Good bye 2017...hello 2018!

Here is it New Year's Eve 2017.  Today was Sunday and we both were sick enough we decided we'd better not go to church.  We just spent a restful day at home, napping, keeping warm and comfy by the fire, just taking it easy.  I got all the birthdays for the coming year on the calendar and into my planner.  I got the family dinner schedule for the new year laid out.  Paul was sicker than me.  I had started this disease the day after Christmas.  He's just getting going.  We talked about some goals for the upcoming year.  Our big New Year's Eve party was a shrimp cocktail, some sparkling apple/pomegranate juice and a few games of King's Corner before bed.  It felt just fine.  Just what we needed.  This has been a very hard year in so many ways with all of Bean's problems and time away from us, but it has also been a very good year with him having the opportunity to also move forward and start on a path back to better mental health.  Derek and kids have also made some big steps toward recovering from the loss of Lenae.  I'm pretty sure she had a hand in all of these good things in some way.  Paul's mom has had a very hard year and us with her, but she too has also had some good things when she could have easily left us or been seriously impaired. So, all in all, I will be grateful for this year as another chance to spend time with our wonderful family watching them move forward and being grateful to be a part of it.  Life isn't easy and it isn't perfect, but life is good! Our thanks go to Heavenly Father for watching over us and blessing us in more ways than we ever know.

I'm going to end this year's blog with the picture that Paul painted for this year's Christmas gift to our kids and his siblings.  Here's what he had to say about it:  "This painting is of Lenae, Tasia and Derek.  It comes from a photo taken at Family Camp. It says to me that Lenae is leading the way to our next adventure."   

I hope the coming year's adventures will lead us to many more wonderful blessings from Heavenly Father, and I hope we will be true and faithful as we also face the challenges that life is sure to bring to help us grow.  

Christmas 2017!

We started the Christmas holiday fun with a Girl's night out for 14 and up.  We went to The Outback for dinner and then came back to our house for fun/crazy games, dessert and visiting.  This is becoming sort of a tradition after Thanksgiving or just before Christmas when Brynn will be in town for the fun.  Ferf, as busy as she already is, took on the planning and did a great job!  What a fun evening with wonderful ladies!  (This year Christmas has a new look - with Colony and her children (bonus grand children) joining for the very first year as part of the family.  At the Girl's night Brynnli and Kaebri joined the fun this year.) I didn't get too many pictures of game playing because I was too busy playing!

We usually have a pretty quiet Christmas Eve dinner because Grandma Kurtz can't really handle the noise level of the whole gang.  This year she went to visit Ross and family for Christmas, so we had the whole gang (less the Borrowman's) for dinner.  What a fun evening.  We ate wonderful food that everyone helped prepare and then the daughters/daughter-in-laws had games planned.  We ran out of time before we ran out of games.  It was so fun! (We had a big table in the kitchen and a couple more in one bedroom to accommodate feeding this crowd!)

Clara so wanted to be involved..she was a very cute and entertaining centerpiece!  

After the games the kids gave us their  group gift!  Wow, what fun!  They all pooled together and gave us some great fun times for the coming year...movie passes, dinner card, gas and gift certificate to Jacob Lake!

Afton also had a special gift for Bean...she made him the cutest little bear pillow.  What a sweet thing.  The Randalls made all of us the coolest stone nativity pictures.  What a perfect thing for our family.

Then it was off to bed to wait for Santa to come.  For Christmas day we did our gifts at home with Bean first.  After that we went from house to house to see all of our kids.  We started with Supe and Beacher.  Jay and Brynn were staying with them, so we got both of them at the same time. They also invited us for a wonderful traditional Christmas breakfast of waffles and eggs "lightening rod".

Next we visited Derek, Colony and kids!

 Then it was on to the Lillywhites - Moss and Christie and kids.

On to the Borrowmans...here we enjoyed some beautiful music.  They got a new piano for Christmas and Kennis played a couple of songs.  She is such a great pianist!

The Weavers made it easy for us.  They were down for Christmas dinner with Lance's folks so they just dropped by to see us.

After lunch and naps we were off to visit the Randalls in Enoch.  They let us join them for dinner too
Ellie played for us on her violin and Brady played the piano.  So happy these kids are learning to play instruments!  After we got back we went back we got together to play Hellsapoppin with Jay and Brynn.

The final hooray of Christmas was a little dinner party with the Lillywhites - Jay and Brynn/Moss and Christie.  We went out to a new Mexican restaurant in town.  After that we took Bean back up to Cedar.  It was a fun evening.  Clara was a ball of fire at dinner.  She was cracking me up with her antics.  Jay and Brynn were just trying to keep track of her! Christie and Brynn were doing a wonderful job of keeping the babies happy while we waited for dinner to be served. (There was one more fun holiday get together.  Jay, Moss, Supe and Bean got together earlier this day at Moss's house to play computer games. Brynn and Christie tended the kids while they played.  Who knows...it may be the beginning of a new tradition!)

What a wonderful Christmas we had!  What a wonderful family we have.  Thanks and more thanks to all who helped with planning, cooking, shopping, etc. to make Christmas 2017 and wonderful family holiday!

We are so blessed and thankful to know that because of the gift of Jesus birth, life and sacrifice we can be together as family forever.

November and December birthdays...kind of get lost + Dolphin Arch

Ryan, Zion, Brynnli, Paul and Noah's birthdays got a little lost in the Christmas rush for me.  We were out of town on a rock trip on Brynnli's day and missed her cake party. Ryan, Paul, Brynnli and Noah got presents at family dinners with no candles...we did sing.  Gaige is coming up tomorrow and I will be giving him cash.  He will be happy with it, but I feel a little bit neglectful.  I have tried to simplify Christmas as much as possible this year and have felt good about my efforts, but it still takes a lot of time and thought (and money) to remember everyone we want to remember.  But, as far as birthdays, they will come, they will get older...whether I'm ready or not!  So...happy birthday to all of you wonderful November and December people. We love you all so very much!  (We still have Joel to come, on December 26th, but we will just put him off until March.)

We celebrated Ryan's #42 at the November family dinner!

For Zion (#4) we celebrated the Saturday after Thanksgiving by going on an adventure with the Weavers to Dolphin Arch and then coming back to the house and feasting on leftovers with some of the family who could make it.  

Brynnli (#18), Paul (#65), Noah (#9) got celebrated at the December Family dinner.

At least Gaige (#12) got celebrated the day of at his family cake party!