Merry Christmas

Last night I had the opportunity to watch the broadcast of the First Presidency Christmas message. I am always touched by the humility and love of these brethren, especially when they testify of our Savior and His birth. I believe it was President Uchtdorf who described the simplistic surroundings of the first Christmas. He was not born in a mansion with fine silk and a warm bed. Instead, He was born in a manger and wrapped in swaddling clothes. The birth and life of Jesus Christ is the most important event that occurred in history and yet it was accompanied by the most humble of surroundings, I love that simple lesson. If those surroundings were enough for Him I imagine a humble Christmas celebration should be enough for me. I am grateful for the reminder that the real and only important gift was already given so many Christmas' ago. I imagine the best way to celebrate His birth is by following His example and serving others, I hope we can all find more joy this season by doing that!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

*If you missed the broadcast you can watch it at www.lds.org!

How Much Pie Should One Person Eat?

Riley and I haven't been up to too much except for eating 2-3 pieces of PIE every night for the past week! You might think I'm kidding but it's true we have been pie eating fools - but if we can't do it during the holidays when can we?

The three of us on Thanksgiving day. We were with the Peck fam on Thursday. We spent ALL day eating, looking through the ads and playing at a school's gym. Randy surprised all of us with a Christmas bonus for Mountainland Exteriors (his business). Randy and Diane are so generous Riley and I are so grateful for the extra money!

We played in a gym and Riley was pushing Kennady around in this garbage can - I'm sure it was clean. She thought it was so funny. The other neices and nephews wanted to do the same thing but unfortunately they fell face first on the tile floor - it didn't work out very well for them :(

We played dodgeball and as you can tell the guys didn't take it easy on any of us...they threw so hard and fast that I spent all of my time in prison.

Friday we spent another Thanksgiving with the Perry family at my church. We played a bunch of crazy games - the Perry family is sure a riot to be with!

One of the games that we played was Human Paper, Rock, Scissors. You can imagine how silly this game can be especially with a bunch of silly adults...unfortunately in our fun we trampled a few kids - oh well parents need to have fun too!

It is definitely safe to say that my favorite thing about Thanksgiving is BLACK FRIDAY. The Peck women sure know how to shop. We begin at 4am and usually collapse late that afternoon. All of the Peck women participate and are assigned a HOT item to run after and retrieve. This year I give the MVS (Most Valuable Shopper) to Lexi. She sacrificed her fingers and almost her life to get a KitchenAid - thanks for the good memories ladies!Lexi the MVSThe Goods

We are smiling in front of Target, mainly because we weren't waiting in the huge line to enter the store. I'll tell you a secret all civility goes out the windo on Black Friday - the Peck women butt in line. Yikes, don't tell anyone!

Every year Riley puts up a Christmas Village underneath our Christmas tree...we never thought much of it until this year now that Kennady is around. It was pure torture for her not being able to touch EVERYTHING! At first we thought it was cute that she was helping Riley...After a while we got sick of telling her, "No, no..." or "Be careful that could break...", etc. We did what any parent would do and placed our cute little daughter in a plastic tub to keep her away from the village pieces. She didn't let that stop her though...She eventually got the Gum Drop Tree and brought it into the plastic tub with her...she was sure it was real candy until she plucked on off and ate it :) Luckily, she took it right out after she tasted it!
Kennady is giving Riley a hug for saving her from the plastic prison... I've been really impressed ever since the village was finished she has only touched it once - I'm sure it is tempting but she justs sits and stares at it! Thanks Riley for the fun tradition.

I hope you all have a wonderful holiday season!