Tradition

Ti's the season for tradition. When Heather posted her post about her ornaments it reminded me of all of our traditions. So I was wondering what traditions you have. So post your traditions here in the comments or on your own blog.

My Grandma use to dress up as Santa Claus and we got to open a gift on Christmas Eve from "Santa's Helper". We continued the tradition when we moved to California. One year we were looking at pictures of us opening our presents and realized how ratty we looked. So that year we decided that on Christmas Eve we would open Pajamas. That way we looked cute on Christmas day. Stillman and I continued this on into our own little family.

One year all of our ornaments, stockings and decorations were stolen out of our rental shed along with some other things, by a bum who was living in the sheds. What wasn't stolen was burned by the fire he was using to keep warm. He was not hurt, we later saw him walking down the street in my mom's white furn coat. So Mom and I went to Costco in Reno and each bought one set of these beautiful white ornaments, some white lights, and some beads and bows. Brigitte and I had some ballerina ornaments that were not in the shed. That's all we had on our tree that year. So we decided that every year we would get an ornament in our stocking, so we could replace what was lost. Stillman and I do this also and when the kids are old enough to get married they will have 18+ ornaments to hang on their own tree.

Our last tradition is the twelve days of Christmas. We give a Twelve piece Nativity the twelve day before Christmas. This is my favorite because it helps bring the true meaning of Christmas to the foreground. last year we chose a family that was having a hard time. It was a Grandma who took care of her grandchildren full time. They were in our old ward and when we moved out I kept getting the feeling that I needed to do something for them. I pushed the thought aside because I didn't know how to get a hold of them as I new they were forced to move out of their apartment. When low and behold we were speaking in our new ward and I saw I them sitting on the back bench. We decided to do them for the twelve days of Christmas. on the Last day there was a note thanking us for the Nativity saying how they had lost theirs in the move. Over the next year she bore her testimony 3 times about her Christmas angels, never knowing we were sitting in the room with her.

So I would love to here your Christmas traditions.

The Hubs Tag

5 things he Loves:
1. his family
2. The Church
3. BSU football
4. dancing
5. making people laugh

5 things on his To Do List:
1. Take the P.E. Exam
2. remodel our house
3. organise the office
4. get season tickets
5. Paint the living room

5 Foods he enjoys:
1.Baked Potatoes
2. Empanadas
3. Ribs
4. Mashed Potaoes
5. Steak and Potatoes

Five things you might not know about him
1. He can play Greensleeves on the Piano
2. He is a movie buff
3. He can dance
4. He listens to classical music when he studies
5. He hates to lose

5 Places he's lived:
1. Boise
2. Argentina
3. California
5. Nampa

5 Quirky things about him
1. He alphabatizes our Movies
2. He can remember everything that happens in a BSU game.
3. He does a million things as we are about to go out the door. He has gotten better at this. When we were first married he would clean the house as we were leaving.
4. He likes the sheets to be straight and tight. (I don't)
5. He likes holidays more than I do. Especially food holidays.
-I really do appreciate all of these things

5 people to tag
1. Deedra
2 Brigitte
3 Krista
4. LaVerne
5. anyone who wants to.

The Zoo is free!

12/6/2008, 10:00 AM - 5:00 PM
Claus n Paws
Santa Claus is coming to Zoo Boise!

Join all of your favorite animals on Saturday, December 6 for a fun-filled holiday gathering. Admission to the zoo is FREE for everyone.

Finish your holiday shopping with great Zootique discounts or Zoo Boise gift memberships. Enjoy musical entertainment throughout the day and watch some of the zoo's residents receive special holiday treats.

Oh, and don't forget to have your picture taken with Santa Claus!

Curtis

I got to talk to Curtis today. I was reading blogs and my bingbong message popped up, and Curtis Said Hey... on I.M. He said to tell Stillman GO BRONCOS!! He said more than that of course but I had to pass that message along.

Thanksgiving Weekend

Well it was a pretty fun week for us. Stillman had the whole week off! It was nice to be able to spend all that time together. Our Thanksgiving weekends are traditionally the same. We have Dinner, then we watch the last home game of the season, and then we celebrate Stillman's Birthday. We had Thanksgiving at Michelle's families house this year It was sooooo yummy. We are still having cravings. We watched a couple of Christmas movies, The parade, and some football. Then we went over to Stillman's families house for games and an early Christmas present (Thanks LaVerne I have been wanting one), and to plan our early morning shopping spree. We woke up at four, bundled the kiddo's up and went to get some killer deals. it was pretty fun! It was a weekend of first for Jayden. His first Thanksgiving and his first football game. You can see the crowd rushing the field after the game. Don't worry Jayden was warmer than all of us. He cried for the first quarter. Slept through the 2nd and 3rd. And was awake and happy for the the 4th. when it was surprisingly warmer.

Happy 28th Stillman!! Stillman traditionally gets one of his presents a day early as he always asks for something BSU, and I would hate for him not to get to use it for at least one game. This year it was a stadium seat. Maybe some year he can get season tickets. We love you Daddy, Happy Birthday!

Friends of our came down for the holiday weekend. It was great to see them again!

Alex has a few friends that he hardly ever sees. He has an amazing memory though. Like his parents he keeps track of them by looking at their family blogs. Emma, Mason and Paige are just some of those friends. Here was a cute pic we were able to get when we were trying to take Christmas pictures.

Updates, Pictures and Videos

Well Mr. Jayden has decided to stand. He is quite proud of himself and pulls up on everything. The other day while I was on hold with the Dr. office he decided to do it without holding on to anything for several seconds. I am sure walking is just around the corner. He is a speed demon when it comes to crawling. He has a funny way crawling. He will cruise on his hands and knees and every once in a while he will use his feet to push himself faster.

I love watching and listening to these two play. As Jayden gets older they are able to do so much more. It breaks my heart to watch how lonely Alex is sometimes. He will stand on his play center and try to talk to the neighbor kids. They are older and of course want nothing to do with a 3 year old. but soon Jayden will be out there with him. Wrestling and punching each other. I can't wait! oh yeah on an update on Alex he gets to start attending Primary this Sunday! They start taking them a month ahead to singing time so they can adjust better come January. Too cool for school!

I have joined a FHE packet exchange group. This group has really helped us start doing FHE regularly. This week the lesson was on Thanksgiving. We are doing the Twelve days of thanksgiving. Each day we "pluck" one of turkey's feathers. On one side it tells us what we are thankful for and on the other it tells us an activity to do that relates to that thing we are thankful for. This is Alex making one of Daddy's favorite treat. Muddy Buddies.

This is Alex being thankful for Hands. We were suppose to finger paint, but we don't have any finger paint so we made some homemade finger paint with Pudding and food coloring.
Yum

Jayden loves to bounce. We borrowed this from Aunt Deedra which saves our arms from aching. "Watch out he spits"




Anything you can do I can do better!

Another HBP trailer has been released. http://www.the-leaky-cauldron.org/2008/11/14/new-half-blood-prince-trailer Here is the link. I am sure you could also just google it. It looks good!!! and just think we could have been watching it this weekend, but nooooooo. stupid WB.