Matt and Becki

Matt and Becki graciously opened their beautiful home and hosted the Jaquis Christmas this year!

Becki had the house all decorated for Christmas and lots of YUMMY treats. Bob made a beef curry and rice for our lunch reminiscent of our days in Bangladesh. Becki made a chicken curry..Tom brought sandwich stuff for the kids!!

Christmas at Becki's

The cousins...we missed Justin and Evan!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

All of us that were there! Jeff figured out how to set the timer on my NEW CAMERA!! Only problem was, we set the timer for 10 seconds and then it took 10 pictures...I have a few funny pics of everyone laughing as Jeff runs for the camera to shut it off!!

Christmas in Omaha

Friday night we drove to Omaha for my family Christmas...we got a room at the new Embassy Suites there..my new favorite place to go!!

The rooms were gorgeous and HUGE! This was the "living room" you walked into..there was a small kitchen area right inside the door.

On through the living room was the bedroom...very comfortable..Jeff and I were trying to decide if we could afford to live there permanently! Even the bathroom was huge...and very nicely decorated.

This was the view from my 7th floor window..

Christmas at Grandpa's

Every year on Christmas morning, we go over to Grandpa's house to celebrate with the cousins...Calli got this darling little sock monkey...

However, the hot gift at our party this year was the disc guns from walmart!

Grandpa got all of my kids a bottle of steak sauce to put in their stockings!! They all use it like ketchup and everytime Grandpa comes over for supper, they are always digging for the last little bit of steak sauce...now everyone has their very own bottle!!

Christmas Eve

We always start off Christmas Eve by reading the Christmas story out of Luke 2. We want the kids to remember the real reason of Christmas and why we celebrate...Alex pulled out Jeffs Bible and brought it to him. We have never really thought all the little things we do to make Christmas special were that big of a deal to the kids, but this year every one of them has mentioned little things that make the season special..reading Luke 2 was very important to Alex.

The kids and I all pitched in and got Jeff a Terry Redlin print. He has always wanted one and this year we spotted the perfect one at the mall...

Grandpa gave me money for the kids and I asked if a Wii would be ok...

Our living room at the end of the evening....God has been so good to us this year!

I GOT IT!!!

The only thing I really wanted for Christmas was a new camera!!

Jeff got me the camera of my dreams!! A Canon Rebel xsi...It is a digital SLR!!! YEE HA!! You only THINK I used to take a lot of pictures..I am too excited...

Getting Ready for Christmas!

The presents are wrapped and under the tree....

Bryn helped get all the treats and goodies ready to eat..

Christmas punch...

Potato cheese soup with bacon, green onions and cheese on top...YUM!

Jeff's Truffles

Jeff and Bryn mixed up a big batch of almond bark cookies..a Christmas favorite at our house...Then while we were frosting cookies, Jeff made a batch of his famous truffles!!

Scooping the filling into balls to set..

Taste testing...

Christmas Baking

After a long day of Christmas shopping, Jeff and the kids decided to do some long awaited Christmas baking!

Alex and Tyler helped cut out the sugar cookies.

Alex ,Tyler and Bryn frosted and decorated all the cookies...

Ladies Day Out!!

Kelly, Cheryl and I went shopping today!! We got some MUCH needed Christmas shopping done with NO children to keep track of! We ate at HuHot..YUM!

We found some fantastic deals at Bath and Bodyworks...Cheryl grabbed a shopping bag and we were all throwing stuff in right and left...We finally decided that we needed to sort it all out and see how much we each had...no place to do that, but on the floor!! We told the kind lady who took our picture that we were on an activity...she looked very relieved to hear that we had a good excuse for sitting on the floor in the middle of the store!!

And to think I was the one wanting a nap! I didnt' think the middle of the Christopher and Banks store was the right place though....

The back seat of Kelly's truck was filled with packages on the way home...we got a lot of shopping done and a LOT of super good deals...God was so good to us today...everywhere we went we found perfect deals on exactly what we needed and to top it off, the bad weather held out til we were all home safe and sound!!

Weekend Fun

This weekend was our annual Live Animal Christmas Play! Over 2000 people came and saw it during the 5 showings. Although it was a very busy weekend, we still found time for a little fun....
This is the backstage crew...unwinding!

Tyler got to pose with the monkey!

So did I...it was pretty neat to feel him perched on my shoulder with his tail wrapped around my neck!!