Christmas Medicine

Happy Christmas Eve!  It's that special night.  The night for "Christmas Medicine."  This is a family joke at our house.  Years ago I worked with a divorced mom of 6 children.  She was going to school full time and working part time.  I asked her how she got everything done on Christmas Eve all by herself with so many kids.  She told me that she gave them Christmas Medicine every Christmas Eve.  It comes in pretty Christmas colors of red and green just for the kids.  Seriously, she gave them NyQuil so they would go to sleep and she could get things in order for the next morning.  

While we have joked about it for years, I have to admit I've never given it to my kids.  Not that I haven't thought about it for a minute or two.  The threat of Santa not coming until they were asleep seemed to work just fine.  And to be honest...I think I would rather take a dose myself so I could get a good nights rest.  But it tastes so awful.  When I have a bad cold it takes me a good 5 minutes to talk myself into taking it.  I plug my nose and chug it down....then spend the next 5 minutes trying to keep it down. Nasty stuff!!

Wishing everyone a Merry Christmas tomorrow!

White Christmas

Well....I think it will be a White Christmas for sure.  I measured it this morning when I got up and we had 12 inches.  WOW....I can't remember the last time we got this much.  

 Gary spent the morning snow blowing.  I got to enjoy the snow from the warmth of my office with the space heater blowing some nice, warm air on me.  Jaycee and her friends were busy building snow forts and snowmen.

 Last Friday Jaycee had her Sweet 16 birthday party.  They went bowling first.  Then they came to our house and had pizza and watched movies until midnight. 

 We had some lanes reserved and there was an extra one....so Jonny, Bekkah, Gary and I bowled too.  I haven't bowled since high school (not going to say how many years ago that was!).  My score was low, really low.  Gary's family ran a bowling alley when he was younger.  He hasn't bowled much lately either, but he was still getting strikes almost every frame. I think we need to go more often.  It was a blast!

We got a laugh out of this.  They sell socks in the vending machine right along with candy bars and chips.  Who knew?

Provo Tabernacle

 We suffered a horrible loss here in Provo this week.  This beautiful, historic building caught fire early Friday morning.  It took 15 years to build and was finished in 1873.  I remember going to stake conferences (LDS church meetings) with my parents when I was young before we moved to Springville.  When Gary and I got married we moved to Provo we took our young family there for conferences.  We've attended school performances and scouting ceremonies there.  Grandpa Walt help build the podium when they remodeled it in the 1970s.  My father-in-law was over the building when he served as stake president.  The list goes on and on.


Want to see some amazing pictures of something that survived the fire?? (Go to this link and click on photo gallery).

 (Photo by Scott G Winterton, Deseret News)

(Photo by Scott G Winterton, Deseret News)

 At this time of year when we need to remember the true meaning of Christmas, it's so humbling to see this picture of Christ survive a fire that burned for days.  It gives me chills to see how the canvas of the picture burned all around his image.  Amazing!

Sweet Sixteen on the 16th

 I can't believe it....my baby just turned 16.  Why is it so hard to let that last child grow up?  

She's been studying the Driver's Handbook so she can get her learner's permit.  She has a handsome male "friend" who shares the same birthday with her.  She becomes more grown up every day.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY Jaycee Lou!  

p.s. Her middle name isn't really Lou...but that's what we call her here at the Raulston House!

Family Christmas Party

 We had the family party with my side of the family last night.  It was good to get everyone together.  My dad added 3 wise men to our nativity this year.  This is the 2nd year...so it's fun to see what will be added next.  He spends hours and hours carving and painting.  He makes 9 sets, one for mom and him, and then a set for each of all of his 8 kids.

 We got a neat gift from my sister Dena.  They are Dry Pak bags to put our valuables in for 4-wheeling.  They hang around you neck or hook on your belt hoop.  She filled them with sun screen, Kleenex, wipes, and candy.  She saw how I ruined my camera on our last trip to the sand dunes.  Now I can tuck it in this pack and keep it safe.  It will keep things dry when we cross the rivers up Spanish Fork Canyon too.  We LOVE them!!  Thanks Dena and Rick!

 My parents gave us a gift card to Macey's grocery store.  We went shopping this afternoon and stocked up on some case goods for our food storage.  It's so nice to have the shelves full of food again.

 Santa's elf brought a bag of presents for the kids again this year.  Eden got a fun game to play.  Eden is our little artist.  I keep a bag of markers, papers, and art supplies in the closet for her.  It's fun to see what she creates.

 Jack was pulling a funny face for me.  He found Grandpa Orme's bowl of candy and really went down on the mints.  He has one in his mouth in this picture.

 Here's Brandon showing off his toy.  He growing up too fast.  He played football this fall and did really good.

 And Miss Jayda got a doll.  She's loves preschool and has a little attitude.  I think it's cute, but being the grandma and not the parent I can say that!

 BrookLynn was crawling all over the place last night.  She's such a cute little girl.  She's going to the eye doctor again this week.  She takes after her dad and will need an eye surgery.  Jared had wore eye patches, had 5 surgeries when he was little, and wore glasses.  Hopefully Brookie will only need one surgery (crossing our fingers and toes).

Finally, here's the last grandchild, Katelynn.  She's pretty close to crawling even though she's only 6-1/2 months old.

Finally......got the trees up!

 We usually put the trees up the day after Thanksgiving.  We're a little slow this year.  It feels like Christmas now that they are up.  It's a lot of work to get all the decorations out and try to remember where they go. 

 Of course...my favorite purple bird has her place of honor in the front of the tree. 

 I made a deal with Gary.  I told him I would fluff the branches on the tree if he would make Chex Mix.  What could be better than Christmas music (The Osmond's) playing and the smell of Chex Mix while you're fluffing branches and placing ornaments on the tree?

 Gary uses the recipe on thebox.  He doubles the cereal and triples the sauce.  Mmmmm....perfect!

 I'm going to need a bigger shelf soon.  My Dad carves a new snowman every year for us.  It's quite a collection.  He made the soldier a couple of years ago. 

And finally.....what I'm so excited about this year.  This is the reason we were late getting the tree up.  Gary and Jonny got the hole in the ceiling indoor waterfall fixed.  They got the roof patched a few weeks ago.  Then they replaced the sheet rock in the bay window ceiling.  Gary painted it last night.  I keep looking at it....cuz it looks so good!