A Few Pictures of our Christmas Vacation!

We had a wonderful Christmas vacation this year!  Boy, did it every go by quickly!  We were all together for a few days, which doesn't happen very often anymore.  Here are a few of the highlights of our Christmas time.

Brian and the Dad are getting the batter ready for the annual free-range fruitcake.

Everyone has to touch the spoon in order to have good luck the next year.  Susan was at work, so she missed out on all the luck.  I touched the spoon after I took the picture.  A selfie just plain didn't work in this one.

Chelsea whomped us in the wrapping paper game.

But we had fun anyway!

Amy and Susan are pulling apart a Christmas Cracker!

Can you tell who won?  Susan won a die.

Now Brian and Chelsea are giving it a try.  Who will win?

Chelsea won!  She won a dumb little cellophane fish that was alive.  I wanted to kill it with fire.

The winners!

It's Christmas Eve dinner!

As soon as the dishes are finished, we will go looking at Christmas lights!

We had cocoa with peppermint sticks after we got back from looking at lights.  As always, I like our lights the best!

I'm surprised Chelsea is still awake!

The kiddos are all in jammies and ready for bed.  Santa doesn't come until everyone's asleep, you know.

The Dad and Susan are having a Banana/Kiwi war.  Dad hates kiwi, and Susan hates bananas.

The Mom's Boston jacket has absolutely had it.  Susan got me a new light green jacket because the old one is ragged.

Opening presents Christmas morning!

"I think I already have this shirt."

When we were done, it looked like a tornado had passed through the place.

The dad is making new cards for the wrapping paper game.

We had our Musical Mayhem on Christmas afternoon.  It was fun!

I'm not sure what we're laughing at, but apparently it was hilarious.

Steve and Angela came the day after Christmas!

This is a puck that Steve got for Brian when he went to Detroit.

Steve and Angela made us a bird poop ornament to put at the bottom of the tree where all the birds poop.  It's a Decker thing.  (You wouldn't understand.)

Brian's helping Susan clean the dirty bathtub.

We played "Headbands."  Amy was a nude beach.  One of her clues was that she had naked people all over her.

We went to Red Rock's playground and took family pictures.  Steve and Brian kept photo-bombing!

After Amy's non-Homecoming Talk, Carol, Mark and the McMullins came over for dinner.  McMullins brought some Duck Dynasty cookies for dessert!

Katie and a cookie!

Aren't they hilarious!?!

Getting ready to play a round of the wrapping paper game!

"Stay out of my section."

Angela and Chelsea smoked the rest of us.  Susan said, "It's because the Decker's aren't good at this game."

I think we're good.  Well....

See that glint in Chelsea's eye?

The first match of the game!

Making tamales for New Year's Eve.

We had Family Home Evening on Monday night.  Angela was introduced to the proper way to lead "When the Family Gets Together,"  right down to the five little taps on the threshold.

Dad started us out reading the Christmas book from the Berretts.  Then he read "Touselhead."

Steve (the Experminator), cooked an egg in a paper cup in the fireplace.  He ate it!  I tasted it.  It was actually really good!

Getting a pomegranate ready to eat.

We always put together a puzzle at Christmas time.

Steve doing DDR.  His feet are a blur!

Brian is watching the Winter Classic Hockey game on New Year's Day!

Amy is getting her stuff ready to head back to BYU.

Everyone has gone.  We got out another puzzle to work on.  This one has 1000 pieces.  It's a mystery puzzle.  After it's done, we read a little booklet that comes with it, and we solve a mystery.  It's been a great vacation.  I hate to see it end.

Amy is Home!

Our baby girl is home from her mission!  Actually, she's all grown-up, beautiful, and hopefully more confident!  Dad, Susan, Chelsea and I picked her up at the airport while Brian picked up Grandpa.  Carol, Mark, Grandpa and Brian met us at IHOP after we left the airport!

