Holiday Hoopla...and all that good stuff!

We decided to make this last week of Christmas vacation special and full of memories. We made a plan to do something fun that the kids wanted to do, every single day. The kids helped us plan and I think they are excited too. Yesterday (Monday) they all wanted to go out to the city and do a little "after Christmas" shopping. They had been earning some money and had some things in mind that they wanted to purchase. I like to shop and so I was all game for that! We got ready to go...on time even...packed up a lunch (yummy leftover turkey sandwiches!). Then I went to start the car...she sputtered and rebelled but finally relented and fired up. I decided to let her warm up good before we left because it was cold outside. After about 30 minutes we went and jumped in, ready for our long day of shopping. I had to stop and get gas on the way out of town, knowing that I wouldn't get very far on 1/4 of a tank. Cameron filled up the car and I went to start it up again...NO GO!!! Completely dead!!!!....what the heck??? So I called Deron and he was in the shower so Todd came and jump started us. I didn't know whether to stay or keep on with our traveling plans. Deron said to drive until we got to Heber, pull up to the Checker Auto there in town and turn the car off. If it didn't start again, to go and get a battery. So that's what we did. After getting there and turning the car off, she fired right back up....tried it twice and both times she purred like a kitten....so now what? I went in and asked if they could check my battery because I thought it was going bad. The nice man inside was happy to do just that. He was so kind and didn't make me feel stupid at all. He checked it out and said it was working great and that the battery was strong and didn't have any problems that he could tell. (I don't understand exactly how they do it, other than they have a machine that they hook it up to and they can check all that stuff out on it). He then checked my alternator too, to see if it was keeping the battery charged and it too was working. I thanked him and told him I really appreciated his help. ( I will defiantly go there again because they were very kind and helpful and it didn't cost me anything!!!...Kindness goes a long way in my book!) Anyway...I don't know what is going on with the car, but it kept running all day and got us home safe and sound. NOW...will it start today, that's the big question????

The shopping trip was long, fun, and we all got tired out.... BUT, we found some really good "after Christmas sales", 70% off of everything in one of the stores...and prices slashed in most of the other stores. Halle found some shirts for $5, pants for $10.... so we got a few fun things and felt like our day was a success all the way around. Dayna was able to come and spend the day with us which is always fun....And so the story continues, the Holiday Hoopla is still going strong in our house, with many more days of it to come.....onward we go!

Sticky, icky, FuN!

Many people make Christmas candy or cookies as one of their Christmas traditions...we are not one of those people. Although, many years ago when my kids were little, I tried to start that tradition...it ended up being alot of work, alot of mess and not much fun...so the tradition fizzled out and we didn't do it again. BUT~This year Kim asked if we could get all the girls together and make candy (she was too little to remember when we tried to do it before). I said, "SURE"...but inside

I was kind of dreading it because I didn't have fond memories of the mess that it made and the clean up process that followed. We looked at the calendar and I found the ONE and ONLY day that I had available to do it, unfortunately it didn't work for Dana or Dayna, which we were really sad about- but decided to go ahead and make candy with those of us that were able to be there. Kim wanted to make chocolate coverd pretzels, I made these coconut/almond things (like almond joy's) and Halle made cookie dough truffles. We melted chocolate, dipped and poured for hours...but we had fun. Everything turned out and tasted so yummy. I think we decided NOT to make the cookie dough truffles again. They were a little more messy and ccomplicated to make than we had thought that they would be. I don't know if we did something wrong or if that's just how they are supposed to be. BUT they tasted really good. The candy making didn't make as much of a mess this time, I think because we have added on to our kitchen since I did it last(over 10 years ago) and there was so much more room to move around in and more places to put things....and having teenagers to help do the cooking, verses 5-9 year olds, makes a big difference as well. The girls and I had a great time. We listened to Christmas music and cooked to our little hearts content. Both Kim and Halle stuck around to help with the clean up, which made the entire day more fun...that way ONE person (me) wasn't stuck with the mess. We had such a fun time, just me and the girls and I am so glad that Kim thought of it. I think its a tradition that we will try again for years to come and see if we want to keep it up...its worth a shot....I'm always up for more Christmas traditions!

PaRtY HaRdy...our way~

Everyone has their own way to PaRtY it Up...and the Wilkerson's are no different. For years our family (my siblings and parents) have had a big family Christmas party (we still do). But last year my kids decided that with everyone growing up and moving away that it would be fun to start having a Christmas party of our own as well.

