December 2010

December came and went in a flash.  I have been so bad at keeping up with my posting.  I hope to do better next year.  Here are just a few photos and thoughts that made up part of December.  I still need to go back and post-date my thoughts on my dear husband getting released as Bishop . . . which is hard to do because my feelings are so jumbled.

 Alex & Friends before Winter Formal

We met up with the Patterson Family to go see the temple lights and Luke 2.  We love these guys and wish we could figure out how to do more together.  Cole is leaving in a week for his mission to Germany!  He gave a fabulous talk last Sunday.  Taylor can't believe that they won't see each other for 3 years and 3 months! 

 Here is our smaller family at the same time - minus Emily and Taylor :(

We had our annual Christmas Eve with the McBrides and the Mooneys.  It was wonderful like always.  Lots of good food and good family makes awesome memories!  These are the McBride/Mooney girl cousins:  Becky, Diana, Melissa and Emily

Here are the McBride boy cousins minus Elder Matt Mooney and Elder Taylor McBride:

Danny, Sam, Max, Alex, Isaac, Cole and Ryan.  Cole is getting baptized this Saturday!

After we are all done with our celebrations, we come home and do our own thing.  The kids usually get jammies, but this year they got Snuggies!  If you look really closely, you can see that Murphy has his own version of a Snuggie.  Alex bought him a little vest for Christmas :)

Elder McBride on Christmas Day!  We had the BEST talk with him.  I still say that missionary phone calls are the best gifts ever!  He is doing really well.  He loves being a missionary and is having a great time being in Santo Domingo finally.  He has been in the boondocks for all of his mission up until now.  He is living in a ghetto/gang area, but he loves the adventure of it.  Here he is with all of his little gifts including an awesome apron that Sister Sunderhaus made for him.  I think she made matching aprons for her son (his last companion) and Taylor!

This picture says it all for me.  The joy of being able to talk to your missionary on Christmas Day!  This is Ryan in his Snuggie talking to his big brother!

I hope that everyone had a great December like we did.  It is always such a frantic, busy time of year - but it is still my favorite!  We are so thankful for the birth of our Savior - the best gift of all.  We love Him and hope to be able to be able to show Him that love by serving others better this year.

Christmas 2009

Christmas this year was good but was really different.  It was the first time ever that we had a member of the family missing.  With Taylor in the Dominican Republic, we felt a definite hole.  Luckily Emily was able to come home again and be with us.  She is always such a wonderful help at Christmas time.  I don't know what I would do without her.  She was a great help in the kitchen and with the wrapping.  She has also been doing a lot of sorting around here.  You should see the pile to go to Deseret Industries!

We did all the usual things.  We had the Patterson party the Monday before Christmas at Don and Leslie's this year.  It was really nice to have so much of the family there.  We had the traditional soup, and then for dessert, we had cinnamon rolls and hot chocolate.

Danny reading his part during the program

Mom and all my boys!

For Christmas Eve, we did our annual progressive dinner with McBride side of the family.  It is always a lot of fun.  Everyone missed Taylor and Matt.  We started with appetizers at the McBride's, had the main course at the Mooney's and ended up with dessert at our house.  Everyone performs at their own houses and gives their gifts.

Cole and Max

Aunt Susie, Diana, and Uncle Mark

Alex and Emily playing a duet

Danny on cello and Emily on piano

Ryan singing

I was proud of all my kids.  They have so much wonderful musical talent!

Later that night, we opened the kids jammies, laid out cookies and Diet Coke for Santa, read Luke 2 and "Twas the Night Before Christmas and then tucked ourselves in for a long winter's nap.

Family minus Taylor

Kids plus Murphy but minus Taylor :(

Elder McBride on Christmas morning!

an excited Ryan!

Danny putting the angel on the tree (I forgot to put this pic earlier)

All in all it was a good Christmas.  The very best gift I got was getting to talk to Taylor for a whole hour on the phone!  It was so good to hear his voice.  He is homesick, but is very happy and is a wonderful missionary!

