Kelsey is Jeff (David's brother) and Becky's youngest. She married Jon Edwards on Dec. 22nd in the Columbia River Temple. Jon just happens to be a friend of Brad's from way back. I think my earliest memory of Jon Edwards was soccer team circa 8 year olds? Something like that. Jon joined the church in high school, went to BYU and served a mission in Japan. He has been a family favorite of the Earl clan for a long time so joining the family on a permanent basis was good news for all - especially Kelsey! We are so happy for them.
Kelsey is the girl cousin closest to Courtney's age. Here are cousins and first ward buds Courtney, Kelsey and Christine Law.
Jon, Brendan and Brad were roommates as freshman at BYU and then again after their missions. Brendan came up for the wedding and stayed with us. He is a great guy and we loved having him.
Here are the boys - Brad, Jon, Brendan, Casey Anderson and Chris Andrews
Their reception was amazing! I kept saying, "We should have had ours first. What were we thinking?"
On to... Christmas Eve! Christmas Eve was spent at Grandma Earl's this year. Our house was still not quite ready for the reception and it was a smaller group this year so it was nice to be at Grandma's. We had soups, rolls and pies - always a treat! We role played the nativity as best we could with the cast we had to work with. Some of you grandchildren were sorely missed!
Grandma reads the account of the Savior's birth from Luke.
Shepherds - Cassidy, McKayla, Riley and Carson
Angels - Dylan, Courtney, Elsie and Kylie
The world's oldest wise men - Jordan, Brad and Bryan (at least that's what I thought until I saw the Baker's blog!)
A small but surprisingly well behaved cast.
Christmas was a little different around our house this year. Oh, there's no need to beat around the bush - it sucked! (Did I say that out loud?) There are two reasons why this Christmas was not quite as good as Christmases past (aka sucky Christmas.)
One reason was that Kristy's wedding planning just got in the way. It usurped much of my time and most of our available funds. Now this is not Kristy's fault at all. Kristy is not demanding and is easy to please. I chose to redecorate the entry way for the reception so all you sibs don't be hatin' Kristy. The entry way was a little behind schedule but it turned out beautifully thanks to Nena. I love it! We were, however, hanging lights and Christmas decorations on Christmas Eve in preparation for the reception. (I know, how much does that suck?)
The other reason why this Christmas stunk (I better stop using that word but you know what I really mean) was because the kids are older now and they are generally more expensive on a day to day basis. When they were little, it was easy to provide a humongous pile of presents for under $100 (and sometimes under $10 - just check out Kacey's blog!) As they get older Christmas often comes early in the form of a car repair or a lap top or tuition or rent or a speeding ticket - get the picture? I love my kids and I love to give them things at Christmas but I just can't stand to spend money that we don't really have on stuff they don't really need or want just so there are presents under the tree and so this year... we didn't!
The only thing they got was a game to play on Christmas (in the few hours that I didn't make them work - seriously.) There were no Christmas pajamas, no Rhode and Scarlet to play with, no presents, no hiding for Santa - basically we just sat around thinking about the true meaning of Christmas. Well no, we really didn't do that either. We mostly reminisced about good Christmases past and hoped that the ghost would show up to whisk us away to one of them. Actually I had a great time (exept for the reception work) just hanging out with my kids. That is really all I want to do at Christmas. My sister, Julie, was here and that always ensures a fun holiday.
We got a fun dance game for the Wii. Here are the girls:
And here are the boys!
And, like many of you, we had an awesome time desecrating Beatles tunes!
God bless us every one!
5 comments:
Kristy's reception was beautiful! I think it would be safe to say all your hard work and sacrifice through Christmas paid off!! I LOVE those videos of your family playing the dance game! I have to get the name of it!
Why you felt the need to capture my total lack of coordination and bad singing is beyond me.
I think you were amazing!
Ok. We must have a dance party! I want to play this game.
Three events blogged, only like 500 to go! Way to make a dent mom.
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