CHRISTMAS 2008

Christmas 2008 has come and gone. What a great Christmas the Good Gomer Family had. We celebrated Christmas Eve on the 23rd this year and Christmas Day on the 24th. On our Christmas Eve we had our own little party with just our kids and they opened their traditional new jammies. Christmas morning on the 24th we woke up at 7 am and the kids opened their gifts from Santa. I think they were all a little spoiled this year even though they probably wouldn't agree with that.

The boys favorite thing this year were their new trick bikes. Their old bikes got stollen off our front porch a few months back, so they were more than excited to get new ones.

Taylir was probably the most excited this year because she has been begging, and begging, and begging FOREVER for a cell phone. We finally caved in and let her have one. (I mean Santa did! :))

Kylie's favorite gift was her Bamboo Fun computer graphics program. She loves to draw and doodle and has been wanting this for months!

At noon all the older kids came home for Christmas lunch and to open all our family gifts. We had a lot of fun and enjoyed watching Will open his presents for his first Christmas.Look at the size of this babe!!! We had to get a picture with his clothes off so we could get a pic of his chub rolls!! Isn't he just the cutest?!?!

After our little family party, the kids all left to go have yet another Christmas with their other parents on the actual Christmas Eve/Christmas morning. Some people think this is so sad that Mark and I were going to spend Christmas without any kids, but we were actually okay with the whole thing. We don't get to spend much time alone together anymore since he started working in Oregon and commuting back and forth so we were looking forward to some alone time, even if it was Christmas. Our whole family agreed that having Christmas a day early was pretty great and they want to make this a tradition every other year from now on.

Christmas morning Mark and I slept late and then got up and had our own little Christmas. It had snowed about 8 inches during the night to add to the already 12 inches or so already there from the last storm, so we spent the later part of the morning shoveling the driveway and sidewalks. In no time, the kids all returned from having Christmas and we packed up the truck to head to the family party at Kris and Steve's house. This was a lot of fun with good food, good company and MORE PRESENTS!

I had to add this one picture of Jax the cat. He was having so much fun at the party too and slept like this through it.

This morning Mark and I got to attend a special event for my nephew Brady. He is going on an LDS Church mission to Atlanta Georgia and we were able to attend the temple with him for the first time. It was so neat to see him there and to know that he is taking the next two years to dedicate to the Lord and sharing the gospel with the people of Georgia. We are so proud of you Brady! His farewell is this Sunday and I'll have to get some pictures from that and post.

When we came home from the temple, me and Taylir cleaned up Christmas and took down the decorations and dead tree. I get really antsy to clean-up after the hoildays and didn't make it too far past Christmas this year. But our tree was so dead and the pine needles were becoming too much for me! Even my scentsy candle warmers are done with Christmas and "Crisp Linen" is warming in the trays now instead of some holiday scent. We took the kids to see the movie "Bedtime Stories" tonight (GREAT movie!) and on the way home Mark could see all the trees lit up in the houses on our drive home and commented how sad it was that he couldn't go home to enjoy his tree because his wife had taken ours down already. He can build a fire though and enjoy the glow from that. He'll be glad it's down in the long run though because I'm spending next week with him in Oregon and won't have time to take the tree or decorations down then. He needs a travel companion for that LONG day spent heading back to Oregon, via Sacramento California. Due to him not getting a flight out of Portland and having to drive all the way to Sacramento to catch a flight, his car is still in CA and he has to get it back to Oregon. What a long travel day that will be, but this time he won't be alone or driving through the night and we're looking forward to the beautiful drive we've heard it is through that stretch of highway.

We hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and spent some great quality family time together. Now it's time to detoxify from all the junk and focus on getting off the extra poundage from all the yummy Christmas goodies. It's time to say goodbye to 2008 and usher in 2009......HAPPY NEW YEAR!

It will be a Merry Christmas AFTERALL!

If you've been following my blog you know that Mark was desperately trying to find a flight out of Oregon last night to make it home for Christmas. Well, after driving 480 miles and flying over 600 miles, he is safe at home now.

He drove all night last night to Sacramento California in white-knuckled conditions to make a 6 am flight. He even made it with time to spare before his flight. Even with 4 airports in Oregon, nothing was available until the day after Christmas and we see that flights are still not leaving there as of this morning. Even the highways heading East out of Oregon towards Utah were closed due to high amounts of snow.

Well, all is well now and we can go ahead with our Christmas plans. It is actually Christmas Eve today for our family. Santa Claus is coming a day early for us due to our "unique" family situation. So Mark really did make it home just in time.

We didn't send out Christmas cards this year, so I would like to take this opportunity to wish you all a very Merry Christmas! Thank you to all of you wonderful friends and family for your love and friendships. We love you all!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

UPDATE: Alternate Route.......Sacramento California

This is becoming a NIGHTMARE! Due to bad road conditions and losing the chains on the tires, Mark had to cancel the Redmond Oregon plan and is now driving 480 miles along Interstate 5 to Sacramento California where he hopes to take a 6 am flight. He is limited on time and we just hope road conditions stay favorable. I just talked to him and trucks are pulled off the road removing their chains (good sign!) I'm on the internet researching weather conditions along the route and keeping him updated. Keep him in your prayers!!

Update to earlier blog........Flight Cancelled!

