So if I had one word to describe all of our holiday festivities this year it would be...RELAXING! Amazing huh? But it really was.
We had our annual Begg family party at my aunt's house the Sunday before Christmas, a potluck, so I only had to make one dish. Then over the course of the next four days, we as a family made some homemade gifts for our friends and family.
We attended church service Christmas Eve and they had added a 2:30 service which was perfect, as it gave us time to get home and prepare some of our dishes for our annual Mexican Christmas Eve dinner at Uncle Gene & Aunt Joan's house. We did stay a little late at their place, so the kiddos didn't get to bed quite as early as I would have liked. But Santa was able to complete his task and get to bed before midnight!
Everyone was up by 6:30 am (I think I'll be putting "telling time" high on my school to-do list this year). Santa had filled the stockings, and both Nolan and Leah recieved a gift from him. (Mom & Dad were not too sure about Nolan...we thought he might get coal this year) Both kids were pleased with what Santa had brought and we had a leisurely gift-opening morning. With no where to be until noon, we had time to eat breakfast, get the house back in order and play with our new toys before we headed to Mema's & Grandpa's for our Thorne gift exchange.
The gift exchange here was a little more frenzied than mom would like. I don't exactly know who gave the kids what in som cases...and it was hard keeping an eye on what each Nolan & Leah received, as everyone in the room was opening gifts at the same time. But both kids did well thanking people for what they received. (Thank you cards will hopefully go out in the next week or so).
After the gifts, the kids played with their new toys/games and then we headed home for a couple of hours to play some new Wii games we had received. We then returned again to Mema's for dinner (I didn't know what to do with myself for the 2 hours the kids were playing-as Chris prepared the entire Christmas dinner this year.)
Then on Sunday, we got up and did it all over again at my mom's house. Our menu for that dinner was lasagna, salad & bread. I baked a few loaves of homemade bread that morning and we headed to Somerset for the day. This gift exchange was less hectic as each family handed their gifts out to the kids seperately. Which you would think would help me out...but I'm not sure I paid too much attention to Nolan opening his gifts :( I did however take lots of pictures...so hopefully those will refresh my poor memory. For the rest of the day we visited, the kids played, we ate some food and then ate some more, and toward the end of the day, I even had time to play a game of Scrabble with my mom and Aunt Susan. It was lovely :)
Now...it's back to the daily grind and I am now tasked with trying to figure out how to do the financials for an S-Corporation, as Scott has filed to incorporate his business. With that comes learning how to do payroll (which could be a good thing for me, since I'll now receive a salary). Of course the downside is that there still has to be money coming in to pay our employees, ie: Scott & myself, so we'll have to wait and see how this all pans out. Stay tuned...
Though I started a long list of goals for this New Year...it basically boils down to this:
Fine tune my time management skills so I can get done what NEEDS to get done for my sanity and still have time to "Just Be" with Scott and the kids. Wish me luck.
Happy New Year to all of our friends & family and may 2011 be your best year yet!
New photo sharing site
I've created a Shutterfly Share site to view more photos that are also more easy to view if anyone wants to check it out. I'll update the photo site the same time I update a blog and you'll be notified of both.
Merry Christmas everyone!
http://thornefamilyescapades.shutterfly.com/
Merry Christmas everyone!
http://thornefamilyescapades.shutterfly.com/
December 5, 2010
Dear Family & Friends,
The holiday season is upon us and I hope during this busy time of year everyone can have a chance to reflect on the "Reason for the Season" as well as spend QUALITY time with loved ones. As most of you should know by now, we no longer send out Christmas Cards. Since I now have the Blog, those interested parties will already know what is happening in our lives as well as have had the opportunity to view current photos of the family. Basically this is YOUR official holiday greetings from the Thorne Family!
We are starting off the month of December busy as usual. Scott and I began December in Sonora where Scott and his cousin were finishing up a 3-day of training course they have been conducting and another training is scheduled for mid-December that will take us out of town once again. And of course there is all the Christmas festivities that began for our family the weekend after Thanksgiving with choosing our Christmas Tree. We chose the simple route this year and selected one from the Rescue Fire House Christmas tree lot.
