Christmas in Canada

I'm still playing catch up with sharing about our Christmas!  January isn't over yet, so I hope it's not too late to continue sharing about our holidays.  I've had trouble uploading pictures lately, it will appear like the pictures are uploading but once they're all done, they disappear!  I tried uploading about 10 pictures for my next post and poof!  all gone :(

Anyway, as I shared earlier, we got to go to Canada for our family Christmas party this year.  We spent Friday in Toronto, and then Saturday the whole family came to my Grandma's house for the party.  After enjoying some snacks, we started in on the gifts. 

Grandma's mailbox has been in need of serious repair for years.  My Uncle and his family made this beautiful new mailbox for her.  She was so thrilled!

These gifts were for the adult gift exchange we do.  We draw numbers to choose a gift and then someone can steal that gift from you.  We always have a lot of fun playing it and it's interesting to see which gifts get stolen a lot!

After gifts we all headed downstairs for dinner.  Everyone brought something and we had lots of food!  We ended the evening by singing Christmas Carols around the table (our family tradition).

We had a great time and I'm so glad we were able to go see everyone!

Final Christmas Event :)

The Saturday after Christmas, we had our Christmas time with Mike's family. It actually worked out quite well with my family on Christmas Eve, his extended family on Christmas, and his family afterwards; it was much less stressful than trying to cram everything into 1 day!

Tyler and Jen opening their present from Mike and I--a fondue pot with some goodies to make in it! (Sorry, the pictures are so dark, the lighting wasn't good on this side of the room!)

Mike's Dad with his gift from me, a laptop cooling station. It was perfect because Mike gave him a laptop bag, so he is all set!

Throughout the month of December, I secretly stole Mike's Mom's recipes, typed them up, returned them and stole some more! I printed them up and put them in a binder for her, so now her recipes are organized and she can find them real quick!

Mike (wearing his other new shirt from me!) opening the first season of Chuck, a present from me.

Mike found this HUGE stocking and filled it to the brim with all kinds of neat gifts for me! It was a lot of fun opening up all the gifts!

Christmas Day

On Christmas Day, Mike and his parents came to my house for dinner with my family and I. We had a good time together. After dinner, we hung out at my house for a while and then headed back to Mike's house. From there we went to Mike's Grandma's house for his extended family Christmas party. We had a nice dinner, everyone brings something and it makes for a great meal. After dinner, we opened presents from Grandma and then played Bingo. She buys gifts all year, anything from dish clothes, to sweatshirts, to kid's books, to kitchen knives, for great prices and uses them as prizes for Bingo. When you get a Bingo, you get to choose a gift, and there are a TON to choose from...you never know what you'll be opening! It's a ton of fun!

The sisters opening their presents (Mike's mom is on the far right).

Mike (notice he's wearing one of the shirts I gave him for Christmas) opening his present from Grandma...with some help from Brooke!

The enormous mountain of Bingo presents!

Brielle "playing" Bingo...isn't she adorable?

Family Christmas

My family has a tradition of opening Christmas presents on Christmas Eve. We first went to the Christmas Eve service at my church. It was really well done, some of my girls from youth group did a dance. I am having trouble uploading it, and it might be May by time it appears, but I would like to share it sometime. For now, here are some pictures from Christmas Eve.

Dad opening his present from Mike, a pair of jeans.


Nate, opening his present from Mom, a package of Beef Jerky sticks. He opened it up and started eating them right away!

Mom, opening her present from me, a pair of jeans.

Mike, with his present from me. 2 shirts from AE.

Mike and I both love pickles, so when Mom saw this huge jar of enormous pickles, she just had to buy it for us!

On this date in 1988....

...another baby entered the world. That baby was me... Melissa Jane. At the time we lived in New Mexico, as my parents were missionaries on an Indian Reservation. The day was very similar to today. Right now it is snowing like crazy. When I was born, my parents had to drive through the snow up the mountains to the hospital! But I arrived safely, at 4:14 in the morning.
This morning, I received breakfast in bed. It's a tradition we've done for as long as I can remember. We get to choose the meals for the day. So I had cinnamon rolls for breakfast. I expected the Pillsbury ones, but my mom made them!!! Yummy... Then I went out with my friends Alyx and Jeremy, we went to Panera Bread. Then back to Jeremy's house where we baked a cake. We got a call that a friend was stuck in the median by BK, so we drove down there, but she was stuck pretty good, we needed a tow truck. Now I'm home, supposedly cleaning my room, but actually checking blogs. :) For supper we will have Chicken and Rice casserole and yeast rolls. Alecia is coming over after dinner, and we'll probably watch a movie (hmm....Remember the Titans?) and hang out for a while. I'll try to update later with some pictures.

Christmas '07

Wow! All that preparation and just like that Christmas is over and done for another year! Crazy isn't it? But it's worth it! Think of how long they prepared for Christ's birth, thousands of years...makes what we do seem so insignificant.

We made it home from Canada safely this afternoon. I drove home from the border which was nice because it gave me something to do :) We had a very good trip. Tomorrow harsh reality is going to hit when my alarm goes off at 4:10 to get up for work!!! Oh well....

Here's a few highlights from the trip...



We spent the day Saturday downtown Toronto. We got lunch at a Thai restaurant...delicious!










3 Generations. Mom, Me, and Grandma









My cousin Bradley aka Rudolph! :) I see him only once a year, but he really hit off with me and always wanted to be by me.








Grandma and Grandpa got a cell phone!








My cousins BethAnn and Nicole relaxing after dinner.






Also...thanks for all the input on what to get for the gift exchange! I bought a handheld Deal or No Deal. The gift I received is a stovetop expresso maker. But then my uncle felt bad for me because I don't drink coffee, so he gave me a bag of candy to go along with it :) I also got the movie Remember the Titans (one of my favorites!) from my grandparents.

What a weekend!

Wow! What a weekend!
My mom turned 50 on Saturday. Unknown to her, her friend and I had been planning a surprise party for her since we had my graduation open house last June!
On Friday night, the doorbell rang, and I told mom to get the door. She did, and there was her mom, dad, sister, nephew, and niece. She was so surprised! Then half an hour later, the bell rang again. I told her it was for her, and there was her brother, sister-in-law, and two nephews! She had no clue that they were coming down from Canada for the weekend! And she thought that was the whole surprise, little did she know....


Saturday morning, we had a big breakfast of homemade cinnamon rolls and cheesy eggs. Then I went to church for the craft sale. I had to tell a few little white lies to cover up for the party. I told mom that I had to work at 1:30. So at 1:15, I left for "work".





Instead, I went to her friend's house. I had been there for a while on Friday to prepare food, so most of it was ready. We had to make a few things and decorate on Saturday afternoon. Everyone arrived at Tracy's around 6:15. We all hid in the dining room/kitchen area.




Mom and Dad showed up at 6:45, just to pickup a fondue pot on the way out to dinner, or so Mom thought! So Tracy invited her in for a minute and they came into the living room. Mom looked into the dining room and there were about 25 people in there who shouted "Surprise!" The look on her face was absolutely priceless!!!!





Some of the food! There was a ton, and it was all amazing!!!










Opening gifts....


















Mom and Tracy