It was very fun to have everyone here Easter weekend…and the weather was gorgeous! When I asked Elliot (at BYU) if he thought the Easter Bunny needed to come to our house this year he said, “Well, I think the Easter Bunny still loves me…”
Great family time this year with all of our children including Anne’s parents Gerry and Carol Bogue along with Alan’s parents and his sister Diane. A houseful of family to celebrate Christ’s birth together. We had dinner and then enjoyed watching the Tabernacle Choir Christmas Broadcast with Alfie Boe, that amazing Tenor you all know I love.
After sleeping together in the basement, all the kids head up for Christmas Morning. We check out our stockings, eat a yummy breakfast and then open presents. Fun.
Of course any Christmas morning is more fun with little kids. Kenyon wasn’t quite old enough to enjoy it too much, but we enjoyed having fun with him…from Christmas clothes, to toys, to stroller rides.
We have so much to be grateful for…I love Thanksgiving time. We spent Thanksgiving Day at my brother Matt’s house with my side of the family – oh so so many Morgans. I think there were 35 of us in all…very fun…but no pictures.
Loren and family were in Idaho with Anne’s parents and Tess was in Arizona for her best friend’s wedding. So the following Sunday, we had a 2nd Thanksgiving dinner with just our family – safely returned from out of state. We invited Alan’s parents, but only Grandpa was able to come as Grandma had become ill and was still in the hospital – we missed her, but did send her a plate of leftovers!
I live in Thanksgiving daily that Alan and I have come from such wonderful families and that together, we have been blessed with our own wonderful family.
Halloween is always more fun with little kids and of course with Kenyon being the cutest giraffe ever, this year was great! The weather was so nice and a beautiful full moon made it complete. Clark worked some of his carving magic and of course, all the trick or treating kids liked his iPumpkin (took a few minutes) and didn’t notice his Les Mis Cosette masterpiece. Oh, well….
We are so glad the kids are willing to traipse around 5 or 6 cemeteries every year. We enjoy cleaning up the graves, placing flowers and remembering our great heritage. This year Alan is busy trying to get GPS locations for as many grave sites as he can. What an awesome help for those doing family history work. Along with our own family history work, our family has decided to take the Church up on their request for help with indexing the 1940 US Census – it is a great activity for FHE or Sunday afternoons. Try it, you’ll like it!
A day for sweethearts…mine offered to make us a special dinner of Steak Diane (my all time favorite steak). It’s actually not the steak I like…it’s the brandy and mushrooms! After dinner we watched The Lake House which turns out to be (yes, a sappy chick flick) an actual Valentine’s Day movie. Who knew?
As per our New Year’s Eve tradition, we enjoyed gathering around 3 fondue pots. Our three favorites are: cheese, meat and chocolate. Because we ate too much (as per tradition) and all went into what Madeleine calls a “food coma”, some of us had a hard time staying up till midnight! A few of us did see the New Year in and I personally am looking forward to 2012…I feel in my heart that it will be a good year for our family.
It always surprises me that Christmas actually comes…I guess just because we talk about it so far in advance! As always, our family had a really nice Christmas. Actually every year we have 2 Christmas Days…one with Alan’s parents the Saturday before and then of course Christmas Day at our house.
This year I particularly enjoyed having our house decorated. It seemed especially cozy…I think we had the fire burning morning and night (pretty easy when all you have to do is flip the switch!)
This year we were invited to Alan’s parents for Thanksgiving dinner. We brought the rolls and the pies and they did everything else including smoking the turkey! It was a nice relaxed afternoon filled with good smells and good food.
Every Halloween, while most kids are trying to decide what to “be” for Halloween, the big question at our house is, “What am I going to carve on my pumpkin?” This question has to be considered usually a good week or so in advance of the pumpkin purchase, because after all, how do you know what size and shape pumpkin to get unless you have your plan, right? We are starting to get a reputation as the house with the cool pumpkins!
Almost as an afterthought, about an hour before going out with their friends, my kids start thinking seriously about their costumes. My job is to take the kids pumpkin shopping, make hot dog mummies for dinner and take the pictures. Oh, and trick or treat all the little kids and the not so little kids that come to the door.
![Clark, his pumpkin \"pi\" and his Zelda pumpkin.](https://www.brown8.org/blog/wp-content/gallery/halloween-2011/dscf1341.jpg "Clark, his pumpkin \\"pi\\" and his Zelda pumpkin.")
