Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve excitement

Visit from Christmas Fairy: Check. (Thanks Christmas fairy. You can see they were more than a little excited.)

Children nestled all snug in beds: Check

Fun Gingerbread puzzle from Doug and Ash completed: Check

BSU Graduation

Me and the kiddos, this is partly theirs, and they deserve some recognition too!

Hip-Hip-Horray! It's official, I am a Master of Literacy :0) Not the first Master in the fam, but glad to join the ranks. Few favorite memories from the ceremony: being the first student to enter the arena, the bagpipes, the honor guard's rentition of the Star Spangled Banner, yes and . . ., confetti (yep, we rated confetti) and sharing it with Mike, ABCD, Mom and Dad, Ryan and Kristin. I'm grateful they made me just finish, listened to me whine, babysat, helped with a scholarship at the end and believed I could do it. Thanks!

Where's Ryan?

A little game we like to call "Where's Ryan?" And yes, he is very proud of the second to the last picture. You'll see why.

Grandma and Grandpa Come to Clean

Mom and Dad came to help Kristin for the day. And yes, we got a lot done on the house. It actually is becoming a place that doesn't gross you out to walk into. :0) The good news is that as filthy as it was it is cleaning up really nicely. It's going to be supremely awesome when she is done with it. One of the benefits to her having a major project is we get to have G&G Bell here for Mom's birthday and a work day.

We fixed a yummy dinner of chimichangas on homemade tortillas (thanks Jaime for the very cool Christmas '08 present.) There was just one left and Dad asked if anyone wanted it. Braydon piped up with an "I do." About that time Mom mentions the chocolates she brought and Braydon's ears perk up, eyes light up and he proclaims, "never mind." Ah, a child after my own heart :0)

After dinner, presents, cake, yummy chocolates and decorating the tree, the kids headed to bed and the 12+ crowd to a game of hand and foot. We were sitting there playing when Dad does something he doesn't like and yells out, "Oh nuts!" A few seconds later we hear a small voice say "Gampa, Ohhh Nuts." Yep, Delayna's door was open :0) Then she proceeded to call for Grandpa until he went in, tucked her back in and closed the door. Ah, we must be careful what we utter around here :0)