I LOVE HELLO'S - HATE GOODBYE'S

It all began when we got a phone call from Chris telling us that he was going to bring Lacey up for Christmas. They originally weren't going to make it up this year. Chris read one of Lacey's e-mails where she was answering some questions about Christmas when he came across the question, "What would you want the most for Christmas?" Her answer was "To see my mom and dad." Chris was so touched that he told her that he would give her that gift. I have a lump in my throat as I type this post. I love my kids so much that even one living so far away breaks my heart. It all comes with the package of marriage. You follow your husband wherever he needs to be to go to school or make a living. Thank you Chris for taking such good care of my daughter and grandson and being sensitive to her need to see her family now and then.

GOODBYE I LOVE YOU!

Coleman and Mya are in Kim and Kents Journey for the trip. Coleman will be able to watch his new movies. Kent will love Oklahoma. Lots of Long horns, farm land and wide open spaces.

ALL THIS is going in the car? Wait there is still the big suit case, the car seat, the pack n' play and the computer moniter.

I love you I'll miss you

Coleman giving me fish kisses

Goodbyes are not the time for me to put on makeup as you can see. Lacey looks great.

Watching mommy and daddy load up the car.

The first day after Christmas that the sidewalks were clear enough for Coleman to ride his bike was the day they were leaving to go back to Oklahoma. He caught on to the peddle thing quite fast.

RIDE'M COWBOY

We decided to get out of the shed a rocking horse that was Lance's when he was Coleman's age. "Lance" is painted on the side of the horse. It is all original except for the handles had to be replaced with a heavier dowel. It's beat up and could use some TLC; however Lance will not let me do a thing to it. He likes it just the way it is. Coleman had a blast on it.

PLAYING IN THE SNOW

Coleman doesn't get snow in Oklahoma. When he saw the snow here he couldn't get enough. The day it hailed he wanted to go outside so bad that I walked out on the deck with him both of us in bare feet and no coat on. We stood looking up at the sky while the hail splattered all over our faces. Coleman was so excited. He loved it.

BOTH MOM'S FOR THE HOLIDAY'S

We had both of our mom's over for dinner during the holiday's. They are both alone and Christmas can be a lonely time. We can get so busy that it is easy to forget them sometimes. Coleman helped me make the meatloaf. The meat was real cold so he thought he would just poke his little finger in the meat mixing with one finger.

We had mom and her fiance Henry over for dinner Christmas day. Lacey and Chris enjoyed getting to know Henry and he passed their cross examination with flying colors. JK We played games with mom while Henry watched True Grit with Lance.

MERRY CHRISTMAS MYA

Mya is such a joy. She is always in such a lovable mood. She had no clue what was going on of course but we enjoyed watching mom and dad pull on her new hat and unwrap all her new clothes. We bought Mya a fun play center with songs and sounds for her crib. She played with it the minute the wrap came off. I can't get enough of her cute little cheeks and she lets me smootch her and smootch and smootch and smootch.

MERRY CHRISTMAS COLEMAN

Both of our grand children were with us this Christmas which was a blessing. Santa was good to Coleman this year. His bike was hidden behind the couch. The boys were moving the couch to the other wall to make more room for gift opening. Coleman was standing in the middle of the floor waiting. When he turned his head he spotted his bike, pointed to it and with eyes wide open he said "Ohhhh bike huh? He hopped right on and called it his. My project this year was to make a quiet book. Coleman has a hard time sitting still in church. He gets very bored. I know, he's only 22 months old and the speakers just seem to be a bit over his little head, go figure. The last book I made was about 25 years ago and the majority of young moms today don't sew; therefore I could not find patternes anywhere. I went on line and found a few ideas but nothing that great. Thank goodness mom still had the tool to make the holes in the pages and set the eyelets. The cover is made of camoflauge, not my first choice but all the boys thought it was rad, so it won out. He will have hours of fun. I'm glad I made it and KEPT the patterns for Mya's book in a couple of years.

CHRISTMAS BREAKFAST

Riley was up extra early to fix breakfast for everyone. He fixed fried potatoes with peppers and onions, eggs over easy, link sausage, sliced pears and my bottled grape juice. On the side he had a plate of grated cheese, sour cream and variety of cut peppers. The table was set with my snowmen dishes and table cloth. How appropriate for the snowman decorated kitchen. I wonder if he noticed? Oh probably. The food tasted so good. Just what the body needs to start off a busy day which usually consists of JUNK food. Better yet, I didn't set Riley up to this. Thank you again Riley, it was great.

