The Rowell Record: Christmas 2008

Christmas is my favorite time of year. I absolutely love it. I love the music, the feelings and the time I get to spend with my family. This year I was blessed to be able to have my family (my parents, sister and brother in law and brother) spend Christmas at my house. We had a lot of fun. It is always great to be able to get together with family and create memories.

Some of the traditions that we have is to have a nice meal (Jordan ALWAYS cooks the dinners because he is REALLY good at it), open a present (pajamas), play games and remember the true meaning of Christmas. This year we had a wonderful dinner of Pasta Carbonera, played a couple of Christmas games and watched the "Joy to the World" and wrote letters to Jesus.

Some of the games we played are the Christmas unwrapping game. The object of the game is to unwrap a present that has been wrapped 15 to 16 times (thanks Lindsay for wrapping the prize). The catch is that you have to roll dice and whenever you get doubles of any number you get a chance to unwrap the gift. But, you don't get to use just your hands, you have to put on a winter hat, a scarf and gloves before taking on the task of unwrapping the present. But, when the next person gets doubles, you have to take of the gear and hand it to the next person. It is a lot of fun and the kids LOVE it. Lucas was the winner of this game. He got a $10 gift certificate to Walmart. He was REALLY excited to put the card in his wallet and go into the store and pick out a football and pay for it like a grown up. It was all he talked about for days.

Here some photos of the game...

Luke trying to get on the gloves, hat and scarf before he can try to open up the present.

Grandpa Marvin trying his best to be the winner.

Grandma Marcia moving as fast as she can to put on the gear and unwrap.

The next game we played was the Santa Beard game. You divide into 2 teams. The object of this game is to put Vaseline on your face (where a beard would be) and then a run up to a bowl of cotton balls and stick your face in the bowl and see how many cotton balls you can stick on your face. You can't use any hands to help you and you have to run back to the starting point trying not to let any cotton balls fall. The team that has the most cotton balls wins.

Here are pictures of the game....

Aunt Lindsay with a beard of cotton balls

Grandpa Marvin and Dylan dueling for the most cotton balls on their face

Uncle Tyler running to the finish line

Jordan really going for it... He doesn't mess around when he plays a game.

Dylan doing a fabulous job and walking very carefully to the finish line.

Luke with a white 5 o'clock shadow

Luke and Jordan counting up their cotton balls. Their team won the game!!!

We also played the LEFT and RIGHT Christmas game. I read a story that had a lot of LEFTS and RIGHTs words it in and the players will pass the wrapped present whatever direction the story tells them to go. By the end of the story whoever has the wrapped present in their hand wins. Dylan won this game. (With a little help from Mom who read the story)

We then watched the video "Joy to the World" to remind myself as well as my children why we celebrate Christmas. It is a great video that really testifies of the amazing story of our Savior's birth and the essential mission he had here on earth.

We all then wrote a letter to Jesus telling him what gift we are going to give him this year. This is the 2nd time we have done this and we were able to read our previous letter (this is all confidential) and see how we did on our previous commitments to Christ. I wish I could say that I gave Christ everything that I told I would give him in 2008, but I didn't. So, I wrote a new letter with new hopes and goals for this year. I pray that I will do better in 2009.

We ended the night by putting the boys to bed and getting Christmas set up. It was a great Christmas Eve and I am blessed to have such wonderful family to share it with.

Christmas Day

Christmas Day started out with everyone waking up and seeing what Santa brought them. Santa brought Luke some Heely's , Dylan some transformers and Mason a Tonka truck. Santa also blessed with a brand new fish tank with 3 goldfish. (On a side note, those fish lasted about 2 days and they all died. We then proceeded to buy 3 more and they died the next day. We haven't had a lot of luck with fish)

They also received some fun stocking stuffers and played with them for a half hour or so. We then proceeded to have Christmas breakfast. After breakfast we started to open up the presents. The boys were spoiled again and received way to much stuff.

I always tell myself that I am not going to get them a ton of stuff but it always turns out we do. We gave ourselves a budget for each boy and we stayed close to that budget but still it was way to much stuff. They would have been absolutely content on 2 to 3 presents, but we feel we have to get them more. I don't know why we do it but we do. It is just more junk that sits in their toy bins that they don't play with. I swear next year will be different!!!

Jordan really spoiled me. He gave me Oprah tickets. Jordan and my dad spent a lot of time figuring out how they could send us to Oprah. They figured out a way for my mom and I to go to Chicago in September. They told us by giving us a letter and in the letter were some clues.

These were the clues:

A picture of a harp + O = (Harpo)
A picture of a bowl of stew + My grandfather's name (Dee) + O = (Studio)
A picture of a chic + A + a picture of a green light = (Chicago)

It took my mom and I a couple of minutes to put the clues together. When we got it, we screamed and were very excited. It will be a once in a lifetime experience. To be honest, I am not a real fan of Oprah herself. She kind of bugs me but I really do like her show. I hope the show we go to is a good one. Even if it isn't, I know we will have a great time. Harpo Studios here we come!!!!

Jordan got a truck for Christmas. Before you start to assume anything, let me just clarify. I gave him some money to go towards a truck. He has wanted a truck for such a long time. I finally told him if he could pay for the payments on a truck, he could get one. So, he found himself a part time job. He works at Wee Care Pediatrics in Layton one night a week. He found a truck that was well used and thought he would fix it up. He had it for about 2 months and he just sold it. He figures if he is going to work, he might as well get a nicer truck. So, he is in the market again for a truck. Stay tuned I am sure he will have another truck in a month or so.

Besides that, we all were very blessed this Christmas. I can't express how grateful for everything that I have. I feel guilty many times because I have been given so much and I know there are so many people out there that don't have much. I don't understand why I have been given so much, but I am deeply humble and grateful for everything in my life.

Here are just a few pictures of my family on Christmas morning...