Thanksgiving 2016

Yesterday was wonderful!  We had our traditional Thanksgiving dinner at my parents' house and everyone was assigned to bring something.  I was assigned rolls and I actually made them (Rhodes Bake and Serve) and they turned out great (I have burned them before).  We had turkey and ham, cheesy potatoes, stuffing, the aforementioned rolls, pomegranate salad (a tradition), and a relish tray.  Everything tasted great!

After dinner we all took naps for a few hours and then we reconvened for a ruthless game of shanghai rummy!  Everyone was assigned to bring a treat (we will play this game every night over the break).  I made caramel corn and we also had fudge, caramels, my Grandma Johnson's traditional scones, and, of course, pie!  Sean is modeling the whipped cream from the pie!

Marilyn is modeling the caramels.

This game is absolutely crazy!  Tashena won the last game we played so we were all gunning for her and she was not happy!

It is kill or be killed, Tashena!  I actually won but I know that everyone will be gunning for me when we play again!  It was so much fun to spend the day with my family!  I hope you had a lovely Thanksgiving as well!

Memorial Day Weekend 2016

Memorial Day is the official start of summer so Marilyn and I decided to spend the weekend at Bear Lake.  We had so much fun!

We stayed at the KOA in Garden City and this was our cabin for the weekend.  Both Marilyn and I spent some quality time sitting on the front porch reading.  It was so relaxing!  On Saturday my Mom and Dad drove up and we rented a pontoon boat for the afternoon.  It was so much fun!  My Mom does not like boats and, initially, she didn't want to go with us but she let herself be coaxed on board.  Marilyn is terrified of water and doesn't know how to swim but she eventually drove the boat.  I'm telling you, it was so much fun being out on the water and the weather was absolutely perfect!

On Sunday Marilyn and I spent the day at the beach.  We drove to Bear Lake State Park in Idaho because it was a little bit out of the way so it wasn't very crowded.  We ended up at North Beach and we basically sat on the beach and read.  It was fabulous!

This was such a wonderful start to the summer!  

Christmas 2015

Christmas was absolutely wonderful this year.  We awoke to lots of snow but, since I live two minutes away from my parents, I was able to get there in time to open presents.  Sean set a strict 9:00 am start time because he gets so excited he can't wait much longer than that!  Here is what the tree looked like before we started opening presents.

Santa Claus definitely came!  The white envelopes on the tree contain $50 bills.  My Dad has done this for all of us every year since I can remember.  Here we are opening presents!

Marilyn was the most excited about getting an iron!  Apparently this iron is especially made for quilting!

I got a selfie stick.  I really wanted one and everyone laughed about it but all of my officers seem to have so much fun with them.  I also got an Instax mini camera (which everyone now wants) and a silhouette cutting machine (which I am really excited to play with). However, I'm most excited about getting the Star Wars complete saga on Blu-Ray!  I feel a marathon coming soon!

The best part of Christmas is watching Sean and Tashena opening their presents!  Tashena got lots of clothes and a new phone!  She is pretty much the happiest girl in the universe and spent much of the day texting her friends!

Sean got clothes, a bean bag chair, a case for his 3DS, lots of 3DS games, and the coolest R2-D2 slippers ever!  His big present was a Robosapien robot which entertained all of us for hours!

Every year my Mom makes sweet rolls for breakfast after we open presents.  In the evening we had a delicious dinner and played Shanghai Rummy late into the night (Tashena won!).  It couldn't have been a better day!  We were all very spoiled with presents but the best part was all of us being together and continuing our many Christmas traditions!  I hope you all had a wonderful holiday!