Good Morning everyone!
It’s Christmas morning and I am awake before my kids at 6 am just waiting for them to stir. I love christmas and am so excited to see their little faces light up with surprise as they see the beautiful tree with packages beneath it. We are so blessed this year and feel such a huge happiness to have our 4 little boys in our lives. Last night we took all our kids to the Nativity pageant (our family tradition) and it was just an awesome experience – they loved it. I seriously thought Brigs was going to take off out of the crowd and run after Mary’s donkey! I hope my children all felt the special power of seeing the Nativity live last night and will instill in their own children the true meaning of Christmas – celebrating the birth of the Saviour. I am so grateful for his life, his example and his sacrifice for me.
I wish each of you the most joyous of holidays, I hope you are all happy, warm and surrounded with love today.

I’m so happy to finally get near a computer. The holidays are so hectic, especially with a new baby and so many little kids to entertain. We had the most awesome evening on Monday night when my dear friend Chuck’s wife (jenthemom) planned a get-together for all of our high school buddies. This group of people was so wonderful throughout the years to me, we had many awesome experinces together and hung out almost daily. Then as often happens to friends we all started to get married, have kids, move etc. and a few of us started to lose touch. We ended up making reservations at the Cheescake Cafe (home of sinful desserts!) a place that we frequentely went to together for dinner. The meal was just awesome – yummy! But the best part for me had to be seeing all of my dear friends and noting the changes in them and also the tried and true attributes about each of them that were still the same. It was like stepping through the looking glass of time and remembering all of the laughter we had shared together so many years ago. Jen has become a dear friend to me and I was equally thrilled to see her in person, I feel like I know her so well through my daily read of her blog. I always told Chuck that whoever he married would have to be someone that I could love too and I’m happy to report that I do – she’s wonderful and stunningly beautiful in every way (Chuck buddy, you married up!! LOL). I will be posting a few pictures of the evening once I can import them from my camera!
It was so happy to see and visit with Brenda, Peter, Chuck and of course my best buddy Kent. We missed seeing Wayne and Kevin and of course the host of other boys that used to hang out with me and Brenda – we were lucky girls with lots of cute boys to hang out with all of the time. I highly recommend having several drooling boys and very few girls in a group – it is awesome because there’s always someone to dance with, plus boys are fun and give you lots of attention! I’m sure you all know now that I love attention!! HAHA
Thanks everyone for a wonderful walk down memory lane, can’t wait to get together again.

Jenthemom is in pink and I’m in Red.

I can’t let this day go by without letting my Mom know publicly that I love her! Happy Birthday Mom! You’ve always made each passing year such a fun and beautiful thing for each of your own children’s Birthday’s – I remember one of my favorite things growing up was asking you to tell me the story of when I was born. I loved that story so much and would ask for it over and over again in the weeks leading up to my Birthday. You always told it with enthusiasm, even when I’m sure you would have rather not relived it yet again with me – I think I demanded hearing it alot. My favorite part was when you’d tell about how they sent Dad home thinking that it was going to be a long time before I arrived, and then he went golfing and missed the big event!! I loved that part – it was so funny to me. I also remember how you told me that he brought you a dozen red roses to the hospital and I always thought that was so beautiful and romantic. Even as a child I had it in my mind that my future hubby would have to bring me roses when I delivered a brand new baby. I wanted to be like you Mom, I still do in so many ways. I love your tender heart and your generous nature. I love that you adore my kids with the same excitement as when you were raising us. It’s so wonderful to see you showing Dylan how to make cinnamon buns, or hearing you tell Joshy stories about Silver the Fish! I see my own childhood whenever you take that special time with my boys and let them know you – those are the greatest gifts ever and it’s no wonder that they adore you.
Thank you for always loving me even when I was totally unlovable. I know that many times in my life I said or did things that hurt or worried you – I’m so sorry that I caused you heartache. I’m so happy to be older and wiser now (at least a little bit). All in all Mom I’m just grateful that of all the Mommy’s in the world I got you! I’m blessed and lucky to have you in my life and that struck me to the core this year when Grandma died and I saw you deal with the loss of your own Mother. I don’t want anything like that to happen but if it ever did I would want to be sure that you know how much I love you and appreciate all the sacrifices you have made for me, nights you waited up to make sure I came home safely. and yes even the time you called the Bishop to ask his advice on whether I should be allowed to go the the school dance in Junior High.
I hope you have a wonderful Birthday – I wish I could be there to hug you and watch you blow out all those candles!! HAHA!
XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOX
Dee
P.S.
As Grandma would say “Don’t eat too much cake”