Best Christmas Present Ever!

I know that I am so behind on my blog - but I had to write a quick post because of the wonderful Christmas I had.  This was a really different Christmas for the McBride family.  We had a MUCH smaller Christmas but I felt it was still really good.  I think it was good for us to cut back.  Secondly, this was the first year ever to not be a complete family.  We were lucky that we still have Emily this year.  It is so nice to have her come home and she is such a wonderful help.  This was our first year without Taylor.  He has been in on his mission for 3 months now.  He is in a little village in the Domincan Republic.  Christmas wasn't complete until we were able to talk to him on the phone.  We got to talk to him for a whole hour!  It was so good to hear his voice.  He seems happy and so dedicated to the Lord's work.  I cried like a baby when I hung up the phone.  It is so hard to not be able to see one of your children for 2 YEARS - but I know that Heavenly Father is taking care of him for us and that he is doing wonderful things.  We are very proud of him!  He was a little sad because he had sent us all Christmas letters and we hadn't gotten them.  Well, we got them the next day and if felt like Christmas all over again!  He had individual letters for each of us and the one to me is the best gift he could give me.  Of course I cried again!  It was one amazing letter.  Here are a few pictures he was able to e-mail to us.

A nice little Christmas message

Taylor on a jungle path

The view from his bedroom window.  He says that they are one of the only ones to have running water in the village.  Their shower is a PVC pipe that sticks out of the wall (no hot water of course).  He said that they are lucky to be on the 2nd floor because then they don't have a rat problem.  I was pretty shocked by this picture, but Taylor sounds so positive about everything and says that he is having the kind of mission he always dreamed of.  He is an awesome missionary :)

Tradition

Well, it is the last day of the year and I still haven't written about Christmas - so here goes:  I love, love, love Christmas time.  I know everything is hectic, and I get so stressed out, but it is still my favorite time of the year.  There is just something magical in the air!  I love being with family and how everyone is on their best behavior!  I also love all of the little traditions that we have set and how they stay with us through the years.  I am always sad when Christmas comes to an end.  When it is time to take all the decorations down, my house looks so drab and non-festive:(

Every year, we have a big Patterson family get-together on the Monday night before Christmas. This year it was at my house and we had 40 people here - and that wasn't even everyone! We always have soup, cinnamon rolls and hot chocolate. I was so busy I didn't even get my camera out, but Don said he would send me pictures. When he does I will post them. We also had a little program. We played handbells and sang Christmas songs and then Nana told stories about when she was young. It was a great night!

Danny and Ryan working on the sugar cookies for Santa

Christmas Eve is spent with the McBride family plus all of the widows in our family (there are 3 of them).  We have a progressive dinner every year.  We started at Susie's with appetizers, main course at our house, and ended with dessert at Andy's.  Everyone performs some sort of musical number at their own house.  It is a lot of fun!  Emily, Danny and Ryan performed "Away in a Manger" with Ryan singing, Danny on cello and Emily on the piano.  It was very sweet.  Emily made me cry.  She wrote a Christmas song and performed it.  It was beautiful.  I will try and post the video we have of these performances.

All the kids in their new jammies.  I love these pictures every year!  Christmas was more sparse this year and it was still just as wonderful!

Santa brought Ryan 2 new Webkinz and some Bakugans!

Danny with Wii Music

Alex with his new watch

Taylor with his electric razor

Emily with her crockpot

This picture says it all!

Nana and the boys on Christmas morning

I am so glad we have all of these great traditions.  The kids love it too, and if we ever suggest doing something a little different, they make sure we don't.  For example:  today is New Years Eve and we always go eat at a Chinese buffet in the afternoon.  We suggested that maybe we go somewhere else today, but the kids don't want to have anything to do with that!  So, we are off in a little while to go eat Chinese!  I'm glad the kids like our traditions.  It has been nice being a complete family again.  We have all enjoyed Emily being here so much.  We have had a lot of fun!