WELCOME HOME RUDE MAN DAVE!  YOU HAVE BEEN GREATLY MISSED.

First off…Rosie now walks down the stairs.  Pretty amazing if you ask me. 

The days preceeding Christmas were spent with Brian’s family at his folks new house.  Amy Jo, Tucker, Eric and family, and Grandparents Gee came into town to join in the fun.  Brian and Eric spent one afternoon quail hunting and bagged 2…  Not enough to feed even one person but they had a good time. 

The flu has been making it’s rounds with everyone though and it has taken down nearly half the crowd.  Brian had it a week ago and I have never seen him so sick.  Rosie had a few days before him and Brian’s mom slightly before Rosie.  Serra and I escaped (so far).   Serra did have a cold for a while though and told Grandma Anderson she was “feeling a little over the weather.” 

Tucker suffered for a few days while he was down and then it took down Dwaine who had been bragging he never got sick.  I think this has been the worst year yet for the flu in our family. 

Does this dog remind you of any other dog?  This is Lady who showed up at Eric and Traceys a few months ago.  They found the owner who gave her to them.  She is a pomeranian. 

And here is Rosie with her new haircut. 

This is Serra giving the Monkey Skyp an air shower and brushing after freshly being stuffed. 

He was Brian’s Christmas present from the girls. 

Anyway back to happier things. I organized a Christmas Eve dinner.The kicker was that we had all our regular  meetings and didn’t get out until 4pm.  So the few days before I got everything prepared including ordering a Honeybaked ham and turkey breast.  I had everything over to the Andersons Saturday so we could just hightail it after church.  I made the mistake of waiting until Saturday evening to pick-up the last few items.  The lines were at every register and half way through each isle.  Our Sunday meetings were great  and I am glad we didn’t cut church short.  I participated with the choir and Serra sang a few songs with the Primary.  Brian was taking charge of Rosie who barfed all over him after eating a handful of m and m’s .  (The suit is presently at the dry cleaners)  We didn’t even unload the girls at home, Brian and I changed clothes and we headed over.  Dinner was great and so was the company. 

But first here are some shots of the girls in their other Christmas Dresses before church on Sunday.

The tables all set…Amy Jo and Tucker (or Tugger as Serra calls him).

Rosie got a head start on everyone. 

So did the other kids.  Grandma in heaven with not one but two babies. 

Rosie has a major love for shoes and here she is showing cousin Kathryn the finer points of putting on Sunday shoes. 

The three musketeers.

Our children don’t really get that you are supposed to wake up with the dead on Christmas morning.  We were glad for that since Santa had a bit of trouble putting some things together.  We know this because Rosie was up with two molars coming through until 1am.  Us older folks didn’t get to bed until after 2am.  Anyway we finally woke Serra and Sister up at 9am. 

Santa was good to us this year.  Some highlights were for Pam a chocolate fountain (let’s get together and try it out) Superman Returns, a Chia herb garden, Gosh Groban concert tickets and new CD, and a gift card to only the best store EVER (Home Goods)

For Brian a Shiatsu Massage chair (it really works), a marshmallow gun, Seinfeld through season 6, The Office season 1, a Build a Bear monkey from the girls, a charging station for all his many things that need charging, and an indestructible belt.  (We’ll see)

Serra got a new camera which is pretty cheap but she is so thrilled with it she takes it everywhere including to bed.  Everytime she drops it (frequently) the batteries fall out and she loses any pictures she took.  She just says “I will just have to take more pictures.”  We haven’t even downloaded any because she keeps deleting them.  She doesn’t seem to mind.  She is hooked up with more barbie stuff and some dolls. 

Rosie got a Cabbage patch kid and a few toys.  Together they got a new kitchen table and chairs (The trouble Santa had…  Improper hardware)  Building blocks made by Dad and a crew at Grandma and Grandpas.  Jammies made my me , and lots of books and miscellaneous toys and noisy things.  There was a lot more for everyone but I am drawing a blank right now. 

We spent the morning at home until noon and then joined everyone else.  I gained five pounds that day and we didn’t even have a proper meal.  We have a new game from E and T that we spent a lot of time playing.  It’s called Rage. 

This is the first turning on of the new Spool at the Andersons.  Brian and Grandpa Gee are removing leaves from the waterfall area.  Rosie thought it was pretty funny

Yummy white chocolate popcorn and a movie.  Rosie stuffed her face until we had to put it up. 

And the new matching jammies

The day after I was feeling very claustrophobic and so I took Christmas down.  I wasn’t sure at that point when we were headed to California and for how long and I didn’t want to come home to that job.  So it is done, the house has been cleaned and the laundry done.  I even got a RS pres. meeting in.  We are now preparing to leave Friday to see the Dave man. 

This is really long and is mostly for the benifit of the mission folk.  It’s not really exciting just some tidbits from Christmas morning. 

