It's the most Wonderful Time of the year!!

I love this time of year. Whenever anyone talks about family traditions, I always think of Christmas. We have our little traditions we do throughout the year, but Christmas just has so many that I love. So I thought I would share some of them with you.

My Grandma Watson would make each child their own stocking and then hang them all on her fireplace. At one point she would have had 29 stockings hanging. I loved going and finding a Christmas envelope from Zions bank that would have a brand new dollar from my grandpa (my dad carries this tradition on w/ my kids) and nuts and candy. After my grandmother passed away my aunt was sweet enough to make stockings for my mom for new additions although a couple of years ago a friend taught me how to knit the stockings, so I was able to knit each of my sisters families their own set of stockings. It's nice to know that when we are apart we all know we will have our stockings.


> This is another tradition, growing up every year my grandparents would give me a Spode plate.
I now have eight plates along with other additons. Believe it or not my kids love getting their Spode plates.
My mom is the best at making pillow cases. When we were little we knew it was Christmas when we found our Christmas pillowcase on our pillow. My mom has made everyone our own pillowcase. Thanks mom!
Christmas potpourri, this is a tradition I started I cut up half an orange, half a lemon and half a lime put 3 cinnamon sticks in, 3 bay leaves and then a sprinkle of cloves, you can put it in a crockpot but the smell travels better if it's on the stove. Every morning I'll start the pot boiling, it's the best smell in the world!
I love decorating the outside of my house, I really love my big porch (as you can tell i.e. halloween) so I was really excited when I figured out a way to put my garland up. Although Jackson was a bit of a grinch this year, he wouldn't put up the lights on the house so I tried to make up for it, by putting lights in the trees and bushes. On Christmas Eve we try to remember Christ's birth by lighting luminaries (white paper bags w/ candles) to light the way for the Christ child. Growing up the whole neighborhood would do it, so it was fun to look up and down the street and see nothing but candlelit white sacks, it was so beautiful.

Having a Christmas Village is big thing in my family. I can't even tell you how many houses my mom had. They would set up the village which would take hours, I would sit and look at each house imagining who would live in each house. Last year she gave me this train station, I love carrying on this tradition for my kids.

Other traditons we have are playing Mannheim Steamroller and Johnny Matthis, we eat Ham puff on Christmas morning and get home made pajama pants Christmas Eve. We read, Polar Express and The Littlest Angel on Christmas eve. These traditions help me to focus on my family and the reason why we celebrate Christmas. I was watching a TV show the other day and the hosts were talking about how they couldn't remember what their favorite gift they got for Christmas was last year. It made me realize that when I look back on this time next year, how great would it be if I could remember the best gift I gave. So my challenge to you is to try and give something this year that you will remember next year and in years to come. Come on be creative! Tell me some of your favorite traditions.

More Christmas pictures are on Picasa.

I haven't tried the blogging too much, but I was inspired by Linda's reading of the 5 little monkeys blog the other night. So I though I should do my part. Since I tend to communicate better using visual media rather than written, please check out the link below.

http://www.elfyourself.com/?id=9585805444

Jackson

Happy Thanksgiving!

Sorry no pictures this time. I did have my camera, but in my family EVERYONE is a photographer. So I sat back and watched them take pictures. Afterward I realized I really should have snapped a few. We had a great day. Most of my family was able to meet in Boise, so we drove the 4 hours there to spend the day. (and it was literally a day we left w/in 24 hrs of getting there, to head to Utah) We were spoiled with great cooking and company. The boys enjoyed playing football and rocks, paper, scissors with my Uncle. Now this isn't a typical game, if you lose, your opponet gets to slap you as hard as they can with two fingers on the wrist. My Uncle played this with me when I was little and he wouldn't hold back I would walk away with bright red arms, so the tradition continued yesterday. What a great holiday! I love that we have a day that is about giving thanks. I really believe that being grateful is one of the key components to being a good person. I hope your holiday was just as great, how lucky I am to have such great family and friends.

Tagged

So I guess I have been tagged from my mom to tell 6 things about myself.

1. I hate it when people sneeze. It's not really because I'm afraid of what they will get on me, it's more the sound. Especially when there is more then the standard two. It just grates on my nerves.

2. I can't eat spicey food, even if it says mild, it burns my tongue off. I really like eating salsa but I can only handle about 2 bites before I'm grabbing some water. I know what a wimp.

3. I hate mornings, (for most of you this is no secret) but oh how I hate them. There is nothing more then I love then sleeping in and I'm not talking about 9:00 a.m I mean until 1:00 p.m.

4. Now that I'm commuting for some odd reason the first night I sleep at my sisters, I can not fall asleep. I find myself looking at the clock every 1/2hour willing myself to sleep but it just doesn't work, (did I mention I hate waking up?)

5. I like to start lots of projects but have a hard time finishing, case in point, I just finished making a witch I promised to my mom two years ago.

6. I'm not as creative as people think, I just take someone else's great idea and put a spin on it.

I guess I'm supposed to tag 6 more people, did I mention I am a procrastinator?

