Merry White Christmas!

Matt got a new game and lots of cool clothes.

Josh loved his Spongebob PJ's.

Matt got 3 new boxes of K'nex.

Shawna got some great books from Grammie.

Shawna loved her new clothes.

Josh was totally surprised and excited about his new CD player.

Steve got me some great new jewelry.

Alli and Steve modeled her new shirts.

Lego Star Wars for Playstation. YES!!!

And Lego Batman.

Last week was a busy one for our family. We started the week with Allison's band Christmas concert. Wednesday was scouts for both boys. Thursday saw us divided into three groups. (I REALLY need a clone of myself as I was supposed to be in three places at once.) Steve went to his school staff party. I dropped the kids off at the church to make crafts, and then I raced over to the school board meeting where my ASB officers and I were granted certificates of thanks for our can food drive efforts. Friday morning I was absolutely down for the count and very sick, but I made it through one more day of school before the break.

Alli saved us this year with our cookie making frenzy. She made peanut butter and chocolate chip cookies by herself. Then Sunday, I dragged myself out of bed long enough to make sugar cookie dough. Steve took the kids to church while I passed out. Then about 7 pm, we rolled out the dough and cut out 6 batches worth of cookies. Monday we frosted everything. Then we put them on plates and delivered them to friends for family night. It was fun, but it was a test in will power to get everything done.

On Tuesday, we traveled down to my parents to exchange presents and have a great pre-Christmas dinner. Robbie loved his new bowling set, and my kids favorite gift was a fantastic coin collecting book. They have been scavenging coins to add to the book ever since.

Merry Christmas! What a fantastic day we had. We had a nice leisurely morning (of course Josh was up at 6 am), but the rest of us slept in a little longer. We had to ask Shawna if she was interested in what Santa brought her. Her reply, "in a minute, mom." If you know Shawna, that is SO uncharacteristic, we had to smile. Of course, she was up moments later. Steve made us all breakfast while the kids perused the unwrapped items and their stockings. Then all the chaos began. We tried to keep it under control with only one present being opened at a time, so it was a fairly relaxing day.

After the "opening", we drove down to visit sick Linda. We brought a care package of soup, rolls, and cookies. It was nice seeing her because the kids were heartbroken this morning when they found out she was too sick to drive up. We spent a couple of hours with her, and then returned home for Christmas dinner and a family movie- WALL-E. Lots of fun. We are headed to Wenatchee tomorrow to visit with Greg and Michelle. My favorite present? Steve gave me a trip to Hawaii over spring break. Can you say, "Aloha!"

Missing you all this beautiful Christmas day. Love and Hugs, The Banda family

Ok, so I've missed a couple of weeks.

Girl Cousins at Turkey Day

Boy Cousins at Turkey Day

Deb, Stephanie, Leah, Michelle and Mom on Turkey Day.

We had soooo much fun over Thanksgiving, but we were all exhausted when it was over. We had all my brothers and sisters (except Randy's family- who were missed!). My brother in law Greg deep fried the turkey in the backyard while all of us inside were busy making pies and rolls and potatoes... and endless amounts of food. It was quite the adventure, but we loved every minute of it.

Of course when everyone left, Shawna got pneumonia and Matt had a terrible cough. So that made the school week very entertaining. Shawna went to first period on Monday, then the doctor, and then was home sleeping for the rest of the week. Matt missed a couple of days, but then was back at school just in time to audition for the school play "Annie". Matt ended up with the part of Rooster (who kidnaps Annie). So we have another play coming up- this time in early March. I'll get more details out as we get closer.

Allison is up to her eyeballs preparing for FOUR events in Science Olympiad this year. She is excited to do a building event. She is researching and building a bridge. That should be entertaining.

Of course now that December is upon us, we are in concert and party mode. My ASB kids and I just finished collecting 12, 179.6 cans for our can food drive. That shatters the previous school record of 6,500 cans. We have been running crazily, so it was time to relax a bit. I spent 3 1/2 hours yesterday with my ASB officers at a big gift exchange, dinner and general fun party. We played several games and I even got to try my hand at Wii tennis. (Very fun, by the way.) We have lots upcoming, but I'll have to share that with you next week.

We've decorated and now I'm in frantic card, cookie and present wrapping mode. There just never seems to be enough time for everything. Much love to you all. I'll try to get back to my weekly blogging. :) Deb