Happy New Years from Mom and Dad

We had a very eventful December. Dad had his last day of work on Dec 23, so Paul, Mollie, and Dad and I went to his new favorite restaurant, Cafe Berlin. In case you can't tell by the name it is German. The food is really good, and it was a great place to celebrate dad's last day of work.

Mom, this is for you. on the 21st of December we had 19 people for dinner. Thanks to Mom and the whole family we had enough plates to serve everyone. This place setting is on the dining room table (the adult table) and I am using mom's silver. Everything was beautiful.

On the 17th we were able to go to LA for the annual Mortensen Swedish dinner. The day we arrived we took Auntie Janie, Auntie Castle, Charlie, Maria, and Cathleen to lunch. We had so much fun catching up with everyone, and especially seeing Auntie Castle. We had not seen her in such a long time.

On Saturday we went to Uncle Lee's and Auntie Marj's for the Swedish dinner. The company was great, the food delicious, and the white elephant gift exchange fun. We had a wonderful time in LA despite all of the rain.

Grandma Mortensen, me, and Auntie Marj

Charlie and Maria

Everyone, I will try and put a new to everyone, I just don't know how it will look on the blog.

Top, Left to right. Ernie, Mindy, me, Dad, Maria, Charlie

Middle, Auntie Marj, Uncle Lee, Mindy's Mom, Grandpa, Grandma

Bottom, Mitchell, Karlee, Cathleenn and Chas

I was able to go down to Colorado Springs on the 22 to see Kim and the girls. I left Denver in beautiful clear blue skies, and arrived in Colorado Spring in freezing cold, no visibility, foggy weather. We had fun going out to lunch and Christmas shopping.
We left for Utah on the 24th, so that morning we opened our Christmas gifts. I got just what I wanted, a CTR ring and gift i-tune and Home Depot gift card, and dad got socks, couple of books, and a gift certicfate for a message, which he already used.

Christmas Eve at TJ and Tiff's new home. We each opened a gift, John and Piikea with a wonderful warm blanket.

Christmas morning with the kids, Madison, Tyler,Robbie, Abby and Parker
Dad using either Robbie or Tyles Nerf gun to shoot everyone

Robbie, Tyler, Madison, Parker, and Abby the day after Christmas and everything is clearned up, the tree will go down the next day.

Monday night at TJ's and Tiff"s. Kim and family came down and John is there, but Piikea had to work. It was great to have the cousins together, they had a great time playing.
Robbie with his new scooter. Tyler also got one and the girls got a electric one. They all had fun riding it around, until the next day when a hugh snow storm moved in to make it impossible to play outside. Actually, it didn't stop Robbie, who put on his snow suit and went outside.

We were able to spend Tuesday and Wednesday with John and Piikea. We celebrated their 5th Anniversary with them. We watched "Lord of the Rings" part 1 and put together a puzzle and watched the snow.
On Friday Diane, Scott, Kristen and Mary came from SLC to see all of us. Grandma McVey was also there, sorry no picture. Parker made a new friend in his cousin Kristen and followed her around all night.
TJ and Diane talking goofing off for the picture. It was great to see everyone over Christmas and especially spending time with the grandkids. So in October -December we were able to spend time with all the grandkids, aunts and uncles and grandparents, couldn't ask for a better end to the year. We also had a great beginning of the year with our mission call to Wellington, New Zealand. More on that next month- Love you all