There will be one more long video of pre-Christmas activities before Thursday morning is out.  Check back.

 Vegas got 3 inches of snow last night.  I’m not dreaming of a white Christmas but I may get one anyway. 

Edit 12/20…I took these pictures with my cell phone…I say “NAY!” to the unbelievers!

2 down and hopefully not 2 to go.  The flu got hold of Rosie last last week and she is still struggling to kick it.  We go through alot of diapers and her poor bum is taking the brunt of the illness I am afraid.  She is still in relatively high spirits except at night.  I have been up with her until 1 or 2am every night.  It makes it a little tough to get to all the morning meetings.  Brian was slammed last night with a bug that he hasn’t seen since he was 15.  I can relate as the same thing happened to me this summer.  He is sicker than I have ever seen him.  He was up all night and barely moved all day.  Rosie stayed home with him from church and they cuddled and slept the day away.  Serra and I are still in the clear and some major finger crossing is going on hoping the avenging flu angel passes us by so we aren’t sick for Christmas company arriving this week.   

I forgot to post these with the last entry.

This is how it began and this is what we ended up with.  Sunday morning I had the girls all cute and matching and so, of course, I had to take a picture.  Rosie was not having any of it but we did manage to get a shot and so we called it good.  I did not make the dresses.  Costco $15 a piece.  Can’t make’em for that. 

 I guess when new comments stop popping up it’s time to do another post.  I feel Julies plight.  There seems so much to do before Christmas and especially more since kids arrived.  And even more since Mom and Dad are not around to do things like Christmas candy and send it to all.  I guess I need to learn to do it sometime.  Anyway we are having fun around here doing all sorts of Christmassy things.  Friday we went to a stake center across town that does a live nativity.  WOW!  What a production that was.  There was a cast of hundreds including live animals, smoke when the angel appears on the roof of the darkened church, and amazingly detailed costumes.  Apparently they have been doing it for years and it is a tradition for nearly every LDS family and non alike.  Four nights and 2 showings a night and the bleachers they had set up in the parking lot was packed.  It was really well done though and a good visual for Serra.  We knew we needed to start teaching a bit about what Christmas was really about.  After reading The Grinch top Serra a few weeks ago we asked her if she knew what Christmas was about.  “Presents and Santa Clause!”  DOH.  She we had a few little talks and in tithing settlement the Bishop asked her if she knew what Christmas was about.  We both sucked in our breaths and breathed a sigh of relief when she exclaimed, “the baby Jesus!”  The nativity was a great visual and Serra was in awe over the real baby.

To make the night even better we headed to Cold Stone to redeem a coupon Julie sent us and use the gift card from Jeff and Maren.  The coupon worked fine but they couldn’t get the gift card to work so they gave us free icecream.  I know that for some people (Serra White)  that alone would solidify a great holiday season.  We didn’t complain. 

Saturday was the childrens primary Christmas party.  I specify children because we have a ward party coming up that is adults only.  Anyway the girls sat on Santa’s lap and Sophia was not impressed.  Or I guess she was impressed but not in a positive way.  The picture will explain. 

When we got back from that Maren was napping on our couch waiting for us to get home.  We set to making our gingerbread houses.  That took all afternoon with the kids around.  Although Sophia did take a very long nap, Serra required someone to squeeze out the frosting.  Maren was great and went back and forth a lot between hers and Serra’s.  All Serra really wanted to do was watch a movie and cuddle Maren whom she adores.  Jeff showed up a little later and Sophia wanted no one but him.  Ever since my surgery when he took care of them all day, he has been her favorite.  She literally bypasses me for comfort and heads straight for him.  It’s pretty cute. 

The Anderson parents moved this weekend and are busy getting settled in their new place.  It is a great house and I’m sure we will be spending plenty of time over there.  This move has been dragged out over weeks with van reservations and cancelations several times as things with the new house didn’t go as planned.  We are glad they are finally there and can get things back to normal. 

Here are some pictures from Serra’s world.  It’s funny to see what she takes pictures of.  I asked her to take some of us making house. 

Here are the finished products

There is always something good to be had at meal time.  Just ask Mo.  The next story is not for the weak stomached (Dad).  The other day Mo knocked Sophia down and ate her whole wheat pancake.  I didn’t think much of it until 5am the next morning when I hear him whine from his cage, another strange noise, and then an offending smell that traveled across the room from the closet where he sleeps.  Colon blow.  Mo got the first of 2 baths.  His cage was thrown outside and the other was brought up to finish out the night.  The defiled that one a few hours later and got his second bath.  The cages got a major cleaning and I am very vigilant now when we have anything wheat. 

