Thanksgiving in Idaho

 I need to post these fun Thanksgiving pictures before it's next year. Packing up this house is so overwhelming and just no fun at all. It's dreadful.  The worst.  Especially since I get gyped out of Christmas.  It already doesn't even seem like Christmas and now the dopey weather  in the 70's doesn't help.   Sorry, I guess I needed to get that out of my system.  Did I say I hate packing?  It is such an enormous, endless task.  I go from being overwhelmed to depressed to feeling like I'm making progress.   

 Okay - back to Thanksgiving: The Idaho weather was so bad we had to delay our trip a day coming and going.  We ended up driving all the way to Provo the first day, then on Tues we left by 7:30 a.m. to be ahead of the storm.  Which worked until we hit southern Idaho, and the 84 West was brutal with almost zero visiablility, blowing snow and icy roads.  It was a white knuckle drive for a few hours.  I think I was more concerned about Josh and Krista who were close behind in their honda.  I felt safe in the truck, and Craig is a great driver, but the icy roads were awful.  We debated whether or not to get off and wait it out, but we ended up forging ahead and made it through just before the roads closed and arrived in Star a few hours later than planned.  We had such a fun week with our Idaho kids and it was so nice to also have Josh and Krista there from BYU.  On the way home that section of the freeway was closed and we had to take a detour up  through Pocatello.

So here are the pictures everyone has been waiting for:

 Renee, who is finally looking pregnant at the 7 month mark

Right profile. . .

. . .  Left profile

The happy parents to be.  Miss Skye Rogers is due to arrive the end of January.  Craig keeps telling Nick to get lots of sleep!

The girls have grown up since I was there in August.

 Paige will be 6 in a few weeks.  She wanted me to take a picture of her with her princess barbie collection as she posed differently with each doll.  I'll just post one, although I have to say they are all adorable.  Here she is with her new Rapunzel.  Rebecca and I took all three girls to see the new movie" Tangled" the day before Thanksgiving, and they all loved it.  Reese was even good. Later that night Craig and I went to see the new Harry Potter movie with Nick, Renee, Josh and Krista. 

Of course, the darling Clairey Beary wanted to pose for a picture, too.  She has changed almost as much as Reese. She is getting so grown up and so smart. She knows tons of letters and is speaking so clearly now.  She loves to do whatever Paige does.  I have never seen children sit and color for so long and so well.  They both inherited their parents artistic genes. 

Reese is 19 months old already.  She is a baby doll lover and always wants you to help her wrap up her doll in a blanket.  It is her favorite thing to do.  Well, maybe her 2nd favorite because Rebecca is her very favorite.  Saying Reese is a mama's girl is the understatement of the year.  We all spent the week trying to win her over.

Reese's 3rd favorite thing to so is have stories read to her.  Aunt Krista was the first person to win her over!

Josh giving Mark moral support while he mashes the potatoes.

 Sadly, this is the only group picture I took.  I was not a very responsible photographer this trip. 

 It was so fun to be with Nick and Renee. We spent Saturday with them and went out to lunch, shopping for baby quilt fabric (they have some killer quilt shops) and watched a movie and hung out at their house. 

Our newlyweds have made it to 6 months already!  Krista is so excited about graduating in April.  We met for lunch after we survived the drive in the blizzard on our way up

. Grampa finally won Reese over the day before we left!

On Saturday they put up their Christmas Tree.  Paige wanted to point out the ornament she made last year in Preschool. It was fun to see Rebecca's childhood ornaments that were passed on to her when she got married.

Paige calls their little nativity  set "The Little Lord 'Tivity".  So that's what Clarie calls it. They had so much fun playing with it.  Thank you Fisher-Price

LET IT BE CHRISTMAS!

One of my very favorite Christmas songs is "Let It Be Christmas" by Alan Jackson (#1 on my playlist, bottom right on the sidebar). It has special meaning to our family because Josh likes to sing the first line in a big, booming voice. It always  makes me miss him --- just like it does to watch the movie ELF or see the Egg Nog in the grocery store. Sorry, Josh, I was just having a moment. That is not the point of this post. . . .

Years ago  I  struggled with how to teach my children the true meaning of Christmas and still have fun with Santa.  Then I discovered this wonderful figurine, titled "The Kneeling Santa". Along with it I found an article that tied it all together for me:

     "In Clement Moore's poem, 'The Night Before Christmas', St. Nick gives solely out of love and wants nothing in return.
     In the Charlie Brown story the Christmas tree is meager and lopsided until love makes it glow.
     And unselfish, Rudolph guides Santa and his sleigh through deep fog with his loving beacon of light.
     Even the mean old Grinch learns that it was love, not the gifts he had stolen, that brought joy to the folks of Whoville."

