Christmas 2011

This Christmas I received my Christmas wish we had a white Christmas on the mountain! We received 24 inches of snow! It was crazy to see a blanket of white everywhere but it was beautiful too.


This Christmas I stayed home with my pups so I made plans to do all the things I always wanted to do but never got to.

I read out loud the birth of Christ from the book of Matthew and spent some time thinking and reflecting on Him and the gift He was for us. I was thinking about how on my birthday family and friends bless me so much with gifts and words of encouragement. On a day we have set aside to celebrate Christ's birth it made me think about how He came to give not to receive. Yes I know the scripture said that the wise men brought gifts but even those gifts were chosen for a purpose. :) I have done this many years but this year I was thinking about what gift could I give Christ on the day we set aside to celebrate His birthday. The gift I desire to give Him is a life consumed by HIM! I want to know Him like I never have before. I want to leap for joy literally when He delivers us from the various things that we face. I want to know Him intimately as a Bride knows her Bridegroom. As much as I desire marriage in this world I desire to prepare myself for the marriage of the Lamb when He returns.

The picture below is where the pups and I slept on Christmas Eve. I have always wanted to sleep under the Christmas tree but when I was a kid my parents never let me for obvious reasons. :) So I made up a bed and put in The Polar Express and the pups joined me on the floor for bedtime. It was great but I don't know how many years I will be able to do this. I have found that my aging body doesn't handle the floor like it did in my younger years. LOL!


On Christmas day we got up pretty early and opened our Christmas presents. I had been saving the gifts from my sister's family and what I had received in the mail so I could open my gifts with the pups. The pups opened up their stockings first. :) They were more interested in the treats then the actual gifts. I put in A Christmas Carol and we opened up our gifts. The pictures below are of the pups opening up their gifts. It was quite entertaining.


I put all my opened gifts under the tree for a picture. Thanks everyone for all the wonderful thoughts.


For my Christmas dinner I had Papa Murphy's Pizza. I had their Cowboy Pizza and Cinnamon Pinwheel Pizza. It was so good and such an easy clean up. :) I have been wanting pizza for Christmas for so long and this year was my first. I love pizza!

I also received a lot of phone calls starting out first thing in the morning when my Dad called me. It was wonderful how the calls were all spread out. I didn't feel like I was home alone for Christmas with my pups. I also had a fun Skype time with a friend of mine on Christmas evening and we saved our gifts to each other and opened them up on Skype. I know technology has done a lot but this really is a wonderful thing to have. You can have a video call with people on the internet and so you can see them while talking. It is like they are in the chair next to you. I am hoping to talk some of my family into this over the year so that I can Skype with my family next Christmas.

The picture below is of all the cards and pictures I received from family and friends for the holidays. I love this time of the year because of all the pictures, cards, and updates. This is the time of the year that my mail box has mail waiting that I really look forward to!

From my home to yours I hope that you had a wonderful Christmas and that you have a wonderful 2012 :)

It's Beginning to Look Like Christmas! Yay

It started snowing at 4pm and now we have 4 inches of snow! I think it will be a white Christmas for Sacramento. :) I am so happy for the snow though I can't get out of my drive currently but that is alright I still have 2 legs right! :) Here are a few pictures the first two are of the deck to my home and the Christmas lights I put around it. I would have tried to get a picture of my tree in the window but the front of my home is on a huge hill and I didn't want to fall down it.

"It's the most wonderful time of the year"! :)

Baby Goats!

One of my friends from camp raises goats and her goats are dropping babies this winter instead of in the spring. It was so much fun to go and see them and hold them. It really is true that all babies are cute. :) While we were there 2 mommas went into labor and we saw 3 out of the 4 babies born. The first 2 pictures are of 2 babies that we saw born and they were twins. It was a fun experience for me to have. I wish my nieces and nephews were a little closer so they could come and see them too.

Thanksgiving/Christmas Vacation 2011

I just got home from my vacation in Texas and it was so much fun! While I was there we celebrated Thanksgiving with my cousins so here are a few pictures of them with my nieces and nephew. It is always so much fun to see them together they always have a good time just being kids. :)

Luke, Jacob, and Kate

Kate and Rachel

Julia and Kate

While I was there I enjoyed a couple of days with my sister Alanna and her family. One of the days I went down I spent some time with my oldest niece Rachel who is 10 years. She is growing up so fast and I wanted to do something fun with her for Christmas so I spent the afternoon with her and watched her Volleyball practice, we went to lunch, and then we went shopping for a Christmas Tree for her bedroom. She did a great job picking out the tree and decorations! It turned out beautiful!

I went back a second day to spend some time with my sister. Time went by so fast and before we knew it time us up and we hadn't spent time with each other. So my Mom and I drove down to spend the day with her and then the evening with the rest of the family. We had a wonderful visit and got some pictures but most of them were with her camera. It is easier then trying to do all cameras especially with kids. LOL! I may post some later when I get some copies.

Alanna and Me

Me with my youngest nephew Wade who has the same color hair as me

While I was in Texas we got a wonderful snow! It was so beautiful to see at my Grandma's place before any tracks were made in it. I loved it! Early Christmas present to me!

I decided it was time to get my dead ends cut off my hair but then I decided that it was time to go ahead and just donate my hair again to Locks of Love so I went ahead and cut off my hair. I am liking the change though it is taking some time to get use to. :)

My parents, aunts, Grandma, and I had a small Christmas before I headed home. I opened their gifts and my parents (I saved the gifts my sister's family gave me for Christmas day). My parents opened one of mine that I wanted to see them open and here it is. I had found some older pictures while going through my things that I thought they might want to have. So I framed them and gave them back to them. The first is my Mom in her younger years, the second is my Dad and Mom when my mom was pregnant with my sister 37+ years ago, and the third is a picture of my late Grandma Cartwright (my Mom's Mom).

I got home a couple of days ago and am heading back to work tomorrow. After being off for 3 weeks I am thankful to be home and heading back to camp. I sure have missed being here! I hope everyone has a wonderful Christmas and may the Lord bless and keep you always! :)