Christmas 2009

Christmas Morning 2009

Tyler and Kody opening their stocking stuffers.




Kody opening .....




his Motor Scooter.

Can you tell Tyler was excited about his ...

iPod touch?

We tried to keep things pretty low key this Christmas. The boys both got their one big gift and then a few other "needs" -- Church clothes, snow pants, head lamps, and a book. It was a fun morning and then we went to Shalise's for Christmas Brunch. Shalise is keeping Grandma Great's tradition alive. Thanks Shalise for doing breakfast. I appreciate your efforts! Christmas breakfast will always have a special meaning to me!

Christmas Eve

I hosted a Christmas Eve dinner at our house this year. Mom and Dad, Shalise, Eric and the boys, Jeff and Audrey and their kids, and Michelle and Reggi came. We had a great dinner (even if I do say so myself). We had ham, funeral potatoes, peas, raspberry jello salad, Sarah's salad, and pie and ice cream.

I enjoy decorating the tables for various events - it doesn't take much to make things look just a little extra special. Sophia's taught me that if it's worth doing, it's worth going the extra mile -- so I used the dollar store hurricane lamp, garland from the basement, ornaments, and a little candy for the centerpieces on the table.

Michelle, Reggi (with his back to the camera) and Kody. I don't even know who took these next two pictures -- it was just on my camera so I put it on my blog -- sure do love you Michelle!

Michelle and Emma

Merry Christmas to You!

It's 6:46 am and I've done a load of laundry, made two pans of funeral potatoes, baked two loaves of Poppy Seed Bread, loaded and started the dishwasher for one load, hand washed the few dishes that wouldn't fit in the dishwasher, and put the ham in the oven. I'm now ready for a nap! Actually, it will probably be nap time around here about 1:00pm.

We are having Christmas Eve dinner at our house tonight, Christmas Brunch at Shalise's tomorrow, a late lunch at Sharon's, and soup at my mom's Christmas night! Holy Cow! - that's a lot of food (and according to Todd -- too much family time!)

I hope you all have a wonderful holiday weekend and are able to spend time with those you love and enjoy being with! Merry Christmas to all of you who take the time to read my blog. I love you for your friendship.

Jackson Family 2009 Christmas Activity

This year for Christmas my parents started a new tradition. They have decided that instead of giving presents that are often forgotten, broken, or lost, they would give us a weekend full of memories that will last forever. On Thanksgiving Day, we were told about this activity and that it would involve a service activity, some fun activities, and some cultural activities. As part of the service activity, there would be another family joining us and participating in all of the activities with us. The Hebdon family is a part member family with 4 children. The father is out of work and the family probably wouldn't be having much of a Christmas. As siblings, we decided to forgo presents to each other and to Sub for Santa for this family. With only those details, we headed out Friday morning (12/18/09) and arrived at our first destination...

Boondocks in Kaysville.

Grandpa, Uncle Scott, Breck, Kody, and Kimball having a shooting contest.

Aunt Michelle and Kody on the GoKarts.

Tyler on the GoKarts.

Michelle and Libby talking with Amber and Wyatt Hebdon.

Eric and Shalise in a game of air hockey -- for the record Shalise beat Eric 7-6!

Tickets, tickets, and more tickets!

Next, we headed to Bountiful and ate at Chuck-A-Rama. Everyone was able to get what they liked or wanted. We enjoyed the time visiting while the kids ate, ate, spilt drinks, ate some more, and made ice cream sundaes. After dinner we headed south to Salt Lake and checked into the Hilton Hotel on South Temple. Parent were exhausted and ready for naps but the kids could not get in the swimming pool fast enough. I was one of those parents who chose to nap so I have no swimming pictures but I'm sure there was much fun had in the pool!

At 9:00pm we gathered in Grandpa & Grandma's room for the evening activities. We all began to assemble and it was going to be a tight squeeze to get us all in one hotel room. Grandpa began by making sure everyone was comfortable but in order to do that we'd have to rearrange a few things. He opened the door that was connected to another room -- The Vice Presidential Suite. The kids all thought that was so cool, so big, and so awesome!

Michelle, Gentry, Audry, Cainan, Marci, Ashlynn, Porter, and Cardon.

The grand kids preparing for a puppet show.

More puppet show preparation.

The Puppet Show of Jesus Birth!

Todd, Dawson, Tyler, Porter, Eric and Kimball playing with the Jenga blocks. Boys will be Boys!

After the evening of a puppet show, games and food, we all headed to bed for a good nights rest. Grandpa and Grandma wore us all out! Grandma provided yummy cinnamon rolls, fruit, and juice for breakfast.

We then headed over to the Utah Symphony Christmas concert -- you guessed it -- Grandma's choice! Actually is wasn't too bad. Santa played the tuba, lead the symphony and helped with the sing-a-long.

Reggi and Michelle waiting before the concert.

The weekend was full of fun, family, laughs, meeting new friends and making memories. Thanks Mom and Dad for putting this together for us. The memories will last in our hearts and mind forever! It was a weekend that I really enjoyed. It was nice to spend time away from the hustle and bustle of the season, away from work, away from cell phones, but spent with those that I love the most! Thanks family for a great weekend -- can't wait until our Christmas weekend 2010!

It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year!

Kody asked me the other night why nobody, except Sophia, was updating their blog anymore. I tried to explain to him that December is full of many, many things that take up our time and sometimes other things have to be put aside for a time. If you are at all like our family, a night home during the month of December is a present itself.