During this time I also attended a Holiday Seminar at Victoria Community Church in Riverside, where Emily Barnes spoke about having a Christ-Centered Christmas.  That was a life-changing day for me!  She shared lots of ideas on how to incorporate nativities and other reminders of the Saviour in all our Christmas decorating and celebrating.  One comment she made was that "the minute your friends and family walk up to your door, let them know what Christmas means to you".  Since then I have added many nativity sets to my collection, especially ones my children could play with and enjoy.  I selected Christmas cards and even stamps that reflected my feelings that Christmas was about the birth of Jesus Christ.  Today there are so many great choices to help teach about the true meaning of Christmas from ornaments to puppets and toys to advent calendars.  And I will be forever grateful to Emilie Barnes for introducing me to the Christmas music of Amy Grant, who quickly became one of my all time favorites. 

This week I found this wonderful little blog on facebook, [through being friends with SugarDoodle.  They have the cutest links and ideas.]  SugarDoodle is truly my favorite facebook friend.  I love my new nativity button! It links you to a daily Christ-centered quote about Christmas.  So, this year, this blog background is as close as this home will come to decorating for Christmas.  After being gone for a week to Idaho for Thanksgiving, we will be in Louisiana for a week during Christmas, and then we move  the day after we get home.  Even I, who adores all things Christmas and believes you can never have enough ornaments or even trees from which to hang said ornaments from --- cannot figure out a way to justify decorating  or putting up a tree this year whilst packing up our home of 16 years.  When I saw this blog background, it made me smile and filled heart. Simple pleasures.  And I love the way the nativity blog button is the first thing you see next to the tree.

 LET IT BE CHRISTMAS

Let it be Christmas, everywhere

In the hearts of all people both near and afar

Christmas everywhere

Feel the love of the season wherever you are

On the small country roads lined with green mistletoe

Big city streets where a thousand lights glow

Let it be Christmas everywhere

Let heavenly music fill the air

Let every heart sing let every bell ring

The story of hope and joy and peace

And let it be Christmas everywhere 

Let heavenly music fill the air

Let anger and fear and hate disappear

Let there be love that lasts through the year

And let it be Christmas

Christmas everywhere

Let it be Christmas everywhere

With the gold and the silver, the green and the red

Christmas everywhere

In the smiles of all children asleep in their beds

In the eyes of young babies their first fallen snow

Elderlys' memories that never grow old

Let it be Christmas everywhere

Let heavenly music fill the air

Let every heart sing let every bell ring

The story of hope and joy and peace

And let it be Christmas everywhere 

Let heavenly music fill the air

Let anger and fear and hate disappear

Let there be love that lasts through the year

And let it be Christmas

Christmas everywhere

Let it be Christmas everywhere

In the songs that we sing and the gifts that we bring

Christmas everywhere

In what this day means and what we believe

From the sandy white beaches where blue water rolls

Snow covered mountains and valleys below

Let it be Christmas everywhere

Let heavenly music fill the air

Let every heart sing let every bell ring

The story of hope and joy and peace

And let it be Christmas everywhere

Let heavenly music fill the air

Let anger and fear and hate disappear

Let there be love that lasts through the year

And let it be Christmas

Christmas everywhere 

Christmas everywhere

Christmas everywhere

THE END OF AN ERA

It's true --- we are moving from our home of 16 years and the city we have lived in for 30 years.  We have loved our town of Moreno Valley.  We feel so blessed that our children were raised here, in the Valley View Ward and educated at Armada, Cloverdale, and North Ridge Elementary Schools ---Mt. View and Palm Middle Schools --- and Valley View High School.

It is a daunting yet exciting time as we look to the next chapter in our lives.  As Craig looks forward to retirement in a few years, we realized that now would be a good time to downsize and to begin to make some changes.  Due to the sad state of the real estate market, we knew that selling our house would be a dilemma.  We swallowed our pride and put it up for sale, knowing it would be a short sale (meaning that the value of our home is less than the mortgage).  So in order to deal with that we felt that sooner would be better than later so here we are.  It is all official and our escrow will close on December 30. Gulp. YES - IN 28 DAYS WE ARE MOVING. 

