Christmas 2009

We kicked off Christmas with a Bucher family gathering the Saturday before Christmas. We did a prime rib on our BBQ and had a delicious dinner with steamed clams, scallops, and shrimp scampi. We had opened presents and then had chocolate fondue for dessert. Cole and Mason got some really cool presents that Grandpa made them. One was a race track for their matchbox cars and Cole got a "super strong slingshot" which was one of his biggest Christmas wishes.

For Christmas we were with the Johnson side this year up at the cabin in McCall. We got to go up Wednesday night and stay through Sunday so it was a nice vacation. We snowmobiled in and just vegged for 4 days. (as much as you can veg with a 3 and 1 year old) We woke up in the morning and sat in the hot tub, then at fabulous breakfasts, hung out, ate great lunches, napped/sledded/snowmobiled/read/played guitar hero/played ticket to ride, ate awesome dinners- including our traditional Christmas Eve seafood feast, and enjoyed everyone's company! Another special tradition we have is that my mom gives each of us a Christmas ornament and a special Bible verse to go along with it. It means a lot and is so cool to hear the verses she picks out for each one of us. It was so much fun with my whole family there. We also had my Auntie Fay, Uncle Charley, Kate and David up there at their cabin and they brought a friend, Jeannette. She is a refugee from Africa who has been here for only a couple of months and has no one that she knows here. It was so fun to get to meet her and share our family and the joy of Christmas with her. The day we left she said that it had been a very long time since she had felt any love and affection and that over the few days up there, she had felt love. It was so incredible to know that she was affected that way and it made me so proud to be part of a family that can give that to others! What a great Christmas!