiesta Bowl Parade! We were sad about that!

She's really been a pretty good sport about it all! Of course, it probably is pretty nice to be waited on hand and foot, not have to do your Saturday chores or pretty much anything else! It was nice though to have her sit and do all the cookie dough rolling on baking day Saturday! What else could she do???

These pictures are about 2 weeks after the fracture, so most of the bruising is gone.

We Wish You A Merry Christmas!

I love Christmas! We've been decorating the house - a little too slowly! Hopefully, we will be done this weekend! But at least there has been minimal stress! So the house is looking pretty good! The shopping is just about done and I'm ready to start thinking about wrapping and baking! I still have some Christmas projects to finish. (shhhh can't give them a way - "top secret" It's Christmas you know!) But mostly I'm just enjoying the season! I LOVE Christmas movies and most evenings Holli, Heidi, Hope and I are sitting in the family room watching the Hallmark channel and whatever movie is airing that night!

My niece had this on her blog and I thought it was cute, so here it goes:

1.Wrapping paper or gift bags? Mostly wrapping paper. Half the fun of Christmas is opening packages!

2. Real tree or artificial? Three years ago we converted to an artificial tree! Best thing I've ever done! I LOVE it! It's alway as beautiful no matter how long it's been up!

3. When do you put up the tree? Soon after Thanksgiving. Usually within a week.

4. When do you take the tree down? New Years Day!

5. Do you like eggnog? Not to drink. I love to smell it and mostly I love making French Toast with it! It makes the BEST french toast! We just had some last night! Breakfast for dinner - Yummo!

6. Favorite gift received as a child? Anything given to me by my Dad. I still have the charm that hung from a necklace and my first two cassette tapes - Glenn Campbell and "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid" (think "Rain Drops Keep Falling on My Head".)

7. Do you have a nativity scene? Do I have a nativity scene? Try a whole room full of them. Our whole living room is decorated with nativity scenes! The Family room is for santa's and snowmen. Kitchen is gingerbread men and candy! But the living room is all about the Savior. I have NO idea how many. I'll have to count when we finish putting them up this year. I use to get a new one every year... but I sorta quit that!

8. Hardest person to buy for? Heather Anne! She insists she doesn't want anything. Well, that's NO fun! I still don't know what I've getting for her! Arghhhh!

9. Easiest person to buy for? Hope and Hillary! They love everything!

10. Worst Christmas gift you ever received? Hmmmmm - I'm not sure. I remember the worst Christmas. It was the one where my brothers looked all over the house finding all the gifts and then told me what I was getting. Unfortunately, I also joined in and we unwrapped and rewrapped presents while Mom & Dad were out for the evening! Hated that Christmas! I knew what I was getting and it wasn't any fun! Because of that experience I don't even hide my kids gifts. I tell them to go ahead and look, but it will ruin your Christmas and you will wish you hadn't. As far as I know they have never peaked!


11. Mail or email Christmas cards? mail for sure! I LOVE Christmas cards!

12. Favorite Christmas Movie? I love them all! I've hardly met a Christmas movie I didn't like... I'm a self proclaimed Christmas Movie junkie! But these are definitely some of my favorites and ones that I own: Elf. Miracle on 34th Street (new and old). Muppet Christmas Carol. The Grinch(both the cartoon & Jim Carrey versions). White Christmas. It's a Wonderful Life. Christmas with the Kranks. The Santa Clause 1, 2 & 3. Santa Clause is coming to Town, Rudolph, Frosty the Snowman, A Year Without a Santa Clause. Way too may to name!

13. When do you start shopping for Christmas? when am I not shopping for Christmas? I usually make my Christmas list in August. But officially, the day after Thanksgiving!

14. Have you ever recycled a Christmas present? Yes, Hillary received the same doll for her 1st and 2nd Christmas. I was so dumb and gave her way too much. After Heather was born I regifted some of Hillary's first gifts which were practically brand new! That is so funny - I haven't thought about that for years!

15. Favorite thing to eat at Christmas? Potato casserole, fudge, carmels, DIVINITY! Russian Teacakes and ginger cream cookies.

16. Clear lights or colored on the tree? Definitely clear!

17. Favorite Christmas song? I have to agree with Alicia - Josh Groban's Christmas Album. It is amazing! Also, "The Forgotten Carols" Love it too!

18. Travel at Christmas or stay home? Stay HOME!

19. Can you name all of Santa’s reindeer? Dasher, Dancer, Prancer, Vixen, Comet, Cupid, Donner, Blitzen - Rudolph!

20. Angel on the tree top or a star? We've had an angel for most of our married life - But a few years ago I found this beautiful victorian metal star that I love! So it's a star for now!

21. Open the presents Christmas Eve or morning? Christmas morning.

22. Most annoying thing about this time of year? Not stopping to enjoy it all! I'm trying to slow down and just enjoy my family and all the fun. I alway wish I'd "remembered the reason for the season" more! That's my goal this year!

23. What I love most about Christmas? Pretty much everything~! What's not to love! I wish the magic of the season would last longer. That people would be kind all year long, not just for a month. That the movies on tv would be good, clean, wholesome and uplifting for more than one month! The music, the lights, the crisp cool air! Mmmmm hot chocolate and apple cider! Love it all!