Christmas 2017

*Santa letters went high-tech this year. I've been playing around with all things Google lately and Santa needed some input as to what the college student was needing. This was the easiest way.

Some of those responses . . .

*Kiersten and Jason finally made an appearance. Carroll and Sharon also came over for our yearly pizza get together. We had toyed with the idea of having Carroll meet Jason at the door clothed in camo brandishing his rifle and knives. Jason was cool about the whole pseudo meeting with a response of "Where are we going?" He is quite a likeable kid.

*Our freezer, oven, and iron all colluded to break on the same day, two days before Christmas. Thankfully we have an extra oven; we put blankets over the freezer until we could get to the store on the 26th -- Merry Christmas to us; and the new iron was free when we used our points from buying the freezer. Ash and Alex took the huge box and made a fort which they've been sleeping in every night.

*Yearly slideshow. This is probably my most favorite gift to give each year to my family. It takes a lot of time but so worth it as we watch every Christmas Eve and reminisce about the past year. This year I used an online program which included a link for viewing. So you're welcome. In case you didn't get enough of my family this year.

*Christmas Eve snow is so magical. And a couple of our crew performed a good deed Christmas morning by shoveling the neighbor's driveway.

*After 10 years my blog header got a face lift thanks to Erik and his crazy design skills.

He also put those design skills to work in his graphic design class by making each family member something -- puzzles, t-shirts, mugs -- and included a cute little poem with each. We had a poet and didn't even know it!

*I tried making a cheesecake for the first time. The Cheesecake Factory has nothing on us.

And . . .

*I joined the old lady club and got me some reading glasses. I see fine but trying to decipher my microscopic writing in my scriptures was pretty much impossible. 


That face pretty much sums up how I feel about 2017. Some years are just worse than others. BUT . . . to sum up Jimmy Cliff:

It's gonna be a bright (bright)
Bright (bright) sunshiny [year].

At least I'm hoping for a good 2018.