I loved the idea. This year was our 2nd annual Wilkerson Family Christmas Party. Everyone came over to our house for an afternoon of CeLeBrATion. We ate a stuffed potato bar (mainly because everyone loves it and it feeds alot of people), played games and made

ALOT of noise!!! The kids have rotated names for a gift exchange for years, but decided that since not everyone is here on Christmas morning to open gifts, that they would all exchange their gifts at the party. Its neat to see the thoughtfulness that goes into each of their gifts. They aren't the "just because gifts", they really try and think about what their person would like and use. I was with Cameron this year, shopping for Halle. I was giving him all kinds of different ideas of things that he could get for her, and with each one he would say, "is that something that she would REALLY LIKE?, because I want to get her something that she would REALLY, REALLY LIKE!"....It was so sweet. He finally picked her out a book that she wanted, which came from the heart because he is always razzing Halle and Kim to put their books down and spend more time talking to him or to do something with him instead of reading. After having to postpone the Christmas party by 1 week because of the weather, Dayna and Jack were able to come out for the family party and spend the afternoon with us. Everyone laughed and ate and played games. We threw marshmallows at each other in the "marshmallow toss game". We also played the present game...the one where you have to roll the dice and get doubles, put on a hat, gloves and then try to open up a finely wrapped gift (wrapped 1 million times and with duct tape as well!) before the next person rolls doubles. The first person to finally get the gift opened, gets it....this caused ALOT of rumble and scuffles around the table. I'm not sure it was to get the gift or just to see who was the fastest gift opener and be claimed CHAMPION....regardless of what it was, it was fun and everyone went away happy....another year almost over and another party done...and many, many fun memories to last for many Christmas's to come.

Its the most WonDeRFuL time of the year!

Christmas...what an amazing, sensational season. I love this time of year along with so many other people. I love the sights of the lights and trees, the nativities, the bright colors and the buzzing of the people. I like the smiles on the faces of those that don't smile often, I like the parties, the food, the smells and all the hoopla that comes with Christmas. I like the sounds of happy chatter, the twinkling of bells, the singing coming from what seems like...everywhere. I like the ability to give to those we love and are thinking about, to feel the happiness that comes from seeing someone else happy. I like all of the many scrumptious kinds of food that hang around the house, the aroma of things baking in the oven...and the sight of it turning out the way I wanted it to. There are so many marvelous, fun, and exciting things that make the Christmas season my very favorite time of year. Its been a wonderful season for us this year. We've been able to spend a little more time with each other, enjoying the Christmas Season just a little more than we have in past years. We didn't do anything big, elaborate or expensive...just spent TIME together as a family, which is my favorite thing to do. One of our traditions that we have is that we always have a big dinner on Christmas Eve, the kind of "BIG" that so many people do on Christmas day. We always make turkey and ham and all the fixin's. This year we also had pies coming out of our ears...cherry pie, apple pie, pumpkin pie(that Cameron made all by himself!!!), coconut cream pie, and Erik made his special pineapple pie (YUM), even a pistachio cream pie....almost any kind of pie your little heart might desire. We certainly didn't walk away hungry, that's for sure. Every year we invite someone from my family over to have dinner with us. This year we chose to have our next door neighbors over. To us, they are family. We love them so much and have been so blessed to have them as dear friends and neighbors. They are amazing people who have really become part of our family and a big part of our lives. We don't know what we would do without them. We enjoyed watching their 4 boys play and be excited about "Santa coming". They just light up our home with their sweet little spirits. We all sat around and ate and visited and enjoyed the evening together. The kids played and laughed and had a wonderful time as well. Later that night, just before our kids were headed off to slumber land, we read from the scriptures about the birth of our Savior....the story of Christmas and where it all began. I love reading/hearing that story. I love picturing in my mind the way it might have been and the feelings that I might have had if I had been there. What a blessing it is in my life to have been blessed with a Savior and the knowledge that I have that he really loves me and cares about me. I am grateful for this time of year when I take a little more time to focus on the "reason for the season" and the blessings that are mine....because I have so many.

