I just made a video slide show of pictures of my kids during 2007. Check it out by clicking here and then on their picture:

http://www.onetruemedia.com/my_shared?z=260275332dd9c426352e9f&utm_source=otm&utm_medium=text_url

Merry Christmas and happy new year from the Braegger Family!!!!

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We were busy with Christmas activities galore during December and had a wonderful Christmas holiday! Here is our house with the lights up. You can't really tell in this picture, but we have large white bulbs and red & green icicle lights on the roof, the holy family with baby Jesus under the star in front of the porch, and a family of deer to the righy of the front steps. There is also a big inflatable globe (with reindeer pulling Santa's sleigh going aound & around a Christmas tree inside) on the left side of our house. Not as decked out as Tony would like, but a good display of our Christmas spirit!

On Saturday the 15th, Tony, Faith, Tammy & I went to "Scrooge" at the Terrace Plaza Playhouse. They do such a great job! Faith especially loved Scrooge's song "I Hate People."

On Monday we went to Zoo Lights with Tammy, Brian, Tina & Zach. This is the first year they have done this and I was surprised at how nice the light displays were!

It was cold, but I much prefer hiking the zoo hills trying to keep warm than dying from the heat in the summer.

Christian and Faith loved seeing all the lights. We only saw one animal, fittingly enough, the snow leopard.
Here are Faith and Zach in front of an especially cool peacock. In addition to the lighted animal displays, they had a million lights on the trees making it beautifully twinkly.

On Tuesday I volunteered for Faith's kindergarten class where they were having a "Polar Express Day" party. All the kids came to school in their pajamas and we helped them with fun crafts like: making an 'I Spy' toy out of a water bottle, erasers shaped like candy canes, snowflakes, wreaths, etc., and rice; stringing a jingle bell from Santa's sleigh onto a boondogle string to make a necklace; and stringing beads onto a pipe cleaner and bending it into a candy cane shape as a tree ornament. They also got to watch part of the movie and have cookies and hot chocolate.

On Saturday, December 22nd we went to the Mitchell family Christmas party which was held at Tony's uncle Craig's house in Uintah. We had pizza and chatted with everyone and then the kids did a gift exchange. At the end we sang "Happy Birthday" to Grandma & Grandpa Mitchell (Grandma's birthday is Dec. 25th and Grandpa's is Jan. 3rd) and had cake and ice cream.


Here is Christian eating his bowl of chocolate ice cream with a fork. I don't know why he didn't want to use a spoon, but when he was nearly done and the rest of the ice cream had melted a little too much to get it on the fork, he just picked up the bowl and drank it!

On the afternoon of Christmas Eve, We went to the Treehouse museum with Tammy and Zach. I helped Faith make this cool Santa Lucia crown with candles on it, and she did some other Christmas time crafts from around the world.



Christian sure enjoyed their fish tank.
We then went to a cute program at their theater where Santa Claus came!


When we went to leave, we saw that there was a huge blizzard going on outside! We called my mom to see if the Christmas Eve party was going to be held or not and if there was anything we could help with. We ended up picking up KFC to eat so that my dad wouldn't have to go out into the storm to pick up Chinese food like he had planned and also gave a ride to my Grandma Tesch.

We didn't know who would end up making it there, but Sarah, Joy and their families braved the weather to come! Eric was told probably not many would make it so he opted to stay home, but felt bad when he found out we were all there :(

We got some pictures with all of my parents' grandchildren together and I didn't succeed in getting any where the babies looked happy, I'll have to see if my dad or Sarah were luckier in their timing.



We then did our traditional nativity with the kids wearing the darling costumes Sarah made a few years back.

Faith got to start out being Mary, and then Celeste got a turn and Faith was an angel.






The three babies were the wisemen. Unfortunately, Noah and Christian were tired and cranky (Christian being the WORST) but they still looked adorable!




The script we use is a simplified version of Luke 2 with lots of songs added between the lines of dialog. Faith especially looks forward to doing this every year and started obsessing over getting to be Mary this year over five months ago.

It's not really Brendan's thing, but the girls LOVE dressing up!


Here is my early Christmas present--a new ring! My old one was missing a diamond and it would have been expensive to get fixed. This one was on super sale and I love it!




Christmas morning was fun at our house. To begin with, the kids didn't get up until 8:30!! That was truly a gift! Faith got a doll that swims, an American Idol microphone and a Hannah Montana wig from Santa and Christian got a rocking horse and a basketball hoop.




As you'll see in the following pictures, that wig was a hit!
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You know, I'm all for donning your gay apparel at Christmas, but I think sometimes you can go a bit too far!! ;D


















There's a cute Christmas smooch!

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In addition to a million fun toys, the kids got the most adorable clothes from my mom, Tony's mom and his sister Tammy!

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Even Tony's dad couldn't resist the temptation to see if blondes really do have more fun!

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By afternoon, my two little boys had pooped themselves out unwrapping all those gifts. They found a cozy spot on the sofa at his parents' house next to the fire and caught some z's.

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We had a wonderful Christmas and hope all of our friends reading this had a great holiday as well. Because of the move, I don't know where I've misplaced my address list and therefore I didn't get any Christmas cards sent out this year. Please know that you are in our thoughts and prayers and we wish you a new year filled with health, hope, happiness, and abundant blessings for you and your families.

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Unfortunately, right after Christmas Grandpa Mitchell had a heart attack and was in the hospital for a few days. His arteries are terrible and needed a quintuple bypass, but has decided that he would like to spend the time he has left at home and not in the hospital trying to recover from such a major surgery. He turned 92 on Thursday and we are glad that we have gotten to have him around for so long, he truly is a great guy.

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Also my Grandpa Quinn is not doing very well. When he was in the hospital a couple of weeks ago he found out that he has lung cancer and they gave him 3-6 months. Grandpa says that it was great news! (He has a terrible condition that is crystalizing his lungs and he was afraid that he would live for years and slowly suffocate.) He is enjoying spending time at home, visiting with friends and family. He's in good spirits and the medication they have him on is making him INSANELY talkative so we've been hearing all sorts of stories about his youth, time in the service and work at the Bank of Utah. He is still always cracking me up!

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Because of Grandpa Mitchell being in the hospital, Tony's mom cancelled her New Year's Eve party so we threw together a last minute get together at our house and had my mom & dad, Eric and Sierra over and Joy & Jordan except for the few hours that they were at their friends' house. We had ribs from Chili's, hot wings, my dad's clam chowder, cole slaw and the chocolate fountain going for dessert.

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We had a great year in 2007 with lots of changes and fun times and are looking forward to an awesome 2008!!