JACKSONS JOURNEY JOURNAL: Christmas and New Years

December 2015-New Years 2016

Loving and Enjoying all of the Traditions that come along with the month of December as we celebrate the birth and life of our Savior Jesus Christ.

The Most Wonderful Time of the Year...

Our little Christmas Elves.

Brooke and Josh with our cute twins Margaret and Nicole next door, one morning their mom took all of them out to Starbucks for Hot Cocoa before school on a Wed late start. Look at that line of, cute kiddos!

We did Operation Shoe Box again this year. A fun tradition we started last year for a fun Family Home Evening Service related activity. The kids always have a fun time selecting and filling their boxes for children their own age in other countries.

This year our boxes were shipped off to less fortunate children in Africa.

Jarom landed his first "official job" and has been working at Papa Murphy's Pizza since the beginning of December. It's been good for him to have some responsibility, to learn more about the importance of earning and budgeting money and the value of good work ethic, This is how Saydee spends her time in her little Frozen mobile.

Good memories at the Spanaway lights this year. We had a fun drive through the park enjoying the lights, letting the little ones drive on dad's lap steering the wheel as we put-putted through the light trail at the tail end of the evening right before closing on Monday night for FHE. We stopped off at A&W for root beer floats after our drive (going thru the drive thru) and since the difference between a medium and a large root beer float was pennies- we ordered large floats all around. Didn't know how large they actually were...enormously large of course! So half way home on our drive back, a car pulls out right in front of us from off the side of the freeway into our lane and comes to a complete stop right in front of us, not sure what he was thinking or doing besides possibly the driver purposely wanting us to crash into him maybe he was drunk or on drugs??? but since there were too many cars next to us in the other lane, Matt had to slam on his brakes (good thing Matt realized what was going on and saw him ahead of him in time enough and was able to start to hard break and come to a stop using some of the shoulder of the freeway to stop so it wasn't a chain reaction of cars slamming into each other.) Anyways, in the course of the sudden stop from 60 mph, Bre's large root beer float flew out of her cup and covered the inside of our van nothing was left in her cup...come to understand that eating in the van has been a novelty thing (us wanting to keep it clean.) Needless to say, Bre and I had a lot of scrubbing and wiping down to do that night before we hit the hay. Quite the sticky mess...with the realization that our family had been watched over and protected from harms way that evening, it was actually quite comical to add to the fiasco's of record-book-breaking "things that had gone wrong" for Matt in the course of his past two weeks prior. I had to remind Matt that when you are striving to do things that are right- that's the way Satan tries to tap into our lives to get us down and just when you feel like nothing else can go wrong, it does because things can't get better before they get worse :) nothing catastrophic went wrong for Matt, just many things one after another (business related) that would require him to work harder and do more thinking outside of the box, like sub contractors not showing up due to funerals or sicknesses which would end up in chain reactions of other sub contractors being delayed to start their portion of the job when everything was scheduled in or tile not being shipped that's supposed to go into a kitchen when he paid an arm and a leg to ship it over night to be installed before Christmas, or running out of special order tile needed to finish up a bathroom and having to drive to portland to pick it up, then a basement flooding right after the hardwood floor bring installed due to the dryer being hooked up to the water line for the steam (that one of his workers hooked back up for the customer when he thought he was doing a kind deed) requiring the whole floor only having to be ripped out and installed again, or two large slabs of granite that highly picky customers had finally been able to agree upon to install in their kitchen, ended up falling off the holding devices they were supported on in the warehouse due to being wet from the rain and both slabs of granite shattered....you know frustrating things like that, the scenarios went on and on, those are just some I recall off the top of my head that stood out :) Anyways, just a reminder that when it rains it pours, life can't always be free sailing. but alls well that ends well. At the end of the month before Matt called the work quits for the kids two week Christmas Winter Break, all of his customers were happy and all of the homes were finished and renovated, the customers were tickled pink as the norm with Matt and his crew and the work they had done on their kitchens and baths :) Totally did not plan on this little novel lol, oddly enough I actually had forgot about all of this until I was giving the Spanaway Lights a bit of commentary.

