So my family started this tradition last year when we got the idea from my sister Nicole. She had done it the year before to a family in Smithfield and was telling all of us how awesome it was and how it was such an incredible experience for her. After looking at all of her pictures and listening to her stories, we all decided that we wanted to participate in this too. Last year we were all together for Christmas at my parent's house so we found a family in West Jordan. She was a single mom with 2 daughters and were having a lot of problems with her ex-husband and money. They weren't going to have much of a Christmas. So we did the 12 days of Christmas for them. We gave them something every day to decorate their house, do activities as a family, we gave them a lot of food on one day and of course the last day was presents for everyone, all done anonymously. It was so amazing and really brought out the true meaning of Christmas.
This year is our off year so our family won't be together, but we decided to still do the 12 days only this time, Angie found a family in Colorado that we are going to do. 2 kids that are living with their grandparents who just lost their jobs. We all pooled some money together, used our discounts at various locations to get presents, asked for donations from other places, or just flat out bought presents, clothes, hats, and gloves for them. Angie has been organizing the whole thing from Colorado and using our money to buy some things like food and clothes and keeping us updated the whole way. I'm not blogging about this to toot my family's horn and talk about how giving and awesome we are, haha, but just to remember this and express how amazing it is to see everyone working together to help out a family in need. All of my siblings are getting involved with discounts at stores and money, my parents get involved in this, 2 of my aunts helped us out and my cousin used her discount as well. Everyone realizes the true meaning of Christmas and is willing to help this family out to give them a great Christmas. It makes me love this time of year just to give and see their reaction because they are always so grateful. I'm so glad that my family does this and we get to spend Christmas focusing on someone else. I can't wait to see these 12 days happen!
Wednesday, December 14, 2011
Thursday, December 8, 2011
Thanksgiving
Since my family is getting so big and all of the kids are married now, we take turns on holidays. One year Christmas will be our "on year" and the other year will be the in-laws turn. This year, it was my family's turn to have Thanksgiving all together. Unfortunately, I'm still crappy in the picture taking department so I only got pictures of Parker, Layla, and Zach. ha I don't know where the other kids were at this point in time but I wanted a picture of Parker on Zach's lap and then Layla was just too cute.
Thanksgiving morning we had our work Turkey Bowl. We played against the Park City store. It was fun and all but I will probably never do it again. I don't like playing against those boys and it was just getting too uptight and competitive so we just left early. Plus, we had a family turkey bowl. That was much more fun! The opening play of the game pretty much summed up the whole game. Lauren went booking it down the field, was wide open screaming at Dustin to throw her the ball with a big grin on her face, the ball went soaring through the air and they were definitely going to score until the ball went right through her hands and smacked her right in the face, knocking her flat to the ground. Oh my gosh it was hilarious! It was so much fun playing with my family because no one was being competitive and it was just laid back and funny. After that we got all ready and had dinner,which was delicious! After dinner I tried to lay down and sleep because I had to work from midnight to 10 AM for Black Friday. I tried to lay down but I couldn't fall asleep! So I just stayed up with the rest of my family and played games until I had to leave. I was exhausted at work but I slept really good as soon as I got off.
It was so much fun having my whole family in town. I'll admit, I was definitely being a Layla hog but she was just so cute that I couldn't get enough of her! I loved watching Makelle and Jackson running around playing together while Parker would join in every once in awhile and then run off and do his own thing. Those little kids are so cute and so much fun to be around. There were so many fun memories that I should have written down as soon as Thanksgiving was over (just like Kaley did) but I can't remember everything. Needless to say, it was awesome and I loved it!
Parker with his fruit snacks. He would always run to the pantry and get these himself. I'm surprised he didn't make himself sick!
Layla and her blanket
Thanksgiving morning we had our work Turkey Bowl. We played against the Park City store. It was fun and all but I will probably never do it again. I don't like playing against those boys and it was just getting too uptight and competitive so we just left early. Plus, we had a family turkey bowl. That was much more fun! The opening play of the game pretty much summed up the whole game. Lauren went booking it down the field, was wide open screaming at Dustin to throw her the ball with a big grin on her face, the ball went soaring through the air and they were definitely going to score until the ball went right through her hands and smacked her right in the face, knocking her flat to the ground. Oh my gosh it was hilarious! It was so much fun playing with my family because no one was being competitive and it was just laid back and funny. After that we got all ready and had dinner,which was delicious! After dinner I tried to lay down and sleep because I had to work from midnight to 10 AM for Black Friday. I tried to lay down but I couldn't fall asleep! So I just stayed up with the rest of my family and played games until I had to leave. I was exhausted at work but I slept really good as soon as I got off.
It was so much fun having my whole family in town. I'll admit, I was definitely being a Layla hog but she was just so cute that I couldn't get enough of her! I loved watching Makelle and Jackson running around playing together while Parker would join in every once in awhile and then run off and do his own thing. Those little kids are so cute and so much fun to be around. There were so many fun memories that I should have written down as soon as Thanksgiving was over (just like Kaley did) but I can't remember everything. Needless to say, it was awesome and I loved it!
Zach and Parker making the same faces
Parker with his fruit snacks. He would always run to the pantry and get these himself. I'm surprised he didn't make himself sick!
Layla and her blanket
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