Family Christmas Picture

We were able to put an entire evening aside for some very special family time to prepare us for Christmas. We went to the nursery and to pick out this year's Christmas tree. We brought it home, got it all set up in the stand and then went out to dinner and Scott-Ja-Mama's BBQ restaurant. We found that we really enjoy going to this place for dinner. They have a shuffle board that Ky, Chris and I played on for quite a long time. After that we came home, put on some Christmas music and decorated our tree. I left most of the decorating up the kids b/c I never know where to hand the freakin' ornament! Once the tree was decorated we took this years Christmas picture. If you're not aware last year I made everyone wear their Idaho Vandals sweatshirt. I like the way the picture looks when we're all matching in some way. Well, Rob and the kids were not very excited about me making them wearing anything matching or anything sports related. So I found that we all had a dark color fleece and I was able to convince them that we should all wear our fleeces. It worked and our picture turned out GREAT! Our family wishes you and yours a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Thanksgiving 2006

It has taken me this long to recover from our Thanksgiving feast! We had a very large family gathering which was first for us since our wedding. We had 15 people living in our house for 5 days! That doesn't count Rob's sister and brother-in-law who were visiting for LA but staying next door at my father-in-laws house. Rob & I made Thanksgiving dinner for 21 people and everyone fit around the tables! It was tight but much to our surprise all the tables fit in our dining room & family room. The dinner was great and everyone seemed to really enjoy themselves! I learned that its serious work to make dinner for that many people! (I can't believe my Grandma Sheila loved preparing food for that many people.) By the time I sat down to eat I was so tired that eating was the last thing on my mind. So just like my wedding I ate very little and don't really remember just how good the food was...but there were not many leftovers so it must have been great!

I choose to work Thanksgiving night because the holiday pay is crazy! I took my dad to work with me and he loved it! I think he would have stayed all night with me if I didn't get hungry and go home for something to eat.

Friday everyone went shopping while Rob & I stayed home and relaxed. That evening the family went to downtown Coeur d'Alene for the firework show and Christmas tree lighting put on by the resort. Its a huge event for Coeur d'Alene and many people from the Post Falls area. There were thousands of people down there for the event. The fireworks were awesome...I think they were even better than the 4th of July show! We got to sing Christmas songs as a city before the fireworks. Rob's sister, Kim, and I had a great idea during the fireworks, we started taking pictures of the family with the fireworks in the background. It was a timing thing and some pictures turned out better than others. This one of my sister's boyfriend, Slim, and his son was our favorite! This picture was thanks to Kim's fast finger!

Saturday morning the girls got up and went shopping again. We left the little kids at home with the guys who were in heaven watching NCAA football all day long. (We have the GamePlan package so every game that was on TV they got to watch). This was my first and last shopping experience for the weekend because everywhere we went it was SOOOOO crowded! Saturday evening we went to dinner for my sister's birthday and came back to the house for carrot cake that Rob made just for Nichole! My sister and I have this running "White Trash" joke that has been going on for about 2 years now. Last Christmas she sent me a t-shirt with a trailer on the front that says, "No place like home." So it was my turn to get her back. I went out and found some beer can candles for her cake and wrapped her presents in Sunday comics that I had been collecting for a couple weeks. She got a good laugh out of it!

Sunday my mom, sister and family got up early to head back for Seattle. The roads were really bad from all the snow we got over the holiday weekend. My dad, my aunt and her daughters left around noon to head back to the Yakima area. I was sad to see them go but it was nice to have our home back and get back to our normal routine. We ended the weekend with a nice dinner with Rob's dad and his girlfriend and Kim and Loren, Rob's brother-in-law.

More pictures of the weekend still to come!