Wonderful Christmas

Christmas was a wonderful , beautiful day filled with love, laughter, tears, joy, pleasures, tender moments,
good food, family, remembrances, puppy love, presents, giving, surprises,
thoughtful gifts, annual pageant, wonder,
tired feet and grateful hearts...

We celebrated Christmas with Amy the week before since she was in Greece on Christmas.

Kaden got a new puppy from Santa...he named him Wolverine. I told him I would be calling him Wolfie for short. I am quite happy that Santa brought Wolfie to Kaden's dad's house...
& that he brought him to our house just for a visit.


Taylor got a ZhuZhu pet hamster in her stocking...she loved Wolfie the puppy too...


Kate loved the dollhouse Kaden picked out for her and Jackson thought his spy car & night vision goggles were going to make spying on his sisters quite awesome. He didn't get the machine that turned pennies into diamonds like he wanted...darn it.

Levi thought the whole day was the best ever. He finally got to rip open those presents and not get in trouble for it!


Sharon wanted to take Wolverine home with her...well, just for a minute.


We were all so happy to see Jaclyn, Tara and Scott.
The newlyweds Becca and Davis got a cute new puppy too!




Ally, Jennie and I all wore black ruffle shirts...we seem to think alike a lot!

Chad, I still feel bad that you weren't on the front of our Christmas card...you were the one who took the picture & it ended up being the only one we had with the majority of us in it...I'm sorry!
You are a wonderful son in law Chad...we love you!
Jennie and Chad gave Papa Jack a beautiful book filled with amazing pictures that Jen took of the home he shared with Grami for over 60 years and where us 6 kids were raised.
My dad loved it and cried like a baby as he looked at it.


All of the kids gave us a fabulous piece of artwork by Kim Johnson entitled Magical Moments.
It has a story that Ally read about our family and each of our beautiful girls. I cried through the whole thing! It is truly priceless and a treasure. Meaningful pieces of Grandma Schlauder's jewelry adorn each girl and they all have little wings made from roses from my mom's casket bouquet.
I can't express how wonderful it is and how much it means to us.
Thank you, thank you girls...we love it!

The pageant has become one of our favorite events on Christmas. The kids were so cute (even though Caleb did not want to wear a shepherd costume and Levi was an uncooperative wise man) ... it brought us all back to the sweet remembrance of the true meaning of Christmas and the sacred love of our Savior. After the pageant, Uncle Scott played his guitar and sang Silent Night and other favorite Christmas songs...I love listening to him sing.
I am so grateful for our family traditions and for the love we share.

We hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and that 2010 will be bring you health, happiness, love and joy.

Christmas Eve

The whole neighborhood looks forward to our annual cul-de-sac tradition of making about 500 sac lunches and all of us going and delivering them to the homeless. Thank you Nick and Keri for starting this tradition about 6 years ago...it truly is one of the highlights of the Christmas season. We have the best neighbors on the planet!
Here's a bunch of pictures... I love pictures, they always tell the story best.




We had quite an assembly line going...everyone helped!


Jamie even came and helped cut out scarves...

Beau loved the Smarties Brock had for him.........& the assembly line hard at work (sneaking just a couple cookies).

Taylor, Lauren, Abby and Kate after all the work was done.

It is so cool to see all the loaded cars and trucks ready to head out.

We met some nice, good people who were very appreciative and grateful.


Kate and Lauren were inseparable and loved handing out lunches.

It was a great day and once again a special experience that helped to remind us all to love one another and that giving and loving others brings us the greatest joy of all.


Al, Ally and I had to stop by Jon's childhood neighborhood for old times sake on our way home.
We missed you Jon, Susan, girls & Tod...but you were definitely with us in spirit.
(I hope this was the right house Jon... the people must have thought we were crazy!)

We miss Amy being with us....this is her first Christmas ever away from home (& I don't like it at all).
She is across the world, spending Christmas in Greece.