Christmas Jumble

Christmas Eve, Nativity, Christmas cards, Gingerbread houses, Sascha yelling "Merry" from "It's a wonderful life," Sophie in front of the tree, Emma helping with the dishes... a lot, Phil and Sascha last minute wrapping, more helping with dishes and even Thomas is helping, Christmas crackers, Crescent rolls (they must be shaped like crescents, hence the name), Christmas table and setting, English cracker (aka Christmas cracker), Phil saved a Woman from being stuck in the snow with his bare hands and look at those muscles, Christmas presents under the tree, Bubbly (aka sparkling apple juice), eating dinner opening the crackers putting on our crowns reading the jokes (what did the beaver say to the tree? Nice gnawing you!... hardy har har) , two tables (we're too big now), Jesse's girlfriend Elisa over for Christmas Eve Dinner, Pork roast, mashed potatoes and gravy, asparagus, salad, Crescent Rolls, After dinner singing hymns, Mom reading her new Christmas book "The perfect snowman," taking turns reading from Luke (5 verses each!), reminiscing of old Christmas memories and favorite gifts, Mom singing a solo of "In the bleak mid winter" saying prayer, off to bed, Sophie and Sascha getting ready for bed. Matresses and couch so we can all sleep in the same room. Falling asleep to "Velveteen Rabbit" with George Winston music, Waking up at 8:30 because Sophie hit me in the face with her pillow on accident ("I don't love her, she hit me in the face! I hate her! ... Don't I? - "Willow"), Jesse and Elisa coming in and pillow fight. Getting ready to go up the stairs Christmas! Presents, Thomas and the hamsters, painting for Emma, frying pan for Sascha, groceries for me, Rubix Cube for Mabel, Jeans for Sophie, and many more gifts. All ate cereal and it was time for a nap by the nice warm fire. So there you have it, the rundown of the Draper Family Christmas. I am grateful for the Savior during this Christmas Season and for the spirit of giving and the love all around. I'm grateful for the gospel and the knowledge I have in this life. I'm grateful for such a wonderful family and I can't wait till next year!

Vera Jewell

Oh Christmas tree Oh Christmas tree...

Another Christmas, and another beautiful tree by mom.

St. Lucia

After years of saying we were going to celebrate this Swedish holiday we finally did. Micaela, darling Emma and Vera were able to join in the fun holiday treat. As many of you know, we Draper's have lots of Swedish blood in us and we decided to give this a go as we ate Swedish meatballs, cheese, crackers, smoked salmon and courtesy of IKEA some lingonberry jam and Juice (not my favorite). It was a splendid time sampling food from my great grandma Edla's native land. We created St. Lucia crowns out of pipe cleaners and we all dressed in various assortments of white clothing and tied a red ribbon around and of course took pictures. I have given you a sample of the cutest Lucia's of all. Vera and Emma win the prize for the most adorable. At first Emma refused to put on her long white dress but soon it became her favorite and we couldn't get it off. Oh 2 year olds... so easy to please. I am excited as we will continue this tradition in years to come. Thanks mom, it was a success!
To learn more about this holiday (because truthfully I didn't know much) I have provided a link for all ya'll
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._Lucia_Day

St. Lucia

St. Lucia

St. Lucia

Hamsters

So here they are, my little family and the closest thing I have to children right now. These are my hamsters given to me for the trade of a few haircuts from my good friends Korban and Nessa.

You may be thinking, "Why in the world would someone own such a thing!" Oh come on, look at that face... Can you say no to a face like that? I think not. Ok the real reason started many years ago on a Christmas morning (at 3:00 in the morning to be exact) when Aunt Claudia came to spend Christmas with the Draper clan. Micaela woke us up claiming that Mom and Dad told us to open our presents without them. We ran downstairs where to my delight I had a little pet hamster. Now after about a half hour Aunt Claudia (refusing to open any presents) said "Shouldn't we still wait for your parents?" At which point Sascha had run upstairs and got Mom and Dad and needless to say Dad sent us all to our rooms and was pretty bugged as you can imagine when he saw that is was actually 3 in the morning. Aunt Claudia recalls feeling like she was being punished as well for being sent to her room. I know I don't have even half of the facts completely straight on that story but that doesn't matter. The thing is I couldn't go back to sleep for fear of my hamster being afraid, alone in the dark. That introduces you to Lisa, my pet hamster. Years have past and pets have come and gone and I haven't had any for the longest time. So when my friends told me that I could have two of their hamster babies I was very excited and I specifically asked for a boy and a girl because it might be fun to have babies one day. So here I am with 6 more hamsters. I've had to keep them a secret for about a month now because for Christmas I gave two to Thomas. Thomas has promptly named them Frances and Carl. It's another Merry Christmas with Hamsters. p.s. if you'd like to purchase a hamster from me I have 4 more at the price of 5 dollars each. Thanks for listening to my boring story.

Wow!

I found these on MSN homepage from around the world and I just had to say Wow! That is amazing. I wish I could create something like that out of snow or ice. Tell me what you think.