Well, it's official.......Mark's flight out of Oregon tomorrow morning has been cancelled and the soonest flight he can get on out of Portland now isn't until December 26th! He has decided to brave the snow and ice and drive 173 miles South to the city of Redmond where he hopes to get on a flight leaving tomorrow morning. The problem is, he's driving on snow-packed roads going 20 miles an hour and needing to go over 2 separate mountain passes with one already having 46 inches of snow on it. Keep your fingers crossed and maybe say a little prayer.

It's Beginning to Look a lot like Christmas!

Taylir has been complaining all month that it isn't looking like Christmas yet with no snow......well, she's finally got her wish this week and it definitely will be a white Christmas. It has been snowing off and on all week and just when we have the driveway and sidewalk all clear, it snows some more. She and I were out all afternoon shoveling the foot of snow that fell today. Tank also loves the snow and absolutely goes nuts when you mention the word. He wants you to shovel the snow and throw it in the air so he can catch it and eat it. There are 2 problems with this, One: He eats so much snow and then has to go out potty a hundred times the rest of the day, and 2: He has to take a doggy pain reliever because his back leg that is held together with rods and pins gets extermely sore after supporting all 95 pounds of him when he jumps up to catch the snow. He's a glutten for punishment and has never learned his lesson .

I'm starting to get a little worried about the storms here and the huge storms in the Northwest. Mark is still in Oregon and we're keeping our fingers crossed that he makes it home tomorrow in time for Christmas. As of today, all flights leaving Portland have been cancelled and over the last few days very few planes have left the ground. Hundreds of travelers have been stranded and 300 spent the night in the airport last night. It's been extremely snowy in Oregon the past week and a half and almost everything is shut down. Church was cancelled yesterday and the schools were closed all of last week. I'm sure the kids loved getting a week's jump on their Christmas break. Saturday evening Mark had to abandon his car a few miles from his brothers house where he is staying and had to walk the rest of the way in white-out conditions. He even had chains on his tires and still couldn't make it home. A very kind man in a truck stopped and drove him the rest of the way home. He said he passed several stranded cars on the side of the road, one being his brothers. This is absolutely crazy weather for Oregon and I guess it hasn't snowed like this in over 40 years Mark was saying. Today Mark's office and all their stores were closed, along with almost everything else. He's been holed up in a hotel room just waiting out the storm. I told him that this reminded me of the movie, "Planes, Trains and Automobiles" and maybe he should rent it tonight and I would do the same. That movie made me laugh, but I'm not laughing right now!

O' Christmas Tree

Tonight for Family Home Evening me and the kids decorated our Christmas Tree. We actually put it up over the weekend and got the lights strung, but the ornament placing was tonight since we didn't have all the kids home over the weekend.

Our tree has become a "memory" tree, decorated with ornaments that each child has collected over the years. We've quit having an upstairs and a downstairs tree because I've learned to simplify my life and don't get stressed out about doing it up BIG anymore. The formal foo foo tree is long gone, and we only do the "memory" tree now. We have a family tradition each year of going to a fun Christmas store that has literally hundreds, if not thousands of ornaments. The kids each pick out an ornament that kind of represents them for that year.

Tonight we had so much fun decorating the tree while recalling the reasons why certain ornaments were bought and sharing the memories of that ornament/year. Our tree is getting a little crowded, especially this year since we went with a smaller, skinnier tree this time. Mark actually got it in Oregon with my brother-in-law Steve who was up there getting Christmas trees to bring back to sale. They picked out the best shaped tree we've ever had and it smells incredible!

When the tree is all decorated I love to turn out all the lights and sit and relax in the living room and watch the lights sparkle. We didn't realize that we bought twinkling lights this year but no big deal, they don't blink obnoxiously, just very subtly and it actually looks kind of neat. A few years ago I would of freaked out with blinking lights and ordered them off the tree and fixed immediately!! Mark probably would have had to make another trip to the store to replace them while I waited anxiously at home to finish decorating. Ahhh, isn't life great anymore?!?! I don't think I even re-arranged a single ornament tonight that was placed in a funky spot by one of the kids.

Christmas really is a wonderful time of year and I'm finally getting in the mood of the whole season. I forgot just how much I love to relax on the couch while listening to Christmas music, having all the lights turned off with just the glow of the Christmas tree lights. I look forward to the next few weeks and all the festiveness everywhere.

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!!!!!

Mark's Little Helper

While Mark was home this past weekend, he got started on a new project at our house. We are forever needing more storage space and decided to build shelves in our outdoor shed. On this particular day, Daxton had come over to play with the kids but quickly disappeared to the back yard when he discovered that Mark was home and outside working. Before Mark could bat an eyelash, Dax had picked up the power drill and while informing Mark that he already knew how to work it, he proceeded to power-screw nails into the shelves. Mark thought this was hilarious and didn't mind that nails were being screwed into the shelves EVERYWHERE. I of course was a little concerned for his safety - Afterall, Dax is only 5-years old and operating a power tool! I hovered over him for a bit but soon relaxed when I realized that he had obviously had some experience with it and had helped his Dad with projects before. Dax never ceases to amaze me.....I love this little guy!

We know that every time we go out to the storage shed in the future and see all the "polka dots" decorating the shelves, we will probably smile and maybe giggle a little recalling this funny memory.