Christmas Eve for the Bryce Family

This year we spent Christmas Eve at David's parents home. We had a fabulous dinner, a fantastic nativity, an awesome talent show and a fun, surprise visit from Santa.

Joseph made a cute shepherd

Mary and an uncooperative baby Jesus

Some darling angels

The entire cast

We can't have Christmas Eve without some music

We got to see a Tuba, Guitar, Piccolo, Trumpet and Kazoo musical show. It was amazing!

Grandma Bryce makes gorgeous Christmas quilts

Santa surprised the kids

They had a lot to say

This was Santa's reaction when I told him I wanted a Southern Caribbean cruise for Christmas! 

Grandma and Grandad Bryce

Becky and Wendy

Marin, Kennedy and Karen

Kennedy and Becky

Abby was wishful under the mistletoe

Then Abby and Anna were wishful under the mistletoe

Grandad came to the rescue!

We saw some fun lights on the way home

It was a little foggy as we got closer to home

When we got home we got to open up the package our missionary son, Rick sent us from Guatemala!

We took a family picture with all the stuff he sent us

He sent this little Guatemalan washboard and said "It's called a pila (sink). I want it to go right above the sink and dishwasher. Why? So that all the kids never complain ever again about having a machine to do their work for them. I've been using a pila to hand wash every dish I've every used and sometimes even my clothes since I got  here. So every time they complain, tell them to look at the pila model. Most of the really rich people don't even have a dishwasher here".  I am grateful for my dishwasher.

He sent John his own personal Pokemon battle letter

Great White Elephant gift ideas at the annual Stout Family Christmas Potluck Party

This is a fun extended family party I throw at my house every Christmas. My kids look forward to it all year. I've been told some family members will look for White Elephant gifts all year long. I know I did this year. I bought a huge Chocolate Easter Bunny in an after Easter sale and saved it all year. It was quite a popular item. Some of the best ones we've had over the years have been a white trash cookbook. Who know's where they found that. A tacky photo frame with a picture of Napoleon Dynamite. A lawyer gave a large framed picture of himself that was pretty funny. Some "Jones" drinks that were flavored differently. One was Dinner Roll flavored, another was Turkey and Gravy etc.

This gift came with a card that says "from my personal stock. Best wishes Troy" Troy thought that was pretty funny since it wasn't from him.

Another favorite was the Grinch hat and t-shirt

The best though was the Hillbilly Briefcase and inside was Hillbilly bubble bath (a can of beans), an ear wax remover (key), calculator (a cut out of ten toes), a stapler (clothes line clip) and a Hillbilly cell phone (an empty can with a string attached)!

We also have a special visitor every year.

Scrap booking- My best of "Project Life", 2010, or "Project 365" as it was called last year.

I did Becky Higgins Project 365 last year (see also Project 365, 2009 ) and loved it so much I did her Project Life this year. It's one of the ways I do scrap booking. It means taking a picture for every day of the year. I am planning to do it again next year and the next. Maybe I will do it forever because I love it so much and I don't put too much pressure on myself. If I get behind. I just take a few days and take some pictures to make up for it. I used my The ABC's of the Bryce Family  challenge to use up days I missed also. I have already posted most of my best pictures of the year, but I will post here a few more of my favorites from Project Life, 2010.

I had a friend ask me how I was doing the journaling, so I thought I would explain. I have built myself a power point template that I use over and over again. I simply print my journaling for six cards on a piece of paper and then adhere my 6 cards to it with 2 sided photo splits and trace around the corners. Then I send it through the computer again, it prints on the cards this time. I carefully pull off the cards leaving the photo split "stickies" (as I call them). I then retype my next 6 journaling cards on my template leaving them in the same place, put my next six card back on that same paper and send them through the computer. I can do 4 or 5 months worth of journaling in one day! I also like to embellish my journaling cards with a few extra stamps that I have.

When I take a lot of extra pictures, I use Photoshop Elements to put 2 or more pictures on one photograph for the project. For that you would have to know a bit of photo shop.

I love it when my kids work together

This is where some of our family missionaries are

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Anna and some of her art. The Marilyn Monroe is hers and the light self portrait

Me and my son Rick the day he left on his two year mission to Guatemala

Emerald and Lauren

A little back lighting

We were blessed enough to meet Kitty De Ruyter Bons at girl's camp and hear her story. Her book is "As I Have Loved You", and it's the most amazing story you will ever hear!

I ate so many cherries this year

My Dad plowing with the Grandkids. He just can't say no 

We spend a lot of time here

Rex is taking out the quarterback

It's a murder mystery!  My Anna is the "Flapper"

The first snow in the mountains

BYU vs UNLV

Bryce Family Christmas Picture 2010