New Year's Eve

Two days ago we had planned a spur-of-the-moment trip to Idaho for a New Year's Eve Gala with Min, Dan & Benji. The girls were looking forward to playing with their little cousin and being doted over by the aunt and uncle. However, today we heard some bad news: Benji Bear has come down with bronchiolitis!

Chloë, Jess, Ashley and I were all down-hearted thinking of the party that almost was. Marta had some great ideas for a New York themed party. Serendipity and Miracle on 34th Street would have been perfect movies for the occasion.

I could have spent the rest of this snowy day with a gray cloud over my head, but the girls bounced back with a brilliant New Year's Eve theme that would be easy to pull together. They sent the following invitation to Sco and I:

PENGUIN PARTY!!!

You are invited to celebrate the new year with the penguins in Antarctica.

Please wear winter clothes and be ready to celebrate at eight o'clock pm.

5:00 - Dinner

5:30 - Dessert & Movie

6:30 - Play Apples to Apples, Quiddler, or Sorry

6:50 - Resolutions

7:00 - Movie & More Games until eight

8:00 - Celebrate!

They are so cute. These three determined girls are a force to be reckoned with! In honor of our Penguin Party, we created this placemat. Please feel free to print some out on U.S. Legal sized paper, color to your heart's content and celebrate with us!

So although we will miss our special visit with relatives up north, the theme will be saved until we can get together after the thaw!

Christmas waves a magic wand over this world, and behold, everything is softer and more beautiful. ~Norman Vincent Peale

The best of all gifts around any Christmas tree: the presence of a happy family all wrapped up in each other. ~Burton Hillis
One of the most glorious messes in the world is the mess created in the living room on Christmas day. Don't clean it up too quickly. ~Andy Rooney

We had a very merry and memorable Christmas this year. We took the girls iceskating for the first time. I think that is quickly going to become a family tradition. We spent time with aunts, uncles, cousins and grandparents, and even got to visit all the great-grandparents! We had a magical Christmas morning full of squeals, ahhhhs and hugs.

Christmas Scrapbook Page

Each year, each family in the Halverson Heroes clan exchange scrapbook pages. I've got quite a collection of pages that have created an awesome scrapbook of cousins, aunts, uncles and grandparents. I absolutely love receiving each family's page in the mail and then flipping through past years' memories. Here's our contribution for this year.

Comfort & Joy

Star-struck

Hi, I'm your BiGGEST fan!

How can you be when you're so little!?

Please dont

Chloe's Writing

I'm please to announce that our little girl is now a published writer. Her writing was selected to be part of the Literary Learners Magazine on the Jordan School District website. For any of you Chloe fans out there, click here to read her entry. We are so proud of Chloe's hard work and determination to follow her dream.

Second Star To The Right. . .

This week I got to be a kid again.

"So come with me, where dreams are born, and time is never planned. Just think of happy things, and your heart will fly on wings, forever, in Never Never Land!"

— J.M. Barrie (Peter Pan)