Christmas Traditions

I love traditions! Especially the Christmas traditions that we have formed in my family. These are things we look forward to each year. The traditions that we reflect back on year after year. Christmas Traditions can be valuable lessons on what the focus of Christmas should really be for. It also brings fun, great memories and unity to a family. This is why I love our Christmas Traditions. Below are a few of my favorites I look forward to each year.
Christmas Eve is such a blast since Mom and Dad moved to Arizona. They live only a mile away so Getting together happens often. The White Elephant Gift Exchange is so hilarious each year. Of course one gift is always re gifted and shows up each year. Our re gift is a Filipino man riding a water buffalo. Grandpa and Grandma Morgado had this in their collection. I am assuming that they got it when they lived in the Philippines. This year when it showed up as one of the White Elephant gifts it had an extra special reminder for me......My eldest Son Rian is on a Church Mission in the Philippines. It got "stolen' from each other (that is how the game goes) until finally Rylee ended up with it. It is her prized possession now. I wonder if next year it will show up as one of the gifts.....hahaha. The evening always ends with a birthday Cake for Baby Jesus. The youngest member in the family gets to blow out the candle. Ethan, my cute nephew, had the honor.

My children have been taking piano from miss Julie for 12 years now. WOW! Rylee and Kati are still in it and Brock took on the challenge a year ago to join them and learn. So going to the piano recital is so great to see the progress of everyone.

Decorating Mom and Dad's Christmas tree is a blast from the past! Putting up all the old ornaments from when I was a child is so much fun. Plus seeing the ones that my great, great grandmother made brings family to the center of the holidays.

Christmas Jelly has been a tradition in my family for about 9 years now. This recipe was not handed down thru generations but actually from the Schwan guy that delivers ice cream to your door. I saw it in one of their pamphlets and started making it. It became a hit to give to family and friends for Christmas. Every year we go with our dear friends the Wilsons and deliver 'Bread and Jelly' to our neighbors as we are caroling. So instead of figgy pudding our neighbors get brought -Bread and Jelly! A much better treat.

The Lights at the Mesa Temple are always so wonderful to see. This year our teens helped put up some of the lights so it was extra special for them. A display of different nativities from around the world were in the visitors center. And seeing several from the Philippines made me miss Rian even more. My friend Cherie was in town visiting from Atlanta so she was able to join this evening with us. Also the Bizzette family and several of the kids friends joined us.

Turkey Day...Oh what a day we had

Our Turkey day was filled with Thanksgiving, fun and a ton of food. We had 43 people for Thanksgiving. We had a ton of family come from out of state to celebrate in Arizona. Places like.....Seattle, California, Colorado and Hawaii. It was one of my favorite Thanksgivings. After all it is all about family and the memories for me. My Moms cousins (Andersons and Mckenzies) all came with their children and Grandchildren. My Fathers Brother and his family joined us again....which my kids always love to see Jessie. Jessie even taught the 'Haoles' how to dance the Tahitian. THAT was a site to see. If you look at the photos above you can see my brother really getting into it. And Uncle Stan and Aunt Candace are putting some groove on.
Dad cooked 3 turkeys, Kathy made her homemade stuffing (amazing!), Lana made homemade cranberry sauce, Ada made Cobbler with blackberries from Kentucky. Oh I can go on and on about the fabalous food we had. Thanks to all who brought food!
Getting to know my cousins better was such a highlight for me. I also enjoyed the stories Uncle Stan told about my great grandfather Harrington. My cousin Colleen had the cutest 5 boys you have ever seen who swam in my freezing cold pool.....thats what you get for having thick blood and living in Colorado. Sarah kept busy playing with JJ and Tims darling two children. Everyone got some loving. I am so grateful that everyone made the effort to come out to Arizona. My cup runneth over with gratitude and love for my family.
My AMAZING, FABALOUS, Family at Thanksgiving!

A Labor Day weekend.

I have finally gotten a chance to post on my blog. So many events have happend but I thought posting the Labor Day weekend fun would be first on my list. We had the Rollender, Gray, Wilson and Olmstead families over for a barbaque. (Plus the mass of teens that came with it.) We had a great time visiting with some of our friends. We are sure blessed.

