Christmas 2011

We had a wonderful, full month of December.  My mother in law came to visit in mid December, from east Canada.  It had been 3 years since her last visit and we were all so happy to see her again.  Some of teh fun things we did for Christmas: 

I had the most Christmas parties to go to.  The Moms at my home study program had a party. My homeschool support group had a moms cookie exchange. My husband's company had a party.  Our friends at the beach had their annual gift exchange, white elephant party.  We got duds this year.  There is supposed to be an even amount of nice $10 gifts and silly gifts.  We got a Ped Egg (for feet) and OUR silly gift we gave last year! It backfired!  It was some cheesy Christmas decals and place mats. Our gifts we gave were a cake stand and an ugly wall plaque of a deer hoof, bent up, like a hook.  Weird.  It was a hit, though, and even got stolen, so the woman who got was very relieved she had another chance. 

We had a Christmas party for the kids at our house. 
My high schoolers went shopping for poor kids, and helped put together gift bags with our home study program.
We went ice skating and Christmas caroling at a couple of nursing homes.
We made cookies with Grandma  and Grammy.
We went to the local zoo to see the Zoolights.  Millions of lights in the shapes of animals and all kinds of things.  It was fabulous!
We saw the little Christmas scene at a local tire company's shop window.  Very old fashioned and a family tradition.
We saw hundreds of Nutcrackers and Nativity scenes from around the world at a shop in town.
We read the Christmas Story about our Savior's birth. 
We picked out a big Christmas tree at a lot instead of the store.  We decorated it and my oldest son put up a lot of lights out front.
We went shopping and wrapped presents and watched  a LOT of Christmas shows and movies.
We had a wonderful time.

12 Years Old!

I missed posting this birthday boy last month! Grandma is looking out for him and reminded me.  After I commented that in just one year he will be a teenager, he said, "Hopefully, I'll be more mature by then."  He can be so cute sometimes!

No More Braces!

Before (December 2009)

 :

After (December 2011):

Pumpkin Patch

We went to the Pumpkin Patch with friends this fall.  The kids had a great time in the corn maze.  We picked out pumpkins for carving.

Photographer

We have another photographer in the family.  He knows more about my camera than I do.  My 15 year old son loves taking pictures and took a lot of them on our trip to Yosemite.  He picked four of them to enter into our county fair this year.  All of his got a ribbon!  Good job, son!

1st place! Category: National Parks

2nd place.  Category: Sunset

4th place. Category: General

Honorable Mention.  Category: Landscape

Summer Fun

We did a lot this summer. In June, we went to Yosemite. In July, we went to Pismo, and to a friend's house for the 4th of July.  We went to other friends' houses for swimming quite a bit.  We visited friends in Ventura and went to the beach in Carpinteria.  We visited my older cousin in Glendale in her beautiful home and the kids got to swim. We had a wonderful visit with her. Went camping twice in two weeks to Lodgepole in Sequoia National Park and to Belknap in the Sequoia National Forest.

September 11, 2001

I was 5 months pregnant with my youngest.  My husband called me from work to tell me the news of the first 3 planes.  I was still in bed, but immediately new, "terrorists".  I got up and turned on the TV and was glued there for a few hours til the other kids woke up.  I remember wanting to watch it constantly, to see when they brought up the survivors that were found.  But only a couple came out of the rubble alive.  A week or two later, we went camping in Mt. Shasta.  The campground was almost empty.  But across the way, a group was camping and they put up this flag.  It was awesome.  They took this picture and sent it to us. I can't believe it's been 10 years.  My baby is nine now.  None of my kids remember it, they were too young, though my oldest who was 6, knew that something happened, but we didn't tell her much.