Traditions...and a cause to celebrate

ben and i decided (ok, probably me, more than ben) that we wanted to set out this year establishing holiday traditions for our own little family. turns out, they are about as much work as actual christmas gifts, but they were a lot of fun and i think we've voted to keep most of them! some of them have been going on for many years like the 'wells-moncur' christmas party. this year the moncur's hosted a balmy, holiday affair amid the blizzard at the paul singles branch building. ben and i brought a polynesian salad and were in charge of the games...thus, the toenail painting contest, island charades, crepe paper grass skirts, and, of course, spoons! each year, this get together is so much fun. we always pick a theme and trade off on who is in charge; that's how we ended up with the hawiaan lual. the only person missing was alan...and his fiance! we (our little family) have yet to meet whitney, but have high hopes we'll get that opportunity before the wedding! melakaliki maka everyone!!!



at home here, we always do a company dinner for all the employees of mcintyre farms. it depends on the year where it is held, but this time we chose the lizard butte library and had prime rib catered. it was delicious! and we even won some great prizes...long live this tradition!

as for me, ben, bentley, and bridon...well, we started our secret santa-ing in the only roaring blizzard we had up this way, but it was all ready exciting. i can't wait till the kids are older and can enjoy running to leave things for others and jumping in the car without getting caught. my mom made a really neat 'nativity/advent' tree that we start to count down the 12 days of christmas. this was the first year bentley knew what was going on and it was so much fun to watch him put on one of the folks of the nativity and be eager to get the bag out each day (i always found it out early with the heart missing for the last day several times!), there's the alabama christmas cd i have to drag out and listen to (childhood memories from a tape in the car), and then, this year i attempted to make each of the boys a holiday tie to wear with a white shirt. i didn't take a picture, but will after i do a slight revamp. boy was i proud of the way they turned out the nite before...i had measured their necks while they lay sleeping in bed only to discover 20 minutes before church started that their shirt collars added QUITE a bit more bulk to the measurements. bentley ended up having his pinned to his shirt and bridon pulled his off and ate it thru most of the meetings! we've always acted out the christmas story with whomever is home of ben's family, this year it was a combined fhe...ben was joseph, i was mary, bridon baby jesus, and bentley...the pig. yes, the pig. i asked him if he would help me find his sheep costume to take up to grandma's and he told me several times he wanted to be a pig instead. so, there you have it. we always have a dinner before and then sibling gift exchange afterwards...this year, we even enjoyed a visit from old claus!:)




on christmas eve, we enjoyed a salmon dinner, hung our stockings over the fireplace and celebrated what christmas really is by blowing out candles on a birthday cake for jesus. loren's family used to do this with his parents and i thought it would be a fun tradition to bring alive again. after all, He is the reason for this wonderful season!