Dickson Christmas Party

we had our Dickson Christmas party tonight over at Dode & Stephanie's house. they have a great house for get togethers, it has a living room and a family room. that way the kids can have fun in one room and the adults can visit in the other.

we started out the night with a great turkey dinner. while we all ate we called mom and dad on skype so they could talk with all the grandkids.

next we did the nativity with the kids acting it out.

William (Samuel the Lamanite) and Seth (a rogue cow)

Miriam and Savannah (sheep)

William (Joseph) and Jenna (Mary)

Jenna (Mary) and Ellie (Jesus)

Elizabeth (angel) Jared & Isaac (shepherds)

Allison, Anastaya & Lainey (wise women) Darcy (Jesus)

mom and dad (inn keepers)

Jacob (teenager)

Ellie (cute girl)

Grandma and Grandpa (??????)

it was so fun to get together as family and have mom and dad get to "join" us!

Dickson Fun!

for the last 12 years the "dickson girls" have gotten together to make ornaments.

we each come up with an ornament, make a sample & a kit for each person participating. so when you leave you have 4 to 7 new ornaments for your tree! we have so much fun!

Stephanie makes homemade hoagie rolls and we all bring good sandwich makings.

she also makes a great dessert!

there is usually more eating and talking then crafting!

Stephanie is the one that always hosts the ornament party and Dode most years runs the daycare! this year Sheri, Stephanie, aunt Viv, myself and our good friend Robyn and her daughter all came to the party. at about 8:30pm Dode announced to the kids that "we should send aunt Janice to go get Randy & Lisa's kids so they could spend the weekend!" so next thing i knew myself and four of Dode's kids where in their big van headed to Coupeville (an hour and a half drive) to pick up Randy's four oldest kids.

we got back to Arlington at about 12:30am!

i had already told Stephanie's girls i would have a sleepover with them so i ended up sleeping in the girls room with 6 fun little girls!

we got to bed around 2am! =)
(i had gotten up for work that morning at 4:30am)

family fun

so now that i have my saturdays free it gives me some time to spend with family! today i went out geocaching with Dode & Stephanie. we went out to the pilchuck tree farm to seek a cache that someone had dedicated to Stephanie "FarmGirl".

it was about a mile hike out to the cache.

as you can see we found it!

on our way to and from FarmGirls cache we looked for some micro caches. (i think micro caches should not be aloud in the woods!)

we all had a great time even though it was a bit cold!

after we got back to Dode's house the girls found that the small pond next to their house was frozen.

while out playing on the ice Miriam found some thin ice a "fell in". (the pond is only 6 or so inches deep) her nice sisters brought her in and put her in a hot bath to warm up. after running around for a while after her bath she thought her feet were still cold so what else is a girl to do?

(she fell a sleep!)

our route

this is the route we took when we went to see mom and dad in Nauvoo.

we had so much fun and saw some great people

and landscape.

we also saw some things we had never seen before.

so why the long way home you ask

need i say more?!