Merry Christmas!

I have just 20 minutes to get this post done and be able to say Merry Christmas to everyone before the day is over! We have had a wonderful Christmas Day and Christmas Eve. We spent last evening at Tom and Fredas along with the Nelsons and Weyerts enjoying a delicious meal- wearing our lovely crowns found inside our traditional English "crackers." This "soda bar" was a fun addition courtesy of Stacie. My drink of choice was Fresca with pomegranetes (sp?), lots of ice (of course) and a lime.

We love the additions of Jaxon, Sidnie, and Avery as adorable cousins for our kids.

We then came home to have a nice Christmas program with the 7 of us, play family trivia, pickle game, and open sibling gifts. It was all so much fun. By now it was midnight, and we had two paper routes to do so we wouldn't have to on Christmas morning. It's nice that the Herald Journal gets them to us to deliver by 11 p.m. on Christmas Eve instead of by 5 a.m. in the morning like usual. So, by the time Mike and I helped the boys deliver, and do Santa stuff, it was 2 a.m. We were all still sleeping at 8:30 when Kylee called to see if we were awake yet! We soon were, and proceeded to have a wonderful morning opening gifts and enjoying being together.

Jake seeing if his skis still fit the night before he went skiing for the first time.

When we got home from Tom and Fredas tonight, we enjoyed a real blizzard from inside our nice warm house. The 4-6 inches we got today joins the already foot of snow we had on the ground.

Jessica's timer on her new camera captured this nice shot of our family today- minus Ky and Brody.

Playing Cam's new game "Cosmic Catch." It's pretty fun. You wear these hand patches and the talking ball tells you who to throw it to. There are 4 different games you can play. We had a lot of fun playing it.

Maybe now I can sleep in past 4-5 a.m. since the excitement of Christmas is over!

Parties and Graduation

We had a very fun Christmas party at the Bundys in Ogden a few weeks ago. Lindsey made us a yummy meal, then we played the pickle game (who can find a pickle ornament hidden on their tree the fastest). How can one person-Mike, find it in 4 seconds, and some other people- me, have to give up after the 5 minute limit. . . now that's embarrassing. We played a Christmas trivia game (and learned a lot), then went on an awesome Amazing Race. The team of Brody and Kylee beat the teams of Mike, Jake, Cam, and me and Jess. It was so much fun to do that. We thank Ryan and Lindsey for making our evening so much fun.

The next week, Kylee and Brody graduated from USU- in a snowstorm! But what better way to remember their December graduation than with a lot of what Logan gets in December! I'm so proud of them for their hard work and dedication. We had a fun party for them that evening with the Searles and Bundys. My favorite part of the evening was playing "silent football" and Emma loading Mike up with all these beanie babies she entertained herself with practically the whole evening. We also played "signs" "the name game" and "around the world ping-pong."

Traditons and Collections

Our family has quite a few wonderful Christmas traditions, so I thought I would share three of my favorite. The first one is something we've been doing for the last 9-10 years. One of the leaders I worked with in Young Womens wrote a poem that we used for an activity where we drove around the valley looking at Christmas lights, then we left this poem with a treat and door-bell ditched the house with extra cool lights. The YW enjoyed it so much that I thought it would be a fun thing to do with our family. So we did it the next year and have been doing it ever since. The kids each have three houses they can pick and be the one to door-bell ditch (they usually want someone to go with them). It's a great activity to spend time together, see the sights, and be do something kind for someone else. This is what the poem says:

This chilly, dark December night,

We decided to look at Christmas lights.

We hopped in the car and drove around,

To seek out the best lights in the town.

As we drove past your home, we were delighted,

What a marvelous display we had sighted.

This little gift is to show you we care,

Thanks for the Christmas spirit you share!



The second tradition is something we started doing about the same time as the Christmas lights and it is going to SLC sometime between Christmas and New Years and staying overnight in a hotel. We always walk around temple square looking at the lights, see a movie, go swimming, eat out, and do a little shopping. It's something to look forward to after Christmas is over, and again, a great time to be together as a family.



The last one is our gift to Jesus on Christmas Eve. This tradition we've been doing for probably 14-15 years. The last thing we do before going to bed on Christmas Eve is write on a piece of paper a gift we will give to Jesus the coming year. We then place them in a special box, then the first thing we do on Christmas morning is read aloud to everyone what our gift will be. I type everyone's up, and place them in a visible place for us to be reminded of what we said we'd do during the coming year. It's a great way to be reminded what Christmas is all about.



I love the collections I have of Christmas decorations. The one I've been working on the longest, and try to add to each year is my nativity collection. It started the year we were married by an etched glass one from Janet and Dave. Each one holds a special memory of where I got it, or who gave it to me. The second picture were all grouped together for the picture- I have them spread around the living room in a much nicer way. . .

