Christmas Day Program

We went to my mom's side of the family this year on Christmas day. We had a wonderful brunch with lots of good food, a great spiritual program with really touching stories, lots of musical numbers, and tons of laughs. We did presents, white elephants, and as everyone else does at Christmas time stuffed our bellies past the point of full.

 Sitting around telling stories...

 Mom and dad ready for a nap. Wrapping all night, and helping Santa makes you that way, or at least I hear!

 This year my grandma and grandpa Holliday sent us presents. Each one of us got a box of "stuff". Grandma went through some of her things, and put things in a box that she thought we could use more. I got a whole box of sewing things, patterns, thread, and this funny bandanna.

Doing white elephants, I got a gift card to McDonald's, and Caitlyn got a gift card to wal-mart. I never heard of gift cards being white elephants. That was a neat twist. =)

Christmas Day!

Christmas morning my mom came in my room waking me up at 5:30. We slowly crawled out of bed and went up to Santa's deliveries. Here are a few pictures of our Christmas morning.

 Daddy picked out this cute scarf, and sweater for me. I love them!

 We got a new straightener and look at that cute chair I am sitting in for my room!

 Here is Duke being his wild self, getting into everything!

Ipod Touch was Caitlyn's big present. She was so surprised! I got lots of gifts, a beautiful bouquet of Daisies, and 1000 piece puzzle from Jared, Rascal Flatts Cd, Despicable Me, Gift cards, and lots of memories. This year Christmas was fantastic!

Christmas Parties!

One of the best things about Christmas is the time we get to spend with family. Christmas Eve night we had family over for White Elephants, Games, Food, and Fun. Here are a few pictures of our party.

 Maddy got this snowman as her white elephant. It was a hit! People were bidding on it. 8 dollars, but Maddy stayed strong, and she took home her snowman. Perfect size for her!

 Doing white elephants is so much fun. So  many random things!

This is my cousin Melissa and  her husband Chris newest family member. Sunny! She is so much fun. She can whistle, and sing you a song. But watch out for the evil kitty Duke, Duke thought it was snack time. Don't worry Sunny was saved!

Biggest Project I have ever Done!

Each year for Christmas I spend months doing projects. For the first time ever I didn't have any stitchings to do this year. All the families had their own, and the newly wed couples I finished this summer. So I started an experiment... A quilt! I have never made a quilt before, and had no idea what I was in for. Let alone a symbolic quilt with extra details added. I got started October 2, and finished it December 23.

As you can see each orange square has a stitching symbol inside it. Each one represents an memorable event. The quilt turned out being the size of a full bed. It was darling. I tied the green back to the quilt with the red yarn, and the clipped the quilt to make it ragged. Lots of time put into something you weren't very sure would even turned out was frustrating getting so close to christmas, but to my surprise it turned out absolutely darling!!! Here is the final picture.

It was so exciting to have it done, and the best part was giving it to my best friend for Christmas. Jared, loved it! He was so surprised, and excited to get something so meaningful.

                                               MERRY CHRISTMAS JARED! =)

SNOW DAY!

You know it's exciting when you wake up to this in the morning!

But what's even better is when your mom comes running down the stairs yelling, the cars are stuck, the cars are stuck!

Not only did my mom get her car stuck, she got mine stuck to. Next thing we know school is canceled because the buses are stuck to! I am a senior and it's my first snow day. I can't even wait....

Caitlyn was the dedicated snow blower. She spent hours outside doing this. My job was to save the trees! I took the broom out back, and brushed off the limbs of the pine tree. Next was all the trees and bushes out front. Look how much snow I had to trudge through. It came all the way up to my knee!

Totally a lot of snow, and thank goodness we had no school! It was fantastic. Great way to start Christmas break early! =)

Festival of lights!

I guess it wouldn't be a Christmas tradition if we didn't do it every year, so this year we went to see the lights. Here are some fun pictures, of the new things there. =)

DAVID ARCHULETA!

After looking at the gorgeous lights on temple square, and getting frost bite it seemed, we were lucky. We got to go to the best Christmas concert ever! We got tickets to go see David Archuleta sing with the mormon tabernacle choir at the Conference center. It was freezing, but man alive the music was incredible! Not to mention our Utah American Idol star was there to perform. My mama leaned over and said, "He is the cutest guy ever, and he can sing!" Then she winked. haha I don't think I will marry David, but he is one of my favorite singers. Here are a few pictures, hope you can see them, if not I am very sorry. Enjoy! And hope you are getting ready for the Christmas season! =)

Christmas Surprise!

My little sister Caitlyn, has been playing the violin for a few years now. She has gotten so good. It's fun to see the improvements. Well she tried out for the solo at her concert, and when she got it, she kept it all a secret. Well the night of her concert mom and dad had no idea what was in store. The lower grade orhcestras performed, then Catie did her first song. After the song she stood up. Dad looked so confused. I ran up to the front to video it, and when her teacher announced Caitlyn Madsen as a soloist my dad freaked out! His face was priceless, unfortunately I didn't capture that picture. Caitlyn did great, and my parents were very surprised it was wonderful!

=) good times!

Adventures of high school dances...

This morning I was abruptly awakened by my mama, when she came running in with a chocolate countdown to Christmas with my name printed big and bold on the front. I opened each one, and it said, Brooklyn will you go to the Yule (Christmas) Ball with me? The following letters were scrabbled...

                              B   L   A   Z   A   H   E   C   Y    L    R   A   L   S

After much thinking, we got it. Zachary Asbell. One of my good friends. He was my trek brother, and so I am really excited to go. I gave him a poster that said, HO HO HO Who wouldn't go? Then I got a picture with Santa holding a sign that said YES.