We love this night!!!! This is one my most favorite things about being a Mommy. I love all the happenings b4 and after the children go to bed. I can never sleep on Christmas Eve. I just can't wait for tomorrow morning to see all their beautiful excited faces in anticipation of what could be awaiting them downstairs!
Happy birthday girly! We were sad that Dad couldn't be there. This is the day that it snowed a lot! The freeway was shut down as were all routes into the Antelope Valley. We felt so bad that he couldn't be there. Mike has never missed a birthday. We said a prayer for him asking Heavenly Father to please bring him home safe and soon. About 15 minutes later Mike called and said that he was able to get on a train (the train stop not station....had at least 300 people waiting and fighting to get on a train) and that he would be home soon. Our prayer was answered. That was such a crazy day. A huge thanks to Nancy and Joe. Joe was so sweet and offered to pick Mike up from the train station here in Palmdale so I wouldn't have to drive with the kids on unsafe roads. Thanks so much you guys, you were a life saver that night! We were so blessed.
Camryn wanted sushi for her birthday dinner (which didn't happen due to the whole town shutting down from the snow) and a delicious chocolate bundt cake, also at the store that we couldn't get to. Thank goodness I always have cake mixes on hand and was able to whip this one up. Notice that I only had one candle too. Poor girl. That was also on my list of things to get that day when the kids would have been in school!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=foTuixJuNb0
I love this song. It is performed by an opera singer named Renee Flemming. (It's not so opera-ish after the first 45 seconds) The song is called "Simple Song" by Leonard Bernstein. ( I love Bernstein) The musical accompianment is beautiful and simple. They are at the Mainz Cathedral which is so beautiful. It was my favorite place in that village when my sister and I visited when we were teenagers. My brother and sis in law lived in Mainz while he was stationed in Germany.
This is funny! This morning, Gavin woke up early (like usual) turned on the computer and decided to play Club Penguin. I guess he had some questions or something and thought he'd call one of Jeffrey's friends at 7:00 in the morning. They picked up the phone and hung up right away. Was that too early or something????? Ya think? His friend called back around 10:30 when I guess they were all up and ready to talk on the phone. In G's head, if he's up then all of his friends must be up too!
Why? You ask. Because I was the only sister not there for him and am so far away from him and my family and he had to have open heart surgery today and have 5 yes 5 bypasses done! It was an all day event that looked like it all went well untill the late afternoon when his chest wouldn't stop bleeding. So, what did they do to help my Dad out? They cut him open again and found that he was bleeding so bad from one of the aerteries that couldn't coagulate. They sewed it up or something, I was still in shock with what my sister was telling me. They can't give him very much in the way of drugs because he had already had so much in his system prior to being cut open again and were afraid that he could slip away. Poor guy has been through so much. We all fasted on Sunday and prayed that he would pull through and the Doctors would be able to do their job and everything would turn out fantastic! I know I just run on and on........
Has this this ever happened to you? On Sunday evening I was in my bathroom and noticed that there was a brand new jar of Claussen pickles on the counter (strange I know.) I asked around and found out that Blake had taken them upstairs to Mike while he was getting ready for church ( I was already there) and asked if he could have some. Dad said "no we are leaving for church in a few minutes." And so there they sat all day! Today I called the Claussen company and asked if they were still good even though they had never been opened? (Gavin and Blake love these pickles, don't know what they would do with out them!) She told me that we should not eat them as they must stay refrigerated even though they hadn't been opened and also that they should never stay out of the fridge longer than an hour. Did you know that? Don't eat the pickles!
I don't have a picture with this post but wanted to share anyway! Tonight I got a phone call from a good friend (Kristi) who wanted to drop off some Christmas goodies and I was thinking.....not tonight, any night but tonight (I was already in my sweats and looking pretty frumpy) she shows up with this adorable bag of homemade treats (the coconut bars were my favorite) plus a beautiful candle with a shiny silver lid. Before she can even leave, Angela shows up with my kids absolute favorite thing....fresh chocolate chip cookies! Our family night treat was going to be sugar cookies that the kids get to decorate but, with all those treats we opted to do it another night! Thanks girls!!! We love you!
I know it is Southern California but holy cow it was freezing last night!!!! (And yes everyone has red eyes...where was the red eye reduction thingy?) Oh well, we are glad to have a fun family photo in this huge tree that grounds the lawn. It was so beautiful. The temple was so bright even in the dark of night. The kids loved rolling down the front lawn while all the adults chit chatted about babies and tons of other stuff to do with life!
I know it's not a traditional color, but I absolutely love it! I'm off to a birthday lunch with the girls.....I'll post when I get back!!
The new picture above ( at the top of the blog) is our Christmas card this year. I ordered 20 less than what I needed. So, I will try to get more tomorrow or the next day.....so if you didn't get one in the mail, here it is! Merry Christmas!
Here are the kids with their hot cocoa....Cami had to have the huge mug that is almost as big as her head! I got the basic decorations up and then let them load up the tree with tons more ornaments. They really enjoyed Family Home Evening aka family night!
This is no doubt our family's favorite Christmas movie. It is full of laughs and I almost cry because I laugh so hard!!! So, since tomorrow there is no school due to more teacher conferences I decided to let the kids stay up late and watch A Christmas Story. 