When we first got to the airport, Amy's flight wasn't listed with all the incoming flights.  Eventually, her flight came up with "In Range."  What does that mean?

Chelsea was keeping watch on the board while we were watching at the revolving doors where everyone comes out.

They finally posted "Arrived," for Amy's flight!

My baby is home.  It sure feels good to hug that girl again!

I cried.

I may have cried, but Susan bawled like a baby.  Her face is still all red.

Waiting for luggage.

You can tell the dad has had a lot of experience finding luggage at airports.

The last one!  Amy tied a pink ribbon on it so it would be easier to identify.

Here we are in the shuttle going from the airport to the parking lot.

We met Brian with Grandpa at IHOP.

It's almost like she never left!

Carol and Mark met us at IHOP.

Here we all are talking at once.  Some things never change!

Grandpa

Brian and Chelsea

Time to order.

It already feels like she never left.  Welcome home, Amy.

Gingerbread Houses for First Grade!

This is the first year that my class won't be making Snow Globes for Christmas.  I haven't been able to find the right kind of figurines to fit inside lately.  So this year, Michelle Ferguson said maybe we ought to decorate Gingerbread Houses out of graham crackers instead.  She does it every year.  So she taught me how, and we're going to decorate them at school next Friday.  The dad helped me get the houses ready by cutting all the graham crackers with an electric knife.  That certainly made the job a lot faster and cleaner!

When Michelle showed me how to cut the crackers and assemble the houses, she cut each cracker individually with a serrated knife.  Trust your dad to come up with a faster, easier and tidier way to do it!

The cut graham crackers get glue-gunned onto a school milk carton that has been washed, dried, and stapled shut.

We made enough for all twenty-one of my kiddos, and a few to spare--just in case.

There all assembled now.  When I get to school, I'll glue them onto the paper plate bases.

Susan and I decided to do a demo house.  The kids will be using popsicle sticks as knives, so Susan is using one, too, to see how it works!

We didn't have many cute candies around to decorate it with, so we used what we had.

All done, first grade style!  I think the kids will love it!

Christmas Card!

Merry Christmas from the Land of Enchantment!  I love, love, love this time of the year.  I love everything about the Christmas season.  I love the lights.  I love the cookies.  I love the family traditions.  I love getting Christmas cards.  I love the cookies.  I love reflecting on the birth of our Savior.  I love getting together with those we love.  And I love the cookies!

 

The Lord has been mindful of our family still, and we feel very blessed in our trials and in our triumphs.  Now for the yearly run-down:

Doug just started is eighteenth year as County Attorney for McKinley County here in New Mexico.  At church, he is currently serving as Stake Clerk for the eleventh year, now.  He still loves gardening and hiking.

I (Barb) am in my twelfth year teaching first grade at Red Rock Elementary School here in Gallup.  At church, I’m serving as the Primary President.  I also love hiking and gardening, and I also am an avid quilter.

Brian and Chelsea are living in Albuquerque.  Brian finishes up his Law Degree this month, and will take the NM Bar in February.  Chelsea is a kindergarten teacher.

Steve and Angela are living and working in Provo.  Steve is getting ready to start work on a Master’s Degree, and Angela is a catalog designer for a publishing company.

Amy will be finishing up serving a year-and-a-half mission in the Oklahoma City Mission for the LDS Church, and will be coming home December 19.  We are excited to see her.  “I’ll Be Home for Christmas,” has taken on new meaning for me this year.  In January, she will be heading back to BYU to finish up her degree in Elementary Ed.

Susan is in her first year of college.  She felt like she wasn’t quite ready to leave home to go away to school yet, so she’s doing her first year of college at UNM-G right here in Gallup.  We’re glad.  Doug and I weren’t quite ready to be empty-nesters just yet.

We wish you and your family the joy of Christmas that we feel.  We hope that the Savior’s love touches you not only this time of the year, but always.                                                                                                          The Decker Bunch