Just to catch up...

Christmas is in full swing around here. We put up our tree the minute we got home from Thanksgiving. We had a blast over Thanksgiving down in Franklin. All six original Hatch kids were home with their families---that is 13 adults and 18 grandkids with another on the way. The big boys slept out in the trailor with their cousins and had a ball. Rustin and I feel really lucky to have cousins for our kids on both sides of the family that are really great. It makes it so much fun to go home.

Loalee did a great job of assigning out most of the meals so it all went pretty smoothly. The really amazing thing--there aren't any strained relationships between anyone in the family. Not even a little bit. We didn't even have any fighting between kids (at least not beyond the usual scrabble for the favorite toy of the day!). Grandpa Hatch got up at 5 in the morning on Thanksgiving to make sure that each and every one of the grand kids could have their own awesome handmade sword.

We also went up the canyon and cut a Christmas tree. We've done this every year for quite a while now. There wasn't any snow this year. Sometimes we have gone up in a blizzard (which the kids love!). I don't have any pictures because I still can't find my charger for the battery. Ugg. And that image of Sam walking down the path with only his head and a giant tree bobbing along is priceless.

Loalee and I made some really great fresh wreaths. All of the girls went to a craft fair in Logan. Very fun. I didn't do one single bit of shopping on Friday morning. Which was actually very nice. Rustin left us on Friday and went to Boise for the BSU football game with Tom and Jeremy. They had a blast.

We attempted to get a few holiday pictures today. As usual it will take a bit of photoshopping to get it right. I may have a nervous breakdown trying to get the software to do what I want. I really need to take a class one of these days!

Benson just came in and told me there is a party in his stomach. And he told the water left in his glass that it wasn't invited to the party. Where did that come from? He also came up to me last week and said--"Mom, is Disney World where dreams really do come true?" Those darn commercials... I told him that home is where dreams really come true. Someday we'll get these kids to Disneyland though.

Tomorrow is Rustin's birthday and we are headed to Boise for the day. I can't wait. In the mean time we are enjoying the sweet spirit of the holidays. I am determined to keep Prisident Monson's advice to "Keep Christmas not spend it."