Happy Holidays

I am so busy. I haven't written in my journal, my kids' journals or my blog for so long. I am sorry to those of you who look at my blog. I promise i will try and get better about posting. I am going to try and at least post once a week. I have missplaced my camera, so I can't put any pics on this post this time. When I find the missing item, I will get some recent pics up.

Merry Christmas one and all! I hope everyone had a nice Thanksgiving. We actually had our feast at the Meridian, ID Stake Center with all of my dad's family. I wasn't too excited to go to a church building for Thanksgiving, but it actuallyy turned out pretty nice! The kids had the gym to run around in together with their cousins. The dads even got to play a game of basketball, which Rod enjoyed very much of course. And we got to do a lot of "catching up" with relatives. We actually were all there for about 4 hours and had a blast. It was good to see everyone.

My aunt Kelly Batteen has been doing geneology for a couple years now and has found so much in our family history! It's been so neat learning about our ancestors through her. She has put so much work and time into finding and sharing, and linking us to them. On Friday morning, since so much family was in town at once we went to the Boise Temple to do baptisms for 75 of our family members of old. It was so neat to be in the temple with extended family and share in such a wonderful work for our own kindred dead.

Another great thing about this last weekend is that I was able to get lots of Christmas shopping finished up. Well not FINISHED, but a lot done. My Christmas tree is up (since the night before Turkey Day) and Rod has already put our icecycle lights on the roof. It feels good to be on top of the holiday. And now I have decided to get my house clean and organized so I can enjoy the holiday more and so it's off to a good start. I spent all day yesterday just on my bedroom! It's called "clutter". It's been building for months, and I fainally got to the bottom of it! Hoo-Yah!!! My bedroom is actually pleasant to spend time in again. I hate clutter. It makes me crazy, feel frazzled, overwhelmed, and puts me in a bad mood. And I have a hard time keeping the clutter under control. So I am trying to gain back control and stay on top of it. Very hard to do if your name is Angela C. Kynaston!! But it's my new goal, and I am trying to turn a weakness into a strength.

Christmas is going full-force in our home these days. The kids are already asking how many more days until Christmas and it's not even December yet. "Mr. Peeps" is here lurking daily to see if the kids are minding their P's and Q's. He actually brought a new elf with him this year, named Stanley. Stanley is young and in training, so we are having fun with double elf duty this year. (These are our elves who come from the North Pole every year to our home. They show up the day after Thanksgiving to watch the kids and make sure they are being good so they can let Santa know when he comes on Chritmas eve. Then Santa takes them back to the North Pole after stopping at the house on Christmas eve.) This has been a very fun and affective tradition in our home! Rod and I have as much fun as the kids do with it.

Well, that's it for now. I will find my camera (I hope) and get some pics posted. It might not be until after I get to the bottom of another pile of clutter- but hopefully that will be soon!!