Christmas letter

I am one of those people who sends Christmas cards along with a letter telling what the family has been up to. I really enjoy receiving those letters. Sometimes it's the only contact I have with old friends or even some extended family. I love learning what they've been doing.

I like to keep a copy of my letter because it's a good summary of our year. I've decided that I good place to start storing the letters is on here so here is the one I sent out this year.

2010 has been all it could be.
We’ll give you a recap from A to Z.

A – Almost home. Brakston will be home on January 25th. Yea! (Not that Marvelle’s counting the days or anything)
B – Bear. Chandler earned his Bear rank in Cub Scouts.
C – Cheer. Shanley decided to try out cheer classes and has been enjoying doing back handsprings.
D – Dances. Alec was invited to Sweethearts and Prom. He asked someone to Homecoming.
E – Early Mornings. Tuesday mornings find Marvelle serving in the temple. Shanley, McKayla, and Alec also go every other week to do baptisms. This means leaving the house about 4 am. Yikes!
F – Fort Worth. Marvelle and the kids flew into Fort Worth to visit Dawnette (Marvelle’s sister) in Keller.
G – Games. If it’s not soccer games, it’s softball or basketball. McKayla and Chandler play soccer. Shanley plays softball and McKayla made the 9th grade basketball team. Alec can be found at all those games plus every high school basketball and football game. He is famous for doing the Haka at halftimes.
H- Half Marathon. Marvelle and McKayla ran a half marathon during the summer. McKayla took first place in her age division and, of course, left Marvelle in her dust.
I – Intrepid. Shanley decided to run for SBO (student body officer). She didn’t win but we were so proud of her intrepid spirit!
J – Jazzercise. Marvelle still attends about 200 Jazzercise classes every year. The kids find it embarrassing when she practices the routines in the car when the songs play on the radio.
K – King. Alec was elected as the Homecoming King of Riverton High School. He still proudly wears his crown to school on occasion and sometimes has to be talked out of wearing it to church.
L – Letter. McKayla earned her varsity letter (as a freshman) in soccer. Alec earned an honorary letter in track.
M – Mount Rushmore. In October Marvelle took the kids to Rapid City, SD for a little vacation.
N – No braces. Shanley got her braces off (McKayla is jealous).
O – Oahu. Kevin and Marvelle spent the 2009 Christmas to New Year’s week in Oahu vacationing with friends.
P – PTA. Marvelle is serving as the PTA President at McKayla and Shanley’s middle school. She is also on the board at Alec’s high school. At times, she’s not sure that she doesn’t spend more time at school than the kids.
Q – Quebec, Rhode Island, Texas, Minnesota, California. Kevin flew coast to coast and covered a lot of miles.
R – Reunion. In July we all went to Marvelle’s family reunion in Bryce Canyon. We did lots of hiking.
S – Social Hero. In May, Alec was honored as a Social Hero at Riverton High. The student body officers gave him the award for being nice and friendly to everyone.
T – Teaching. Marvelle is still substitute teaching seminary. Kevin is teaching the adult Gospel Doctrine class.
U – Utah Glory. McKayla and Chandler play for the Utah Glory soccer club. We attended tournaments in Layton, Ogden, San Diego, St. George, Las Vegas, and Mesquite, NV.
V – Vancouver. Marvelle and Kevin vacationed in Vancouver during the summer. The highlight was renting bikes and cycling around Stanley Park.
W – Waverunners. We enjoyed our waverunners with a trip to Yuba Lake with a couple other families
X – Xtra info. If you want to keep up on the lives of the Morgans, you are welcome to visit our blog at www.scrappinsoccermama.blogspot.com
Y – Yellowstone. We enjoyed a family vacation in Yellowstone in August. We went with 3 other families. Chandler especially loved the kayaking.
Z – Zone Leader. Brakston has been serving as the zone leader in his mission. He loves Arizona.

We love you all and wish you all the joy of this holiday season. May you rejoice in the birth and life of our Savior and may He be with you throughout 2011!

Christmas

It is odd having mostly teenagers at Christmas -- they don't tend to wake up before the sun. In fact, it was 9:30 before Alec and the girls got up. Poor Chandler was going crazy waiting.

We always have Swedish tea ring, orange julius and hot chocolate for breakfast and I make everyone eat breakfast before opening presents. We eat, get dressed, make sure the dishes are done, and then it's time to open presents. (I like to extend the anticipation)

Santa doesn't wrap our gifts. He leaves his gifts and the stockings on the couch covered by a tablecloth or sheet. The kids line up oldest to youngest and stand in front of the couch while Kevin and I lift the tablecloth for the "big reveal".

For many years now, we've limited the presents under the tree. Each child gets four presents - a want, a need, a gift of time, and something homemade from whichever family member drew their name.

Here's the kids checking out what Santa brought them.

I love how excited Alec gets at Christmas. He was so excited for Santa to come and then he is thrilled with every gift. You can see his joy at getting a pear in his stocking.

We got a calendar with pictures of the Morgan side of the family. That was fun for everyone to view.

McKayla is checking out her new camera (her want).

The rest of our Christmas day is just very relaxing. Alec watched his new DVDs. Chandler played with his Bop-It and Bop-It Bounce. Shanley loaded music onto her new MP3 player. My parents came by bringing their gifts and my mom and I put together a puzzle.

Great Christmas - hope everyone's was just as merry!

Christmas Eve

We enjoy driving around and looking at the Christmas lights. This year we happened to notice a fairly large field with 3 wiseman walking their camels (excuse the sorry excuse of a picture)

After the 3 wiseman came a lighted sign that said, "O Come Let Us Adore Him" and then came the manger scene complete with a live donkey. All the figures are life-size and we thought it was pretty cool!

Christmas open house

Monday night Kevin and I hosted our annual Christmas open house. I think we've been doing this for 7 years now. It is a tradition I really enjoy. We invite lots of friends and neighbors over for homemade goodies and visiting.

We estimate we had about 60 people drop by last night. I got to visit with most of them.

This year I served the following homemade goodies:
English Toffee
peanut brittle
cinnamon almonds
divinity
mints
mint truffles
fudge
caramels
haystacks
peanut butter balls
white chocolate-covered pretzels
chocolate-covered pretzels
caramel popcorn
applesauce cake
poppyseed bread
cranberry-orange bread
hot orange-almond drink
hot chocolate

I just wish I'd thought to take pictures before I had cleaned most of it up after the party.

confession

I have a confession to make.

I've been listening to Christmas music for over a week now! Yep, I'm in the Christmas mood!

I used to be "one of those" people who hated that we seem to skip from Halloween to Christmas without pausing for Thanksgiving. I refused to listen to Christmas music until after Thanksgiving. I like Thanksgiving - homemade rolls, pie, family, counting blessings, what's not to like? Why would I want to gloss over Thanksgiving? So, no "Deck the Halls" or "Jingle Bells" for me until late November.

Then a couple weeks ago I was teaching seminary and one of the classes wanted to sing a Christmas song for the opening hymn. A few members of the class voiced their disapproval of singing carols before Thanksgiving. Then, this very thoughtful boy said, "Christmas is celebrating Christ's birth. Shouldn't we celebrate that all year long?" And just like that, my own irritation with radio stations that play only Christmas music from November 1st to January 1st ceased.

So, bring on the "Silent Night" or the "It Came Upon a Midnight Clear". I'm prepared.




--scrappinsoccermama can combine Thanksgiving and Christmas music - I am thankful for Christ's birth!