This is my Santa Claus collection. Once again, they're spread around better- this isn't how my room really looks. I haven't added to this collection for several years. I really don't have anywhere else to put any more!

For the last 7 years, the boys have gotten a nutcracker for Christmas, so this is their collection. I will really miss it when they move away and take these with them!

I have stitched many a pillow over the past 9 or so years. I made all the pillows on this nativity tree, and all of the ones on display on the couch, except for the big nativity one in the middle which my friend Janae made, and another smaller one my friend and neighbor Marnie made. I have made many, many other pillows that I've given away as gifts, along with 4 other wall hanging nativities. Stitching is a great way to keep myself occupied on trips in the car, and sitting home watching TV.

Thanksgiving weekend

I'm slow in posting about Thanksgiving weekend because our computer's been in the shop- and now it's been so long since I've done a post, that I forgot how to do the order right when I was uploading my picts, so my order of pictures is slightly off. Oh well. We celebrated Brody's 24th BD on the 29th by having him and Kylee up for presents, cake and ice-cream and games. We're glad they could fit us into their busy, fun day. Brody's a terrific husband and son-in-law, and we're so glad he's in our family. Before that, Mike, the boys and I went to the awesome movie "Forever Strong." We highly recommend it- esp if you're a sports fan. It's a true story about a high school rugby team from SLC.

We ate a most delicious Thanksgiving dinner at the Griffins in Millville along with 15 or so other family members. We had a nice time being together with some in my family that I haven't shared Thanksgiving with for about 11 years. That evening I had the unfortunate experience of going to the movie "4 Christmases" with Jessica, Freda and Teresa. I tried to warn people that in my humble opinion the movie stunk and to stay away from it, but some did not listen, and much to my amazement, didn't mind it. I need to hear from other people who saw it what you thought of it. Is it just me?
Mom and Janet getting crafty.
You'd be hard pressed to find a tastier, all from scratch meal anywhere else but the Griffin home.



Cam played in a Thanksgiving football tournament in Brigham City for the third year. His team took second place. He had a great time playing, and as always, Mike and I loved watching him. This picture is of him making an awesome catch for an interception.

Jessica was a great help to me in putting up our Christmas decorations. It just doesn't get any easier to do, but the end result is always worth the effort. I love the Christmas season and wish it wouldn't pass so quickly.

I enjoyed getting up early on Friday to join Janet and Carol for some early morning bargin shopping. I went out later in the day with Kylee and Jessica when the crowds were much more manageable. It was especially fun to have Mom in town for several days and to enjoy her company. She stayed three nights with us, and we loved having her- even if we had to have our heat up past 65 degrees. . . it was especially fun to have her here to watch the Dancing with the Stars finale.

Vampires, Cougars and Utes

Today was a very fun-filled day with a very bad ending. Jessica and I left Logan at 10 a.m. to drive to Ogden and do a little shopping at New Gate Mall before meeting 12 family members for lunch at Costa Vita and the matinee of "Twilight." We had all read the books and were excited for the movie. All but two or three liked or loved it, so that's a pretty good percentage. I liked it because I went into it with low expectations, so I was pleasantly surprised. I enjoyed seeing what I had imagined in the book (which I read several years ago so really had no strong memory of) come to life. It was fun seeing it with people I had shared books with and talked about our enjoyment of them together. The ages of those present ranged from 13 year old Taylor to 82 year old Mary. (sidenote: I would travel an hour any day to see a movie where you have reserved seating in the theatre and you can bring in any outside food you wish. What are we doing in Logan? Living in the dark ages?)

Jessica and I drove home listening to the BYU vs UTAH football game the whole way (much to her dismay.) I met Mike and the boys (along with about 10 other people) at our friends the Lesters for the second half of the game. The BYU fans were definately outnumbered, which is why BYU possibly did so horribly. Did I say BYU? I should have said why Max Hall personally did so horribly. . . It was a real disappointment- to say the least. I can't imagine being in attendance at that game. Sorry Romneys. Notwithstanding the outcome of the game, it was a fun day.

Christmas shopping weekend

This past weekend I went on my 13th annual Christmas shopping weekend with Freda, Teresa, Jessica W. and Kylee. Stacie was unable to come because of Rick's illness, and she was greatly missed. Kylee got invited for her first year and had a lot of fun finding out why this weekend is one of my favorites of the year. I loved having her there. We left Logan at 10 a.m. on Friday and didn't get home until 11 p.m. Saturday. We spent most of Friday afternoon in Park City at the outlets (although most stores aren't actually outlet stores). All of us benefited greatly by having Claire's 30% off coupon to Gap, Old Navy, and Banana Republic. Thanks Claire! We ate dinner at Ruby Tuesday's, then headed down to SLC to spend the night at the Crystal Inn. The next day we shopped all over SLC-with Jessica only lasting til 5:00, and Kylee until 6:00. Their husbands rescued them- probably to stop them from spending any more money. Haha- The three remaining die hards lasted a few more hours until there were no more stores open. I love this weekend and enjoyed my time spent with these gals. Thanks for the fun time, and thanks especially to Freda for the meals and hotel.

