Ready for Christmas?

Hello, all! We are all waiting to see if our remaining siblings are going to get their blogs up and running. Over all, we are pretty much ready for Christmas in our household. You will all be receiving Christmas cards shortly. We love all of you, and wish a happy, holy, and safe Christmas and a peaceful New Year.

After 20+ years of having a live, freshly cut 7-10 ft. Christmas tree every year, we have downsized. We really do not have a large empty spot to put a large tree this year, after giving Shane his own room, and moving some furniture around. So this year, we got a MUCH smaller live pine tree. It fits nicely on a table, which is the only extra space we have anymore, and after Christmas, we can plant it in the yard, and someday it will be 50 ft. high. One of these years, after Christmas, we will invest in one of the pre-lighted plastic trees, but so far, we haven't actually done it. We do enjoy the pine scent from fresh trees, but there are pine scented candles, right?

Shane and Kevin are preparing to be shepherds in our church's Christmas Eve Mass. They re-enact the birth of Jesus, and our boys will be shepherds. Hopefully, they will not give them shepherds' staffs, or the boys may decide they need to duel in front of the whole church. Just kidding, they are very excited to take part, and it should be fun to watch.

We were scheduled to have AZ family here from 12/22/07 - 12/29/07. Unfortunately, their accommodations (Shane's new room) are full, so they were thinking of staying in a hotel near us. However, they received a generous offer from the Layton Resort on Pinto (same place as Michael & Dyanamaria's tree lot). So, Jim and Nancee Kilbourne will be staying with Mom & Dad for the week of Christmas. Thank you, Mom & Dad, for your generosity, patience, and hospitality, and for the extra rooms at your house.

We also have a new member of our family. On Veterans Day, one of Tim's customers found a young dog running loose on Hamner Ave. in Norco. We agreed to take her home, and put a "Found Dog" ad in the paper and on craigslist. We have had no response at all, so we will probably keep her. So we now have our boxer mix, Tigger,

and our new rottie mix, Kelso.

We were contemplating getting a second dog for Tigger to have a playmate, and they seem to get along great. They have a wonderful time rolling around and playing in the backyard.

We are heading for the Palm Desert condo this weekend. We are looking forward to seeing all the work Mom & Dad have had done over the last few weeks. So, all of you have a wonderful weekend, and we look forward to seeing the CA residents of the family at Mom & Dad's on Christmas Day. To all the out of state siblings, we love you and miss you all. Have a wonderful Christmas, and make sure to send pictures. The pics below are just a few from our camping trip last summer up in the Sierras. Love you guys.