Full Moon.....
In my line of work (and maybe yours) we have a couple of days a month that we ask the question
"Is it a full moon?" (and usually it really is) This is because it seems that more likely then not, some of the people I'm helping are just not happy with life and feel they need to demonstrate this in being unkind, obnoxious or just plain rude (when they have no reason to be). So what do I do in return? My smile just gets bigger, I guess I'm naive because I think "maybe if I be as nice as I can possibly be they won't throw a temper tantrum that even a two year old would have a hard time beating." But silly me this seems to aggravate more then help. For instance, today I had a person come up wanting me to take his bag. I had no problem with this, but unfortunantly the way the system works is that you have to tell the computer you have a bag and then come back to see me. You would have thought the world was ending, I literally thought he was going to go down on the floor kicking and screaming. And then I actually had the audacity to ask him for his liscense. He looked at me incredulously, and began ranting under his breath, ( I heard the words" pester" and "what a system") in there. Now don't get me wrong I know the airport can be a stressful place and things do happen where people have the right to complain, but today was one of those days where the "grumpy meter" was ready to burst.The funny thing was that it wasn't just me, right and left my co-workers kept asking "Is it a full moon?" What do you think, have you had problems with "Full Moon days?" or is it just me?

This is Halloween......

Happy Halloween! We had such a fun time this year. Isaac was a Vampire, Bennett was Frankenstein, and Jared was Anakin Skywalker. Last night the Youth of the ward put on a Halloween Carnival for the kids. I was just put into the Young Women's as second conselor, so had a fun time getting to know the girls. I was a beauty queen and Jackson was The Incredible Hulk. The kids had a great time playing games. It was held in a huge shed and we had a bonfire outside. For Halloween day I was in charge of Bennett's class party. We played fear factor, where the kids had to eat Lizard eyes (olives) Larva (puffed rice) body parts (candy) skin (pork rhines). I also did a haunted house, (please don't think I'm creative, I stole these ideas from my friend) that the kids would go in and get a prize. At night I took the cardboard that I used for the class party and made a haunted house on my porch. It was fun having the kids crawl into a tunnel, stick their hand into some spaghetti and go through the maze. We didn't have a lot of kids, but had a great time. Enjoy the pictures!

VACATION

We just got back from a well needed vacation. This year the kids were out of school for 10 days due to the Potatoe Harvest, (yes it's literally for harvesting the potatoes) so it worked out well for us to have a little R & R. We decided to go to Marco Island which is in Southwest Florida. We've been there before and had such a great time, we knew we couldn't go wrong, and hey it has a beach! We had a great time looking for seashells, going on an airboat ride in the Everglades and going up to DisneyWorld for a couple of days. It was nice to spend some time together as a family.

Marco Island
Marco Island Sunset
Our view of Sleeping Beauty's Castle
Beach Day
Jackson and the Boys
Airboat ride in the Everglades
Alligator looking for lunch in the Everglades

Our New House...........

I finally got around to taking some pictures of our new home. I actually really like the floor plan although I'm missing my two story. The house was completey finished so we have a nice big family room downstairs (that is currently acting as a storage room until our storage closet is done) as well as three bedrooms and a bathroom. Upstairs we have 3 bedrooms two baths, a great room and laundry room. We have a beautiful view of the temple from our back windows. Come see us we would love to have you! More pictures are on the photo link.

HOME
Moving to another state has put an interesting new spin on this word. Do we call where we live now "home" even though we aren't close to things that are familar, or do we call where we originally lived "home?" We came to Utah for the weekend and I found when I was discussing when I was leaving, it was hard to call Idaho home. We actually really love it there, in fact I have a feeling when it's time to leave it will be hard to go. It will be interesting to see how we feel about "home" at that point. For now, I guess I'll go with the old cliche "home is where the heart is."

p.s. thanks to my sister K for the blog header and for being so gracious, you rock!

Mesa Falls

For Family Home Evening we went to see these falls. We've been trying to do some exploring, getting to know the new digs. Needless to say it turned out as an adventure. The boys decided they wanted to throw some things into the water but no rocks were around, so we improvised (while breaking some rules I'm sure) pinecones work just as well as rocks. It was nice to actually have an activity for Family Home Evening usually Jackson wouldn't get home until late so we only had time for a quick lesson, but now he gets home in time to have dinner together and actually be able to do things. It so nice to have him around. Enjoy the pictures!

Summer is Over.....

This came to my attention as I drove my new commute from Rexburg to Salt Lake. When I reached Farmington and looked over at Lagoon to see, to my sadness, the rides were no longer operating.(It was a Tuesday) You would have thought that the kids back in school would have given me a little hint, but no. So I thought I would post my top 10 favorite pictures that reminded me of what a great summer we had.

Bennett on his baptism day

Boating at Deer Creek Reservoir

Isaac's Arrow of Light

Jackson comforting Jared Being with the Ferguson Family in Blanding watching for shooting stars Waiting for fireworks Family time

Isaac playing in the ocean

Our trip to Seattle to visit mom and dad

Jared at the beach

I-D-A-H-O....

We have landed in the state of potatoes. We are busy getting settled, but wanted a way to stay in touch with family and friends. Check back often to see what is happening in the Ferguson family.