Another week out of the month for FHE, we briefed on the Treasures of our Savior Jesus Christ.

I had fun making up some gift baskets. I know I've mentioned this before but I LOVE to put together themed baskets. All of these were done around a gift card. Bre had a Cheer Gift Exchange as part of their team slumber party Secret Santa and so her's was a Nordstrom Gift Card.

These two were Outback and Red Robin Date Night Baskets before I wrapped them in cello for the Jackson side adult white elephant exchange. Not sure why I enjoy doing up baskets so much but I do and any opportunity I have to put one together, I'll take it :)

I was able to go in to help with the traditional Gingerbread making day in kindergarten for Brooklynne. We had a fun time with this one!

These kiddos are so cute.

You've got to love these candy covered homes!

Mre. Argo with her class.

We were hoping and the little kids may or may not have been praying for some snow over Christmas Break, but no such luck here. The mountains were a totally different story, they were covered!!! The Christmas lights at night look so much prettier in pics with everything covered in a white blanket of snow...oh well, there's always next year.

So these were the only silly snowmen our front yard saw this year....

Bre was a server for our ward Christmas party this year.

They put on such a nice dinner and program this year for Christmas.

Brooklynne with her orange from Santa.

I want my food!

Even the stage looked fantastic! I loved the nativity silhouette.

The May's and their newest addition were Mary, Joseph and Baby Jesus this year with their little ones being the barn animals. Br Rasmussen was the angel who brought glad tidings of great joy.

The Kings were Tierden May and Br Knutzen. Here come the shepherds...

The Wise Men, Br Gilchrist, Br Suttle and Br Tuck.

Matt, Spencer, Josh and Jarom were asked to be the shepherds in the ward nativity. As the program date came closer, we realized that Jarom's annual trip to the Mountains with his friend Austin to go snowboarding landed over the date of the program so Layton (Jarom's buddy) filled in for him such a good sport!

All of the shepherds put candy canes on the Christmas tree to remind us that Jesus was the good shepherd and he doesn't want to leave even one of his sheep behind.

The nativity involved the audience incorporating Christmas Carols throughout and was very sweet.

I think this was the first year that we came home from a ward function or dinner where I didn't have to re-feed any of my kids due to them not liking what they had to eat. Br Ramsey had his company cater the food, they had the best moist ham ever, mashed potatoes, corn, green beans, caesar salad, marshmallow jello, rolls and a dessert potluck. Everything was very good!

Josh with his Gingerbread Home.

A very colorful yet creative end result :)

Busy at work building their Gingerbread Homes.

Smiles for Brooke.

A Necco Roof for Spencer (dad's fav candy.)

Ellie making a snow topped roof with coconut.

Bre is back there hiding behind her home...somewhere...

All of the Gingerbread homes turned out great this year!

We take these Christmas Sunday Pics of the Kids individually each year in front of the tree before church. Here's Spencer 11 and Josh 10.

Beautiful Bre 15 and Ellie 13.

These two little girls were so cute and all giggly :)

Brooke and Saydee.

Matchy, matchy.

Matt was still at his early morning Sunday meeting when we took these pics so I got one with Saydee and a solo pic too lol :) Jarom was out of town.

Bailee and Ellie Besty Cousins.

Bingo Games for the Kids.

Grandma had fun prizes for all the kids, they had a great time.

Bre and Brooke trying for BINGO and Grandma's tree this year.

The adults hanging out waiting for Santa Claus to make his big appearance. Brodie, Steph, Jake and Mike.

Grandpa and Matt.

Aunt Ashley and Elizabeth and Saydee.

Saydee won the glow wand for BINGO.

BINGO prizes turned into the white elephant game.

Josh, Jackson and Spencer.

Look at all these handsom Jackson Boys...

Crew.

Levi, Crew, Ireland, Jillian, Pieper and Gracie,

Grandma and her grandkids,

Little Cousins.

Where is Santa, we were singing him in...

Being ever so PATIENT.

The Girls.

