Traditions on Christamas Eve

So its finally Christmas Eve! Wow! Here area a few of our traditions we do for Christmas Eve. We sit by the fire pit out side in our back yard and roast marsh mellows drinking some egg nog.

Sitting around with everyone and just laughing and having a good time.


Then I read "Twas the night before Christmas"

And then we all smell like camp fire smoke!

Then we head in side and open up one gift. Which is another tradition......pajamas!!

Its so nice to have new Jammie's on Christmas morning! Looking so good!

Don't they look so cute....

My Dad

Today I want to write about my dad. Its been 12 years since he has passed away. With living in Arizona I don't get the opportunity to go and visit his grave. So I felt that I could express my feelings about him on my blog. Both of my parents have passed away when they were young. Now that I'm in my 40's.......ha old seems different now. If your 95 your old! But my Dad was only 64 when he passed away. And my mother was only 58. But today I want to express my love I have for my dad, and I'm very happy of the memories I have of him. I could write and write but I won't bore you. My dad was a simple man. He loved his family. Wanted the best for them. I have so many memories of him taking care of us kids when we were little. He would always give us baths my younger sister and my twin brother. He would wash our hair and make fun hair dews with the shampoo. In the summer time when we would get sunburns he would put on noxzema on our faces like painted little indians. He would tuck us into bed and we would every night and I mean every night ask him if he had to go to work the next day. And of course the answer would be every night is YES. In the winter time he would with my older brother get a rope and a tube and tie it to the back of his truck and pull us around the neighborhood when it had snowed and the streets had not been plowed yet. Ok that don't happen any more but that was fun. It was safe back then to do that or at least we thought. My dad was a good worker. He always had our yard looking so nice. Mowed the lawn each week. Trimmed the flowers. And when he remarried to Nelda, he did he same thing. He would grow a beautiful garden as well. He would take us to this park and when he did he would drive over the bridge really fast to make our tummy's feel funny. He made the best pancakes in the world. You could just eat the batter if you wanted to. And to this day no one has his recipe it was his secret. He hunted deer and pheasants allot. And he took both my brothers to hunt and teach them how. And as we got older he would sit us down and have these long long talks with us. It would take him forever to get to the point of what he wanted to say. He only wanted the best for us. He taught us well to be honest fair people. He loved to play with the grand children. Always made time for them.
Eugene Ray Roskelley known as "Pete" and "Gene"

This is my dad with my kids at the park (1993)

This is my dad and my grandma Roskelley his mother

Here is all of us with our spouses.

Jeff, Karen, Gail, Pam, Dave, Dave R. Suzanne

This is my dad's legacy. We have all grown up have children of our own. I think he would be proud of us all. We have a little bit of him in each of us. I know he watches over us, and we continue to remember what he gave to us.

My Christmas Angels

These are my Christmas Angels. Even though I may have not put ALL my Christmas decorations up these ones are a must. They are very dear to my heart. My dad past away just before Christmas, which I will post more about that later. But my sweet cousin gave this to me. Her name is Marci. I bring this out at Christmas time and I think both of my dad, and then of Marci. How sweet and kind she was to have given me such a beautiful doll. I remember when she gave it to me. So when I pull out my Christmas Angel as I call her, I think of the love for my dad at this time of the year, and of Marci who was so kind to me at the passing of my dad. I love to pull her out and just think of the wonderful times I had with my dad. I feel he is with me around this time of the year. Its hard for me not to cry when I pull her out. Thanks Marci for this wonderful memories you have given me. For I have one of my dad but then I have one of you.




This is my second Christmas Angel. Its a bit different then my doll, but it has the same memories. Its one of my mother. My Mom collected frogs when she was alive. All sorts of different ones. So one year I found this cute little frog and now she is apart of my Christmas Angles. I pull her out and I have very fond memories of my mother. I feel her close around this time of year as well. Having these angels out helps me remember my parents around the holidays. Memories of my childhood Christmas's. Like getting up at 3am to see if Santa had come and he did and going out to play with our presents and my dad coming out with us to see what Santa brought. (as an adult later finding out he just got to bed!) And playing all morning with my Crissy doll with her orange red hair that would pull from the top of her head. And my barbies that had a dancing stage and they would rock from side to side. And new bikes, ha that was so fun. I got a pink bike one year. And living in Utah we could not ride our bikes outside because we would have tons of snow. So down stairs we go and ride our bikes in the basement. Those are the memories I don't want to forget or the feelings of it. I hope that I can pass on my Christmas Angels to my children so they will remember the memories they have of Christmas as well.

