Thanksmas

Thanksmas is something that started many years ago when all of my older siblings were getting married and thus we had to share them on certain holidays. So we would have Thanksgiving all together and then a day or two later have Christmas together. After a several year break...Thanksmas was back!! It was the only bonding thing to do since 4 out of us 5 kids were together. Oh how we missed Shane and Julie and their family!!!

We started the day off with an amazing spread of food. Each family brought a party finger food and a sweet! It was of a most scrumptious nature!! We took some breaks throughout the eating to get some pictures of the family bonding! Thanks to my sister-in-law Heidi for the great pictures. Also, let us all remember that there is a good reason for my chubbiness in these photographs!


Grandma with the oldest grandchild, Kennedy


My cute niece Cassidy and I! Her parents say that she looks and acts a lot like me..poor girl!


My nephew Brock digging in!


My brother and 2 sisters! Somehow we need to photo shop my brother Shane it for it to be complete!


My nephews...what studs!!

After we ate, we went downstairs and all of the grand kids had drawn names and exchanged gifts. Clara was pretty excited about her church activity felt book from her cousin Mitchell! We had 13 out of the 17 grand kids all together! Crazy fun!








Next, the adults did a white elephant exchange! We did nice gifts instead of gag gifts. It was fun, but there wasn't as much stealing and drama as I would have liked! Eric and I scored!!





Then came the candy bar game. We did this in Shane's honor since he was in Washington D.C. This is something Shane and his family would do at Christmas every year.


Kenzie and Cassidy showing off their goods!


Kennedy and Crew...who went around and sampled as much candy as he could!

Mama Jo was all prepared for Christmas. She had gifts for everyone. Most people got some kind of BYU gear. However, she found something red to make my hubby happy! He who likes to be unique! I scored a fancy paper cutter while Clara Jo ended up with an Elmo lunch box which included videos and a C.D. player! We were spoiled!!









The most amazing gift that was given was the first volume of my mom's life history. She had spent countless hours working on this special book for each of us. The first volume just covered her parents and siblings. I can't wait for what is to come. What a treasure!











As you can plainly see, Thanksmas was an ultimate success! It was so fun to be together and revive this splendid tradition. Simply tender!!!

Cold Lost

The day after Thanksiving, Eric and I dropped little one off at Grandma's and headed to the Utah football game. A lady from Eric's work offered us free tickets. Yes please!!! They played against Colorado and totally lost. It was also really cold and frigid. However, amongst all of this...it was still fun!

Thanksgiving

We had a great Thanksgiving this year. We had four out of the five Rushing siblings together for some good food and fun. We got a few pictures outside with the festive fall background. We have so much to be grateful for!!

Halloween

We were excited to celebrate Halloween this year with Clara Jo. She would be able to get into the festivities a little more since she is a whole two years old.
First of all, my sister got her a darling costume for FREE! You can't beat that. She was our little Champ Bear and she loved her costume. She is into the Care Bears and knows exactly who they are!

We started the day off by going to my school's Halloween parade. I lucked out by having Halloween off again this year. I don't think my cute job share partner is going to let me off the hook for next year though! So it was fun showing off my cute Care Bear. However, Clara Jo wasn't so happy at my school. I think she got frightened by the scary looking costumes and the tons of people everywhere. So our visit there was short and sweet!





We left my school and headed to Dad's place of employment to show her off to his co-workers. She was much happier there since no one was dressed in a frightening fashion and they gave her candy! Notice how dressed up the Father is! Party pooper!!!



Later on in the evening, we met up with some neighbor friends and went trick or treating to a few houses and then had pizza and hung out. Clara enjoyed herself and understood this whole getting candy thing!!! On the doorstep she would say, "Candy please!" Until next year!!!