Christmas 2009!

I thought I'd better get my Christmas post done the day after Christmas, or I might never get to it.  But, just a warning--I think I'm going for the record of the most pictures ever on a blog post.  But when you have 19 nieces and nephews and no children of your own, you have to post pictures of all of them.  :)  So, here goes.

We had a great Christmas this year.  I just feel so grateful around the holidays that our whole family lives in Utah Valley, and that we can all get together.  Usually on Christmas Eve or Christmas morning we have one or two families gone, but this year everyone was there for at least part of both.  It was so fun!

Christmas Eve was nice.  We have an annual Christmas Eve pageant coordinated by Melissa.  It has grown and expanded over the last few years, and this year Melissa had Dan and Emilee print a backdrop to act as a stage for the kids, and it turned out so cute.  Here are pictures:

Me with Mary and Joseph

Three sister shepherds--so cute!

Most of the kids waiting "backstage" for the pageant to begin

 

The angel comes to Mary

Dave as the donkey with Mary and Joseph

Mary and Joseph ask the innkeeper for a room

Meanwhile, Samuel the Lamanite preaches to the Nephites (and Nephi the prophet kneels to pray)

The angels come to the shepherds

Another shot of the angels and the shepherds (with the inkeeper peeking out on the side).  :)

The wisemen (the third one didn't want to be in the play, so we only have two)

And finally, all the actors come out for applause

Another shot of all the actors.  Aren't they just precious?!

After the pageant, Dad read the Christmas story from Luke 2, and then we went upstairs and sang carols and opened white elephant gifts. Here are a few pictures from the rest of the night:

On Christmas morning, we always have our traditional Christmas morning breakfast.  This year went great, because we had warming pans from Dan and Emilee's rental center, which meant we could cook the food early, and then just have everyone start eating as soon as they got there.  We did have to run to the rental center to get some more "fuel," and so I didn't get any breakfast pictures, but here's a picture of the chefs (minus Dad, who was going ot the rental center), that Jan took:

I didn't get any good breakfast pictures this year--I guess I was too busy eating--except this darling one.  Kate and Ethan were playing some game, and came to tell me about it, and were laughing and laughing.  It was so cute!

The kids went downstairs to play, and we decided to leave them down there while the adults opened all of their presents.  Fortunately for all my blog readers, I didn't get hardly any good pictures of the adults (so you will be spared 18 extra pictures).  Of course, I'm giong to get in trouble from Mom because she says that I only ever take pictures of the kids.  Well, I have to have my priorities, right?  So, in keeping with what Mom accuses me of, I got a picture of each child opening their presents.  We had them come up after the adults were done, and they each opened the gift exchange presents by family, and then the gifts that Mom and Dad gave them.  So, in order of unwrapping (by family), here are my 19 adorable neices and nephews:

Matthew, almost 2

Emma, 4

Ethan, 8

Logan, 7

Truman, 5

Dannan, 3

Joshy, 7

Brianna, 5

Brayden, 3

Camden, 1

Jenni, 6

Joey, 3

Kate, 7

Lizzie, 5

Sabrina, 4

Holly, 11

Brendan, 7

 Annika, almost 5

Mieka, 2

And finally, here are some pictures of the mass pandelerium that ensued when they all started opening the gifts from Mom and Dad:

After we opened gifts, we had a nice time talking, and then one by one the families left to go visit their other families.  Jan and I came home for a few hours, and then went back with Mom and Dad and watched the new Star Trek.  All in all, it was a great Christmas!

Christmas activities (with lots of pictures!!)

I've been so busy the last few weeks that I haven't had time to post.  But it's still kind of hard for me to open up my blog and have my post about Fluffy there, and so I decided I would do another post even though it is late--plus I've been able to do some really fun things this Christmas season, and wanted to write about them.  I uploaded the pictures while I was writing in my journal, so let's see what I can write in 15 minutes--since it is now 11:20 and I need to get to bed!

Just a few highlights of fun things we have done.  I'm missing a few, so maybe Jan can put those on her blog.  At the beginning of December we got a chance to go with Dan and Ems and Melissa (Dave was out of town), and the kids to a living nativity.  It was so cold, but so neat!  They had a shuttle that took us up to a farm, and had a barn with a bunch of animals and displays in it, and the kids loved it!

Then we walked to another barn that just had Mary, Joseph, and the baby Jesus.  I got so emotional when I saw them.  For some reason it made the story real--that Joseph, Mary, and the baby Jesus were real people.  What a neat experience!

We got to go to the First Presidency Christmas Devotional on December 6 with some friends in our ward.  I didn't get any pictures, but it sure was wonderful.  The talks were so inspiring, and the music was just amazing.  I love Christmas!!

For FHE on December 7 we got as much of the family together as we could (some couldn't come because of the weather, and we really missed them!) and did Gingerbread houses with the kids.  It was so much fun!  I think the kids ate almost as much candy as they put on their houses, but they sure had fun.  Here are a bunch of pictures:

And, as usual, the line-up of kids holding their houses, in order of age...

Joshy

Jenni

Brianna

Annika

Emma

 Joey

Brayden

Mieka

Yesterday we went to the Jon Schmidt concert in Salt Lake.  Funny story--I have always wanted to go to a Christmas concert, so back in September I decided to splurge and get tickets for Jon Schmidt, because I have his Christmas CD and love his music (he's an LDS pianist who plays beautifully and is so talented).  So I paid for really good seats to go Saturday night.  It wasn't until a few days ago (thank goodness), that I noticed that they had sent me matinee tickets instead of Saturday night tickets!  I was kind of bummed, but we were able to work it out to go during the day (except Jan was working at the temple, so couldn't come--but I'm really glad Mom was able to come!).  And, at least I found out before Saturday night!

