Merry Christmas! (and finally, the pictures I promised you!)

Hello everyone! Sorry that I've been away for awhile; you know how hectic the last couple of days before Christmas can be! On the bright side, we're home in Utah with my family, and Christmas is just the same as it was when I was a kid. I love it (and I love that my mom goes to such an effort to make Christmas such an enjoyable time for her family). So it's definitely a blessed time of year! Of course, we miss Dan's mom, who lives in Washington (she always came over for Christmas dinner when she lived in Utah, and it was a blast), and it doesn't seem the same without her here. Hopefully next year she'll be here with us!

Of course, there are the little issues that always pop up (such as when my parents' dog, Shila, tried to kill my cat, Maxine... ok, maybe I'm being a little melodramatic, but I can tell you that these two definitely don't like each other!) Then there was the issue trying to print out the pictures for our Christmas cards; we couldn't really find a good one, and then when we did, we couldn't get the red eye out. Combine that with the relentless traffic and the people who act like their world will end if they don't grab the last item off the shelf, and I ended up feeling pretty crabby.

Then I stopped to put it all in perspective. I'm here, in my childhood home (which is full of the Christmas spirit, if I do say so myself), with my beloved husband and soulmate, my wonderful parents and brother, and Dan's sister and brother-in-law right down the road. We're all healthy, we DEFINITELY have enough to eat (have you seen the dinners my dad makes?), and most importantly, we're all together, enjoying each other's company. Do the little things like crowds and red eye in a photo truly matter? I think not. I'm so blessed, and I hope that we all remember how lucky we truly are.

And, if you have a chance to bless another family who is in need, I hope you can. I can't tell you the joy we felt when we delivered our angel tree presents for the little boy we "adopted." I loved buying gifts for my family, of course, but the joy of buying for a two year old child who lacks even the most basic things in life was overwhelming. We ended up getting him two ADORABLE outfits, a coloring book, two books--because I believe reading is one of the most important things you can do for a child--and a dump truck, because Dan assured me that dump trucks are THE ultimate toy for a two year old boy. Of course, there are other ways to bless those in need; we just need to be on the lookout for them!

Once again, merry Christmas and a happy 2008! I hope to be on here sometime in the coming week, but we all know how Christmas celebrations can take up a lot of one's time :) So, if I don't "see" you all before then, I'll see you once again in 2008! But before I go.... here are some pictures for you all to enjoy (or tolerate! :) just kidding!)
Here is a our townhouse; it's the first time we can actually put up outdoor lights, and I was so glad!







Here is a picture from our front door in early December. We couldn't even get out of our driveway; the weather was so bad! But it was kinda cozy! :)







Here is a view of our tree.







Here's our tree with lights








Here's Dan playing with the helicopter Nancy gave him a couple Christmases ago. Maxine is watching it intently, waiting for a chance to pounce on it!






Dan, Rori and me hanging out at Tracy's after making gingerbread houses.







Here's a tree we made from a gingerbread kit. somehow, it didn't turn out so well, but we still had fun! :)







Kirsti with her gingerbread house








Rori and me with our house








Here is Dan's Tudor gingerbread house. Yeah, the engineer in him has to make this perfect house ;)







Relaxing by our hard work








Hanging out with my 3 favorite girls :) Notice Maxine's pink jacket; we think she looks adorable, but she doesn't like it much!!!!