Our L O N G Christmas Post

All gathered in for a wonderful Christmas holiday.  It was perfect amid the illness, late nights, elbows, hugs, games, too much food, laughter and tears.  We treasure these rare times that we can all be together.  A gift for each of us to tide us over until we meet again. 

 Oh the joys of taking the family photo!  And the uncertainty of a timer. 

Who needs perfection anyway?!

A few highlights of our Christmas gathering:

A small sampling of the dozens of beautiful spoons Mark hand carved this year.  He chose someone to carve one for and spent the time thinking of that person.  One of the sweetest gifts to give.  We loved the logo he came up with. 

Little girls in P I N K can't get enough of them!

 

Spent a night in Salt Lake

Oh Christmas Tree...full of memories

A Birthday to Celebrate!

 We love you, Lindsey!

Ice Cream for the kiddos and German Chocolate Trifle for the adults.

Wishing you a year of joy!

New Tradition!

Hot Cocoa and Donuts in Mendon

Davis loved his donuts.  He thought it would be cool to own a bakery one day. 

Grandma Doris always spoiled him and us with a box full of donuts nearly every time they came over for a visit.  Davis was in heaven.  And now that he is in heaven and we feel the need to include him and all the wonderful memories we have shared with him - this new tradition was born.  We lit luminaries and huddled together stay warm, sipping on hot cocoa and remembering our boy.

Snow angels, praying mantis and a beautiful sunset.  Grandpa was the lucky one to drink from Davis' mug.  Each year Mark will carefully choose someone to use it.

Christmas Eve Dinner, Clam Chowder. 

Papa read from the bible, the Christmas Story.  The children opened new PJ's and gifts from Papa and Nana.  Lindsey and Molly made the cutest capes for the kids! They set out cookies and milk for Santa along with carrots for the reindeer and scooted off to bed.  

This year we had a white elephant game to exchange gifts among the siblings.  We gave each of the girls a locket with a photo of Davis inside and a curly lock.  And the girls surprised mom with one as well!

Mark made a beautiful spoon for each of them (Janell got a pie server). We gave them each an art journal kit and a book on grief.  We copied some drawings from his sketchbook and included photos and journal prompts.  We hear that writing down feelings is a helpful way to heal.

We did our best to fill each day with memories. 

 Having everyone together under one roof is such a treat. 

Dinner at the Shire

Danielle is brimming over with creative dinner party ideas!  Several years ago, she and Brady hosted an awesome  Mystery Murder Dinner Party were we were all given pirate characters to play through the evening.

This year we thoroughly enjoyed her Hobbit Dinner.  We had a few feeling a little under the weather so the trip to the movie following dinner was postponed, but what a fun night we enjoyed together!

The table was set and Brady drew name place cards for everyone.  (The poor guy had pnemonia)

 The menu inclluded Prime Rib,  Green Salad, Roasted Root Vegetables, Fresh Bread
and a choice of Apple Crisp or Apple Cake with Caramel Sauce for dessert.

 Everyone had a great time!
Cheers to Davis to who was a perfect Frodo years ago for Halloween!

If you made it to the end, you're a trooper!
Happy New Year!!
Here's to 2014 and table always surrounded with dear friends,
family, great food and wonderful conversation !
xo

Em's DC Trip

Emily had the good fortune of traveling back to Washington DC with the Close Up Program.  It was a week filled with history and remembering where our country started.  She roomed with Anda and two girls from New Orleans.  Here are few photos I found in her folder.

 Capital Tour...Arlington...Holocaust Museum...Ice Skating...Meeting Utah Senators...

 Mount Vernon...All the memorials...A Christmas Carol at Ford's Theater...good times!

 

 An added bonus was meeting up with our DC family!!

Blessings

We had a houseful this year, but wouldn't have wanted it any other way.  Our count was 41.

Leisa roasted one 20lb turkey and Mark smoked one the same size.  Grandma Joan brought a ham.  There was enough leftover turkey for those tasty sandwiches the next day that we almost enjoy better than the meal!  

 Jug and Shelley were so sweet to come up the night before and help us get everything set up.  

They orchestrated everything in the studio kitchen.

 Boys waiting patiently for their table to be called

 

 Kid's table aka: F U N Table

 some of our adorable girl cousins

 birds eye view from the bunk bed

 These two enjoyed putting their feet up while they watched the goings on in the room. 

You have to rest up before the pie comes out!!

The offerings this year were Pumpkin, Cheese Cake, Pecan, Banana Cream, 

Coconut Cream, Lemon Cream, Apple and Oatmeal Coconut Pecan

 So happy to see Tyler (center) he just returned from his mission in San Antonio the day before!!

