With only 3 months to go before our mission, we decided to squeeze in as much fun as possible. Thanksgiving and Christmas were holidays we treasured knowing we wouldn't get to celebrate with family next year. Ben and Nicole opened their hearts and home to 45 of us for a great Thanksgiving dinner! It wasn't even crowded!
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| Lots of yummy food and 14 pies! |
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What an eclectic group of people we enjoyed on Thanksgiving!
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Then it was the annual Christmas tree hunt and chocolate dipping to round out the weekend.
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| Tom and Kristin's 24th Christmas tree.....Jordan and Zach's very first! |
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The perfect tree for Ben, Nicole, Zane, Rhiannon and Kimi's new house!
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Three generations of smiley women...Jordan, Myrna and Kristin
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| Everyone joined in the fun to get the chocolates boxed! |
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| A special package of chocolates wrapped separately to send to Weston in Cambodia! |
We received the most amazing present from all our family for Christmas....a huge book of photos called "Our Happy Family!" How perfect to take with us to remind us of all the fun memories we have made together!
David and I gave them each a personalized Seven Generation Family Photo Chart.
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7 Generation Photo Chart
We were especially lucky to have Geoff and Jolene and family come for Christmas!! Jarry and Sharron Zaharias joined us for dinner as well! The more the merrier!
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We spent many a late night playing Whist!
New Year's Eve was celebrated with yummy food, fun and games and the infamous (that means MORE than famous) Firework Display by Tom and Ben. Everything worked like it was supposed to so this year we had no neighbors running for their lives. It was truly AWESOME!
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| WOW! |
On January 2nd we headed back East to visit all our other kids and grandkids and to trade cars with Evan and Kelli and their growing family. On the way our beloved Subaru Outback turned over 100,000 miles!
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| 100,000 miles! Should be good for another 100,000 at least! |
Here are some fun photos of our trip in no special order. I didn't know I was going to do a blog or I would have done better with the photography!
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| Little Myrna blowing out her two candles on the darling cake Kelli made! |
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| Max with Knight.....the perfect pillow! |
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Jack and his "fight Breast Cancer" pink socks after an indoor soccer game.
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| Howie at his basketball tournament in Cincinnati |
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| Myrna loving her pink smoothie! |
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| Grandpa and Myrna admiring the pictures on the wall of the little airport diner where we went to watch the planes take off. She LOVES airplanes! |
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| If she were taller it would have been even bigger! |
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| Olivia and Hannah in their matching leopard skin outfits! |
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| Fun at the Marine Corp Museum! Christian, Tyler and Abby |
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| This Marine Museum is great! David, Olivia, Abby, Christian and Tyler |
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| Little Smiley Hannah! |
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| Hanging out with the girls.....Jamie, Olivia and Hannah |
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| The duel in which Christian regained his place as King of the Chess Board |
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| Grandpa and William playing Army |
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| Olivia has officially passed up Grandma in height! |
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| Sarah's tenth birthday! |
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| Sarah even helped Kim make her yummy carrot birthday cake! |
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| Pretty amazing to be able to bowl while holding a baby! |
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| Our first time of Duck Bowling! |
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| Fun with 3 darling kids! Claudia, Sarah and Emmett |
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| Cute Claudia! |
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| Grandpa and Myrna enjoying their favorite pastime! |
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| A beautiful sunset somewhere in te Midwest on the way home to Utah |
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Home again with our cute little dirty Mini, Boris!
Now that we have hugged every kid and grandkid, we are ready to take off on our mission! We will miss our family and friends so much, but we are excited to be able to do the Lord's work 24-7!
"Because we have been given much we too must give!"
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Way to go, Mom! I knew you could do this. Can't wait to check in every week and see what life in Hong Kong is like! I love you...
ReplyDeleteSo fun to catch up! I can't wait to see what life is like in Hong Kong! Love you!
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