Cleaning up Christmas

Well Christmas was almost a week ago and it is snowing like a crazy white-out scene here.

Looking out the front door...

Looking out the back deck...

And our backyard terraces...all covered in snow!

 So I am thinking about putting all my 14 bins of Christmas crap away today. But I don't really want to. I want to go out to lunch and shopping to add more crap to my Christmas bin pile! EEK! I better lock the front door from the inside and keep myself locked up. Too many good sales out there today to tempt me!



part of the nutcracker collection.


I loved the gifts I got from my friends and relatives. I have a friend who bakes a special pie each year for her favorite people. We have been the recipient of one of her special Razzleberry pies for several years. It is an out of this world homegrown berry pie that is so mouth watering you never forget it if you get to taste it. I dream about this pie for months after.



Lots of junk to put away...



One summer Barbara and I went up to North Salt Lake to "thin out" her mom's raspberry bushes (orchard really)and the weather did not want to cooperate with us. It started to rain really hard. So here we were doing a Martha Stewart digging with shovels and hoes in the garden scene, and I remember getting seriously cold and chilled! But we dug up a tuft of good, wet dirt with each Bear Lake raspberry bush we gathered, and all in one day, we potted them back at our own homes to hopefully grow lush and full by summer.



Monday night dinner w/ family b4 Dev and Cait flew out to St. Louis 



That summer I got tired of all my weeds and a nice boy across the street needed mission money, so 2 problems were solved at the same time. He pulled all the weeds in my rock garden and along the walled pathway leading to my garage...the pathway was filled with those wonderful raspberry bushes and they had little buds on them. He must have thought they were really weird looking, tall and gangly weeds! What a bummer that day was. All that effort down the drain. So Barbara has pity on me and shares her harvest once a year with me. She is a lovely person and a very talented cook and I love her and her family.



Christmas morning brunch w/ everybody



This year I sent her a 1/2 gallon  of apple juice and cinnamon wassail mix in a tiny little carton decorated by a giant Santa tin pail. It was very cute! Another favorite neighbor with little kids I got a selection of gingerbread men already made up and packaged from Smiths. I added white icing mix and a collection of tiny candies for them to decorate with. She is my favorite photographer. All these cute items were inside a cute Santa bucket. I love those and they have them every year at Smiths. And hey, it is easier than wrapping or even tissue bagging! I'm all for easy folks! (actually I'm kind of lazy to be truthful!)

For my kids I got them the obligatory jeans (returnable from Costco if they don't fit) and a shirt or sweater from Kohls, (also very returnable if they don't fit) for the boys. For the girls I got Bath & Body stuff,  a cute jacket and scarf and kitchen things like a new spice rack or Christmas servingware. We got Gary a giant popcorn machine he really liked.



Tiff and Gary



We got Jeff some Cabella stuff like an elk caller...He's gonna get an elk for sure this year with that great caller hehe!

But I think the funest gift I came up with was actually restaurant giftcards to their favorite place. I wrapped up a bottle of Famous Dave's BBQ sauce with a ribbon and a giftcard for my son that I happened to know LOVES BBQ. It is his favorite place to eat! He also liked his electronic toys. 

Marisa sure liked her fairy outfit from Uncle Dev and Aunt Cait

My daughter has always liked IHOP. So her giftcard was to there.  I know her girls love pancakes too. I think my granddaughters (3 of them) got the brunt of the gifts this year.

Megan got a fairy costume too...the wings were so pretty!

Marisa LOVED opening her presents!

 And I hope my kids weren't too tired having to open yet another gift for one of their own kids. (one of them is only 6 months so she eats the packages rather than rip them open herself)

Josie's not really into it yet...wait till next year though...!

I don't know if Brucie enjoyed Devin dressing him up  like doggie Santa...but we enjoyed laughing at him!

He wouldn't keep his hat on...that silly dog!

My youngest son got a bunch of BBQ tools to go with his outdoor grill we got him last month for his Birthday. And we got them all some games. They are avid board gamers. I'll let you know the ones we deem the most fun in a later post.

Megan was always fascinated by all my nativity sets...She loved all those cute wise men... she must think they are a new, cool kind of action figure...:)

more crap to put away....

Well I happen to know my daughter-in-law likes burgers at Red Robin. So the Red Robin giftcard was for Cait and Dev. They are very busy and it's a good takeout place I've heard. He also got silly things that I know he'll play with like: 3 colored syrups to go with his summer snow cone machine. And a big yellow tool box with tools that we put some vinyl letters "Devin's Tools".  It looked like a kindergarten lunch pail. I hope he wasn't embarrased for all his friends to see! hehe...

What can I say...we are all....KIDS at heart! They will have fun playing with those. When they aren't watching themselves dance on the TV. Have you seen that Kinnect electronic game? They always look  kinda geeky dancing around on camera to me.  Maybe that is the point, I don't know...

My favorite gift was a silver punchbowl from my daughter. She knows me so well and knows I love serving pieces of all kind. I love to entertain and cook. And having pretty things gives me a  reason to have a party. It is hammered silver and has a silver pedestal and it matches one of my favorite silver platters.

Merlene....jam making queen and Grandpa Don...nicest guy on the planet!  



OOPS! Weren't these jellies all for me?  



Relax you guys, I'll give you your jam next time you come over...Sheesh!

 My mother-in-law brought us a selection of homemade jams. ( I think maybe she mean't these to be for each of my kids? ...oh well...) She is a wonderful 87 year old lady who still gardens, cans and does wonderful jellies and jams. She could run circles around me. She skied circles around me for years, up until she was 74! She probably still can ski better than me....:)

Motorcycle mamas... riding our quads

Playin' with the dogs...



Candyland and her new BUG board game...Marisa likes games too..
.(I'm taking pics from my recliner perch & the dog is
 between my feet.  He goes where mommy goes :)



Heather and Mike I think...hard to tell...
could be Becky and Brandon...

 
After Christmas Day we went down to Bear Lake for a few days. We had such a fun time hanging out at our cabin, riding quads, eating turkey dinner and playing Loaded Questions and Wii.  It was a belly-laugh-fest. Everybody was in such a fun mood, it was too bad the weather turned so fierce and scared everybody back home a day early. But we had fun anyway with my little granddaughters, and several of the extended families who came.

Megan reclining like Grandma...we both know how to relax!

My daughter Tiff and her 2 girls going sledding...

Come on guys! Let's go have fun in the snow!

Samantha, Pattie, Robin, Becky, Dallas, Brandon, Heather and Michael....John's taking pictures of us all...

I love having time off to go out in nature and remember all the beautiful things of this earth. It is so serene there. We saw many tracks of animals all around our property but only saw one set of brother and sister, young deer that came right up to our basement, sliding glass door. Then they just got bored and sauntered off down the road in single file. Too funny. They aren't afraid of any humans, that's for sure.



Tiff and I and John all got in some good reading time...Tiff's got her Kindle...Megan's playing ipad games...



I love you grandma....

Ah darn it! It started snowing again!

Our family Christmas 2010

Have fun packing up all your holiday stuff and don't forget to "ring" in and enjoy a great new year! (or you could just honk the horn and clash pans together like we do) Cheers!