December 2011

I'm just saying up front. I do NOT like this new format for posting. As you will see, my photos are all out of whack! I'm just saying...

December was wonderful this year. So very different from last year when Mark was in Afghanistan, Marcus at boot camp, Kelly and Mike at Mom's. This year we were blessed with LOTS of family and friends for the holidays!

We've been able to spend more time with and really get know Jon, Julie and the buddies. We met up in Alexandria for a parade on the water in the harbor. It was cold but fun!

Here's Jon with one of the buddies. He REALLY liked Jon's ears. He also liked to fall backwards and hang from Jon's shoulders. Jon on the other hand - did not appreciate the extra torque on his back. :o) Ah, fatherhood!

The buddies have come to love Uncle Mark. Here they are skipping down the harbor with him.

Jordan and Ben are a little old for parades, even if it is boats with lights on the water. Ever resourceful though, Jordan found a great, quiet place to watch the parade. Can you spot him?

 

Another occasion for family was watching Sarah and Will's kids for a weekend! Elizabeth learned her left and right by playing Kinect. Here she's demonstrating how you play. "Like this, and this, and this!

We discovered that ashes do indeed stay hot for a long time. We were thankful that Casey noticed the trash can smoking when she came home from work!

 

Audry loves to cuddle and read Comics with Uncle Mark.

Elizabeth is quite the social butterfly. She spent part of church with Bro. Troger. Then another part with the missionaries. Then the rest tightly ensconced beside Aunt Tracy - to keep her from more visiting during services. :)

Even Frosty enjoyed the Griesmyer visit. He got much more attention that weekend. :)

With Christmas comes decorations! I forgot how fun it was to decorate with Mark. Sensibilities be darned. It's all about convenience. It was most convenient to decorate the tree in the middle of the living room. So he did. Later we carefully moved it to the corner. :)

Meanwhile Ben decorated the hallway. The kids love colored lights. I like the white lights. So we compromise. They can put the colored lights on anything that's not the Christmas tree and in the living room. This year we had a holiday hallway of lights! Ben even discovered that the tape matched the walls. How lucky!

 

This year we also got to go to the temple and see the beautiful lights there. They were magnificient, but I must say, I thought there would be more surrounding it. The spires had all be repaired and replaced from the damage of the August earthquake. 

 

 It's nice to be back in America. The land of the free, home of the Honda Odessey. :)

 Of course what's Christmas without a band concert? Ben thrilled us with is percussion skills. $50 for a tux to bang on chairs though. Really?

A friend invited us to participate in laying wreaths on soldiers' graves in Arlington. This was very sobering, but very worthwhile. We hope to do it again next year. They do this in every state every Christmas.

All the graves didn't get a wreath. They ran out of donations to pay for them, but they did lay a lot. I mean a LOT. It was a beautiful sight.

After we were finished we watched the changing of the guard at the unknown soldier's tomb. Such precision!

 

And then MORE family! We stayed at Uncle Louie and Aunt Sherri's the night before the big Friend family Christmas Eve Seafood Feast. Here's Ben and Aunt Sherri playing air hockey. Aunt Sherri has some skills!

 Mark and Louie literally howled at the moon with Rock Band. :)

We visited Grandma Friend. Jordan felt the house seemed kind of strange. For one thing, he could touch the ceiling now!

Grandma is still beautiful, but all the kids seem to think she's shrunk! That's what happens when you get older and taller I guess.

As is Friend family tradition - the boys cooked!

The women folk sat back and visited. Here's Casey Jean with her namesake. Grandma Jean!

 It's been a long time since all the boys were together. Louie loves Mark so much. He just can't keep his hands off of him.  

What did I tell you about the love?

Brotherly love. The Friend boys are just oozing it.  

What a crew of boys!

After Christmas we had friends from Texas visit! Janet and Tommy became close friends after we met them in Malaysia. Here we are sharing a pie. :) We got a GREAT cookbook from this restaurant. Our favorite recipes from it so far are macaroni and cheese and.... Roasted Marshmallow milkshake. Divine!

Tommy and Janet wanted to see the museums. Tommy likes to read EVERYTHING. So does Mark. So the boys and I took off another way and enjoyed the museums our way. Here is a diagram on the floor of a grave that was discovered.

And here is a live demonstration of the grave. See - much more fun than reading!

Our kids love the cartoon Phineas and Ferb. Mark and I do too. :) Here's Perry the Platypus - or what used to be Perry. :)

The Willliams insisted on taking us to a Greek restaurant. This was the menu title page. I love it. :)

Hmm, I wonder what they serve here? I think they copied my Halloween pumpkin.

You can't see this sign very well, but I giggle when I see this picture. Mark wanted to know why I was taking a picture of a shop called, "I'm a weanie, panini". LOL!

My favorite dispaly in the American History museum. Lots of TVs, all showing clips from the Vietnam war era news shows. Fantastic. We even lounged on plastic covered couches watching, while waiting for Mark and Tommy to catch up with us.

Of course, what would be a post without food? Not right!

Here is the parting gift I made for Marcus. He left us on January 1st to go to college in Florida. He ate nothing but his own private Reuben calzones the entire 12 hour drive down. Love that boy!

And last, Christmas cookie decorations. I was in charge of kid's activities at the church Christmas party. They wanted the kids to decorate the cookies we were to have for dessert. I did NOT want globs of candy and frosting, so I planned and planned. The cookies turned out nicely - except for the ones that my own kid made. :) figures.