 A little sliver of several puts a smile on your face every time!!

A little Thanksgiving Football...

*photos coming form Mark's phone*

a collection of some of those boy cousins...more like brothers!

 Jim and Bridger had a blast in the wood shop.  They are trying their hand at carving fish.

They both petitioned for a week long camp in Uncle Mark's wood shop next summer;)

So grateful for this room

Twelve is one of those perfect ages.

That night we listened to Scott tell us about a recent trip to India.  Jim organized What If... and we laughed til our sides hurt.  Out came the leftovers and some savory snacks.  What a wonderful time.

30+ adventurous souls spent the night!  The next morning some ventured out into Black Friday.  We enjoyed fresh donuts from Lee's, homemade granola, Egg McMuffins and hot cocoa.  Those men are awesome chefs and dishwashers!!

Emily is off on an adventure with Close Up in DC this week.  She left Sat at 2am.  We have a very quiet house.  To cap off the weekend, we took a wreath over to the cemetery.  It's a peaceful place.

Happy Thanksgiving!

We have many blessings to count.

Those Moments We Share

Those priceless, sweet moments we have with our loved ones are so precious.  

We are all coming to grips with the realization that our lives have forever changed.  We are learning to live in a place we never believed we would find ourselves.  The difficult trials we all face at various times in our lives are certainly situations that can push us in directions we don't want to go, force us to stop everything and evaluate where we are, who we are and what we are suppose to be doing with our individual lives.  We are grateful the calming peace is felt more than the waves of heartache. We have all been overwhelmed with the love and tender care we have felt from so many.  Love is what it is all about.  We have felt love in ways we haven't known before.  There are countless stories we could all share about the comforting acts of kindness that have been shared and given freely to each of us over the past month. We will be forever grateful for each and every one of these gifts, no matter how small.

We are all back to the routines of life that tow us through our days.  I think we all feel behind on what needs to be done - but we are learning a lot of "stuff" doesn't really matter.  We each get to choose how we spend our time and what we focus our efforts on.  Davis was always so laid back and calm.  He didn't get too stressed about the circle of life.  I love having this blog to document the happenings of our family.

The last week in September, Mark had a conference in San Diego.  We tried to get as many of us together as we possibly could.  Because of work and other obligations...and distance of our family's locations from each other - we weren't able to have all of us together.  BUT we did savor the moments with those who could gather and as always, looked forward to the next time we could ALL be together.

Janell drove down from Portland and picked up Davis in LA.  I drove with Jake and Lindsey's family and the seven of us had a wonderful rendezvous at Disneyland!  It was a magical time for all of us that will be forever treasured.

 (I'll finish the post on our Cali trip that I started weeks ago...one of these days :)

Mark and Emily flew to San Diego Monday evening.  We had taken Davis to the train station Tuesday night only to find out there were no more trains until almost midnight.  He made a spur of the moment decision to come with us to San Diego and catch a train the next day home.  Once he made sure that his shift and work was covered, we were off.  Lucky us to have one more night with him!  Lucky that Emily and Mark could get one more hug from him!! 

Janell made arrangements to meet Davis for breakfast on her drive home.  I will always treasure this photo of them.  It's the last one we'll have of him.  If you know our family, you know we are foodies.  We, and especially me take our share of food photos!  In this photo, Davis had just said, "Smile and hold your plate up for Mom!"

She was lucky enough to get a little tour of the tea house Davis had been working at since early January.  We knew from his employer that he was an impressive worker and very dependable.  Starting out busing tables - it wasn't long before he would become a tea expert and be able to gracefully give Tea Tastings, an hour and a half long lecture you could say - teaching the group all they could ever want to know about the 300 + teas they carried.  We had a taste of his knowledge when he was home this past August.  Who would have known there is so much to learn about "tea".

 A little ditty that Janell put together.  

I think there were days at work when he felt like he had to move this fast :)

Our family looks forward to the day when we can go have lunch at Chaido Tea Room in Pasadena.

And even more forward to the day when we will all be together again.

WE LOVE YOU DAVIS

In the meanwhile we will continue to heal and learn from each other.  We will take comfort in the amazing atonement of our Savior.  We will keep Davis' song and memory alive as

we enjoy nature and remember to love all mankind,  just like he did.

I don't know a lot.  But what I do know is - that as unique and quirky as each member 

of our family is,  we all share the one thing most important of all ... 

L O V E

for each other

And that's what this life is all about.