The 12 dAys of Christmas... in a bag~

For the past 2 years my dad and step mom have done the 12 days of Christmas for each one of their kids. I LOVE IT, it's so much fun!!!!! They pre-wrap 12 gifts and put a note on each one. Then they put them all in a bag and we get to choose a gift from the bag each day. It's alot of fun and even though my kids are teenagers, they still like to open a present each day leading up to Christmas....I think that's the "little kid" coming out in them. This year we weren't able to go to the family Christmas party when my step mom handed out the 12 day gift bags (because of the yucky weather that just happen to show up that morning), we got our bag a little later and so we've got to open up several gifts at once...you know, to catch up with everyone else and be on track...we've loved it. Each year they give us a wonderful Christmas book to add to our collection. I have 13 books in all, and I think most of them were gifts from my dad and Kathy. I love to sit down and read them. They all have such neat messages and make me stop and think about the Christmas season and what it means. This year there was a darling nativity in our 12 day bag. I LOVE IT, its adorable!!!....(you know I love nativities). Its so cute and simple. I put it on my shelf and I enjoy looking at it every single day. Although the gifts are so much fun and we love them, its not the gifts that make Christmas. Its the love, the kindness and the thoughtfulness that are remembered year after year, not the "things" themselves, and each time I look at this darling nativity I will remember the time, the love and the thoughtfulness that went into making it. I have such a special step mom. I couldn't have picked out a better one myself. She goes out of her way to always let us know that she loves us, that we are her children and grandchildren. She makes things special and is such a neat person and alot of fun to be around. I love her so much. Thanks Dad and Kathy for being such wonderful, amazing parents as well as grandparents. Thanks for making our lives special and being such a wonderful part of our lives! We love you!!!! ....oh, and they also put this sweet note in our 12 day bag for FREE BABYSITTING...don't think that just because we have teenagers that we won't call them up and use that free coupon....teenagers are harder to tend than little kids, we WILL be calling!

Lights and Laughs...a night with the GiRls!

With school activities in full force, its hard to find time when everyone is home at the same time and able to participate in family activities. I love the Christmas break when the kids are home from school and we can have "family time" doing whatever we want, even if it just means we hang out at the house in our PJ's and watch movies. But in spite of all that was going on, we took a couple of hours and made time for "girl night out" this week. I've been wanting to go and see the new Disney Movie "The Princess and the Frog"...BUT Deron and

Cameron weren't as excited to see it as I was...so I opted just to take the girls and go to the movies. We got all ready for a night out on the town and headed out the door. We made a night of it and went out for a burger/fries and shared a chocolate chip mint shake. I love having time when I can just talk and laugh with my kids. It was fun to have the girls and have "girl talk". We all talked about our "little secrets" our favorites and shared thoughts and memories about life and Christmas. After dinner we still had time before the movie started so we drove up around the golf course (where all the fancy houses are) to look at Christmas lights. I don't know if it was just our timing and we went on a bad night (no one was home or forgot to turn their lights on) or if NO one decorated their houses this year. We saw just a few that were all decked out, which were beautiful, but for the most part if there were any lights at all it was just some strung over a tree or a bush, a lighted wreath on the outside of the house or an inflatable Christmas decoration on the lawn...not that I blame anyone for not spending countless hours as well as money on lighting...but I was a tad bit disappointed that there weren't any lights to look at this year. I guess it's a rough year for everyone this year (financially) and that's one of the budget cuts that come first. After our short tour of the Christmas lights we headed off to the movie. I will have to say that it was a cute movie...BUT it certainly didn't rate up there with The Little Mermaid like I had been told that it did. The really cute parts were the ones that had been in all the movie trailers, and it didn't flow really well. It was still cute and we had a wonderful time....made memories and we all came home happy as can be. LOVE..LoVe...LOVE time with my kids!

Winter Wonderland~

If you know me...you know that Winter is my least favorite time of year!....its the snow, the slick roads, the isolation that I feel from the outside world..the loss of the chirping birds, the colorless world...its everything! BUT....check out this snow storm. I woke up this morning and there was about 6 inches of snow on

the ground and it was still coming. Cameron went out to shovel it and it kept coming and coming. He got it all shoveled off of the sidewalks and the driveway,

just to turn around and do it again. Our neighbor was out scraping the snow off of the road for everyone with his 4-wheeler. By the time we came out of church we had 12 inches of the white fluffy stuff!!!! UNBELIEVABLE STORM!....some kids in the neighborhood were out building a giant snowman and I couldn't help but take a picture of the enormous thing! Its defiantly a white wonderland outside today!!!...and I guess it DOES make it look alot more like Christmas!