Special Christmas Message...

Happy Christmas!!

Wow.. the big day is finally here!.. about time really since I doubt that Owen could have contained his excitement for much longer. He has been a lot of fun this year; it is the first year that he really understood what was going on and he has been obsessed with everything to do with Santa - he has watched the Tim Allen 'Santa Claus' movie about 50 billion times! Fortunately, Owen didn't get us up too early - 7.00am which was acceptable! He was so excited to see all the presents under the tree. I want to thank everyone who mailed over a gift for Owen - thank you soooo much. We didn't have much money to spare on gifts this year, but thanks to the kindness of everyone who sent a gift for Owen, he was very blessed with so many wonderful gifts - THANK YOU!! After the opening of gifts, we went for brunch with the Kaczmar family. Our neighbor Stacey's parents are such welcoming folk and as always, their house was full of children and grandchildren and it was such a lovely atmosphere. We had a large spread of food for breakfast which all us gals helped prepare; Linda has a huge kitchen where everyone hangs out talking and laughing, it's so nice. We stayed until about noon when we came home and we'll stay here for the rest of the day, watching tv and playing with Owen's new toys. Currently he's running round dressed as Batman, intermittently stopping to take a breath and have a drink of 'tea' from his tea-set which was all he really asked Santa for!! The weather outside is perfect for today; a good layer of snow on the ground, bright sunshine and bitterly cold!
Merry Christmas to everyone, enjoy the day!! We love you all.

Who thought Batman was so civilized??

Good Fun with Good Neighbors

Saturday night, we decided to make a quick trip to St.George to visit the LDS Temple, see the Christmas lights and see the Portraits exhibition they had going on in the Temple Visitor Center. 4 Couples went (right to left.. the Heirtzlers, us, the Bouchers and the Barney's). The Temple is an amazing sight at the best of times, with the bright white building gorgeously lit up in the dark night sky, but with the large grounds full of what seemed like a million colored lights, it was so beautiful... my pictures nowhere near do it justice.. you just had to be there. The Portraits exhibition was really nice and the pictures very powerful; we'd been talking about going for a couple of months, so it was nice that we were finally able to get and see for ourselves. After we were done at the Temple, we went to the Olive Garden for dinner. It was so fun to have everyone sat together, talking and laughing. The food was delicious and very plentiful. We had such a fun evening and I feel so blessed to have such wonderful friends to share fun and memories with.

Party Night

2 Parties in one night... I've been upgraded to socialite status! lol.... First on our party list was a surprise party for our sweet neighbor Robyn .. Dwayne did a great job at making sure she didn't know about it and all would have turned out great had Robyn not seen Ryan (another party guest) running past the kitchen window yelling to everyone that Robyn was here and we should hide!! it was really funny... also due to all the snow, everyone had to park their cars near the house which also kind of gave it away, but it was a lot of fun and Neasha's dutch oven chocolate fudge cake hot out of the oven with ice-cream was to die for!! ... One huge helping of choccie cake later, we were on the snowy roads again and on our way to my work Christmas party which was so much fun. It was so nice to have everyone together in one room with spouses and children and it just made for a really nice atmosphere. I'm so fortunate to work with such a wonderful group of people. Owen had a blast running round with the other little children his age.. his latest love is Kaylee, my co-worker Mickelle's girl; the 2 of them were inseperable - it was so sweet to see them so excited together waiting in line to see Santa. We had Dutch Oven food which was delicious but unfortunately I spent too much time talking that I didn't get as much eaten as I'd of liked!! A really fun time was had by all but unfortunately I still don't feel one bit Christmassy -what's wrong with me this year??? Merry Christmas y'all! xx

Festival of Trees & The Storybook Cavalcade Parade

I love this time of year in our sweet little town; they put on so many fun activities for the children and I can't imagine living anywhere else and missing out on all that goes on here. This morning we took Owen to the annual Festival of Trees. There are at least 30, if not more, themed Christmas trees; all decorated beautifully - each representing a different theme. They also have storybook characters wandering around in costume to greet the children - it really is a fun little event. Owen's favourite trees were the Superman and Batman trees and of course the Toy Story tree! The festival is held in the Heritage Center that has 3 levels and Owen was like a kid in a candy store, running up and down stairs to each level, I was quite exhausted after our hour looking round and trying to keep up with him - there was so much to see, he didn't know where to go first! The majority of the upper floor was dedicated to 'The North Pole' and Santaland. A little tunnel leads you into an area full of penguins and snowy things, along a hallway all decked out Christmassy, ending in Santa's den. I just love seeing the look on Owen's face when he sees Santa.. it's just priceless.. of course I never have the camera ready at such a moment! After a brief chat with Santa, we were off to our next fun event... The Storybook Cavalcade Parade... another annual tradition for us it seems! I was a little worried that the weather would ruin it because it's been so jolly cold this last week, but the weather proved me wrong and although only 43f, we bundled up and it actually wasn't too bad stood in the bright sunshine. It was quite a long parade and very well done. Each of the floats represented a different child's storybook. Owen loved the floats, especially when he saw the Buzz and Woody floats.. although when Buzz Lightyear came round, I noticed that he was rather more interested in the guy inside of the float who was driving it, he smiled so big when the guy stuck his hand out and waved at Owen - it was funny. So many people had turned out and it was such a nice atmosphere.