We've been busy, but have had a great time doing so. Again, more for our family memories than anything else, here is a run down of our December.

Dec 1 - We attended Hayden's basketball game.

Dec 2 - USU vs BYU basketball game - always a great time!

Dec 4 - We went to SLC to see The Savior of The World musical at the Conference Center. A wonderful production about the Savior's birth and death. Much different that I expected (not really sure what I expected) but it was a great musical. Tyler was fascinated with the stage and all of the different things it could do - some parts raised, other parts raised, some parts went down, you get the idea. Tyler tried and tried to figure out how that all worked - glad he had that to entertain himself because he didn't find the play as enjoyable as Todd and I.

Dec 4 - Found out that my brother, Scott, was in a hospital in Las Vegas with a blood clot in his lung. He spent a few days in the hospital before be able to come home. We are so thankful that there wasn't a different outcome to this situation. He is doing better, still has some pain occasionally but is slowly getting back to normal.

Dec 5 - Tyler's basketball game. Emma's baptism and confirmation and a family dinner.

Dec 6 - Gentry's baby blessing.

Dec 7 - Kody, Tyler, and I went to Brooklyn and Sidney's piano recital. It was awesome to see those two cute girls share their talent with us.

Dec 8 - Tyler's Football Banquet at the Logan Golf & Country Club

Dec 9 - My work party at Iron Gate Grill

Dec 10 - Kody had a eye doctor appointment - thankfully he doesn't need glasses -- just needs to wash his eyes out better so the pores don't get clogged.

Dec 11 - Watched Scott's 6th grade team play basketball at 7.
Tyler played basketball at 8.
Kody played basketball at 9.

Dec 12 - Tyler played basketball at 9.
Kody played basketball at 10.
Kody played basketball at 11.
Tyler played basketball at 12.
Ate our lunch and watched Braxton play basketball at 1.
Tyler played basketball at 2.
Watched Scott's 6th grade team play basketball at 3.
Tyler played in the Championship Basketball Game at 4.

Yes -- we watched and played A LOT of basketball in less than 24 hours. We were supposed to go to the Aggie game that night but we were basketballed out -- and you know how much our family LOVES basketball and especially Aggie Basketball but we had had enough! Stayed home Saturday night and it felt wonderful!

Dec 16 - Tyler played basketball at 5:30 and 7:30 and I went with some friends from our ward on a limo ride -- such an adventure. The limo broke down and we had to wait for someone to come and give the battery a jump and then trade cars and then went back to Sophia's to watch a cute chick flick, The Holiday.

Dec 17 - Allred Jackson rented out the entire theatre for the Pickleville Christmas musical. We love Pickleville productions and it is always such a treat to attend them. You would think that this sports family doesn't have any other interests but I never have to beg or plead to go to a Pickleville Production. Pickleville has become a tradition in our family. Summer productions at Bear Lake and the Christmas production on campus.

It's been a few busy, busy weeks but all great memories!

Happy December!

Make a Smilebox greeting

Christmas Countdown!

At work today we got talking about Christmas. The parties, the gifts, the food, the sights and sounds of the season, the money involved, the decorations, etc. Usually, and I repeat usually, I am giving some thought to putting up my tree within two or three weeks from right now but I'm no where near that idea this year.

It seems like that for all of 2009, I'm not as organized or put together as I usually am. Is it old age? Is it that I feel like I'm always tired? Is it that my plate is always full so I just take the next thing on the list? (I really hope this isn't the reason, because this is how my mom usually operates and I've been know to get after her for this.) Is it that my boys always have their own agendas that I've not aware of until the last minute? Is it that I don't care anymore? What is it? It is driving me crazy trying to figure out why.

Last week I did ask the boys to write down a few Christmas ideas for me. When I got the lists back, most of the items I expected and I even added a few that I've heard them mention recently. Yesterday, while driving Tyler to basketball practice, he said "Mom, I want to scratch everything off my Christmas list and add just one thing." I asked him what it was and he replied "A laptop computer." He couldn't have been more serious than if he had had a heart attack.

As I've thought about Tyler's response and then our discussion at work today, I've decided that Christmas and every other holiday for that matter is just all about money and to see who can out do who. I know, I know, I'm probably the last person to figure this out (or maybe to just finally admit it)! I hear the older generation talk about how they only got 1 gift (homemade) and an orange in their stocking but how that was the best Christmas ever. With the exception of the Wii, I doubt my kids could tell you what else they got for Christmas last year. Oh wait - they'd probably mention their sports scrapbooks -- homemade.

It saddens me when I stop and think about how worldly I've made Christmases in the past. I have a friend who narrows her children's gifts to the following:

1. a want

2. a need

3. something for that child's talent

4. something religious

5. a book

6. a movie

It seems like there was one or two more categories but this is the majority of them. I like these ideas and am going to try and use this, or at least something similar for my gift giving this year. I'd really like to make the boys something (the homemade thing) again this year but I'm struggling with what.

I also want to focus more on the reason for the season (I already bought our tickets to the Savior of the World at the Conference Center in SLC), more family time and less stress and less money spent.

I'll step down from my soap box now. What are you doing to prepare for Christmas? What do you do to make Christmas more meaningful? I'd love to hear your ideas, thoughts and comments.