Chritsmas traditions & miraculous surprises!

My motto to live by ~ Live well, Laugh Often, Love Much! ~ Above our front door

Always the hangout - the dining room had a lot of visiting take place!

A nice homey dining room & kitchen full of family!

Again, the basement held a draw for the guys while the gals cleaned up in the kitchen & loaded the dishwasher! Yes, I have one of those now!!!

Our new house holds the big family quite nicely as we gathered to open gifts!

Another view of the gift opening!

And another... all traditions...

Then the SURPRISE part of this message!!!! Cassidy & Luke gave us this picture as a Christmas gift! We are gonna be Grandpa & Grandma in July!!! How FUN & EXCITING!!! Actually, they told us a few weeks ago but were waiting till Christmas to tell the rest of the family so she'd be father along - let me tell you, that was hard news to keep quiet! But now I can tell everybody, so here we are!!! Cass has been feeling good - just a little tired - they are very excited! As are the rest of us!

Merry Christmas to you all & to all a Good Night!

Deb

Christmas Families...

The whole Olivier family ~ all siblings ~ celebrate another Christmas evening together!

Even my uncle Lloyd spent the evening with us as he & Dad left later that night for a hunting trip to New Mexico!

Kieth & Deb's family on Christmas night ~ Chancie & Aaron had to leave right after dinner that day to go to his family's celebration.

Bryan & Sharon & boys.

Scott & Diana with Jackie & Brad & their family

Steve & Molly & family - even Austin & Sarah got to join us!

Sonja & her kids ~ Practically all the families were here! Of course we missed Jenna & family in Hawaii & Jari & family in Montana & Chancie & Aaron ~ we did think of you guys & missed you! Hope you had a fabulous holiday too!!!

Deb

Twas the Night Before Christmas...

Merry Christmas to All of You! From the Smith Household!

Christmas Eve we went to church & then hosted the annual Christmas Eve celebration with a soup supper with some of both of our families & even some neighbors!

By the end of the evening 'the stockings were hung' but no fireplace this year - so we improvised & used the railing on the stairway - it worked out just fine!

Of course Kieth read "The Night Before Christmas" to the whole crowd at the end of the evening & it was a big hit to the young...

... and the not as young!!!

The parlor was the home of the Christmas tree this year - a good sit & visit room!

The ping pong table & the foosball table in the basement made for some good entertainment throughout the evening.

Here are the Smiths - along with a couple Ayottes & even a Baenen! (sp?)

Kannan found Chancie the old "Sweet Valley High" game by going on-line! I think she was happy to get it don't you?!? Brings back all the old Easter games the girls played over all the years up at Larry & Linda's with those girls!

Here are the Smith ladies along with an honorary Smith lady - Kimi - Colby's very good friend who spent the day & night with us!

Deb

Angels We Have Heard on High!

I'm here to tell you that turning the big 5-0 was not so bad! (except that now it is 1:30 AM & I cannot sleep! A sign of the age???) It was an incredibly COLD day here so we spent the day mostly at home - just the 3 of us. Colby & I put the ornaments on the tree this evening & I just love her set of angel ornaments that she gets one of every year from her Godmother, Sonja! So I decided to share some of them with you too!

While I fiddled around finishing up the tree and taking pics of the angels, Colby & Kieth practiced up a good rendition of "Heart & Soul" (I stand corrected here guys!)on the piano! It was really quite fun!

The nativity ~ the 'Reason for the Season'!!!

See girls? It is still on the piano, and on the right fabric & everything! All is right with the world!!!
Good-night & God Bless!!!

Deb

Community Christmas Cantata

Colby & I sang in the annual Christmas Cantata again this year & Kieth was the narrator again this year. He has done this almost every year the cantata has been presented.

Our choir numbers were a little down this year but somehow the sound was very full & the cantata "Save the World" was just awesome! A couple of the songs would send goosebumps thru my whole body as we sang them! Cool! This was this past Sunday, December 7th & we do it at our church.

On another note... I hauled over the MANY totes of Christmas decorations to the new house yesterday & I did put the tree up & start to hang a few greens ~ it's all so new & different as to where to put everything now! I had such a routine in the old house! This will take a little longer!

I also have just started on the Christmas letter ~ I'm a little behind my usual time schedule here! (Don't know what could be taking up my time!!!) But it will get done & sent out!

Deb

Welcome to our HOME!!!

Welcome to our Home!!!
I really love how the whole staircase turned out - the railing ~ the carpet ~ all of it!

This is the dining room ~ taken from in the living room/family room ~ the 2 rooms we will hang out in most of the time!

This is the same dining room taken from in the kitchen looking towards the living room. That is my island in the forefront.

This is the parlor ~ right inside the front door. The piano sits against the green wall. This is about the only picture we have hung yet. We got it as a wedding gift from Kieth's aunt & uncle in Massachusetts. They gave it to us when we were there as part of our honeymoon & it was done by a local artist there. It has lots of sentimental value! And I've always thought that it belonged in a parlor ~ & now we have one!

Here was Kieth & Lincoln getting Chris' rope hung up on the wall in the '4 seasons' area over the weekend.

The rope joins the ox yoke that has hung in our big living room in the old house ~ also a spinning wheel that Kieth bought at Chris' fundraiser auction 9 years ago.

This is the guest bedroom - here you can see the drawers that we put into the wall in the dormer. There is still a little edge that needs stained, but you get the idea! This is also my sewing room.

And here we have Colby Sue's bright bedroom! She has SO much room! We moved in on Friday & she had her first overnight guests on Saturday! She had 2 friends over to spend the night!

The master bedroom ~ we kind of still feel like we are sleeping in a motel! But it is wonderful! The chairs you see are something I bought at an auction in town a few weeks ago ~ the youth group was serving the concessions so I was helping with that & before you knew it I had a number & got these chairs that I thought would look great in my bedroom! And they do! That was kinda fun!

The master bathroom ~ like I said, we don't have much on the walls yet, but you can kind of see how things are from this anyway! It is surprising how 'homey' it is already! We are going to be very happy here in our new home!

Back to work now!!!

Deb

A Week Later

Hi!
I'm just getting on here to tell you that we are 'sort of' moved into the new house! I will get some pics taken soon so you can see the 'finished' project! It is feeling great! BUT I have a TON of work to do yet in going thru all the junk I have accumulated over the past 26 years in the other house... :(
We have all the beds, dressers, couches, appliances, the computer & desk, alot of the pantry food moved - Colby almost has her whole bedroom moved - Kieth has his whole closet moved. I HAVE A TON OF WORK LEFT TO DO. I need to trash so much stuff & those of you who have known me pretty well, know I have a real problem with doing that! But I know I must...

So here I go back to doing the ton of laundry (cause I want everything nice & clean to put away in here)
I probably will not get to get very carried away with the Christmas decorating this year yet as I will be pressed for time even getting things organized & put away before then. That is kind of sad since that is my favorite time of the year. But, we'll see!
Talk to you all soon.
Deb