…and some video for your viewing pleasure…

Let’s back up a bit to last week.  Monday Brian had some business stuff to take care of so I got the car all packed up and made sure we had everything. We were finally able to get out of Vegas around 2pm.  We made great time with no traffic.  We met up with Gary’s family at a little after 6 pm.  We got checked into our hotel room at the Marriot Residence Inn only to find it was not what we reserved and it smelled really badly of smoke.  I don’t usually complain but the smell alone was enough to ask for a room change.  They didn’t give me any grief and upgraded us a bit to a little bigger room that had no unpleasant odors.  We headed to Outback to dine on steaks.  After filling our bellies it was pretty late.  I think it was around 10pm and Gary’s kids dealing with a time change were fading fast.  Our kids are night owls anyway so we were up a bit longer but finally settled down to rest up for a big few days. 

Here we are at the Outback.  Jacob is practicing for Pirates.

The nice thing about the place we were staying is the full breakfast included in the price.  We filled up and then headed over to Disneyland, literally just a few blocks away.  We met up with Gary’s family again and spent the day being happy and the happiest place.  I am always amazed at how fun it is time and time again.  One of the funniest things I’ve seen in a long time was Katrina and Serra~V~ on Tower of Terror.  The picture of those two is priceless. They are each hanging onto one of Brian’s arms like the world is ending with classic freaked out looks on their faces.  We laughed long and hard over that one. 

Freaky

I have to take a picture of her everytime.  She is awesome.

The monster in the last picture said to the boys in front.  “Hey! You two in the front.  Nice ears.  Are you two twins or something.”

Here are the freaked out girls. 

Sophia’s first solo Merry-Go-Round.

Something is not right here…

When you get on this ride they hand you a “drivers licence”.  As we left the park the first night, Serra pulled hers out of her pocket and said.  “Look Dad.  I have a drivers licence.  I’ve been wanting one of these for my whole life.”   We asked her if she wanted to drive back to the hotel.  She agreed until she sat in the drivers seat and then said she would wait to drive when we were back in Las Vegas. 

Where do they find these people?

Caged Monkeys.

All tuckered out.

We watched the Holiday Parade the first night and fireworks and were glad we did because the second night it was too windy and they canceled fireworks.  It was magical as always but more so because of the holiday theme.  We also ran into some friends from the Santa Paula Ward.  The Butlers.  Holly was Serra’s nursery teacher and also the Primary music leader.  Brian served with Craig in the Elders Quorum and Serra and their daughter Abby were good friends.  The second day we ran into our current Bishops family there without him.  Brian texted the Bishop to tell him we saw them and he texted back that he didn’t even know they were there. 

On the second day we had lunch at the Blue Bayou Restraunt which is the one you see while on Pirates.  It was really good.  I have always wanted to eat there but thought it was only for VIP’s ever since I was a kid.  It still is only for VIP’s with really cute kids and that is how we got in. 

Both nights we said goodbye to the Arnells at around closing and then hung out at Downtown Disney and had a light dinner while we waited for the tram lines to die down. 

We had such a good time and hated for it to end.  Especially since Gary’s family’s passes are expiring so they won’t be going as often.  We like tagging along.  The more kids the better. 

It was so cold on the tram ride back to the car.

Christmas Catastrophe

Yesterday, our first full day back from D-land and I planned on using the day to get the house in order and decked out in Christmas.  I was to host a breakfast this morning for 11 sisters and wanted the place looking nice.  At 4:00 I was finishing up tree decorations and just had to take the boxes back out to the garage when….CRASH….down came the Christmas tree off it’s 3 foot table top perch, missing Rosie by a hair-broken ornaments everywhere.  Rosie felt deeply offended and was wailing profusely.  Brian was gone helping his parents move.  At times like this I simply want to crawl in a hole and suck my thumb.  Then to make me laugh says my silly Serra, “Christmas is over.”  I laughed and had Serra take a screaming Rosie to a safe and glass free area while I cleaned up the carnage.  I say carnage because of the dead gingerbread boys and girls.  Our tree is of the plastic variety and it was the weak plastic base that bit the dust. 

After cleaning up we headed to Target and found a real tree stand that I thought might work with the fake tree.  I almost just bought a new tree but I REALLY didn’t want to restring lights or undo the ones I had already done.  Also, those buggers are expensive.  And we found some new ornaments to replace the broken ones.  The new stand did work and after getting the tree standing I told Brian who had since arrived home that dinner plans had changed and we were headed out.  I am thankful that we have that option.  I know my mother would have given an arm at times to have been given that luxury on occasion.  Since I didn’t have to worry about cooking and clean up I was able to get up the energy to redo the tree. 

The house looks and smells festive and the breakfast was really nice this morning.  I made Hootenanny pancakes and they were a smash hit.  Brian didn’t get back with the girls for about an hour after the breakfast wrapped up and so I just sat back and enjoyed the quiet for a spell.  When the girls got back they were terribly ornery and so I took them both upstairs and laid them in my bed and they both fell asleep.  That was 2 hours ago and so I am enjoying another quiet spell.   Pictures are being edited as we speak.