New Year's Resolution

I made two new year's resolutions. First, to open all my mail the minute I receive it. So far, so good. Second, to maintain this blog.

So, here I go again. Finally, going to try to keep this site current. I have many excuses which I won't bore you with and I'm sure won't change in the future, but for now, I'm going to pretend that I will do it this time.

Thanksgiving was at our house this year which is very ironic since I don't cook. But everyone piched in and it all came together - I made green bean casserole, Dave's mom did ginzagrout, his dad brought ham, Heidi made rolls from scratch, my grandmother made homemade pumpkin pies, and my mom did stuffing, turkey, sweet potatoes, (does this seem a bit unfair?) waldorf salad, mashed potatoes, gravy,...

The turkey did not finish cooking until late that night and we had to eat on card tables because after almost a year, we are currently in a law suit over a dining table we ordered last March - it's a long story. However, the weather was gorgeous, so we spent a lot of the day playing outside and having a great time being together.

We had a spectacular Christmas! Dave, Noah and I spent a quiet Christmas eve and day just the three of us doing just what we felt like. Our dinner consisted of salad (me), Kraft mac-n-cheese (Noah), and artichoke dip (Dave). We went to church services, played our new Wii video games and packed for our trip to the White Mountains in Pinetop, Arizona.

We headed to a cabin there December 26 and stayed until New Year's Day. We met Dave's parents, my parents and my brother's family. It was perfect! It snowed, we went sledding, and skiing, played games, did puzzles, ate, sat around the fire and listened to christmas music for a week. Even the dog cousins had a great time playing together. And, at the end, it was so nice to come home to the warmer weather and the sunny days.

We have decided that it needs to be an annual tradition. Last year, things just did not feel like the holidays to me. I had such a hard time adjusting to an Arizona Christmas. I realized that I was trying to compare it to and make it be just like the holidays in Utah, and it was very disappointing. I decided that I needed to make a new kind of Christmas celebration with new traditions and memories. I absolutely loved our Utah Christmases, but things are just not the same here and I had to love something different. And I so do!

These are some picture highlights from the years end. 1: guys playing foosball on Thankgiving, 2: Sadie and Burnee in thier New Year's eve attire, 3: The gang all stuffing their faces (without turkey), 4: Grandma and the girls in the bouncy hut on Thanksgiving, 5: Grandma Great taking an afternoon snooze with Diamond, 6: the girls sledding at the cabin, 7: Noah on the slopes in Arizona (if you can belive it)!

Hope you all had a wonderful 2007 and, if not, here's to 2008!