Bring On The New Year

I considered writing a Christmas letter this year, to send out with our cards.  Well... I was lucky to just get the cards out this year.  It seems like we had a lot going on right around that time; I could be totally wrong and that could just be an excuse.  Someday I might get around to sending a Christmas letter.

For now, I decided to just look back at the year and see what we have done.  It seems we have done nothing and everything.  Looking back, I know we did so many fun things, but at the same time, I wonder if we did enough?  Did we take advantage of being in Europe?  Did we spend enough time together as a family?  Did my kids make memories that they will remember in 20 years? Did I tell my family how much I love them, or tell Pete how amazing he is- I know I have, but did I do it enough?

I think it comes down to this: We were happy this year.

So let's take a look at some of the things that made us happy...

Pete:

*enjoys his career as a dentist  *after being deployed for 7 months has found a new love in reading books (that aren't always related to teeth)

*was accepted into a four month exodontia residency, and lived in Missouri for four months without his family (that part didn't make him so happy)  *visited some Church historic sights  *visited Utah for the first time in two years  *ran his first half-marathon  *traveled with the family  *became Elders Quorum President

Pam:

*took a lot of pictures  *ran her first half-marathon  *became a personal trainer  *taught a lot of classes

*ended up in the German newspaper a few times  *started taking a German class

*traveled to UT with the kids for two weeks  *took a girl's trip to Belgium

*took a small break from teaching tons of Zumba and revisited teaching Pilates  *has enjoyed being a "stay at home mom" who really is never, ever home

*has continued to have the best job in the world as a fitness instructor

Noah:

*turned 8  * lost four teeth  *was baptized  *started 3rd grade  *loves legos, Star Wars and the combination of the two  *has also found a love of reading  *decided he wants to invent something cool and make a bunch of movies

Annie:

*turned 5  *started kindergarten  *made a whole bunch of friends at school  *started reading  

Cooper:

*turned 4  *continued attending German Kindergarten, and increasing his German language  *continued to make us laugh all the time

The places we visited this year:

*Barcelona and Madrid, Spain (Pete and Pam)

*Vienna, Austria (all of us)

*Prague-multiple times (Pete and Pam)

*Garmisch-multiple times (all of us)

*Brussels and Brugges, Belgium (Pam)

*Utah (all of us)

*Legoland, Deutschland (all of us)

*New Mexico (Pete)

*Missouri (Pete)

*Nauvoo (Pete)

*Carthage (Pete)

*Independence (Pete)

*Kansas City (Pete)

*St. Louis (Pete)

*Northern Germany (Pete and Pam)

My parents, aunt Ruth and cousin Jody were able to come and visit us for two weeks and travel around with us.  My cousin Alyssa was also able to come and stay with us for a month and travel.  

We're looking forward to a new year with lots of travel plans already in the works.  Much of the traveling will be done as a family, but a lot will be done as a couple.  We're looking forward to spending time together, and (as far as we can tell) we should all be together the entire year.  We're hoping to have more family come to visit, since this is our last full year in Germany.  We're looking forward to meeting new people, and continuing to enjoy the life we have right now. We have been blessed greatly this year, and hope to continue to have blessings poured upon us this coming year. 

Bring on the New Year!  

Christmas Day

Just before going to bed on Christmas Eve, Noah left a note for Santa, asking if he could please let Noah see him.  Noah was very determined.  He stayed up till about midnight waiting to see Santa.  

When the kids woke in the morning, there was a note from Santa saying that he couldn't possibly let the kids see him, because it wouldn't be fair to all the other kids who want the same thing, and he left a golden jingle bell instead.  The kids were quite happy with that.  He also thanked Annie for spreading oats and glitter on the lawn, so that the reindeer could find the house quickly.

Here they are reading the note.  

Looking for their own gifts.  Our tree was packed!

The awesome golden bell from Santa.

First things first.  We checked out all the goodies in the stockings.  

Then we looked for all the gifts from Santa, and opened those first.

After all the Santa gifts were opened, the kids got to open the big present from Pete and I.  They each got a new bedspread.

Since Christmas was on Sunday this year, we stopped at this point, had breakfast and got ready for church.  We only had sacrament meeting, and it was a wonderful program.  I was able to sing in the choir as well as in a trio with Tera and Deanna.  The primary kids sang a song as well.  

After church, we came home and had some snacks, put our jammies back on and got back to the gifts.

Cooper got this lego headlamp in his stocking.  He has gone to bed with it every night since.

Everyone got new slippers from grandma and grandpa H.  

Coop gave his two thumbs up.

And the aftermath.  It was so difficult for me, but I didn't clean up anything but the paper that day.  I really wanted it to be a relaxing day.  And it was.  It was such an awesome Christmas!

Christmas Eve

This Christmas Eve was pretty laid back.  All the shopping and wrapping was done, so we just made sure the house was ready for Santa. We decorated cookies for him (and we ate a few, too).

And then we headed over to Tera's house to have dinner.  We had a soup night, which is their family's Christmas Eve tradition.  Tera made taco soup and Deanna made potato leek soup.  We had tons of munchies and homemade bread and honey butter as well.  

While things were being prepared, Pete helped David with a few pull-ups.

 I love this.  Pete took his binkie, and he really wanted it back...

One handed pull-ups- pretty impressive.

Then we let the kids act out the nativity.  Annie got to play the part of Mary.

And Noah was a shepherd.

Cooper was supposed to be one of the wise men, but he was being very Cooper-ish, and said no. Imagine that.

Jayden played the part of Joseph.

Bailey was also a shepherd, and Joey was the Angel.

Pete played the part of King Herod (or Harold, as one of the kids called him).

The whole group.

After dinner, the Blackham kids opened a gift from their grandma, a new Christmas book.  So Tera read it to everyone.

When we got home, we quickly put our jammies on and headed back downstairs for our own Christmas Eve tradition.  The kids opened their gifts from each other.

This was funny:  Annie goes by her full name, Annika, at school.  Cooper thought he needed to make sure the gift was to Annie AND Annika.

And a cheesy little group hug to say "thank you."