A Wagner Christmas

This afternoon my side of the family gathered together at my brother Tim's house (The Wagner's cabin) to celebrate the birth of Christ. Out of the 24 of us, only one couldn't make it. My niece had to work. We missed you Brooke!

SURPRISE!!!

Last weekend my good friend Angie, who now lives in Indiana, called to say she would be coming "home" for a visit. Our children are good friends with each other, and we miss the Shaffers so much since their move to IN. We didn't think we would be seeing them again until next summer. I decided not to tell my children that the Shaffers would be in town. My children like going to the church to rides their bikes/scooters and to play in the Cultural Hall (large gym type room with carpet and basketball hoops). They had been asking to go to the church while home on Christmas break from school. I told them we would go on Friday afternoon. What I didn't tell them was, the Shaffers would also be there. When I pulled into the church parking lot and we saw another van parked there, my children looked and screamed, "It's the Shaffers!" SURPRISE!!
What a wonderful afternoon visiting with old friends! It was nice chatting with you Angie! Surprise us again soon!

Christmas day with Nana and Pappy

On Christmas day we had the two missionaries currently serving in our ward, for supper. Nana and Pappy also joined us for ham balls, sweet potato casserole, pineapple casserole, vegetable blend and honey pan rolls, with Nana's chocolate eclair cake for dessert. YUM! Later in the evening, after the Elders left, Pappy shared a box of Nerds with Kaden.




Nana and Pappy with seven of their fourteen grandchildren!

Kaden's new blanket

A couple of years ago Aunt Bonnie made each of the children a blanket with their name on it. This year she made one for Kaden so he could have a blanket just like his six brothers and sisters.

Kaden rolled and played in his new blanket!

Thanks for the warm keepsake Aunt Bonnie!

Aunt Bonnie's search for clues

Aunt Bonnie always has something unique and clever when it comes to gift giving. This year she thought she was out of ideas, and so decided just to give the children money. After some thought, she put a little twist to the monetary gift by making the children search for clues in order to find their tin full of cash. This might have been her most unique and clever gift yet! Brady reads the clue that started his search.

Each child had their own set of colored clues to follow. What amazed me was, Aunt Bonnie knew their favorite colors, and each clue matched their personalities and individual styles.
One of Ashton's clues was in Nan Nan's shoe!
Another one was up a tree!

Avery
Bryson
Aunt Bonnie helps Kenzie read her clue.

This search for clues was so much fun, and gave us a few good laughs! Thanks Aunt Bonnie! We can't wait to see what you come up with for next year!

What was I thinking?

Brady has wanted a sling shot for years now. I finally gave in and purchased one for Nan Nan to give to him for Christmas. (My mother and my mother-in-law, aka Nan Nan, both give me the money and I do the shopping for them.) It makes me nervous every time he goes outside to use it. What if he breaks a neighbor's window? What if he hits one of the horses in the corral behind our house? What if we have another ice cube-in-the-eye incident, only this time with a rock and a sling shot? What was I thinking? Can you imagine if I would have gotten him what he REALLY wanted? His first request to Santa was a BB gun, or at the very least, an air soft gun. NO WAY! This sling shot is causing me enough anxiety!

Does the wrap job really matter?

Dale, like other men I know, shops on Christmas eve. He only has one person to buy for -- ME. This year he took Bryson with him to purchase my gifts Christmas eve morning. When they got back, Bryson insisted on wrapping my gifts from Dale. He assured Dale that he knew how. Bryson was on his own back in the laundry/food storage room/wrapping center using the top of our large chest freezer. When Bryson emerged from the room my gifts were indeed wrapped! Bryson used three times the amount of paper and MASKING TAPE to wrap my gifts! He was so proud! All I could do was laugh!

Avery's favorite gift

It was this simple $4.00 Christmas gift that Avery enjoyed the most! He has had a love of basketball for years now. Once he's old enough to join a school team, I'm sure that he will.

Christmas morning

A few pictures of our Christmas Day morning 2007.


Kassie made this shirt for Ashton in her Graphic Arts class. She also made one for herself and Kenzie.
Santa adds to Bryson's nutcracker collection.

This wooden school bus came from Sister Reid. Kaden played with this more than any other toy Christmas day.
Santa adds to Brady's camping/Scouting supplies.

Kassie made this wooden pencil holder for Dale in her Wood Shop class at school.
Brady made this half moon with Dale's help.
Kenzie kept telling me not to buy a 2008 calendar. Once Christmas morning came, I knew why!

Christmas breakfast

A few years ago we started the tradition of having donuts for Christmas breakfast. The very best donut breakfast would be to have Maple Donuts on the table. This isn't always possible since the closest Maple Donut shop is in York and we rarely get there. This year I decided I would make them at home. I got a quick, simple, easy, cheap and delicious recipe from Sister Reid. They were a big hit!
YUMMY!!!

Christmas Eve eve

The Eyler tradition has always been to go to Aunt Bonnie's on Christmas Eve. This year we met on the day before, what I call Christmas Eve eve. Logen went right over to Kassie and let her take off his coat!
Here's Aunt Bonnie/Grandma holding her nephew on one knee and her grandson on the other. Jennifer and I have always tried to photograph the boys together to watch them grow through pictures. Logen is one month older than Kaden.
Kaden checks out the tree!

Ahhh, the food! It wouldn't be a party at Aunt Bonnie's without the usual Christmas goodies -- little smokies, fudge, cookies, meat, cheese, pretzels, chips and punch. This year Aunt Bonnie made something special -- pretzel logs dipped in white chocolate and rolled in sprinkles. Kaden enjoyed the white chocolate coating and sprinkles, put never did eat the pretzel!

Before Jennifer left with her boys, Logen came over and gave Kaden a great big hug! It was so big it knocked them both over and they fell to the floor!

Avery and Bryson's school play

This past week Avery and Bryson's class put on a short play. Their class wrote the play themselves with the help of an artist/actor that came to the school to help. The play told the story of how the zebra got it's stripes, how the giraffe got it's long neck and how the monkey got his long arms. Avery and Bryson wait in the stands for their class to take their turn on stage.

Kaden decided to join Avery and Bryson's class!
The play started with a song and dance routine.

Bryson was the voice of zebra number one. Notice the stripes on Bryson's sleeves -- very simple costumes!

Avery was the voice of the tree! It was hard getting a picture of him as he hid behind his prop!
The children all did a great job! Kaden and I enjoyed our time at Rolling Acres Elementary School with Avery and Bryson!