Happy New Year

I just wanted to wish you all a very happy New Year.  I hope this coming year brings only happiness for all of you.  I know we have all had trials and hard times every single year, some more than others.  But I know I gain strength from some of my own trials, but even more I admire all of you and the strength I gain from you all.  I know I would have never made it through any of my troubling times if it weren't for such a supportive and loving family.  I admire and love you all and hope you all know I am here for any of you and would do anything I could to help you through the hard times.  

I hope you all had a great Christmas.  I know we at the Southwick home had a very wonderful holiday season.   Santa was good to everyone at this house but even better was having all 3 kids here on Christmas Eve and all day on Christmas.     We also had all of Channing's family here on Christmas Eve (approximately 26 of us!) But that was great too.  

Now. . . about MY family.   I have one major New Years resolution. . . and that is. . .that I will never let another Christmas season go by without seeing my family during that time.  I missed not seeing my brothers and sisters and all of the family this year.   I don't care if we have to start planning it now, we WILL get together this coming year for Christmas.  We can do it here at my house or anywhere else that works.   

Love you all so much, Jan

Santa visits Mom

This is a fun memory too. Santa Claus and the Mrs. stopped in to visit mom on Christmas Eve. This is the year Dad passed away and everyone was having a rough time. Why is it that Santa knows how to make everyone happy at Christmas time. Mom is smiling from ear to ear. I don't know about you, but I miss getting together on Christmas Eve at Mom's. That is something I thought we would be doing forever.

Look how cute Hatch was, this is the year he learned what Santa said. HoooHooooHoooo. It was so cute the way he said it. Merry Christmas everyone.

I have way too many memories of Christmas, but one of my favorites

I remember the year Shannon and I both got the cute PJ barbie doll. She was so cute in her bright pink and orange mini dress and her long blonde hair, but the best thing about her was that she was a talking barbie. Ok, so that was when we were young enough that we knew Santa Clause had brought us these barbies. And I was so excited about her I just had to show Dad. I imagine we had probably woken up around 5 a.m. or so and saw all of our toys and we were so excited about everything that we just knew Dad would be just as excited about it. So, I took my talking PJ barbie into snoring Dad and put her right by Dad's ear and pulled the string and had PJ talking to him until he woke up. Now. . . I look back on this and just think what a good sport he was. Just waking up and acting as surprised and happy as I was about my barbie doll. I'm sure he had only had a couple hours of sleep so I'm sure he wasn't too happy about being woke up like that. But he sure didn't act like it bothered him and went right along with it.

Another Christmas Memory

This is a funny one, I know you will all remember it when I start talking about it. Me and Jan both had gotten bean bag chairs from Santa one year, yup they were popular way back then too. I can even tell you the color, they were dark brown. Oh were they comfy to sit in, I don't think we moved out of them all morning and afternoon. Well that evening Tamara's boyfriend Richard stopped by to wish us all a Mery Christmas and see the Christmas loot. The basement held all the Christmas treasures, we were both sitting in our chairs when all of a sudden Richard hit my bean bag chair with his fist and it popped open and those stryrafoam pellets went flying everywhere. What a big mess. Those things stuck to everything, including Richard's arm, when he pulled it out of the deflated chair it looked like it was all covered in snow. I know I started bawling because he had broken my chair. I bet to this day if Jan would look real close she probably would find some of those pellets floating around in the basement! This is one of the Christmas' I'll never forget.



Now I want to hear something from some of you. Shannon

My memory of Christmas

Hope everyone is enjoying the holiday season so far, now it seems a little more like Christmas to me with the snow on the ground. I'm sure we will have a another great "White Christmas"this year if you know what I mean. I have so many fond memories of Christmas growing up, I don't think there was ever a time I didn't get what I had asked Santa for. The Christmas' I remember most are spending Christmas eve at Grandma Thomas' house and her cute little stockings she would hang for us on her mantle. It was filled with some kind of fun little trinkets. Then we would go home and talk about getting up around 4:00 a.m. to see what Santa brought. What the heck were we thinking, Mom and Dad would let us too. We would sneek downstairs all quiet and take a peek at all the goods and play for a bit. When we got to cold down there we would go back upstairs and wake Mom & Dad to open the other presents under the tree. While we waited I remember sitting in front of the heat vent at the end of the hall right there going into the kitchen, it was always really warm right there. We waited there until Mom & Dad got up and Dad got his hair combed so we could proceed with the days activities. I have so many memories floating in my head right now I don't think I have the time to post them all, maybe I'll have to share something again tomorrow. I can't wait to read the others when they get posted. What a fun idea this was. Have fun finishing up your weekend projects whether it's, shopping, baking, wrapping and if your all done with all of those. I'm jealous! Love, Shannon

P.S.

I'm still learning. I have learned that you can't push "enter" instead of "tab" after the title or I publishes it. I wanted that picture at the bottom, but couldn't figure out how to. And how in the heck do you fix errors (I had a lot of them) after you preview it.

I fixed it Tamara-way to go!

A Favorite Memory

I would like to share with you a favorite memory---but I think I've lost it (my memory, that is). Just to let you know how bad things are getting, let me share two of my experiences from yesterday. I went to the drive thru at Wendy's for lunch. I placed my order, drove to the first window and paid and then---I drove right on past the pick-up window. It didn't hit me that I didn't have my food until I was about to drive into the street. I considered just driving away and stopping somewhere else, but heck that chili cost a whole $1.38. So I pick my car in park (a good thing to remember) and ran back and got it. Every time I get chili at Wendy's I think of Dad. He knew all the places in St. George to get a cheap eat. And he delighted in telling you about it.

Then, after work I stopped by Macy's to pick up some hamburger buns. I don't very often run in the store for just one item. (That's what I use Richard for) I try to get every thing I need on Saturday and always pay with my debit card. I decided to use cash for this single purchase so I pulled out a twenty and attempted to slide it through the credit card machine. The check got a good laugh.

But one thing I defiantly wanted to do was share this darling picture. I sure you can tell just by looking who this is. He looks to much like Hayley did when she was a baby. Isn't Forrest Kingston cute?