Facing "IT"...

Yay it's Saturday.... but instead of lounging around... Mike and I (mostly Mike) are tacking a BIG challenge... the ATTIC!!! It's hard to believe just how FULL the attic has become in just 3 1/2 years. When I moved in the attic was basically empty except for some construction garbage. And although I didn't come with too much..  boxes and tubs have accumulated somehow. So...  Mike is rearranging the attic, cleaning out the garbage and installing more floor. I am cleaning out old papers and junk that we don't need. So why all this work you ask?!? So we have room to store our REALLY  IMPORTANT ever growing supply of HOLIDAY DECORATIONS!!! Someone has to do it!!!

from Brazil...

Here's the latest from Brandon:

Hello everyone!Happy New Year!! New year was pretty normal. We ate dinner at a members house and then went home. At 9:30 all the parties are just begining. There were a ton of people launching fireworks. New years eve day, new years eve night, and new years day day were constant fireworks. And just like on christmas, new years day no one wanted to learn about jesus. We were the only ones awake on new years day. But it´s all good. Our church is at 9 in the morning. Just about every ward and branch in the country has church at this time. The chapels are small here and it´s usually just one ward per building. Transfers are next week and i´m sure i´ll have more to say then. See you all later. Elder Lewis

Trentbo...

Trent bought a new gun and was excited to go try it out... He took the camera and said he was going to take some "Rambo" pictures...

So there ya have it... not QUITE Rambo... more like "Trentbo"!!

Finally the Christmas post!

Finally the Christmas post! But WARNING... there are a LOT of pics!

Even before we had breakfast we had to see what Santa brought... notice all the tubs... those are filled with presents from Santa Dan...

Santa always leaves his bag at our house... It has gifts in it for the youngest kids... nowadays it's just Trent...

OOOhhhh Trent got a camera!

Mike got some clothes

Mom got some new pots and pans

now the search is on for the "pickle"

It's really hard to find...

It's hard to see in this pic, but Trent found the pickle!

Everyone arriving on Christmas... we get together in the afternoon..

FIRST things first... the much anticipated PHONE CALL from Brandon!

Brandon and Dustin talking to each other... technology is great!

It was so good to hear his voice and to hear some Portuguese! We got to talk almost an hour...

After talking that long we were hungry!

Since it's afternoon and everyone has other places to go... we do like a deli bar... sandwiches, salads, chips, cheese balls, little smokies, treats, snacks etc etc...

Everyone is excited to fill their plates

This must be the cool people table!

After our tummies are full... the next thing is the gift exchange...

We can't wait!

Almost ready...

passing out gifts...

and more gifts...

we have a lot of crazy fun....

MORE gifts...

CUTE!

MORE gifts..

Gift opening goes on for quite a while!

Whoa!

Mom got some MORE milk glass!

AND... Mike received a MAJOR award! I think it's cute... but it's only going to be on display during Christmas!

It's always great to get together with the fam and friends during the Christmas season to celebrate the the birth of our Savior, realize our blessings and have fun too!

2010!!!

Happy New Year Everyone!

Mike and I BARELY made it to midnight! He had to go to work early so he was up at 3 and I was up at 4:30.... AM!!!! BUT we started to party early cuz we both only had to work a half day... YAHOO... so we went to lunch and then went to the MALL! we hardly ever go there, but we had to WALK after a yummy lunch at Chili's.... We even did a little shopping spree and got some really smokin deals on new clothes AND I got a new phone... needed one cuz mine was broke.... so I got a new fangled one and I can text a LOT faster now! I think my kids are even impressed!..... So then in the evening we went to the Bishops house for a few and then back home cuz it would have been embarrassin to fall asleep at someone's house! So we watched the Twilight Zone marathon til midnight! Mike was literally a zombie but he made it and we even had just enough energy to have some sparklin cider! I hope everyone had a great New Year's too!

this week from Brazil

Before I try to catch up on blogging I wanted to post from Brandon:


Hello everyone,I don´t have much to say because i just talked to you all. But we had our baptism and it was excellent. It is still raining alot and everyone is still out of town. I only have 1 investigator that is still in town. This week we have to find a bunch of new people. It was fun to talk to you all and that everyone is having fun. One thing i missed was root beer and dr. pepper. Is there a way to send root beer and dr. pepper to me? Without them expolding on the way. The food was good for christmas, lots of rice, beans, fruit,and bbq. That´s about it. New years is coming up and it will be another party here in brazil. It´s a little hard to teach when everyone is partying. But see you all later. Elder Lewis

Christmas Eve...

My goal is to be caught up with the ol blog by New Year's... HA...
As kids grow up... the routine on Christmas Eve definitely changes... on Christmas Eve me and the kids used to go see Christmas lights, read the Christmas Story, put out cookies for Santa, put out reindeer food, watch miracle on 34th St, do some wrapping etc etc!
As I get to my point, I digress for a minute....
MANY years ago I went to Education week and went to a class on traditions. I learned a VERY important point... traditions can be started and stopped whenever you want! Really?!?!? Sooooo.... one tradition MY family had was to eat pickled herring on New Year's Eve... PICKLED HERRING!!!! Have you ever tasted pickled herring?!?! I think this tradition went back for YEARS! Guess what tradition I stopped IMMEDIATELY?!?!? I am HAPPY to say we do NOT eat pickled herring on New Year's Eve and I don't think ANYONE in my family is sad about that!
So back to Christmas Eve...
As adults now... we have done a few different things on Christmas Eve to entertain ourselves... go to zoo lights, see movies.. etc...
This year I decided just to do a nice adult dinner and play games since there would be 7 of us ADULTS... yes... even Trent (my baby) is one of the adults now!

Here I am with my SandraLeeMarthaStewartWannabee pose. Since there wasn't going to be any children around I got out the MILK GLASS dishes and GOLD (plated) silverware.... ooooohhhhh aaaawwwwww....

YUM... T bones and all the fixins! BUT... I guess I should have had some social graces lessons before hand... Mike couldn't understand why I tied ribbons on the water bottles and Trent couldn't understand why we had individual jellos on top of SHREDDED LETTUCE!!! Good thing I didn't confuse them anymore by putting out multiple silverwares! Maybe next year I will give them 2 forks!

Everyone loved the nice meal on nice dishes and said this should be a new tradition! It just might be!

So for entertainment I bought a bunch of little gifts.... oh yes... the anticipation to get one of these nocostwastoogreat gifts was intense. BUT... to win one ya had to win a round of the Left Right Center game. I bought it at Walgreens and it was SO fun!

OOooohhhh... what will he roll?!?!?

A winner!

Another winner!

You can see some of the GREAT prizes!

We played clear til almost 11:00! It was gettin late and silly!

Whoa... what an event! Mom needs more Martinellis!!!!

I love some of our old traditions and I love coming up with new ones too! I can't wait til next year!