The Tree is up!

So David took out our Christmas boxes a week ago Friday! And he put together the Christmas tree I believe on a Monday. I took me like two days to put up the ornaments on the tree. Ha I guess we are not in a hurry. Well finally this past Saturday David put all the boxes away. I finally said to him I'M DONE with the decorations. I did not put up all the stuff I normally do. I said its two weeks before Christmas and then after that I have to take down. I sound like a scrooge when I said I wasn't really a scrooge....Christmas is a bit different this year with having Jaren on his mission, Jory in St. George. No one is here to really care about Christmas. So in a funny way Dave and I have a what ever attitude. But Janica and Cam come in this Thursday and things will be better. We will all come together before Christmas. When the kids were little Dave would set the tree up, back then we would go and cut our tree down. I miss that tons. And then we would let the kids put on the ornaments. My dad and Nelda would give the kids every year a new ornament to put up. They loved it. So now I'm down to just the boy's ornaments. Janica and Jaylyn have taken theirs with them since they are married. I miss watching them decorating the tree. I fussed to much this year about the tree of how it looks. I was the only one decorating it. When I was a kid we had a tree that was sliver with blue bulbs. And we had a color wheel that turned around that would change the color of the tree. The colors where blue, yellow red and green. WOW what a throw back. I remember I would just lay on the floor and just watch the color wheel go round and round and see how the color of the tree would change.





This is an ornament that we had on my tree when I was a child. It was one of my favorites that I always looked forward to see on our tree. I some how got it and now I love to put it on our tree with our family. I have very fond memories with this one so that I won't forget the silver tree with the color wheel.

Thanksgiving Weekend and Elk Hunt

So I'm finally getting to my Thanksgiving weekend and Dave's Elk hunt which he was soo soo excited about this hunt. Since his release as the bishop he has been non stop preparing for this hunt. He has been reloading gun shells. Measuring how much powder he wants in the shells. Then testing how the bullet shoots at the gun range. Ya and I have voiced me opinion that he forgot he had a wife at home. Cause its been guns and work. But it paid off for him. He had the time of his life hunting. He is worse then a kid! We left Wednesday morning before Thanksgiving and it was raining. So we were headed to Flagstaff for the hunt. Well if its raining here then you know its snowing in Flagstaff. Jory had some friends come camping with us. Mackenzie, Camille, and Kevin who lives in St. George. They were going to stay in tents to camp. It did get cold but these girls are troopers. They did not whine one bit!! You go girls. On Friday morning I did take them into a friends house and they did get to shower and warm up and then we went into the mall in Flagstaff and had fun doing that while the boys hunted on Friday. But on Saturday morning Dave did get his Elk. Boy him and Jory were soooo excited. But then we all were. Our friend Mike White also got one close to where Dave shot his. It was a fun trip. We had lots and lots of mud! My trailer still needs to get cleaned. On Thanksgiving Day Dave and Mike White cooked a turkey outside in a deep fryer. Man turkeys taste so good that way. Dave made dutch oven potatoes, and made stove top stuffing and I made a fruit salad. It was great. Jaylyn and Jacob came up and spent a few nights with us as well. WE have allot to be thankful for this yr
This is Jory he got tired and had to have a nap so Tawni likes to rest with him

The girls Mackenzie, and Camille did corn rows for me!!



Its a first with corn rows

Jory his just having fun in his thermals riding the quad!

Two happy hunters with the elk

Dave with his elk Saturday morning

Mackenzie, Me and Camille, Jory's truck got so much mud on it

it looked like chocolate

Jaylyn and Jacob enjoying the snow

Dave and Jory on Thanksgiving morning went and did a coyote call and guess

what they got...... Little boys having fun

This is what we woke up to Thanksgiving morning, it rained all night then it

turned to snow

This is what happened to Jory, and his friends the tent went down in the

middle of the night, they had to get out and get in the other

tent that was set up with other stuff in it!

This is Dave and Kevin trying to barbecue outside in the rain to cook our brats

Jory's Friends Mackenzie, Kevin, and Camille

Beautiful Flowers for Winter

Ok so I wanted to share what my flowers look like in December as to when they got put in back in October. Its so fun to have such pretty flowers like this knowing that its December here for us in Arizona. I'm just really enjoying every time I look out and see them. And my rose's surprised me with some of them blooming. It's been a mild fall and I think that's why they are blooming.

I seem to can't get my Christmas up. But I have no problem trying to change my blog layout for a Christmas look. I believe I have changed it about 7 times now! I think I'm happy with it now!