This is Jessica's daughter Avery's loot. We always carry all our purchases into the motel room to organize and show to everyone. We were all the most excited about these clothes! She's the best dressed one-year-old in town! Since her birthday and Christmas are in the same month, she really got spoiled.

friend fun/latest sports/planning ahead & costumes

Jake and Cam are enjoying having two of their best friends, who are also brothers stay with us for 5 days while their parents are in China. Jake and Corey play football, do swimming and lacrosse together. Cam and Parker play on the same football team, but in the past have played on the same basketball, baseball and soccer teams as well. We enjoy their whole family, so it was easy to say yes when my friend Janae asked me if they could stay with us. Coincidentally, Janae came to our house in Rupert one weekend over 30 years ago when her friend Margie came with her brother Rick to visit his girlfriend (or maybe fiancee at that time)-my sister Von. Crazy huh? It was really fun when we put that together soon after we became friends when the Lester family moved to Logan about 8-9 years ago. Freshman football got over on a Thursday, and Jake started swim practice three days later, practicing everyday for 1 1/2-2 hours. He's already had two swim meets and has done well. This is him in his first 50 meter free. (He's in lane 2.)

Cam is playing on a Jr. Grizz basketball team and also a super-league team which has games once a week in Brigham City. So he has a practice a week for each team, plus 2-4 games a week. This week he will resume football practices three times a week to prepare for the Thanksgiving tournament he'll be playing in for the third year in Brigham City. It's always so fun to go watch the boys in their sports.

I had a great idea Halloween weekend when we were enjoying an unusually warm 70 degree Saturday that Mike would sure enjoy hanging the Christmas lights that day rather than wait a month and do it on a 30-40 degree day like he usually does. He was very glad for the suggestion, and 10 minutes later was up on a ladder. I spent the time he did that putting lights on the bushes, raking, and pruning the perinnials.

I thought Jessica looked so cute as Elphaba from "Wicked." She dressed up for the halloween party at work- a daycare. She didn't scare any of the little kids too badly, although one of the kids a week later made some comment about her witches costume- so maybe she did give some of them nightmares!

OK- so this is my least creative costume I've ever been associated with. I just can't get into providing a fun costume when kids go trick-or-treating past the age when I think it's appropriate. I really have come up with some very cute costumes in my time- maybe I'll do a post of them sometime in the future.

Tribute to Jake

Jake turned 15 on Wednesday, so I decided to spend a few hours learning how to scan some old pictures so I could do this post. That's a mother's love for you. Maybe Jake won't think so when he sees some of the pictures I chose to include in this post! Hold on, cause I'm going to tell you more about Jake than you possibly wanted to know! See how many of these things come as a surprise to you. Jake was born on Friday, October 29, 1993 at 7:29 p.m. It was an extra special and emotional time, because just one year earlier on October 12th, we had our stillborn baby boy Michael. Jake weighed 9 pounds, 4 ounces and was 22 inches long. We knew ever since my ultra sound showed that he would be a boy, that we would name him Jacob Christian. He was a good baby right from the start, sleeping 6-8 hours at night by a month old. He had a fun, lively personality from early on, and has said and done some funny and entertaining things over the years. I mentioned a few of his funny sayings in an earlier post, but here are a few more: our first winter in Utah when Jake was 3, Mike and the kids made a snowman. Jake came into the house and said to me- "I made a frosty and I said hi to him and he didn't talk to me. Maybe we should buy new batteries." The girls were swinging Jake by his hands and feet, and he said "I know, lets do one for the money, two for the quarter." I was playing blocks with Jake and I said I would look for the letter "J" which stood for Jacob. He said "then look for the letter gup so it will spell Jacob!" Jake was pulling down his own undies to go potty so I told him he was a big boy and he said "ya, I'm a huge boy- I'm almost a dad!" He always keeps us laughing, that's for sure. Here are some other facts about Jake, in no particular order. . .

HE LOVES HIS FAMILY- He loves to be at home, and do things as a family. He is especially close to his brother Cam. They have had some great times playing together over the years. They will still occassionally sleep in the same room, and like to play outside playing catch, riding their ripsticks, jumping on the tramp, or playing Wii or PS2.

