Emily's Christmas

 Keith & Stacia's Christmas Morning With Emily!

Celebrating Christmas Eve with CHOCOLATE!

Look Mom.....Presents!!!!

SNOW!!!!! In St. George!

 Friends here say it snows once every 2 or 3 years.

A light rain turned to snow overnight about a week before Christmas.  It lay on the ground most of the day but was mostly gone by the next.

On December 26th.....the day AFTER Christmas, it snowed AGAIN!!!!

it melted as soon as it hit the ground but was cool to watch!

Since it snowed twice so far this winter, I guess it will be a while before it snows here again!

CHRISTMAS 2012!

Christmas Eve

The Christmas program and singing carols at the St. George Tabernacle. 

Christmas light display at the Tabernacle

The Tabneracle was completed in 1876; note the pipe organ.  We got there way early to get good seats.

 Christmas Day

John was up very early (as usual) and snapped a rare photo of the Santa Bird!  The fat bird in red feathers was toting a bag of goodies for our 3 parakeets!!

John opens his first gift.......from Terri & Roger

Katie opens a gift.....also from Terri & Roger

most of the gifts

  

Setting the table for Christmas dinner.

COOKIE DAY!

 Our annual :Cookie Day" was December 17th but the preparation began 2 days before.  We made:

2 batches chocolate/butterscotch fudge

4 batches of Sea Island Bars

3 batches of Party Pecan Balls

2 batches of Pinwheels

2 batches of candy Cane Cookies

2 batches of Chocolate Peanut Butter Kisses

2 batches of Thumbprints (apricot, raspberry & strawberry)

and a triple batch of butter cookies

All the pictures above were taken AFTER we had filled 25 cookie tins, 2 cookie platters, and rewarded those who participated in the cookie decorating!!

All the cookies were baked/cooked by Monday afternoon, December 17th.  That night we hosted our cookie decorating Family Home Evening where we invite single mothers, singles without local family, couples that could use some cheering and our neighbor children.  All 3 batches of butter cookies needed to be frosted and decorated.

The tables are ready

we decorated a few so the children could see what to do

Everyone had a great time!

Christmas Decorations

 Outside Decorations

Our Patio Table

and lights

Inside Decorations

our tree

and stockings

White Elephant Gift Exchange

Shave With Me Barbie!

I though I'd bring something different to our White Elephant Gift Exchange.  We had a $3.00 limit so I bought a Dollar Store Barbie knock-off.  I trimmed a small black bristled paint brush into very tiny pieces, rubbed glue on the dolls legs, arm pits and upper lip.  After sprinkling the tiny "hairs" I let her dry while I re-labeled the box and attached a razor.

Poor Ted!

Ted is demonstrating this year.  He is not at all happy about what happened to his older brother Tom last year!!!

Daddy Daughter

Becca and Alayna enjoy a good laugh with their daddy!

Emily loves her daddy too!
 

Our New Car

 Our Pontiac g6 had reached the point where we had to replace it!  With Pontiac's no longer being manufactured, we looked elsewhere.  We looked at the Honda Accord, Dodge Dart, Chevy Cruze, Chevy Malibu, Hyundai Elantra and the Hyundai Sonata.  We chose the Sonata becayse of it's 10 year/100,000 mile warranty, Comfort, ride, leg room, mpg, trunk space, crash rating and value.

The color is very ordinary but should help keep the car a little cooler when the temperature reaches 110+

I still haven't gotten used to a car that answers the phone for you!

more rear seat leg room than the other cars we looked at

and a huge trunk

Birthdays

 Granddaughters Birthdays

All three of our granddaughters celebrated birthdays in September and October.

BECCA

Celebrated Her FIRST Birthday!

Emily

Celebrated Her Second Birthday

Alayna

Celebrated Her Fourth Birthday!