We will be renting a home in Lake Elsinore, just a few houses down from Melissa.  She assured us this would be okay, and we are excited about the possibilities.  Due to the move I felt it only fair to cancel preschool this year.  I was surprised and truly caught off guard by how much I missed it, so I am looking forward to holding preschool again next fall in a new area.

With our baby getting married in June, and our nest being truly empty for the first time in 35 years, it has been a time of adjustment for me - which I admit has not always been my finest hour.  Although I welcome the adventure that is ahead of us, I miss our full house and all the joy and purpose that brought into my life.  In addition to those changes, this year our family spread out to Utah, Idaho, Louisiana and Afghanistan.  I am so grateful for free cell phone minutes, e-mail, Skype  and the post office to bridge those miles --- and help us watch our children and grandchildren grow as well as being able to spoil them long distance.

If I have been distant, I am sorry.  But now you know why.  It has been a weird, emotional time that has been difficult to deal with let alone discuss. So, ready or not, here we go. . .

I'm on Bakerella's blog!!!

http://www.bakerella.com/

I love finding a post from Bakerella in my email, and she almost always has one on Monday mornings.  I opened up my email this morning and she has a post about her book tour in southern California AND I AM IN THE 3RD PICTURE!!!!  Front and center!  And my hair isn't flat!  I'm also in a few more pictures in the slideshow.  So that was a fun surprise on this rainy, dreary morning.

I love a rainy, dreary morning than most people.  But today it matches the mood of our family as Ben leaves for his deployment in Afghanistan.  There have been lots of little miracles involved with this deployment, but the best news of all is that he will only be gone 8 months.  Due to security, I'll let Jamie give you the details.  (Her blog is private, but if you want to be on it just email her and she will add you.)  It was interesting this time around (Ben went to Iraq for a year in 2004) they are being very cautious about security and what can be posted on social networks online or even spoken of on cell phones.  As a mom, I am grateful for their caution.  I talked to Jamie first thing this morning, and so far so good.  We are looking forward to our visit to Louisiana for Christmas. 

Bakerella Book Tour Signing

Last year I discovered Bakerella.com when I was looking online for a recipe for cake balls.  She has an amazing blog that I have subscribed to ever since ~ and I always look forward to finding her latest post in my inbox.  Bakerella took the basic cake ball recipe (where you combine cake and frosting, roll it into a ball and dip it in chocolate) and has created tons of darling shapes and designs and put them on a sucker stick and called them CAKE POPS.It is amazing how creative she is. Her blog has step by step tutorials and the directions make it all look so easy. Bakerella had so many good ideas she wrote a book:

It was fun to learn about the publishing process in her  posts.  I was so excited to hear that she was having a book tour stop in Costa Mesa that I immediately put it on my calendar and promised myself  I would go no matter what.  I usually have grand plans-- but  then I talk myself out of going, especially when I don't have anyone to go with.   This time I followed through!  Since Disneyland and my Aunt Sharon's is the only place I ever go in Orange County I was proud of myself for figuring out how to get to
Williams-Sonoma in South Coast Plaza. 

I left home at 8:30, filled up the gas tank, got a Jamba Juice for the road and made it there in an hour.  So nice not to hit traffic!  I was unsure of what to expect so I was really pleased that I got one of those sweet  front parking places at the mall and  I was #24 for the book signing.  I got a front row spot and it was so much fun to be there that the 2 hours of waiting flew by. Not to mention Williams-Sonoma is a place I could get into lots of trouble.

Melissa's friend, Heather, from Lake Elsinore was there (she recognized me and texted Melissa to be sure it was me).  We had our picture taken together to show Melissa.  Most of the people there were from Orange County but there were also several people from Corona.  They handed out 128 numbers so I was really glad to be in the front of that line.There were over 200 people there and it was a happy, lively group.  Bakerella answered questions for about 15 minutes before the book signing and she had some really good, simple suggestions.

These girls from Mission Viejo were in line with me for the signing, and they had these adorable shirts made! I never found out their names, but the blonde told me I looked familiar and I had thought the same thing when I first saw her, but when we talked about it our paths had never crossed.

Bakerella was featured on the cover of the Betty Crocker Fall Baking magazine last month, and she signed that for me too.  It was such a treat to meet my blog friend Bakerella AKA Angie Dudley.  I'm so glad I took the time and made the effort to be there - it was well worth it!

A Blog for Us Grandma's

http://www.travelinoma.blogspot.com/

I was blog/link surfing today and found this wonderful blog, TRAVELIN OMA - FINDING BEAUTY IN LIFE! Lot's of cute posts about being a grandmother and the joys of aging. It was just what I needed!