Hallie's Blessing

Hallie will finally be getting blessed on January 13th, 2008!
We will be blessing her in my parents ward at 9 am.

We are excited to come visit and hope to see all of you!

More Christmas

A Baby's Heber Christmas

Noelle's post described our Christmas very well; I just wanted to add a few of my favorite pictures of the kids.

*merry Christmas to our family*

Santa's cookies and milk
... and to all a good night.

Thanks Noelle for posting pictures, every year is a little crazy- this one seems to have taken the cake! We missed you! Ours was a littler quieter perhaps, but the kids had a great time and it was fun having my in-laws here. Greg managed to get sick Christmas morning and then Greg's parents flew out in the afternoon and then Greg spent three hours at the ER that night. What fun! I will post more pictures on my blog so check it out. This year I made orange rolls for the first time, mostly because I can't have Christmas without them! I don't think I've even watched grandma make them, but they turned out really good, what a treat. Love you and hope to see you all soon:)

This is the first of many...

...blog posts about Christmas and Anna's first Christmas Miller-style!

First, for those who don't know, Christmas in the Miller family is a BIG DEAL and it's always been the exact same as long as I can remember. Birthdays, anniversaries, other holidays or commemorations that possibly warrant gift-giving pretty much pass by without much fanfare. Not Christmas. The pictures don't do it justice. The presents come out from under the tree, go behind the couches and spread about halfway across the room, and those presents don't include the "Santa piles" for each great grandchild. Everything goes pretty much the same each Christmas - on Christmas Eve we do the family nativity, Grandma reads The Night Before Christmas, we leave out treats for Santa and the reindeer, and the next morning those of us who don't stay at the Heber House reconvene in the wee hours of the morning. After we're all there and ready to go, the kids run downstairs and go to their Santa pile, everyone in the whole family (there are too many to count now) opens opens their stocking, and then the great grandkids take turns opening one gift at a time from their Santa pile (in order of youngest to oldest). Once Santa piles are done Grandpa starts handing out the presents from "under" the tree and we open presents for a very long time. Then, Grandma makes her traditional Christmas breakfast of scrambled eggs, orange rolls, italian sausage, fresh sliced oranges, and my personal favorite, avocado toast. We spend the rest of the day playing with the toys and things Santa brought us and hang around and nap (or for those of us who didn't nap early enough, listen to Kate devote all of her Christmas energy to her new High School Musical karaoke machine) until it's time for Christmas dinner where we eat another delicious Grandma meal. We then reluctantly go home as another perfect Christmas comes to an end.

This year we spent Christmas Eve with Steve's parents and somehow we managed to all get into the same color of red so we looked somewhat organized. Anna loved her first Christmas morning with the family - most especially eating the ribbon off her presents, orange rolls, and napping in the "baby sleep chamber wonder of the world" otherwise known as Grandma's closet.

Nothing really ever chages in this scenario except that we used to do this very same routine in LA for years and then we switched to Heber. Also, the family keeps getting bigger. But ultimately, I can't imagine Christmas being any other way than exactly as I described above, and having to do my first Santa pile this year I have to publicly thank Ann, Grandma, and Mom for all the work they have put into making Christmas the best Christmas in the entire world for us every single year!

Merry Christmas from Poland

Aga, Kobra, and I want to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas. We hope you all have a very safe time visiting with loved ones and friends. Christmas in Poland is pretty similar to Christmas in America so we will be spending time at her parents house feasting with relatives and opening presents. I will be calling the Heber house on Christmas so I look forward to talking with whoever is there.

As always if you are intrested in whats going on in my life you can check out my blog at OC_Photography. :)

My Very Own Blog

Like Emily, I decided to start my own blog to spare you all from Miller's Online Outpost becoming all about the Bates. It's called "The Juggle" and here it is: http://thejuggle.blogspot.com/

Mom will especially appreciate my comments about the "oppression" of LDS women and now grandpa will have to go somewhere else if he's curious about my thoughts on current TV programming. Ha!

Temple Square

Last Friday the McEuen's, Johnson's & Emmett's went to Cafe Rio for dinner then some of us took trax to Temple Square to look at the lights. Kurt & Jordan chose to drive over and met up with us later. Porter was so cute telling us Jesus was in the temple. We had a great time!

Jenn Hribar is Having a Boy...

And I got to go to her shower on Saturday. It was immeasurably fun, especially because Suzanne Merrill sat by me and did not stop talking until she had to leave. I especially enjoyed her stories about who she has been setting up and what it's like to drive when your head and your spine are fused together. Also, my sisters will appreciate that when we went around the room to say how we knew Jenn, Suzanne tried to tell a story about me and then encouraged me to tell the story even after I told her we should try to keep it focused on Jenn. All I will say about Suzanne is that every Sunday as I'm with the Laurels I feel completely inadequate because of her, and also, if she up and disappears one day it will be no surprise to anyone to find out she was translated.

Address's

I love to get Christmas cards. And well you probably do too. I am wondering if everyone can add their address's in the comments section of this post. I am a little late on getting the Crhistmas cards out, but want to make sure I get one to all of you.

Okay, so Chelsea made a good point that anyone can look at this, so maybe we could just email our address's to eachother? Are email address's okay to put in the comment section?

Rodeo Horses and Gingerbread Houses!

Honey and Papa came to Las Vegas last Wednesday. Amber, Matt, Honey, Papa, Eddie, and I went to the National Finals Rodeo on Wednesday night, it was awesome! Next year, everyone should try to go!
On Thursday night we all decorated gingerbread houses. Papa did 3 in the time it took the rest of us to do one, he even had Maggie on his lap "helping"! Captain had a great time eating all the candy off the floor, and we all went home with cute additions to our Christmas decorations!

Papa's baby

As you all know, Papa went back to school this year! Here are some pictures of some of his homework!

Honey's Baby

Honey's baby got some new accessories, and she wanted to show them off!