CEVICHE'

For our Christmas Eve dinner Clint made his MOUTH WATERING, TONGUE TINGLING, STOMACH SATISFYING CEVICHE'. If you have never tired this dish leave me your e-mail in the comments and I will send you the recipe. The prep is between 4-6 hours. It consists of Big white raw shrimp shelled and deveined and chopped into pieces. They then marinate in a large bowl of fresh lime juice which cooks the shrimp. Red onion, green onion, roma tomatoes, regular tomatoes, celery, peppers are optional and Talopia fish optional. Lots of salt and pepper. It marinates for several hours. The flat round tortilla chips are spread with a thin layer of mayonnaise and then the ceviche. You then wrap your mouth around this wonderful taste of Mexico. You gotta love it baby!

CHRISTMAS EVE

I wanted to do something different on Christmas Eve this year. In years past I have done different fondues with steak, shrimp, chicken, bread and different veggies with cheese fondue and different dipping sauces. It was very expensive and a lot of prep. And the clean up was, well let me just say H--- No! Not this year. I thought we would try dipping apples. I usually buy them every Christmas at Xocolat downtown Salt Lake for $7.00 - $8.00 a piece. Certainly we can do them for less money and have fun doing it. After everyone did their apple there was plenty of caramel and choc to do lots of pretzel sticks.

Started out with BIG gala apples
Chopped macadamia nuts, chopped toffee bars, chopped peacans, cinnamon&sugar, white chocolate, milk chocolate and homemade caramel.

Some of the finished product. Layeres of caramel, nuts and chocolate. They were FABULOUS. We have found a NEW Christmas Eve Tradition.

Decorating cookies

We made sugar cookie at Kimberly's house. Coleman got into the act helping beat the dough. Then Aunt Kim just had to give him a taste, and it was all it took. Coleman snetched a pinch of dough every chance he could. He had fun pressing down on all the cookie cutters trying hard not to eat them before they got to the cookie sheet.

Cook Party Pics

Pictures taken at the Cook Christmas Party

The snowball fight was fun for some. I was hit several times just standing there minding my own business. Who was that? I heard from a rat that Amanda was hiding and hucking balls. If it was you Amanda, good move! Coleman kept busy running around and turning off and on the lights. I was in the kitchen washing dishes and cleaning, that's just what I do. I really need to relax and have fun and let someone else be the dish washer.

COOK FAMILY PARTY

The family Christmas party was held Dec. 20th. Randy and Lorraine hosted the party this year. Their were lots of activities for the little ones and good food for us big ones. Each family was asked to perform a song. Our family chose to do Jingle Bells blowing into pop bottles. I was relieved when Lacey and Chris arrived at the house from Oklahoma in enough time to figure out the notes we needed. Then we filled the bottles accordingly. It was fun and sounded pretty good. Randy and Lorraine's family performed to the 12 days of Christmas on CD in the dark with glow sticks which was fun to watch. Lu Ann and Mark and the rest of the gang also did a song in the dark with glow sticks. Activities for the kids were Tic Tack Toe, fishing pond, decorating cookies and getting a picture taken. We always end our parties with a gift exchange while reading of the Left -Right story. Grandma Cook gave each of the great grand kids a personal little desk with a storage compartment. The desk slides onto the storage where they found books, crayons, markers and of course Candy. Thank you Lance for helping mom out and making all the desk tops. I remember when our ward did them on a Super Saturday activity in 1985. Some of my kids still have theirs and use them for storage or art supplies. They were a great gift. Thank you Randy and Lorraine for hosting this year. It is a lot of work.

More Pics of the Cook family Christmas party

Our Three Christmas Trees

I put up three trees every year. Our living room is small so I put up a tall skinny tree and decorate it with nativity ornaments, white lights,and bows with long streamers. I display all of my nativities through out the room along with my nativity tree skirt, pillows and table runners. I love this room. It is beautiful. The snowman tree is put up in the kitchen and stays up thru January. The other tree is out Santa tree which I put up in the T. V. room. along with all our Santa's.