Santa Claus is Coming to Town.

He's making a list and checking it twice...

He's gonna find out who's naughty and nice...

The Man in the RED SUIT and BEARD has ARRIVED!

Grandma welcoming Santa in with hugs! I can't believe how much these kids have all grown up since last year!

Elizabeth and Ireland

Kennedy and Crew

Pieper and Jackson

Jillian and Noelle

Bailee and Gracie

Levi and Spencer

Josh and Saydee

Brooke and Ellie

Bre and Noelle

After changing into their Christmas PJ's that Santa handed out, it was present time with the cousin gift exchange.

Saydee was in love with her dolls and stroller from Elizabeth.

Everyone in their PJ's.

A Fun Night at Grandma and Grandpa's the Sunday before Christmas. Lots of family, food and fun for everyone. Grandma always puts a lot of time and love into her planning for the family fun! For dinner we had a pasta bar with spaghetti, fettuccine, salads, bread sticks and snacks, everyone brought a share and it was quite tasty all around! To finish up the night we watched a video of pictures and paintings of our Savior Jesus Christ to music which was the perfect way to start our Christmas week off. We forwent reading Luke 2 with the extended family since by the time all of the festivities were finished, it was really late and the kiddos were getting tired but it made for a perfect thing for our own family to read on Christmas Eve with our traditional Christmas Oranges book reading following some hot cocoa.

Santa Claus came to visit Christmas Morning!

Santa always does a good job stocking the kids up with necessity supplies of their own to last them through the year ie toiletries and hygiene items along with some fun things the kids can get into until mom and dad get out of bed and join them down stairs so they can open up presents. The kids were up at 4:15 am this year, the older ones took a peek early and then went back to bed but the little ones patiently waited down stairs until 7:15 am when mom and dad were ready to come down to get Christmas morning on!

Saydee had a great ole time this Christmas, she was in heaven getting into everything!

Lots of snapshots.

The Jackson kids must have been really good this year :)

The roll is carbon fiber wrap that Jarom is going to cover his car in.

Ellie loves to do hair so Santa thought he'd bring her some heads and supplies that they use in cosmetology school with a trolley to store it all in to jump start her hair career so Ellie could get some willing heads to practice on with out any head sensitivity issues :) (Brooklynne and Saydee can thank him for that.) ...any and everyone who will let Ellie get her hands on their hair she will!

Spencer got his motorcycle, I'll have to take pics of his riding it- guess I never got a pic of it outside of the box...

Josh is our future DJ and loves his new speaker, he gets good use out of it and frequently starts dance parties around our home...

Grandma and Grandpa stopped off to visit Christmas Day and joined us for Turkey Dinner. Here's Brooke and Grandma doing some karaoke.

Josh and Brooke got I-pod touches for Christmas, it's great for Josh's speaker that hooks up to his music through blue tooth along with his cordless headphones. Both Brooke and Josh think they are so cool that they can access their scriptures and hymnbook in fhe and church though their apps with wifi and they can facetime anyone with an i-phone like a phone...oh how things have changed with technology these days for kids....for me it's just nice that they now have no need to utilize my phone or kill my battery when I would think it's charged to play games or fill my phone up with a bazillion games they downloaded.

Our Future Baker Brooklynne.
We had a great two week Staycation at home over Christmas Break. We don't do a whole lot of traveling with the kids due to the ages and size of our family so we find Christmas break is a good time to invest in things to do together as a family and things to keep the kids up on their talents, active, creative and learning...along with a few necessities that we'd end up having to buy eventually anyways. We had some late nights, sleep in days in our jammies and a lot of fun and game playing. It's always the best time of the year to stay in and around the comfort of home to enjoy the company of family immediate and extended, free from any major obligations. A very Merry Christmas indeed.

New Years Eve was spent in Black Diamond at Grandma and Grandpa Jackson's with the extended fam.

Bre went to the New Years Dance for the youth at church in Puyallup with friends, Jarom worked New Years Eve and after a very busy pizza making day on his feet (everyone was prepping for the parties) he opted to spend the night with the fam.