Luminaries

Mary, thank you SOOOOO much for all that you do every year for the Luminaries. The Luminaries are a tradition in Mary, my mother-in-laws, neighborhood where they line the street with candles in paper bags, and have a live nativity scene at her house. Her ward is in charge of it, but she still does pretty much everything. This year she wasn't able to make it due to Cedric, my nephew's, baptism so we were in charge of seeing things through. I'm usually down in the room getting everyone dressed for the Manger but this year I was in the kitchen seeing over things. I never really realized all that went on in the kitchen, it's pretty much a mad house with everyone coming in for treats and hot chocolate and a little of Mary's holiday hospitality and cheer. Everything went really smooth but so many people missed her and were disappointed to find me in the kitchen and not her. Everyone pitched in and helped so much, thank-you Natalie, Elaine and Janea we couldn't have done it without your help.

Aleksia was in the manger scene a few times (by force because it was FREEZING) and we got some good pictures of her, thanks to Marcus who was my camera man. We had so much fun seeing everyone and catching the true spirit of Christmas. It's such an amazing tradition and were so glad it's one of ours.

I hope everyone is having a wonderful season. I feel like ours is starting now that we are finally getting a storm, 1-2ft in three days, yes that is ft! So we are all cuddled up inside staying warm. Okay, John is out trying to stay on top of the shoveling and the kids and I are inside staying warm. We were out earlier and have had enough of it. I just hope John never tires of it.

The 1st and 2nd picture is Aleksia and the Skinner kids, you've got to love the one of Emery(Mary) with the amazed expression. The 3rd and 4th is Aleksia with the some friends from our ward and the last one is the Skinner family. Enjoy and Merry Christmas.

Christmas Parties

We have been so busy with Christmas stuff I feel like I hardly have time to blog any more. We had our ward party on Sat. morning and the sizzler party tonight. I love the pictures of Santa at the ward party, not only because they were taking by an amazing photographer, but the Santa was our Bishop and you can truly see the love of the children in his eyes. The first photos are from the Sizzler party where one of the servers played Santa. We only had a few close calls with babies being dropped and a totally terrified Santa, but it was great and he earned mega bonus points for stepping up to the plate. I hope you enjoy the photos.