The New Year

Well I don't know if my statement of "I'm not dead yet" last April convinced anyone. But I'm really not dead still and I get to be a stay at home mom again. Yippy! This means I will have more time, maybe. Of course Preston still has to find a job to take my place as bread winner but I have faith that it will happen. He's working hard at finding a job. Actually, we've both been working hard at packing this week. We are picking up the U-Haul tomorrow, packing it, and driving to Boise on Saturday. Fun New Years celebration, huh? But it needs to be done at point in time.

So I will give more details about life later. What I really wanted to do tonight is post some pictures. Since I'm not on my computer, I only have some Christmas pictures. Not a bad place to start back up so here we go.

We spent Christmas with Preston's family this year. We went down on Dec 17th, the day after I got done teaching classes, and stayed until Dec. 26th. We really had a good time. Eric and Amy (Preston's brother and soon to be sister in law) flew in 2 days after we got there and stayed for a few days. I hadn't seen him since February so it had been a while. But Califonia seemed to have treated him well since he convinced a good girl that he deserves her. And Amy seems very convinced. I met her for the first time and I really liked her. I didn't get any pictures of them (silly me).

But I did get some pictures of the "Christmas Eve" nativity play all the kids put on. I put "" because we didn't actually do it Christmas Eve but on Sunday night because we wanted everyone there for it. (Melissa and Kryst were in town but leaving before Christmas too). Sharli was asked be a shepard. (she's in front) I couldn't get a picture of the whole group (the wise men are missing) from where I was sitting but hopefully I can get on from someone else.

I love the prop's. The stable was made out of Steve's new 32" flat screen TV (awesome use of inginuity Jennifer) and the sheep were cardboard with bubble wrap. These were a big hit with the actors. In fact, they forgot about acting and just kept to managing the sheep which made little pops throughout the presentation. It was so fun.

I think Sharli was really tired when all this was going on because I couldn't get her to smile at all! But at least she looked at me at one point in time. Actually, I'm surprized that she wore the towel and stayed put the whole time. She must have really been tired.

Well, the rest of the week was kinda a blur of last minute Christmas shopping, wrapping and what not. On the actual Christmas Eve, Preston and I continued our family tradition of having the Norweigian dish called kjutt kaker (that's not the real way to spell it but I can't find the "special characters" in here) which is basically flattened meatballs prepared a special way and sevrved in a buttery, creamy, tastey gravy. It's soooo good! We made it for Preston's parents and also Jennifer and Steve's family. I think they liked it.

Then Christmas morning came. It was fun to see Sharli get into unwrapping presents. Where she was only 21 months old, she didn't understand about Christmas time and presents and stuff. But she did like all the Christmas lights. She always pointed at any lights we saw. And she did like helping to unwrap the presents.

We forgot our stockings so Santa filled a lunch sack for Sharli. She got some books, a color book, candy cane, and a cell phone in her stocking.

She got these fun little Disney books from Craig and Debra (Preston's parents). Her other gifts included clothes, more clothes, more books, a puzzle, and a few stuffed animals. I think her favorite gifts were the stuffed kitty from G-mom and Bakka (Craig and Debra), her cell phone, and a little tiger from Grandma and Grandpa (my parents). She's always carrying them around. I think my favorite ones were the cute clothes. I bought her alot of clothes and I think this may be the last year that Sharli won't care too much.

And here's Preston.

Hummm.... That's all the pictures of Christmas that I have at the moment. Plus it has now offically been the new year for 1 hour and I'm tired so I'm going to finish this post a little later.... Maybe days later as I'm in the middle of moving so don't be a hater if you are reading this. Be grateful you got anything. I will finish, some day... So Happy New Years!