Announcing...

...the engagement of my baby sister, Vonda. The wedding will most likely take place some time in August.

...also the birth of my latest nephew. Theo was born on Dec 29th. He is the 27th grandchild for my mom.

Christmas Day

We started off Christmas morning reading Luke's account of Jesus' birth. We then proceeded to open the gifts. We discovered the day before that Anson and Cameron believed that Santa was going to bring them presents, even after stressing to them repeatedly that their is no such thing as Santa. Anyway Doug explained to them again what Christmas is all about and that the presents were from us because we love them and not from Santa. They seemed okay with that. Maybe next year we can research Christmas traditions with them and how certain things came to be, like Santa.
Brandon's first Christmas he seemed more interested in the wrapping paper than the actual gifts. But he still seems to like the new ride on toy that he got.

Anson and Cameron got a lot of 'Cars' toys this year. They still love anything to do with 'Cars'

We still like to go to Grandma's house for Christmas (and Grandpa's)...

After we were done our family Christmas celebrations we headed over to Doug's mom and dad's for food and more presents. We also read of Jesus' birth from the Bible, sang carol's, and some even went for a snowmobile ride. It was a very nice day and a great way to celebrate our savior's birth.

Christmas Eve

On Christmas Eve we had Doug's family over for supper. After supper we opened stockings which is tradition. The boys really enjoyed themselves and Brandon even got into it...kind of. He just crawled around grabbing his brothers things. We also attended EBC's annual candlelight Christmas Eve service. Which is always a blessing.

Good times

The weekend before Christmas we had the pleasure of getting together with Doug's childhood friend Dan and his family. It was neat to be able to get to know his wife and daughter better and to finally meet his little boy. We are really going to enjoy having them living closer and getting together more often.

Friends already!

School Christmas Program

Anson's first school Christmas program went really well. He knew all the words to song. Our hearts filled with pride as we watched him.

In Loving Memory

Today I am remembering my dad who died thirteen years ago on this day. He was a wonderful father who took us to church every Sunday and loved to buy us things. He was also a devoted son who helped his Mother come to Canada. Many financial sacrifices were made as a result of him helping others, and I believe that because of my dad's testimony a lot of his family now know the Lord.

It all happened so quickly...We attended our church's Sunday school program together as a family. My dad teared up as he often did when he was moved. Later at home we sat around in the living room eating treats out of our goodie bags, my dad was eating the peanuts, he was not much of a sweet tooth. It was getting late so I was going to call it a night, I got up to go to my room and my dad said goodnight to me and since we weren't a family who ever said goodnight or I love you to each other I just kept walking to my room. So again my dad said goodnight to me and I turned around and we made eye contact and I bid him a goodnight as well. And that is that last thing that we said to each other. He went to work early Monday morning and as he was loading his truck (he was a truck driver), he collapsed and died instantly of a heart attack. He was only 42 years old when he went to be with the Lord. My mom was widowed at the age of 38, and was left with seven daughters (most of us were teenagers at the time) to care for. My oldest sister was married with two daughters of her own. My dad is still missed to this day, but I am so thankful for God's faithfulness and goodness to us through all these years.

Church Christmas program

On Sunday we had our annual Christmas program at Church and the whole family got to participate this year. Anson and Cameron were cute little shepherds and Doug and I were Joseph and Mary and Brandon was baby Jesus. Different people read the Christmas story out of the Bible and we just acted it out. I much prefer to just sit and watch but it was still fun to be involved, but more importantly it was great to see the boys having a lot of fun doing it. At one point the shepherds and the angels sang Away in a manger and did the actions for it. It was kind of hard to do the actions holding onto staffs, so our cute little shepherds dropped their staffs a few times. Good thing it was really laid back and people found it funny, I know I couldn't help but giggle.
Even though Christmas time can get quite busy, I think that it is so important to remember why we celebrate Christmas in the first place. It's all about Jesus our king who came to earth in such a humble way.