Good-bye 2008

I know I've been MIA for a while. Honestly, I was getting ready for Christmas and then I was recovering from Christmas. And then I realized this afternoon that I hadn't finished blogging about the events of the month. Not only is the month nearly over, but the year too! Are you the type to be spurred on by deadlines? I inflict my own deadlines and the ending of the year seems pretty significant...so I'm sneaking this last post in for the year. We've begun our big New Year's Eve celebration and the kids are watching "Shrek 2" while I type. (Incidentally, they watched this exact same show last New Year's Eve. Doesn't the station have a budget for a new movie?)

Anyway...I've got a bunch of pictures to share with you. Some of you are groaning, but I hope at least 3 of you are excited!

Here are our 'decorating the Christmas tree' shots. I've only posted 3, so be grateful!

All of the kids (barely) by the tree. It's it beautiful? It's our $20 special from the Stop'n'Shop. We weren't into driving into the mountains this year. (Bah Humbug) It looked the best if you were standing by the front door - perfect for all those people delivering treats and getting a peek inside!

We had to get Chad involved for the star. (I did the lights while he was at work.) Daniel is still helping and Rebekah is...well...Rebekah is being herself.

Joseph was very excited to get his little fingers around so many shiny objects. He's also learned what the camera does and politely stops for his picture to be taken. Too bad we didn't wash his face after dinner. I learned this year to appreciate plastic ornaments. Joseph couldn't resist a small, blue glass ornament and bit right into it. Chad gave him a little sip of water which caused him to throw up some sparkly blue bits. I threw the glass ornaments in the trash when we cleaned up the Christmas stuff this week.

Rebekah REALLY wanted to vacuum one day. Here is her first experience as a homemaker. The vacuum is bigger than she is!

If you will recall my pathetic invitation to the TaVaci Christmas concert, you'll know the event has already passed. I'm glad no one actually came because a huge snowstorm blew in that evening. The roads were horrible and the van disappeared under 8" of snow in two hours.

But I did have my camera so you can see a tiny bit of what you missed. Here are both Leah and Daniel. How convenient that they were standing close enough to be in the same shot! (I have no idea who that other girl is.)

Here's Leah in some sunglasses for one of her songs. Funny!

Daniel had a speaking part this year. This was his joke. :)

Traditionally, Santa comes at the end of the concert every Christmas. Here are each of the kids sitting on his lap.

Joseph wasn't too sure he liked the man, but he didn't cry. He DID accept a candy cane. He's still too young to have the talk about taking candy from strangers.

While I was standing there getting pictures of the kids, Chad came up to me and asked me if I recognized the santa. I knew it was someone that knew our family because he always seemed to know when to look at me when one of my kids climbed on his knee. I thought he would be someone from our last ward, since the TaVaci director is in that ward. Turns out, it's Chad's 1st counselor in THIS ward. In small towns, you just never know how you're going to find yourself connected to other people!

We decorated gingerbread people one evening. How exciting that was! The kids REALLY liked shaking the sugar on.

Why is this boy licking the KNIFE?

I finally got the Christmas pajamas finished. Aren't they cute? Joseph's devilish smile is because every time we sat him down to get a picture, he started coming after me. He thought it was a great game. It's so hard to get 5 kids to pose for a picture!

He's trying to get away here, too. Nathan is holding him down for a half a second. Joseph was having the most fun of everyone.

After I got done yelling at the kids during the pictures and completely losing my patience, we decorated a gingerbread house. My poor kids, they're only going to have memories of their crazy mother yelling at them during times that were supposed to be fun. (I'm aware of the problem and working on it.)

'Twas the night before Christmas and the grinchy mother barely got the stockings out of the storage bin. They were never hung anywhere...just kept in a heap on the top of the bin. But you can see that we did HAVE stockings. I even put Joseph's name on his stocking...mere hours before this photo. (It was his 2nd Christmas after all. I should get the name on there so he doesn't see the pictures in 6 years and feel bad.) That's Nathan...right above his own stocking.

While I did get lots of video on Christmas morning, got zero pictures. WHAT IS WRONG WITH ME? Chad took this picture of the kids. He'd refinished an old chalkboard that's been hanging on the wall of the garage. It's now mounted on the wall of the toy room downstairs.

And Chad's gift had to come the day after Christmas as there was a huge storm we were waiting to see the end of. One of our friends was making a workbench for me (for Chad) and they'd left it for us in their garage when they left town for Christmas. They wouldn't let me pay for anything except the materials. It is a huge, sturdy beast. It was quite the challenge to get it loaded into the back of Chad's truck. I think he likes it! ;)

And that's the end of the our celebration update! The kids' movie is almost over and our fun and games will begin. It's none too soon as Rebekah is getting cranky and obviously tired of sitting on the bed for so long.

If I didn't actually say it, we had a really good Christmas. The kids were pleased with their gifts. They were up before 2 AM and finally got their sleepy parents out of bed at 5:15. We were opening the last gifts as the sky was barely beginning to lighten. We stayed warm and content inside while it snowed and blew outside. It was really nice to not have to think of packing up and driving anywhere.

We had 3 visitors last night (Chad's sisters - Monica and Pamela, and Pamela's fiance, John) and my mom and step-dad on Saturday. I guess if you're stubborn enough, people will come to you! he he

2008 was a really good year for our family. We had some trials, but nothing that left any scars. I look forward to the new year with anticipation. I expect struggles and sadness, but I hope that I will have enough trust and faith in God to maintain perspective and endure to the end. :) I have an awesome husband, 5 fabulous kids, good health, a warm home and good friends and family. I am so blessed!

HAPPY NEW YEAR, EVERYONE!