Cody's Prom

Cody and Alyssa Marcinko

22 awesome kids and a night of fun! Cody really has a great group of friends. They have good values, standards and are a ton of fun!!! A bunch of us moms put together an incredible meal for a dinner to remember. The Jarvis family was kind to let us use their resort....I mean back yard. Robert Olmstead took prom pics for the kids and James's dad cooked the steak....

Happy National Scrapbooking day!

Some of my favorite artists.."the ettes"...are offering wonderful savings on their website ! I got 5 new scrapbook pages done with freebies that were offered.

WOW we found Paradise!

Yes paradise was found again!

Brock and I traveled to Hawaii for 4 days in Hauula, Hawaii on Oahu and then 4 days to Hilo, Hawaii on the Big Island.

We were so blessed to stay at family friends beach house in Hauula and then at my Aunts vacation rental in Hilo.

The Hilo property just knocked our socks off. The words that can only describe it is WOW and AMAZING! Their website does not do it justice; http://www.reedsisland.com/ . Brock and I have traveled all over the world and this place has to be one of the most beautiful.

The property sits just 12 miles from the Hilo airport and is situated on the Wailuku River. The amazing 40 plus Foot waterfall is the main attraction on this property. The home sits on top the hill for a breath taken view of the falls and the river. The Architecture design of this home is amazing. It is designed to see and hear the falls at all times.

The best part of the trip was jumping into the falls and enjoying the smaller falls up the river as we explored. Some of the falls had warmer water seeping through.

The Falls at Reeds Island has to be experienced once in everyones life time. Thank you Aunt Janey and Uncle Jack for these Fabulous 4 days!

Do you want something FREE from ME?

Everyone loves something FREE!

Here it is. and I plan on carrying this through. Lucky you! The first five people to respond to this post will get something made by me! My choice. For you.
This offer does have some restrictions and limitations:
1. I make no guarantees that you will like what I make!2. What I create will be just for you.
3. It'll be done this year. {might be a little while}
4. You have no clue what it's going to be. It may be a story. It may be poetry or maybe even some creation I haven't even invented yet . I may draw or paint something. I may bake you something and mail it to you. Who knows? Not you, that's for sure!
5. I reserve the right to do something extremely strange.
The catch?
Oh, the catch is that you must repost this on your blog and offer the same to the first 5 people who do the same on your blog. The first 5 people to do so and leave a comment telling me they did and WHY they want something FREE.........wins a FAB-U-LOUS homemade gift by me!
* * *Oh, and be sure to post pictures of what you win when you get it and what you made for your winners!***

Go Arizona Cardinals!

It was such a blast hanging out with our friends and families watching the Arizona Cardinal game! It was sooooooo close. I was dissapointed that the Steelers won because of the BAD sportsmanship they dissplayed in the 2 half of the game. Both teams played great but to see a team so eager to pick a fit is terrible for my kids to see. Not great roll models. As always in the Booher household it lead into a great values conversation on sportsmanship and winning. We were proud to be Arizona Cardinals!

My little girl---My little Basketball player

Rylee was asked to play basketball this year on a rec team. She is a tall girl and so her height advantage is great for the game. I do not know much about Basketball so thank heavens our friend and Rylees piano teacher Julie is coaching the team. She does a fantastic job. The girls have learned a lot.

I get a kick out of watching Rylee play. She is very fast and very competitive BUT when she sits on that bench she looks like a little prim and proper girl with her legs crossed. I laugh because she looks the most lady like every time! Oh Rylee I adore watching you!

Locks of Love

Sarah has not cut her hair but one time for a trim while being with us. That will be almost 3 years. She has always longed for long hair. When in the Orphanage in Russia, they would always keep her hair VERY short. It was something she hated. So her goal was to have long hair and to also make the decision when it was cut.
This winter break I told her that it was time for a trim. Her hair was looking pretty stringy. I also told her about what some girls do when they cut their hair......they donate it to "Locks of Love" so that children with cancer can have a wig. She thought that would be a really nice thing to do. I was so proud of her. When she found out how much needed to be cut off ......she had to way out the decision. This would mean that she would have the dreaded short hair. She decided to do it anyway to help the children. Way to go Sarah! She did something good AND she looks fabulous in her new haircut.