Christmas 2007!

We had such a wonderful Christmas! We were able to have two Christmas dinners at our new house. That was a lot of fun! On the 23rd we had my dad, all my siblings and my Grandma Ruth over for a Prime Rib dinner that was very yummy!

On the 24th we went to my Aunt Patti's house for a delicious Christmas Eve dinner and an activity where we all anonymously shared our favorite Christmas Eve memories and then guessed whose memory was whose. It was a lot of fun.

My husband entertained everyone when he shared his most memorable Christmas Eve memory from when he was 12 and the battle between the states was going on (AKA the Civil War). His family had been without meat for a couple months and his older brother Jed stole a chicken for their Christmas dinner. Meat had never tasted so good. HA he is a riot! Of course this isn't true...he was just being silly.

Unfortunately my Mom and Marc were not able to come because of bad winter roads. We missed them but they were in our thoughts! Hopefully we get to catch up with them soon because we still have their gifts!

After we left Aunt Patti's house we went home and put the girls to bed and waited for Santa. My dad stopped by and laughed as Loren and I struggled to put the girls kid kitchen set together. We ate my home made divinity and Carmel's and just reminisced as we worked. It was fun!

Then Christmas morning my girls woke up at the crack of dawn (6 am) and there was no bribing them back to bed. They anxiously waited by the gate (we locked them down the hall until we got the camera ready) and then they emerged! Sydney walked slowly, taking the whole experience in while Morgan ran full speed ahead to see the fun, new toys! They played all morning while I started preparing for our Christmas day dinner with most of Loren's family. My dad swung by to see the girls play with their new toys. He got a kick out of them playing with their new kitchen.

Dinner that afternoon was great. We had a nice visit with everyone and got to see our nephew Isaac who we haven't seen in about 3 years! He brought his new bride Ashley and their 3 week old baby boy Keegan to dinner. After eating we played Loren's new game Apples to Apples. That was a hit! We had so much fun! We can't wait to have some friends over to play it again!It sure was a great holiday filled with lots of fun!

Sydney, being the sweet, sensitive soul that she is, earnestly saved her allowance until she had $5. She has been wanting to donate money to the Idaho Food Bank. We talked to her this year about serving others and trying to show her the "reason for the season." She embraced this idea and was so excited to earn money and give it to people who are less fortunate. I will always remember her little face as she gave the money to the man at the food bank. She was beaming from ear to ear. She told us that her heart feels very happy. She said next year she wants to give more money. What a great goal! She was also very excited to pick out toys for the "Toys for Tots" box that are all around town. These are traditions we are excited to have in our family.

Except for the family that was missing, this was a near perfect holiday! I hope all of your holidays out in cyber land were wonderful too! HAPPY NEW YEAR! Check out our Christmas pictures in the post below!

Shamae & family