TIS THE SEASON WITH THE RAYS

The Gang-Christmas Eve (We missed you Jarom, Rochelle, & Kids)

Lots of playing the Wii at the Foits

The Adults in on the fun playing Tetris on the Wii

Ty looking at the Traditional Calendars I make each year

Chocolate Fondue-YUMMY


Just a cute picture!!


Grandma and Grandpa Ray & the Kiddo's Christmas Morning.

Chef Alex at work (Breakfast Casserole, Fried Potatoes, Scrambled Eggs, Pancakes, Bacon)

The kiddo's enjoying the grub.

Christmas Eve, just the Girls!!

I love this time of the year and enjoy spending time with Family! I enjoy watching the kids excitement, family traditions, smiles, mistletoe, the TRUE Meaning of Christmas, Red, Christmas Movies, Poinsettas, Yummy Treats, Eating, laughing, Friends, The Elf that watches and reports to Santa, Service for others, Giving, Love, Family coming into town (It was fun to have Ty and Meet Mike), christmas cards in the mail, and much more. We did lots of fun things here are a few but not in any particular order:

*Dinner at Taggerts for Ty's Birthday-YUM YUM YUM If you have never been you have got to take the drive and go, it is very much worth it. I got teh Jalapeno Burger and had to take home a carrot cake for the next day.

*Fun watching home videos-Seeing Jason's Bug when he was younger, Jason's Mullet & Playing Basketball, Camping trip when they were kids on the Mopets/Raft, Some birthdays. [Seeing those video's I noticed Jason and Jarom were always together, Marci & Ty were best of buds and still are, Ty was quite a funny kid, Jarom was the quite one, Ty loved to be on video]

*Playing games and eating-Tetris on the Wii, the kids & adults fought over whose turn it was. I remember playing it on the Atari that is how old I am. I thought I would kick butt but Andrew still beat us all most of the time.

*Our Christmas Eve Dinner-At Our house, everyone brought finger food to eat (shrimp, guacamole, jalapeno Jelly, Meatballs, Smokies, Homemade Rolls/orange rolls, artichoke dip, and Chocolate Fondue with all the yummy stuff to dip. It was a lot of fun we ate, played Apples to Apples, ate more, watched Joy to the World, and had an amazing awesome discussion about the TRUE meaning of Christmas and everyones feelings about the Season.

*Christmas Morning Breakfast-At Marci's this year. I think Alex has found his niche in life, he is such a good cook and we got to all enjoy his Breakfast, he wouldn't let anyone help. I did get to bring the OJ

*Pizza and Bingo-We all made it save on that stormy night and it was so much worth it. Grandma and Grandpa got a bingo game and had wrapped prizes. We all played kids and adults and when we got bingo we got to get a prize or could steal the prizes from another person. A Omelet maker was the hot item, Ty ended up with it, and of course he had to text me a picture Friday morning since they made omlets when they got home :P (I still love ya Ty)

Tis the Season with the Bowen's

Grandma & Grandpa Bowen & The Grandkids (We miss Matt's Family in Iowa)

Navi was the most popular person this year, we had to take dibs on who got to hold her next. Needless to say she was not set down at all.

Day after Christmas, Jenna's Birthday we got together and had dinner, I made Ice-Cream Cake Roll at Jenna's request & played Grandmas bells. The kids had a blast doing them, well ok the adults had just as much fun too. Mom had music and someone never returned it when they took the bells to borrow, so Laura had taken the music Mom borrowed from someone else and copied and laminated it all, so that was a super nice surprise for Mom. And of course we made Mom cry again when we were such good bell ringers.

Me & My Bud Izzy

Jenna's Family

Nelson's Family

My cute Family!!

Spencer's Family (No he hasn't become a professional Mountain Man yet)

Not a dull moment when Spencer is in town, and always a lot of people at Christmas, it is loud and chaotic, but lots of fun. We go over early before the extended family comes and open presents together then the extended family comes over for for an early dinner/late lunch, we eat, hang out, and do white elephant exchange that is always lots of laughs. Every year I think everyones goal is to make Mom cry, and it was done again. This year instead of exchanging family gifts we started a new tradition. Jenna was defiantly inspired when she suggested this last Summer when everyone was in town and we were together. This is how it works, each family writes stories like a family history book. Spencer was in charge of the organizing this year and I will be in charge next year and we will rotate. Each family is to write at least one story, this year we all wanted at least one about Grandma Miner. We ended up with more then just one from each family we had I think 19 stories to start for the year. Spencer had Aunt Darla write one about her thoughts about my Mom and Dad taking care of Grandma and Grandpa Shurtleff when they lived with them. Yup Spencer was the winner this year to make Mom cry. This is going to be a family tradition I think we will all enjoy for years to come and we will all remember and treasure forever. I was so excited I put my stories in page protectors and bought a nice leather binder, I went home that night and read them all. Of course I cried reading a few and laughed reading some too. I look forward to next years stories. I had Tanner tell me what to write and I typed his story up on our trip to Colorado, and Brylee I asked her questions about a day at school and made a little story for her. I wrote just some random favorite thots/memories of Grandma Miner. Now the only dilemma is what will I write on next year?!?

Brylee's Christmas Program

Kays Kiddie Care is the BEST the do the cutest things with the kids. Evey year they do a Christmas Carol Program and each class including the infant class have a performance of course with a lot of help from the teachers. Brylee's class this year did Rudolf the Red Nose Reindeer with the red noses and all. They were so cute and it is always a lot of fun to watch. Dylan, Brinley, Kaylor Tanner and I all sat in the front and watched together. Brylee was as cute as can be. She is so funny and loves to sing. She will sing and makes up her own songs all the time.

(PICTURES: Mrs Jodi, Brylee & Miss Katie. Three pictures of all the classes together, Infants, 1 -2 yr olds, 3-4 yr olds, 5 yr olds, & School Age kids all mixed up & Mr Will on the far right side. Taylor, Brylee, & Riley. Last picture Brinley, Kaylor, Tanner, & Dylan)

Merry Christmas 2010

WE WISH YOU A MERRY CHRISTMAS

AND A

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

2010

FAMILY CHRISTMAS PICTURES

Every year we set up the timer on the camera and take a pictures. Here are this years favorites. I have a tradition and put a picture in a small frame and add one each year to our tree as an ornament. It is my favorite thing to put on the tree each year. It is fun to see how big the kids are getting each year. I thought it was great that Tanner lost his front teeth just in time for Christmas, it made for some cute pictures.