Christmas is on its way!

Well, Christmas is on it's way here again. It seems like every year is a little shorter, but that may be because I am a little older.
Yesterday I put up my Christmas tree. Setting up the tree has always been my favorite part of celebrating the Christmas holidays. I remember being a little girl, and bothering my mother with questions of when I could decorate our tree with ornaments. I wonder what my house will sound like when God blesses me with children. Will they be excited as I was to decorate the tree? I hope so. This year Caleb helped me to decorate my tree, and I got to enjoy some of that childlike excitement again.
Now that I am an adult, I enjoy sitting and admiring the tree's beauty from my couch. It gives me time to reflect over the last year and realize how fortunate I am.

The Cousins Sleep Over...

The boys doing their turkey craft.

Amy and I decided that while she was in town we would have all of Christy's boys come to my house for a sleepover. The evening was a blast. We had pizza for dinner, did Thanksgiving crafts, read books, and watched Charlie Brown's Thanksgiving on DVD. Here are some of the highlights of our evening.

Karson may not have made a turkey, but he wasn't about to miss the fun!

Here are the boys with their finished turkeys.
They were Amy's idea, and listed what they
were thankful for on the feathers.


Here are the boys watching Charlie Brown's Thanksgiving.

Even the doggie cousins were invited.

Here are Emmie and Daisy resting

after playing hard.

A little later we put the boys in one of the guest rooms to go to bed. As most sleep overs go, it took forever for them to go to bed after all of the fun.

Once the kids were asleep it was time for the adults to have fun. We played board games, and Christy kicked butt in Monopoly. Then we stayed up late talking. Needless to say, we slept in this morning. It was a great evening, and we made some wonderful memories.

Thanksgiving Sunday Nov. 23, 2008

Christopher and Karson

A few days ago we had our annual Elam Thanksgiving Sunday. It was lots of fun, as usual. I have included lots of photos because there were way to many to choose from.

Here are some nice family shots.

Christy and her Dad

Tim, Amy, and Karson

Niki and Bryan

The Murray Family

(Daniel, Evelyn, and Andrew)

Dad, Paw Paw, and Uncle Tony

Thomas and Nathan

Dad Giving Thomas a hard time.

Nanny working hard on our meal.



Here are some shots of all the fun and games.

Kevin, Caleb, and Kaden riding scooters.

Daniel Posing for the camera.

Christopher, Nathan, and Tyler playing clue.

We had a blast, and we were all tired at the end of the day. Thank you Christy for hosting the festivities.

Student Teaching Assignment

Those of you who follow my blog know that I have been trying to get on as a student teacher in the Spring. Yesterday I got some exciting news in an e-mail. I have received my assignment for a fourth grade class in the Mesquite School District. When I read the e-mail I got goosebumps. Things are really starting to happen! I am so excited to begin this new phase of my education. I want to thank God and my family and friends for all of their encouragement and support.