Christmas 2011

Christmas is always a favorite time of mine but nothing makes it better than to have children and grandchildren around. I don't care where we are but I love having family close by.
This year Elizabeth, James, Gwenevere and Gracie Li made the trip over from Tacoma as did Tessha and her friend Patrick. Alisha and Gracie were also with us.

We waited for James to arrive to help me get the tree down from the garage and put up in the living room. I have to think that without James around we may have gone tree-less this year. Thank so so much James!


Gwenevere did her part to decorate the tree then ended up playing with Auntie Grace and the empty tree box.


We hung the stocking by the chiminey with care and went off to bed for the night.

Morning brought Santa and stockings and presents to unwrap.








We were able to skype with Seth in Germany but I think we put him to sleep before we were done.


It didn't take long and others drifted back off to sleep, too.

Others began preparing our Christmas dinner.


Most of all we simply enjoyed the time with one another.










Thank you all for spending time with us. You made it another wonderful Christmas Day.

Granma Great's Quilt

Most of my growing up years my mother made my dresses, as she did for my sisters. Obviously, we had lots of scrape fabric left over. One day she decided to use the scrapes from our dresses to make a wonderful quilt. She and Dad kept the quilt and used it often. Eventually, it came into my possession. I used it as an extra quilt for when we had company. Kristi found it and asked if she could have it. I was a bit reluctant to give it away because of it's sentimental value to me, but then I realized that if Kristi valued it, too, then it would bring her much joy.

One time when we went to Kristi's new house I saw it used as Marley's bedspread. I commented to Kristi how fun it was to see this dear old quilt on Marley's bed.


She told me that Marley loves the quilt. I believed her but didn't realize how much until I saw these pictures. Beautiful Marley in our beautiful Granma Great's quilt.

Gracie Comes Home

Gracie was coming home and I was SO excited. I had missed her dearly and although I was extremely pleased with her mission service, I was excited for her home-coming.
We went to Provo the night before she was to return to Salt Lake. Laura and the kids flew in and we picked them up later that evening. Now we were ready for Grace to come.

The morning of Dec. 6th while we were making posters in Provo,we got a phone call from Luke. He and his family were with Gracie at the Atlantic Airport. Grace had a short layover there and Luke and Jenn had brought their family to the airport to see her on her way home. Here are a few pictures they had taken.

Later that day we all went to the Salt Lake Airport and waited and waited. Finally there she was at the top of the escalator.









We spent the night in Provo and the next day we picked up Alisha at the SL airport. She flew in from Tacoma to spend Christmas break with us. It was so fun to bring both of our youngest daughters home for a while.





Gracie reported her mission to the ward the following Sunday and we had a small dinner at the house afterwards.

It was good to get together with family and friends.