Not sure where to start. . .

I have not been very good at updating lately so I will go ahead and try to catch up . . .

Madison had several band and piano performances throughout the month of December. Since she plays the drums we never get to see her (she is always in the back) we had her teacher take a picture of her playing the Timpani (kettle drums). I love that she has talent! We had our annual family Christmas party with my family and we had a special "surprise" show up. It has been a long time since Santa has showed up at our family party, some of the little ones were not to sure about the man in red! Santa had a list and he kept checking it to make sure we were on the "Nice" list. Only one person in the family ended up on the naughty list. Uncle Arden had been a bad boy but Santa told him if he tried harder maybe he could make it on the other list?
Exchanging of the gifts. . . there is always so much chaos it's hard to see what's being exchanged when there is 40 people in one area! However, it is always the best and most exciting part of the evening! We had our annual work party also.
Always so much fun to exchange with the ladies we spend most of our day with. It's fun to see how creative we can get. I love working with these ladies!

And then it's time for the prime rib dinner with Brett's family. The boys have been hunting so much that we ended up giving them several of their gifts early since they were in need of them . . . pronto they said. Madison got some ECO frogs names Lilly and Leaper. She was super excited since we have put the kibosh to indoor pets. I felt safe with them as pets since they do not EVER come out of their bowl. Good Pets!

And off to the dance performance. Unfortunately the boys missed out on how great Madison did. I love to watch her with the little classes she teaches she is so cute with them!

Christmas Eve. . . always a busy day. We go over the my bosses house every Christmas eve and visit with his family for awhile and take him cinnamon rolls. Then we were off to my sisters for a evening of fun. Ate, played games, watched movies and sang Christmas carols and then had family prayer before we all left.

Had the kids open jammies, Cole's consist of new shorts and t-shirts, Madison's are always a little more stylin'

Christmas Day was wonderful!

I told the kids they had to tell who the present was from and only one could open at a time. I wanted Christmas to last longer than 10 minutes! It worked! I think they got everything the wanted and needed and as always they are very grateful!

There is a picture of the two kind of hugging and I just had to put it in. Not something that happens too often anymore :)

The kids having a blast playing Wii. . . . Cole standing in the snow with his decoys.

We didn't really do anything for New Years. The kids went to the region dance but Cole and Brett left really early the next morning for hunting so he wasn't able to stay for long. This was Madison's first dance and she had a blast!

So there I have caught up and I feel good. Now maybe I will be better and not get so far behind again. Looking forward to 2010 so many exciting things already planned for the year. 4 new babies to join our family will be arriving shortly with the 1st any day now, a nephew getting married, Cole turning 16 . . . and the list goes on and on :)