2009 Holiday Highlights

I know, I know, everyone is sick of hearing about the holidays, but I feel the need to get it all documented before I can move on to more exciting things. (Pregnancy, nursery, etc.) So here is the holiday run down. Our holidays started off with a bang on Thanksgiving. We went to northern Utah this year. We had Thanksgiving with the Bowen side at Bruce and Melissa's. It was so fun to see everyone and catch up. The next day was the Cluff celebration, affectionately known as "Thankmas". Pam and Ben came from Texas and so we celebrated both Thanksgiving and Christmas in one day! And boy was it a celebration. We started early with a lovely Thanksgiving meal (I know, every pregnant woman's dream--two Thanksgiving dinners). Then we moved directly to the Christmas portion of the day with a Christmas program of singing, storytelling, and all the kids dressing up for the nativity. That was one huge nativity! Lots of stable animals. Thank you to my SIL Michelle's blog for the pictures, I forgot my camera.


Grandma directing traffic. She is a master planner!




Look at the cute stable animals, don't they look thrilled?

When you celebrate "Thankmas" you get really tired. It was so fun to be with Carter's family. We never get to see them as much as we would like. They make us laugh. Thanks to Pam and Ben for always making a way for our families to get together. You two amaze me!

After arriving home to St. George we broke out the Christmas decorations. The kids are getting so big and helpful. I could practically sit and direct the decorating from the couch! Everyone helped decorate and they did a mighty fine job.

Next, it was on to the Christmas village. This is the kids favorite part of decorating. I prefer not to document my pregnant self, as I am not one of those darling pregnant women, but Carter caught me here, and maybe someday I will be able to stand to look at it!

This year Grandma and Grandpa Cluff did the 12 days of Christmas for our family. The kids could hardly wait to have scripture study every night so that they could open the gift for that day. Grandma Cluff included great Christmas stories and spiritual thoughts. Definitely a highlight for our family this year.

And as if we were not lucky enough, Grandma and Grandpa Bowen did the 24 days of Christmas this year! We let the kids open this gift first thing in the morning. You've never seen kids jump out of bed quicker---EVERYDAY! Amazing. Some of the highlights were, a gift certificate to go get ice cream at Sonic, giant Christmas pens, and new jammies. Thank you to our amazing grandparents who always think about making us happy.

We spent most of the Christmas holidays warming our tootsies by the fire, drinking hot chocolate, doing puzzles and reading Christmas stories. It was such a wonderful and relaxed holiday. I LOVE having my kids home with me.


Carter and I were invited to a friend "Ugly Christmas Sweater" party. We searched the DI high and low and just couldn't find anything ugly enough. So we made our own with lots of hot glue, sequence, pom poms, felt and...................

battery operated lights! The party was a blast and believe it or not there were uglier sweaters than ours! We love our friends here in St. George.




Next on the Christmas agenda was the annual Bowen Santa party and brunch. We all look forward to this party every year. This year we had some amazing food. Quiche, fruit, sour dough pancakes and a hot chocolate bar. It was delicious! Then Grandma read stories to the grand kids, we sang Christmas carols and in before we knew what was happening Santa Clause appeared right before our eyes. Cute, cute santa right? The kids went wild as he held each one on his lap and gave them a special gift. It was such a fun day especially because everyone in our family was there, even Nate and Heather from Alaska. It has been a long time since we have all been in one place. Thanks mom and dad for creating wonderful Christmas memories for our family.










After Christmas was over my family came down to St. George for a week to ring in the new year. Everyone except for Jackie--she had her baby Jane on Christmas day! Se she sent her kids down while she,Kasey, and baby Jane recuperated. It is so fun when my family comes here. We saw movies, played games, went to Vegas shopping, golfed, ate and visited Pirate Pizza.

Ashley and Weston trying to win tickets playing Skee-Ball. Grandma and Kate in the background.


Nate and Hank trying out the shooting range.

We ordered the biggest pizza on the menu, and it was BIG! We polished it off though.



Most of the gang enjoying their pizza. The rest are off spending our life savings trying to win a plastic sword worth a dollar.

Nate and Heather's cute little family, all the way from Alaska. We miss them terribly. All in all I would have to say that our holiday was a rousing success. We loved every minute of it. The best part? Being with those who love us the most.....our family.