Christmas Eve Night

We always go down to Dave and Gina's home for Christmas Eve. We were blessed to have Grandma and Grandpa G as well as Chad, Angie and Grandma Hawkins also.

We ate lots of pizza!!

and lots of other goodies too!

We loved having Chad and Angie there.

Grandma with Tyler. Tyler is a senior now, and will be leaving on his mission next year. They grow up way too Fast!

Luke took the responsibility to take care of Jacob! It was just too cute!

The ping pong games started... but we all found out who the best player was.. Heather!

This was Richard hitting the ping pong ball... Good job Rich!

Dad here thinks he is a pro, and as you can see he is defiantly pro worthy. As he stretches his long muscular-less arms and slices the paddle under the ball, it give the ball a spinning effect that he thinks a personal accomplishment... Good Job Dad!!!

Angie has real skill while she plays ping pong, she also poses for the camera.. what an inspiration!

Dad here is trying to show Angie one of his many talents!

Angie is focusing hard...
I am not really sure what Chad is doing...

They all did amazing at ping pong, but they did not want Heather on their teams for some reason, I am not sure why. Heather is the most amazing person and she is so amazing at everything she does. Everyone was so scared to play Heather and she had to admit that she was an intimidating person and her skills are hard to compete against. She is just such a humble person, and so many people look up to her. With everything Heather does, she tries hard to keep everyone happy so she volunteered to not play ping pong to save the feelings of the people around her.. how great is she?!?!?!

The Ambush

My kids have always liked a good snowball fight. Chad and Angie got ambushed on one of the first nights back in happy valley. I think it was Jessica and Dan who spear headed the idea. If there is any retaliation, you know who deserves it. I was walking on the battle ground trying to document the years of built-up aggression towards their siblings. Luckily, my camera and I avoided collateral snowballs.

Richie unloads on Chad and Angela while Heather clears her head and hair of unwanted snow. Jessica happily avoided a direct hit.
Dan and Rachel took position behind the boat and had plenty of fresh snow avaiable on the boat and underneath the tree behind them. They had many attempts on their fortress but little damage was done.
Dan was using his wicked baseball arm and Rachel employed some modern technology (plastic kid snowball thrower).
Heather was using a dangerous weapon / snow launcher to attack Angela. Must be a lot of hidden aggression there Heather.
While Heather reloaded Angela was quick to turn with a snowball of her own.
Heather winds up her secret weapon but.....
Chad rushes with massive speed lunging for the hand held catapult. Heather drops her weapon and screams in terror.
Chad grabs Heathers weapon and goes chases after Heather. Richie wisely flees in search for safety and more fresh snow.
As Jimmy and Chad regroup, a snowball was launched and the deadly weapon now became a shield and with skill only wielded by northwestern mountain climber Chad protects him self and Jimmy from a certain plaster.
Angie quickly runs to Chad for protection and again he protects his fair maiden. Snowballs splinter in all directions some hitting Richie as he runs from the white onslaught.
Dan or Rachel propeled a snow ball at Jimmy.
Heather somehow got a hold of the weapon and heaved a large snow mass towards Rachel and Dan. The only problem..... she could not hit the broad side of a barn.
Jessica gets hit in the arm as Jimmy and Heather reload.
This last image is very disturbing......out the corner of my eye I see Heather hugging someone in the darkness. A secret admirer perhaps. I think we all know who this was (P.S.). Also notice Heather was hit in the buttocks by a stray snow ball. Ha! Thanks you all for a great snowball fight. It would have never happend without Chad and Angela coming for a visit. Thanks you guys.

Pre Christmas

After Thanksgiving the kids wanted to start decorating for Christmas, but first they went shopping the morning after Thanksgiving and had a wonderful time together.

