What a holiday!

Christmas time is the best, but it can really wipe you out!

Snuggles, Bags, and Cute Girls

Madison and I had some quality sewing time going on this month to help make some fun bags. Her friend Hannah was sewing up a storm too and made Madison a Snuggie. We were ALL snuggly in our Christmas robes for New Year's Eve when my mom got to come for a short visit.

The BEST present we opened was....

OUR KIDS.

They all fit inside the big box our basketball hoop from Santa came in! Thank goodness Santa didn't go as crazy as last year... or the whole family might have fit into whatever box he brought. HO HO HO Merry Christmas!

Annual Pics in Front of the Tree

This is a Harris tradition that I've carried over into my family. PJ pics in front of the tree on Christmas Eve. The kids groan when it's time to take pictures, but I think they secretly love it!

Angel Gabriel Gets the Jitters

Grant opted out of the ward nativity this year. He said he would not be a donkey AGAIN this year unless we paid him. Carter was the Angel Gabriel and had some lines he had to memorize and deliver. Well, he got a little nervous onstage and started picking at his feather belt, so wisps of fuzzies began swirling all around the nativity. Some of the "animals" even took to blowing the fuzzies to keep them in the air. "Gabriel" did do a beautiful job on his lines, despite his jitters.

Creative Christmas Chaos

I've been flexing the creative muscle in my brain to come up with Tree Costumes (tomato cages covered with green blankets) and Crafts for the boys craft day at school.

Now- I know their tree costumes were not the most beauiful, but it only took about an hour of my life span to make them and I do so love to save time. I used the time I saved to have a brief nap before their choir performance at school and we were nearly late- oops.

Saved Time=Nap=Lateness=Chaos.... I couldn't put their cosumes on until we got to the school and ended up trying to do it super-speedily in the parking lot. It was dark so I couldn't find the hole I'd cut out for Carter's head and began to have fits of hysterical laughter. Seriously I could not stop laughing... this impaired me for when I was trying to put Grant's costume on, so I didn't notice that I only got half of his face showing until he was onstage singing. I STILL start giggling when I see these Christmas tree costume pictures of the boys and remember them asking if that's how they were supposed to "look".

MERRY CHRISTMAS 2009 LETTER

We’ve enjoyed another year in the Northwest and we think ALL of our family and friends should move here to enjoy it with us. Here’s a bit about each of our endeavors, adventures, and awards for 2009…

Jeremy has continued to be a hard working engineer at Puget Sound Naval Shipyard, and as YM President he’s had loads of fun working with the youth of our church. Jeremy’s family awards include: Grill Extraordinaire, Busy Beaver, Best Wookie-Noise Maker, Electronic Whiz, Happy Camper, and World’s Greatest Dad (for the 12th year in a row!).

Shauna has been working with the Young Women at church, but has been asked to be the Stake Primary Secretary instead. Apparently the knowledge that she loves to organize overshadows the lesser known fact that she has no typing skills. Besides her family work, she also choreographs for a show choir in CA and does amateur photography. The awards she’s been given for ’09 are: Family Historian, Top School Volunteer, Coolest Chauffeur, Spontaneous Song Guru, Best Blogger, Craziest Mom, and Food Producing Machine (awarded by James).

Madison is enjoying her last year at elementary school and was elected as ASB VP this year. She had fun playing soccer for the first time this fall and she continues to excel at playing the piano. Madison loves to help me with James and is currently training to become a super babysitter. Madison’s awards are: Creative Cat, Book Eater, Aspiring Writer, Best Hungry Bob Voice, Most Stylish, Fun Socks Collector, and Great Game Player.

Carter got baptized in October and loves being a cub scout. He wants to check stuff off in his scout book every day. He played a second season of soccer this year and tried baseball for the first time. Carter throws his entire being into whatever he is working on and is a fireball of energy. Awards he’s earned for 2009: Most Energetic, Best Apologizer, Earnest Worker, Outdoor Enthusiast, Critter Collector, Pokémon Expert, Speediest Sprinter, and Hardest Batter (nicknamed “The Bullet”).

Grant got hit by a car while riding his bike this summer and ONLY broke his leg. Phew. He will be restarting gymnastics in Jan. Grant has enjoyed playing baseball this year, and has also been having fun being a Kindergartener. His awards include: Best Cheeky Monkey, Giggly Guy, Star Wars Expert, Most Improved Reader, Lego Architect Builder, and Movie/Video Game Fanatic.

Our sweet baby James, the joy of our family, is learning how to do everything by himself at the ripe old age of 1. He constantly entertains us, although we know that isn’t his sole purpose for being on the Earth. He really likes following people around and discovering new items of interest. James’s awards for 2009: Most Popular, Best Halloween Costume (Yoda), Greatest Growth, Walker AND Stalker Pro, Best Kisser, Deepest Thinker, and Snuggle Bean of the Year.

MERRY CHRISTMAS and HAPPY NEW YEAR

With Love from- Jeremy, Shauna, Madison, Carter, Grant, and James

We Love Technology...

We had a bit of electricity in the air on Christmas. We've held out on getting any form of game system for a long time. We have finally caved and bought both the boys a DS. We also got Madison an ipod. Now we'll have to make sure we are not always "plugged in" and ignoring the here and now. My friends with kids say it can be done, so I will have courage as we venture forth into an electronic wonderland. Once again "Santa" was overly generous this year.

Christmas Eve Traditions

On Christmas eve our family reads about the Savior's birth in the scriptures. Sometimes we just listen, sometimes we try to act it out, but mostly we just try to feel the spirit and focus our family on the birth of Christ. We also open one present a piece, which is always jammies. The boys always groan about this and ask why they can't open something "good" instead of jammies. I also hide a pickle ornament somewhere amongst our tree after the kids have gone to bed. Whoever finds the pickle in the tree the next morning gets a special present (usually something to share). This years pickle present was a large bag of Lindt truffles. Chocolate is never a bad gift. I hope our kids want to continue some of our family traditions when they have families of their own in the future.