Christmas Day!

Christmas this year was spent at Nana and Papa's house. Even though we live just 15 minutes away, we spent the night anyways with Spencer and Saralyn and Emma and Thane as well. Chris, Erin and Stitch were good enought to get up at 5:30am and drive in. My kids are early risers! It is just more fun waking up with as much family members as possible.

Santa always leaves the Pabst's a surprise ball...ever since Anthony was a little boy and he keeps that tradition alive in our little family. He wraps up little fun "surprises" all throughout the ball made confetti and as they are unwrapped the surprises fall into your lap. This is a fun tradition that the kids reallly enjoy.

Chris and Stich getting into the holiday spirit. I think Chris said he wanted to use this for his Christmas cards. What a goof!

We were lucky enough to have Erin (Chris's girlfriend) come and join us. Because of the bad road conditions it wasn't safe for her to drive to Seatle.

Thank you, Grammy and Bapa!



The kids all settled down at the end of the day to break in one of their new movies.

Christmas Eve!

Just a couple of traditions in our home for Christmas Eve.
We always get new pajamas and put them on so that we wake up Christmas morning lookin' good!
We read or have some kind of Christmas devotional about the true meaning of Christmas and Jesus's birthday.
We sprinkle special reindeer dust (oatmeal and glitter) outside so that Santa and his reindeer can spot our house easily.



And daddy reads a special Santa book to the kids and then we get a plate of goodies ready for Santa and tuck the kids in for the night before Santa passes up our house.

Merry EVERYTHING and Happy ALWAYS!

To all of those who didn't get our Christmas card this year for what ever reason and a reminder to all of you who did.....HAPPY HOLIDAYS!!!


Have yourself a Merry EVERYTHING and Happy ALWAYS!
Love, the Pabst Family

LET IT SNOW!

While we were snowed in at Nana and Papa's house with Spencer and Saralyn and their family, we had a lot of sitting around doing absolutley NOTHING. But we also had a lot of fun playing card games, talking, and playing in the snow.



Building a snow castle...

There was a HUGE layer of ice underneath all the snow.

Spencer and Maya practicing some of their Kung Fu moves with the big chunks of ice...

SNOW FIGHT!!!!!

Merry Christmas!

ENJOY! (push pause on my playlist to get the full effect)

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

At least you don't have to shovel the RAIN!!!

When we first moved here to Oregon, we would often be told that there was nothing to worry about once the "rainy season" starts because unlike Utah, "you don't have to shovel the rain".

Well, 19 inches of snow later......and Utah, with all of the snow plows there, and all the snow toys we left behind, are sounding pretty good right about now.

A case of CABIN FEVER!!

Well, I am sure everyone has heard of or is experiencing the crazy winter storms all throughout the US of A. Here in Oregon is no different. Our little Pabst family is very used to the snow. We have lived in Utah for all of our married life. What we are not used to, however, is living in a state where it snows unexpectedly and no one is prepared for it and so the whole state panics. There are no snow plows here in Oregon and so when you get 19 inches of snow in a couple of days...EVERYTHING shuts down.
Just to show you, this is what our last week looked like.
Saturday night...first snow fall
Sunday morning...church is cancelled
Sunday night...Stake Choir performance is cancelled
Monday morning...School is cancelled
Monday morning...Spin class is cancelled
Monday morning...Zumba class is cancelled
Tuesday morning...School is cancelled
Tuesday....Spin class is cancelled
Wednesday morning...School is cancelled
Wednesday...Spin class is cancelled
(Do you see a pattern forming here?)
Thursday morning...School is cancelled
Thursday...Spin class is cancelled
Thursday...I AM GOING A BIT CRAZY!!!
Thursday...Maya's class Christmas "party" is cancelled
Thursday...Zumba is cancelled
Friday...School is cancelled
Friday...spin class is cancelled
Saturday...Story time is cancelled
Saturday...Spin class is cancelled
Saturday...we venture out of the house to go to the Strehlow's Christmas party.
Saturday night...we are now stranded at mom and dad's house along with Spencer and Saralyn and their two kids.
Sunday morning...Church is CANCELLED
Sunday....we are still stuck at Nana and Papa's house
Sunday afternoon...I am officially going out of my mind!!
Monday morning...My husband and Dad go to buy some tire chains
Monday afternoon...we FINALLY GET HOME!!
Monday night...THE POWER GOES OUT!!!! Grrrrrr



At least it is all so very exciting and fun for the kids (LIFE IS GOOD!)

Al's Garden Center has a monthly project for kids that we enjoy going to. This month was to create a Mr. or Mrs. Claus cup and then plant their "hair". The kids had a ton of fun. Then afterwards they were able to pick out a free poinsetta plant to take home and take care of.

Oh Tannenbaum

We always have so much fun decorating our Christmas tree. It was to much excitment for Kai because he fell asleep right before we went to decorate. It all worked out thought because at some point in the night the tree fell over and we had to redecorate it the next day.
We did the traditional reading of Luke 2 and then we turned on the lights and all stared in awe for a short while.




Maya and Kai had fun writting their letters to Santa. Maya helped Kai write his this year. We will see if Santa pulls through.
Maya's Letter:
Kai's Letter:

Going on a TREE hunt

This was our first year ever going to an actual tree farm to pick out a tree and cut it down all by ourselves. It was so fun. We are used to going to Wal Mart or the Smiths parking lot and bringing home one of their trees.

So to be able to go to an actual tree farm was so fun for the kids. They, of course had a blast playing hide and go seek in all of the trees. I totally remeber doing that as a kid and having a blast. So we let them play for a while and then Maya picked out her favorite tree, Anthony sawed it down and we brought her home to decorate.

Keeping up with the Claus's

I re-discovered something the other night while we were putting our traditional Costco kit gingerbread house together and candy was flying everywhere and frosting was covering hands and clothes and just about everything within a 10 foot radius. The holidays isn't about "keeping up with the Claus's". It isn't about if the cookies being delivered to the neighbors look just right, or if the laundry gets done, or the dishes get loaded...or even about if green frosting comes out of fabric. It is about enjoying the joy and pure excitement my children have with the simple things in life. So while I was stressing out about the mess, I was missing out on so much. SOOOOOOO, I ended up sitting back, watching and enjoying it all with them. And boy was it GREAT!

And just so you know, green frosting does come out of fabric. It just takes a little more effort.