This is Heather's shopping outfit.
Heather was so excited to put up Christmas decorations. After they got home from their shopping excursion they had me take down all the Christmas decoration bins and they started to work their magic.
Heather stayed in her early Christmas shopping outfit the entire day. I think it gave her a little creative mojo.
While Heather is jumping around in her mojo suit Rachel is getting stuff done.
It did not take long for Rachel to start dancing to the Christmas music. They are definitely festive dancers.
The climax of song reminded Rachel that Jimmy was coming over and this was the result.
After much dancing, singing and dreaming about Jimmy they finally finished making some cookies and got a few decorations put up.
One of our favorite Christmas traditions is the advent calendar. Lynne and Jacob are opening one of the daily pockets. Even though our kids are big they still like to participate. I want to announce that Chad (who is currently not chronologically in Utah at the time the image was taken) opened the pocket with Baby Jesus.
Looks like Jacob is also having fun with this tradition.
Later that evening Grandma and Jessica gave Jacob a hair cut. He was so cute with the phone and the bush. The two items kept him distracted from the hair removal.

Thanksgiving Day

Thanksgiving was a little different this year without having Grandma and Grandpa G around. I usually go fishing with Grandpa a few times and enjoy the outdoors. We also were missing Angela and Chad but knew we would have them around soon (Christmas).

Greg, Kim and family came over for some good old fashion Turkey grub. We always feel blessed to have Grandma H. to dinner or any activity. Lynne and I tag teamed the Thanksgiving dinner with some help from Jessica and others. I enjoy cooking and have been taught by the best (Grandma G. ).

The guys enjoyed looking at a few car images and Cobra talk. Nothing quite like horsepower !

The kids grabbed my camera as the adults talked, they had fun taking images. I did the same as a kid. We all love taking images. The funny faces, wierd shots, action and sci. stuff seem to dominate my hard drive space. I think it is genetic ! Here is a candid shot with Stephanie and Heather. I don't know who took the image.

Come on ....... flex it girls. From the looks of it you can see these young ones have been working out at the 24 hour fitness center. I love the spontaneousness, I don't think that is a word..... oh well !
ShiShi: Rachel and Stephanie are saying Hi in Chinese. Rachel is known for her dual Chinese personality.

Sisters take to the grass and do the mantis and shouting tiger pose. Do not try this at home without health insurance. A big thanks to all who came over for dinner to share time with us.

Ginger Bread Creations

Last week we got together with some family and friends and had a good old fashion ginger bread show down. Our pieces were not near as architecturally innovative as Angie and Chads. If you want to see a cool ginger bread type house take a look at Angie and Chad's Blog. All three groups started with the same pre-made gingerbread kit. All readers need to select their favorite ginger bread house. We put these pieces of work on line for our viewers (few that be) to select the winning house of 08. Please vote...... your vote will count here.
Here are the following teams:
Jessica and Lynne (married women)
Rachel, Stephanie and Heather (single women)
Dan, Jimmy and Sir Richard III (men)

I was regularly called on as a consultant for all teams although I do have a bias I will not divulge my favorite at this time.

The guys were not taking this lightly. They thought the theme for this year was the American Frontieer.

Here Jessica is deciding what piece of candy to use. Every candy was specifically selected to give the house its magical ora.

Heather did not waste any time. It did not take long for her to master the little icing tool and soon she was putting together quite little candy fixtures.

The guys took a while to come up with their idea and it slowly started to take form. After the walls got up the external log veneer was applied with precision.

The young ladies decided to use a glass display plate to provide and interesting view.

This is one awesome cabin. I think Harold we be proud of the effort these young men.

Jacob had a good time rooting for the guys.

Nice icing!

Heather was fixated with her feet throughout the entire process. Yes Heather your feet are very nice.

OK below are the images of the three gingerbread houses. Please rank the houses as you see fit.

Jessica and Moms House: A very attractive house. Good use of candy and percise construction. I give this house the If I could eat it..... it would taste very good award. I also think it is the most colorful.

The GUYS get the best use of pretzels award. Nicely done !

The young girls get the best use of a Santa Clause award.