But the most important event in our family (aside from Christmas) is that we have a birthday coming up this week. Leah turns six on Dec. 9th (even though it seems like 16 yrs. on some days); and she had a tea party with a few of her friends and family to celebrate. Leah wanted a "dress-up" tea party where the girls could play dress up, so we turned her bedroom into a dressing room and the girls even put on a pseudo-fashion show for us. And Chris (Mema) went all out again on her "teapot" cake and the individual "tea cup" cakes that each girl could take home.
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I also broke down & purchased a new camera since my favorite photo camera crashed and burned last year during my Valentine photo shoot. So one (of many) goals for this coming year is to take more "quality" photos once again. With that being said, I've had several people mention that it is hard to "see" photos on the blog. So I will be setting up a photo account very soon and in addition to a few "highlighted" photos on the blog, I'll also have a photo site you can go to view recent photos that I take.
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As a summary to our year I will just list off the things that occurred during this year that we are thankful for.
We are thankful for:
Love,
Jill, Scott, Leah & Nolan
The holiday season is upon us and I hope during this busy time of year everyone can have a chance to reflect on the "Reason for the Season" as well as spend QUALITY time with loved ones. As most of you should know by now, we no longer send out Christmas Cards. Since I now have the Blog, those interested parties will already know what is happening in our lives as well as have had the opportunity to view current photos of the family. Basically this is YOUR official holiday greetings from the Thorne Family!
We are starting off the month of December busy as usual. Scott and I began December in Sonora where Scott and his cousin were finishing up a 3-day of training course they have been conducting and another training is scheduled for mid-December that will take us out of town once again. And of course there is all the Christmas festivities that began for our family the weekend after Thanksgiving with choosing our Christmas Tree. We chose the simple route this year and selected one from the Rescue Fire House Christmas tree lot.
But the most important event in our family (aside from Christmas) is that we have a birthday coming up this week. Leah turns six on Dec. 9th (even though it seems like 16 yrs. on some days); and she had a tea party with a few of her friends and family to celebrate. Leah wanted a "dress-up" tea party where the girls could play dress up, so we turned her bedroom into a dressing room and the girls even put on a pseudo-fashion show for us. And Chris (Mema) went all out again on her "teapot" cake and the individual "tea cup" cakes that each girl could take home.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I also broke down & purchased a new camera since my favorite photo camera crashed and burned last year during my Valentine photo shoot. So one (of many) goals for this coming year is to take more "quality" photos once again. With that being said, I've had several people mention that it is hard to "see" photos on the blog. So I will be setting up a photo account very soon and in addition to a few "highlighted" photos on the blog, I'll also have a photo site you can go to view recent photos that I take.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
As a summary to our year I will just list off the things that occurred during this year that we are thankful for.
We are thankful for:
- Our health. We've all remained healthy and out of hospitals and ER's this year!
- Scott's business opportunities. His business venture has kept us with a roof over our heads, clothes on our backs, food in our bellies and even a few extra $.
- Our family. Without the help of many of them, we could not have gotten as far in the business as we have. Whether it was watching the kids so I could help Scott, working on Scott's website and other computer stuff, or kick starting the training aspect of the business, none of these would have been possible without our family members efforts.
- The ability to travel. Though several vacations were pre-paid and pre-planned for, some unexpected travel experiences have come up through Scott's trainings and our homeschool group as well; and it has been very nice indeed.
- Our friends. They too have supported us emotionally this year in more ways than they could ever know and we are grateful and very blessed to have such a wonderful network of friends.
- And last but not least: Leah & Nolan. Without them, our life would be (dare I say it) boring. :) They keep us on our toes, make us laugh, make us cry, (and sometimes scream) but at the days end they have brought so much joy that it make it all worth it.
Love,
Jill, Scott, Leah & Nolan
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