We had a lot of fun at the concert--I love being with my Mom and sissies, and they are always so nice about my obsessive worrying about getting to the concert on time.  :)  Here's a picture of us before the concert started:

Then, another funny thing--kind of a bummer, actually--even though we were on like the 6th or 7th row, right before the concert a big guy came and sat RIGHT in front of me.  I could only see if I looked to the left or the right, which was not too comfortable.  I took out my camera to get a picture so you could see that I'm not exaggerating:

Thankfully, about 1/3 of the way through the concert, I realized there was no one sitting behind us.  So I moved back, but was feeling a little lonely, so after the intermission Chelle came and sat next to me, and I could see great!  You can still see his head, but at least I could see Jon Schmidt and Steven Nelson (cellist) in between.  They were amazing!  I loved hearing them play, and they had some really funny parts to their show.  I think I'd like to make Jon Schmidt a holiday tradition.  I loved it!  (They were closer than they look in this picture--since it was dark, my camera didn't catch it very well).

Finally, for the last two days Jan, Ems, and I have been doing holiday baking.  We made these little bags to give out to neighbors/work friends.  I think they turned out pretty cute, and I love baking and watching movies with my sissies.

Well, that's about it for now.  I'm super tired and need to get to bed!

Goodbye to my sweet kitty...

It's Thanksgiving morning, and I will soon be going over to my parents house to help get things ready for today.  But I wanted to take a moment to do a post in memory of my darling kitty who died yesterday. 

Those of you who know me know how much I love animals, and especially my kitty Fluffy, who I have had for almost 13 years.  Since I don't have kids, he has become my baby, and has been such a sweet companion for me all this time.  For years, every time I would come home, he would come and find me, and every night when I would write in my journal he would jump up on my lap for a few minutes, and then jump down and curl up in a box on the floor to wait for me to get done.   He was so much a part of my life.  Here is a picture from earlier this year of him sitting on my desk in the sun, and one of him laying on my bed:

A year ago he started getting sick, and so we took him in and found out he had kidney problems.  But we've worked with the vet and have been able to have him on a low dose of medication, and he's done fine.  But I noticed on Tuesday night that he hadn't eaten very much, which is a bad sign, because he loved to eat. Then yesterday before I went to work, I could tell he was a little bit listless.  I came home from work at 12:00 (because I wanted to get some cooking done for Thanksgiving).  But I could tell he had really gone downhill, and I couldn't get him to eat anything. 

Jan came home and we called the vet.  It was hard timing, since it was right before Thanksgiving.  They didn't have an appointment time, but said we could admit him for the afternoon and they would run some tests.  So we went shopping and had gone over to Emilee's house to cook when we got the bad news.  They said he was really bad, and that they could hospitalize him, but that he had a really poor prognosis of getting well.  That's when we knew it was time to let him go.  He hates being at the vet, and I just couldn't keep him there for days and days knowing he would probably still die.

We went back down to the Vet's office, crying and praying all the way.  The interesting thing is, I had listened to a talk by Elder Bednar on the way home from work about the enabling power of the Atonement, and how we can't always change our circumstances, but that we can pray for Heavenly Father to strengthen us to bear our circumstances through the power of the Atonement.  I know it seems like a small thing to have a kitty die, but it was an incredibly hard thing for me, and I'm so grateful I had listened to that talk, and was able to pray specificallly for strength.

They gave us some time to say goodbye to him, which was such a blessing--although very hard.  Here are a few pictures:

The hard thing was that he was so alert--but when I put him back down after holding him, he could hardly stand, and we knew that it was right to help him go peacefully.  The doctor told us that if we hadn't brought him in when we did, we would have been frantically searching for a vet on Thanksgiving--so I'm glad it worked out the way it did.  The technician came in, and it was so peaceful--I just petted Fluffy's head, and he laid his head against my hand and went to sleep.  It was such a blessing to have it be so peaceful, such an answer to prayers.

We took him to Mom and Dad's house to bury him.  It was pretty late by then, but we were able to get some of the family there (I wish we could have had all of them--my family is such a comfort to me!)  My kiddies gave me such tight hugs, and Steve dug a hole out in front by the rose bushes (Dad teased later that he would bill us for funeral services, and Steve said that if there was money coming for this, he should get it because he had done all the labor).  Mom and Chelle made a "grave marker"  for Fluffy out of a stone.  Dave and Melissa came with their kids, who gave me hugs and comfort, and Dan and Emilee came, and had made a "funeral program" for me (Dan always has to bring humor in to try to make things better):

(I was going to put the inside of the program in as well, but it had middle and last names of some of the kids on it, so I thought I'd better not)

We had a little funeral service, which was sweet, and I got a picture of me with the kids, and a picture of his little gravestone that Mom and Chelle made for him:

Then we went inside and were talking, and Jenni gave me this note, which was so darling.  It made me cry because it was so sweet:

It says, "I feel very sorry for your kitty Fluffy dying.  I know it is very sad.  I know it will come back soon."  Isn't that sweet?  It was such a hard day for me, but my family are so wonderful to understand how sad I was, even over a kitty, and did so much to help me.

Today I am still feeling sad, but grateful for so much peace, and grateful that Heavenly Father loves me so much and understands the pain I feel.  I'm so grateful for my good family, and that I will get to see most of them today.  I really am so blessed!