New Years

My uncle John and Aunt Nancy asked us to join their family for their New Years eve celebration. We've been looking forward to it and we were not disappointed.

Wednesday we left home around three thirty and first went to see my grandma in Bountiful. When we got there she was just coming back to her room from a little new years party. She was wearing a new years crown and had a fun noise maker that everyone had to have a turn on. She was glad to see us. She shared with me a couple of family history books that she is reading. She doesn't always remember who we are. She always knows that I'm her granddaughter but not always which one. The kids were good when she invited them over and over again to check the toy chest for something to entertain themselves with. Steven read a Christmas storybook twice. Well I did have to bribe him with a fourth piece of candy the second time. That was after I'd said only one. Here is Emily with the silly walking puppy.

I don't know how it started but the kids' favorite thing to do in Great Grandma's room is to have a turn in her wheel chair. Their second favorite thing to do is fight over who's turn it is. Usually by the time we've been there an hour they are pretty antsy and driving me crazy.
At John's we ate, played games, watched movies, and visited. I love to go there because the atmosphere is so low keyed. The kids seldom get into trouble. They have a blast and I can just hang out. I have to admit that one of the reasons it's like that is because my cousins entertain the kids. John and Nancy often tell us how good the kids are and tell us that we're doing a good job with them. It's such a safe environment for us.
We had a package of fireworks left from July. John set them off for us and let the kids each have a turn. We notice when we left early this afternoon that he'd already found a chance to go out and clean them up.
This morning John made waffles, we played more games, and the kids slid on the snow board down the hill in the back yard.
For several years John has been scanning and cataloging family photos. He is still working on it, but already has nearly eight gigs of info. Looking over his work made me want to share some of it here. When I started thinking about it I decided to start a new blog. I know it's a little ambitious but, I'd like to write some short, story like histories that focus on people and family stories to add to the blog. I'm hoping that others will share and that it'll be a really interesting place to learn about people and different times. The first little thing I've posted was an assignment for our elementary social studies methods class. I'd like to ask some of my class mates to add theirs too.