Christmas 2009

What a fun time of year. Christmas was spent celebrating many times and enjoying all of it. This year we celebrated on Christmas Eve with some dear friends and there is always a visit from the big man himself...Santa! Spanky was just THRILLED when he heard Santa's bells!! He was jumping all over and the excitement is just contagious! Always great food and friends....truly a wonderful evening. Darla thought Santa was A-OK as well....but her friend "Cup" thought a little different. We'll see what Darla thinks next year! :)






When we got home from our friends we followed tradition and got to open ONE present. Well, Spanky actually opened two because he had the one half open before we realized what was going on. Oh well...good times! Each of the kids got matching jammies, tradition, and Spanky ended up with a brand new pair of "Buzz and Woody" cowboy boots! YEE HAW!! We wrote our letter to Santa and laid out the milk and cookies. And headed to bed we went....






Santa did make his appearance at the Willson house and to Spanky's excitement, he left him JUST what he asked for. A Green Treasure with Candy in it! YIPPEE!!! He was so excited!! He went through the treasure very carefully and took in the fun candy Santa had left him. Razzles, Dots, gum, tootsie rolls, oreos, and a REALLY BIG SUCKER! Which as far as Spanky knows, it for decoration ONLY! No one really eats those things! :) HA!
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The kids enjoyed opening the rest of the packages from us. Spanky's all time favorite was his new..."Jack in the box". Oh its so funny, reminds me of the movie "elf". He does it again and again and EVERY time it makes him jump and laugh out loud! Joyous to hear your son laugh like that! Darla was pretty stoked about the new bibs and clothes and of course the jumper activity center was a hit...or at least it WILL be! :)





We enjoyed lunch at our friends house again for a great meal and friends and then we were able to get the older kids and head NORTH for a good ole fashion RAY CHRISTMAS! It's kind of like the Grizwolds...you know, your piled in the car, gifts, people, bags, food...it's all there, you could really get stranded for days and be fine with all of the STUFF that's in the car!! But we made it and we were all glad we did. Grandma always out does herself with the cooking...her and grandpa had a "Fish pond" for presents instead of stockings or gfit bags. This was a BLAST!! We all got to "fish" for goodies!! Great idea grandma!! The kids had a blast opening their presents from each other and the adults did a number gift exchange. That was really fun too!! Lots of food, fun and laughter at the Ray house this weekend.








While lunch was getting ready my brother fired up his 4-wheeler that he stores at my parents house and took all of us sledding. It was so much fun...the snow was pretty deep, but we all made it work and had a great time! Thanks Uncle Rick!






Well, another wonderful Christmas shared with family and friends. The decorations are almost all down and now we start a new year and the month of January....diets, work outs and cleaning and organizing the house!! Happy New Year!

Wow...is it REALLY Christmas Eve??

Merry Christmas!


Oh my goodness, where has the time gone??? I have to say we've been VERY busy, but have truly enjoyed the holiday season. We had the home tour which was such a blessing to the Bush Family as well as to us...it was so fun to open our home and have a celebration of Christ's birth and the beginning of a tremendous family for a wonderful little boy to come.

After that we prepared for Christmas parties at school. Miss Susie left shortly after that stint and the sugar cookie dough is STILL in the fridge...I finally bought some sugar cookies last night at Dillon's and we'll try for sugar cookies maybe at Easter! :)

So what have we been up to since then you ask....well, grab a cup of your favorite drink and let's catch up.

Miss Rascal did a FABULOUS dance with her cheer squad at school. We enjoyed watching her dance and cheer. Here are a few pics I could get before Spanky grabbed the camera. I filmed the dance so Spank took all those pictures...they aren't bad, just far away. :) That is his new found love...photography! He's not too bad really...




Alfalfa has been playing basketball lots too. He starts and plays a lot of JV and suits up for Varsity. The coaches keep telling him he needs to gain weight so his dad is "teaching" him how to eat! LOL! PS: John has lost 20 pounds in the last four weeks...YEA JOHN! Luke has a great move...the dribble under the basket and flip the ball over his head for the basket. I'm sure that's not the "Technical" term for this "Move" but it really impresses his good ole "SM" so there you go! :)




Darla and I attended our first ever "Nutcracker". My niece was in the ballet, therefore Darla and I went to her performance. It was great! I had never seen the "Nutcracker" before and it was really good!! Hannah did a great job as well!! She's so tall and beautiful!! What a graceful young lady!


Spanky had his first ever Christmas Party at School. His teachers are SO good and clever. They sang us a couple of songs and then they placed "Pass the present" and when the music stopped that's the present they kept. Spanky got a GAME...that was the best gift ever...he LOVES games!!!




Darla had her dedication at church. Grandma and Grandpa and the Vincent's were all able to come so that was really neat to have them all there. In our church, we dedicate the baby's and we as a family promise to raise her in a Christian home and teach her the Word of God and then she will make the decision to be baptized when she is old enough to understand and make that decision on her own. It was a super special day for all of us. I also sang at church with a dear friend that day so it was a great day!






Sunday we celebrated Christmas with the Alfalfa and Miss Rascal. I cooked Chili and Cinnamon Rolls and we enjoyed an evening of presents and family time! Spanky got a Train Table so Alfalfa was the key person in putting that together. He did a great job! Thank you ALFALFA! :) The older two both wanted clothes...since it's so hard to shop for others and clothes, we gave them a "SHOPPING SPREE" and I took them in on Monday just the three of us and went shopping. It was REALLY fun!! I hope they enjoyed as much as I did. I was very impressed with this shopping skills. Especially Alfalfa..he got a very well rounded group of gifts all by himself. Miss Rascal and I shopped together and she got a lot of great clothes too!!









Monday was John's birthday so the older kids got to stay an extra night which is always fun!! I cooked filets on the grill since it was 50 degrees out, beautiful!! And we watched "Christmas Story"...great movie...since I was "Sitting still" for the first time in weeks I of course fell asleep, but it was a great night!!

Yesterday Darla, Spanky and I spent the day with some friends. It was a great break in the hustle and bustle to enjoy friends, eat and play! We exchanged gifts and the boys had a blast! Spanky got a FABULOUS game...Hide the Monkey! There is a monkey and a wand. You hide the monkey and then you take the wand on the "hunt" and as you get closer it lights up, it's like "Hot and Cold" then when you get real close it beeps. It is super fun! We all played last night and I'm not sure who had more fun, Spanky or John and I! :) In the afternoon Spanky and his friend went to a camp at Mygym so the girls went to lunch and shopping!! It really was a great day!! Thank you Jenn!!




Playing..."Hide the Monkey"



Last night we did a little photo shoot of Darla. She's 4 1/2 months now...hard to believe!! She's all full of smiles! She is such a calm "chilled out" baby most of the time. She is really just a true gift from God!! Some of these pictures are through out the week. The "Santa baby" pictures are from last night. In "stocking" she's in is what John was brought home from the hospital in when he was born. So special.









Well, that sums up what we've been doing the last week...sounds like it should have been the last month!! :) Like I said, I just LOVE this time of year. One of my favorite things is to check the mail every day for those wonderful Christmas Cards we have received. I love hanging them up and looking at our many blessings of friends and family!


I love the innocence of a little boy wondering what Santa will bring him for Christmas and that really all he wants for Christmas is a "Green treasure with Candy in it"! May all his dreams come true! :) I love the beautiful Christmas music and the many friends and family we have to enjoy this wonderful time to year with. I love the fact that it's our Savior's birthday and how blessed we are to have him in our lives and that we live in a country where we are worship him freely and openly.

We love you all and wish you the Merriest of Christmas's and a Happy and Blessed 2010!