When they were younger, they would let the girls dress them up in their dance clothes, and fix their hair. (this picture may be one of the ones I'll get in trouble for including. . .)

FREE TIME- In Jakes free time, he likes to play on the computer, play Wii or PS2, jump on the trampoline, and watch TV. His favorite shows are: The Office, Monk, and Monday Night Football.

SPORTS- Jake loves sports. From a very early age he's been very active and involved in the sport of the season. He's played soccer, football, basketball, wrestling, swimming, and lacrosse. He also can snowboard and ski quite well. Now that he's in high school, he's narrowed it down to: Football, Swimming, skiing, and Lacrosse. It is so fun watching him play and compete. He's a natural athlete. He just wishes he could gain a little weight and grow a little taller (he's 5'5")- esp for football. He takes after his Dad, so the height will come, but probably not the weight.

HE LOVES CARS AND TRUCKS- Ever since he was little, he's loved to drive cars and trucks around. One of his sayings as a little boy when he would see a truck was "look, there's a big ole' truck." He knows the names of so many trucks and can spot them out from far away. His favorite car (at least at the time of this photo) is a mustang, and he got to ride in this nice one of his friends last year.

HE'S A PICKY EATER- Some foods he loves- his favorites being watermelon, waffles, noodle soup, hamburgers, spaghetti- but there are many things he doesn't love, and won't eat anything that contains these ingredients: white cheese, cottage cheese, mayo, mustard, and cream cheese. He likes things dry- like sandwiches- no mayo or mustard. Toast- only jam. He doesn't like butter on toast, pancakes, waffles, cheese toast, or french toast. Fries- nothing. Chicken nuggets- nothing. So if Kylee asked her famous question from when she was little- "do you dip?" and liked to dip everything in something - Jake would definately say no!

HE'S A GREAT STUDENT- Jake has always been a very good student getting good reports from his teachers in parent teacher conferences. Right now at LHS, after one grading period, he has a 4.0! He did this report on Henry Ford for the history fair in 8th grade. He memorizes easily, and is a good test taker.

HE LOVES LITTLE KIDS- He has always loved playing with little kids- not tiny babies so much, but when they're old enough to run around and be chased, or laugh when he tries to get them. He talks often about how cool it will be someday when he's a Dad.

HE'S DARING- Jake is always up for anything. When we went cliff jumping this summer, he jumped off a cliff higher than everyone else. He has done the sky coaster at Lagoon many times, jumped off this three story high jump at lava hot springs, loves scary movies (well, until he saw THE GRUDGE- that freaked him out) wants to go bungee jumping and sky diving. Amazingly, his only injuries he's had was when he was 4 and he broke his collar bone jumping off the trampoline. (the one area he's not at all daring in however, is trying new foods. We're certain he'll be sent to some far away place on his mission that will cure him of this problem!)

HE'S VERY MUSICALLY GIFTED- When Jake was 5, he would listen to the girl's playing songs on the piano, and go to the piano and play what they were playing. He picks up a lot by ear. So I got him into piano lessons which he took for about 4-5 years. He took guitar lessons in middle school, and bought his own guitar. He can pick out tunes on that, and make up his own songs. He took private guitar lessons last year, and did really well. We have yet to figure out a time for lessons this year with him having two hours of football (and now swimming) practice after school everyday. He also loves listening to music.

HE'S FUNNY- He created this look while we were on our vacation this summer, and it freaks us all out- esp Brody- cause he just stares at you when you don't know he is, and when you look at him, there it is. He makes funny noises and other funny faces- and he's worn some funny halloween costumes and carried them off in character the whole night. When he dressed as a nerd a few years ago, he totally acted like one the whole time- even trick-or-treating to neighbors and ward members. Many people told me afterward how funny he was.

HE LOVES BYU FOOTBALL- Even though he is mocked for it living here in Logan, he really loves BYU and BYU football. He wore his BYU shirt to school a few weeks ago when USU played BYU, and really took a lot of grief for it. He has enjoyed going to one BYU home game for the past 4 years now. He also has a BYU sweatshirt and beanie.

HE WORKS HARD- He's either helped with or had his own paper route for the past 3 years. Believe me- it isn't easy getting up every day at 5:45- especially when it's dark, cold, snowy, rainy or foggy. He loves having his own money to buy "stuff" and has bought a lot of stuff over the past 3 years- including 7 different IPOD systems. . . When he was little, he set up his own toy sale in our front yard, and had kool-aid stands quite often with Cam and Jessica. He does weekly chores, and keeps his room clean.

Well, that's it. We are so blessed to have Jake in our family and love having him around to entertain us and keep us laughing. He's a very obedient, kind and sensitive boy who has an inquisitive mind and asks some very well thought-out questions. We love you Jake!