December Activities excluding Christmas

Shanda, Devin (Santa) and Derrick some of my favorite kids. They dressed up and shared the Christmas Spirit with visitors who came to see their Granpas Christmas village & Nativity. I took Shaunie and the girls to see the Christmas village. They could have stayed much longer but it was too cold outside.
This was taken just before Evelyn asked Santa to bring her "New Panties, Please" for Christmas. The funny thing, I'm pretty sure "panties" isn't in Santa Devons vocabulary.
The pains of being beautiful start at a young age.
Auntie Michelle had just applied beautiful eye shadow on Evelyn and she had to show it off. Both girls love putting on make up. One of their favorite things I got them were the Princess Chap Sticks. Until its gone it will be applied every two minutes, sometimes on Drama & Drampas lips.
Its nice to have a picture of Jilly were she isn't doing the "Cheese Ball Grin" she inherited from her daddy. I don't think we have more than two pictures of Ben where he isn't pulling his version of the same.
I got to make a gingerbread house with the girls. We had been talking about it on the phone so it was one of the first tings we did when the girls arrived.
My Kitchen, me and the girls had Royal Icing all over by the time we were finished making our house. Then as long as they were here they were able to pick off the candy and eat it, yum! We caught Jilly picking off the candy, licking the icing off then dropping the candy on the floor. Then one night when Evelyn was ready for bed I found her biting off all the candy on the tree. She wouldn't go to bed until she had all the candy off. Thanks Shaunie for choosing to fight other battles and letting your girls eat candy like they did over Christmas. What a sweet memory it is!
Most of you know Chuck plays the bagpipe. Thankfully he plays outside most of the time. The girls were very interested in watching Drampa play, they say, "He's loud."
He is getting pretty good, you'll have to believe me that he is playing Amazing Grace in this picture. As soon as he is done with piping school we are hoping he gets an invitation to play with the Boise Highlanders. Notice the snow in the background, it was actually snowing when I took this picture.
I've always wanted to have a table scape on my table and found that one of the benefits is though Chuck still lays out all his work stuff on the table, he'll clean it up when he's done so the table looks good again. I used my silver snowflake napkin rings, snowflake runner, and three snowflake ornaments all from Pottery Barn. Then finished off with silver chargers, white plates, snowflake votives and the Southern Living At Home Pine Sprig Tray. We enjoyed our winter table scape until the girls came then it was changed to the plastic cloth, Winne The Pooh and Princess place mats and Melamine dishes.
I've not mentioned it on my blog but those of you who read Ben & Shaunies know Evelyn and Jill are going to get a baby brother, Gordon Benjamin, to torture & love the first part of April. I couldn't resist this Classic Pooh outfit when I saw it. I believe they are going to bless him in it. Jilly was playing with me and a bowl of marshmallows and would open her mouth just as I took the picture. I was trying to get one of her just being Jill until I realized she is "just being Jill" when she is goofing off. Evelyn, who doesn't have comedic timing at all had to pose with her mouth open. I managed to get one of Jill without her mouth closed and true to form she has her cheese ball grin. I love having little "photo shoots" when the girls are not doing anything special rather doing every day things. Those are the precious times I so love with my grand children.


For our ward party I made Brandon & Kara Thompson Joseph and Mary costumes. They loved the cutting put part of the process. Both Brandon and Kara were in Chuck and my nursery class, they are the cutest little people and made an adorable Mary & Joseph.

On the first Sunday in December we came home from church to find a heard of sheep walking down Central Avenue, right past us. I had Chuck stop at the top of our street so I could take these pictures. I love the one with the sheep dog doing his work. I don't know how many sheep were there but there were only two dogs and three shepherds. All winter the sheep travel this way to fields where they eat the straw or hay down to the ground. The other day as I travelled up Gem Ave there was a herd of sheep eating my brother Muggys field down where I believe he had wheat planted. They chomp it all down then move onto the next field via the nearest road. This woudl never happen in Torrance, Ca. Girin:)

Uncle Dan & The Christmas Suckers

The vase Christmas Suckers proved to be too much of a temptation for Dan & Evelyn at Christmas. They were having so much fun eating the suckers I made this slide show becuase all thier pictures were good ones.

Winter Wonderland

It's about time we got on board. I enjoy reading everyones blog and the blogging format seems like a good way to KIT with everyone.

We are just coming out of the most beautiful winter since we've lived in Idaho. There was so much snow this was the heaviest snowfall SW Idaho has had in 12 years. I heard from people who've grown up here that this past winter was just like the winters they expereinced growing up. I really enjoyed the mountains covered in white surrounding our little valley, so much nicer than brown. This picture was taken on our way home from McCall on January 13, 08 on Highway 55. We were driving about 40 mph and I unrolled the window and took several shots of the sunlight peeking through the snow covered trees.

This is the official Cluff Family Christmas Portrait taken on Christmas Eve. The girls and Bailey (my grandpuppy) all decided to wear a ribbon from the packages we had just opened.
We all over ate, spent more than we should have however; I believe we all created lasting memories. Best of all was spending time together. Dan & Elke flew in from Southern California. Ben, Shaunie, Evelyn & Jillian drove from Provo, Utah and Michelle and Nate live 40 minutes away in Boise Idaho. Chuck and I cherished every minute of having all our family together it was the best part of Christmas.


All of the shopping and planning was fun and exciting but then, just when I thought I had everything done, a month before Christmas...Chuck decided he wanted pajamas for everyone to open Christmas Eve; like we did every year until the kids began to move out.
He and I always sewed the three kids new pj's a couple of nights before Christmas. Sooooo...he got me on board saying he would help and I went shopping for matching flannel, 24 yards! I ended up finding penguin flannel in three colors. I didn't have it in me to make tops for the pj's and ended up purchasing color coordinated shirts to match everyones bottoms.

Pre-shrinking the material took an entire afternoon. Then I cut and sewed and sewed and sewed and ending up breaking my serger. (It is 29 years old and currently getting an overhaul) I finished sewing the pj's at Patricia's house on her serger. What a process! Yes, if you are wondering... Chuck did not help with his gramd scheme. When I had time to work on them he was out of town working, just the way the cookie crumbled. Now if you are wondering what they looked like?????? Yes, we did have a picture or two taken, check them out.


Though he may be getting older each year he still has the kid in him. Chuck was telling the kids how he kicked down the old kitchen cabinets when we demolished our kitchen and our photographer was quick on the shutter and got this one.





I actually didn't sew the Evelyn & Jillian's pj's but found these pretty close to what we had. They have little penguins on them and are the color of thier parent's pj's. Evelyn wasn't happy she had to have her picture taken as you can see in the one we all have black on. Michelle had just the right bribe, we were all so happy when Evelyn decided life was good as long as she held Bailey. (pronounced Bi' lay in Evelynese)


Here we are all in our coordianting pj's. Dan & Elke are in red. Michelle is sitting in yellow with Evelyn & Bailey on her lap. Her husband Nate is behind her. Ben & Shaunie are in blue with Jillian and there's Chuck and I right in the middle.
I have to thank Chuck for his inspiration, Patricia for her serger, the hlepful clerk at the fabric store, and all six of the kids for being such good sports!

Now that I sort of have this blogging figured out I'll work on more posts and please feel free to comment.