Memories

In my life as a mom, I have to admit that I totally love the Christmas season, most importantly I love to see the memories that children build around the Christmas season. Some of my childhood memories include, sleeping over at Grandma Gunter’s house with all of my cousins, driving to or from Grandma’s house in a freezing cold car because the heater had gone out, and eating dinner in the garage. This year was an interesting Christmas for us and I think my children will have some great memories.
Sweet girl with her presents from Grandma. My mom is an amazing quilter and this year she gave the little granddaughters dolls and homemade doll blankets. Dawniella decided that her baby doll doesn’t need a blanket but it sure came in handy Christmas afternoon when she crashed.
Lyra is my imp and loves Christmas. Kjerstin did a wonderful job catching her at her best, peeking in stockings and gifts then grinning when she is caught.
Sweet baby smiles can light up the world.

Lately, Kjerstin is becoming the family photographer and really enjoys making her brothers and sisters suffer through photo sessions. This is our latest family picture.
Keturah (18), Christmas 2008. I think she’s letting Kjerstin know what she thinks of the photo session.
Kjerstin (17), Christmas 2008

Meagan (15), Christmas 2008
Adara (16), Cristmas 2008
Adaon (14), Christmas 2008 Nicole (12), Christmas 2008
Taron (11), Christmas 2008
Andrew (8), Christmas 2008
Dawniella (1), Christmas 2008
Lyra (4), Christmas 2008
Sisters are good for something

The theme this Christmas has been Let it Snow because of the significant amounts of snow fall we’ve had and the kids have made the most of it. From pictures, to snow fights, to whatever else they can think of, including a discussion of why the snow was yellow (Lyra and Andrew).




It’s been a time of catching up with good friends. (L to R: Nicole, Meagan, and Bree).
Several years ago I started the tradition of a Christmas village and over the years it has grown. My isn’t on the same scale as my mom’s village, but I’m working on it. One of the fun parts of my village is the fiddler that I have who moves throughout my village during the season. No one ever sees him move but every day he’s in a different place, sometimes on roofs, sometimes in the middles of the sea, and this year he even moved to my little village. The kids love the village and love helping me set it up and take it down every year. Last year we decided to carry on a tradition from Brandt’s family and start a little village. This year we put it under our Christmas tree for the first time. If you look closely in the village you will see matchbox cars that we borrowed from Andrew’s collection and “Sockable” the Snowman in the background. Andrew made me the cutest little snowman made from a sock for Christmas and I added it to the village, but he was to cute to be the abonimable snowman so he became “sockable” the snowman. I do think though that the one that got the most enjoyment out of the village wasn’t any of the big kids. I found Dawniella time and time again visiting the village. For the most part she didn’t touch a thing just stared at it. Once in a great while I’d find things rearranged but she definitely loved the village.





Another tradition has been making gingerbread houses at Grandma’s. I’m not sure what we’re going to do for the next couple years, my kids are making noise about having it at our house, we’ll see.




Grandma’s house is also a place of wonder at Christmas time and a place for hanging out with cousins.

But I think our most memorable moment happened Christmas night. At 4 am the morning of December 26th Nicole and her friend Bree woke Brandt and I up to tell us that they had decided to take a joy ride in our van and gotten it stuck about 4 miles from our house. I don’t think Nicole is quite ready to face Grandpa yet, after it took him, Uncle Jeff, Steve, and Brandt about 4 hours to dig it out I can’t say I blame her. As of the moment she’s grounded and then will only have “supervised visitation” with Bree for sleepovers for a while, and she has to detail clean several people’s cars this spring. Her and Bree also got to visit with Bree’s uncle whose a state patrolman, which I hope put a scare into them so they won’t do this again! Thank goodness no one was hurt and the van is fine, other than some dirt on the hood. Thanks Dad, Jeff and Steve for help with the rescue.