Merry Christmas

Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the house
Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse.
The stockings were hung by the chimney with care,
In hopes that St Nicholas soon would be there.

The children were nestled all snug in their beds,
While visions of sugar-plums danced in their heads.
And mamma in her ‘kerchief, and I in my cap,
Had just settled our brains for a long winter’s nap.

When out on the lawn there arose such a clatter,
I sprang from the bed to see what was the matter.
Away to the window I flew like a flash,
Tore open the shutters and threw up the sash.

The moon on the breast of the new-fallen snow
Gave the lustre of mid-day to objects below.
When, what to my wondering eyes should appear,
But a miniature sleigh, and eight tinny reindeer.

With a little old driver, so lively and quick,
I knew in a moment it must be St Nick.
More rapid than eagles his coursers they came,
And he whistled, and shouted, and called them by name!

"Now Dasher! now, Dancer! now, Prancer and Vixen!
On, Comet! On, Cupid! on, on Donner and Blitzen!
To the top of the porch! to the top of the wall!
Now dash away! Dash away! Dash away all!"

As dry leaves that before the wild hurricane fly,
When they meet with an obstacle, mount to the sky.
So up to the house-top the coursers they flew,
With the sleigh full of Toys, and St Nicholas too.

And then, in a twinkling, I heard on the roof
The prancing and pawing of each little hoof.
As I drew in my head, and was turning around,
Down the chimney St Nicholas came with a bound.

He was dressed all in fur, from his head to his foot,
And his clothes were all tarnished with ashes and soot.
A bundle of Toys he had flung on his back,
And he looked like a peddler, just opening his pack.

His eyes-how they twinkled! his dimples how merry!
His cheeks were like roses, his nose like a cherry!
His droll little mouth was drawn up like a bow,
And the beard of his chin was as white as the snow.

The stump of a pipe he held tight in his teeth,
And the smoke it encircled his head like a wreath.
He had a broad face and a little round belly,
That shook when he laughed, like a bowlful of jelly!

He was chubby and plump, a right jolly old elf,
And I laughed when I saw him, in spite of myself!
A wink of his eye and a twist of his head,
Soon gave me to know I had nothing to dread.

He spoke not a word, but went straight to his work,
And filled all the stockings, then turned with a jerk.
And laying his finger aside of his nose,
And giving a nod, up the chimney he rose!

He sprang to his sleigh, to his team gave a whistle,
And away they all flew like the down of a thistle.
But I heard him exclaim, ‘ere he drove out of sight,
"Happy Christmas to all, and to all a good-night!"

Christmas Traditions

'Tis the season full of traditions. Some are silly, some are spiritual, some are relaxing...whatever they are we love them and yearn to do them year after year. What are your favorite Christmas traditions? What are some tradition your remember doing when you were little that you miss? What are some new ones that you are trying out?

Merry Christmas everyone! I hope you are enjoying the season.

We're glad to hear about Tim's schooling. Patience is supposedly a virtue. That's what I'm told, at least. It seems the two of you have been patient on this issue.

On another note (a sad note, actually): I have started Christmas wrapping. Sad, you say? Why, yes. Yes, indeed. Most sad. The wrapping occurs in the bedroom, as usual. A much larger bedroom it is, which should make the wrapping task easier. The sad part is that the wrapping occurs in the bedroom without a Santa's Workshop sign. Woe, despair, and agony. There being no children about, there is no reason, I suppose, for such a sign. And as last season's sign was mostly, uhm, . . . ignored, the elves decided a sign would not be posted. Therefore, while wrapping continues as before, it does so in an unposted Workshop. I wonder if this might entail a violation of union rules? Or if OSHA might investigate? Then again, does OSHA have jurisdiction? The Workshop is, after all, an extension of the one located at the North Pole, far from the borders of the United States. Which raises another question. Is Santa considered an alien under Title 8 of the United States Code? Does he have a Visa? Must he submit to a body scan? Or (shudder) a pat down? Yes, I'm meandering. Till later . . . Dad

School

Just an update, Tim will be attending community college this semester. According to a counselor at SJSU he only needs 11 more units for the fall semester...We'll see if that changes when they start evaluating the fall applications, but that's another matter...He signed up for 12 units (4 classes) at SJCC for the spring semester and he has enough financial aid to cover the tuition. He signed up for general ed classes he would eventually need to take anyway.

So yay! Just fingers crossed for the fall.

PICTURE

I know it is kind of far off right now but I really want to get plans made. If we all can get together in Salt Lake in March I would like to try and have another Family Picture taken. What do you think? Right now it looks like the 2nd weekend in March the 12th and 13th. How does that sound to everyone? I need to know asap because I'm getting airline tickets for Grandma and Grandpa Huntsinger to come to California for a visit and then leave from Salt Lake after Abby is blessed.

Love MOM

Just a little fender bender...

Just the other day I was thinking how amazing it was that Matt and I drive almost 30 miles to and from work every day and we haven't been in any major accidents...well I guess I should have knocked on wood! LOL! On Sunday, November 28th while Matt was driving to work in our truck a car hit some black ice and ran into him. All things considered we are very grateful it wasn't as bad as it could have been. For starters Matt wasn't hurt (well maybe a sore neck and back) and the damage to the truck wasn't half as bad as I was expecting. True the truck isn't looking as nice as it was before...


But I was quite surprised the damage wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be. Matt was able to drive the truck after the accident and even went to work (what a trooper!) The good news is it wasn't Matt's fault and so their insurance (not ours) is going to be taking care of the costs. We just had the damages estimated and it looks like it should only take about a week to get it all fixed. Not a fun situation by any means but just glad we are all safe and it's not as bad as it could have been.




Another thing we are very grateful for is the fact that I wasn't in the truck when it was hit. It may not have been that bad of accident but we feel very fortunate we didn't have to go to the hospital to make sure Abby is ok. We know the big guy is watching out for us!

When do I get to go to Hawaii?

So, I'm up in the middle of the night... again! I was thinking of all of you and thought I'd send out a little note to let you know how things are going. I am 7 months along now which means I am running out of time to get things ready for this baby. I have not gone through the boxes (and boxes and boxes) of clothes that I have saved from Luke and Leona, and the basinet that we plan to use for the baby is covered with Thom's work out clothes. I feel tired most of the time and have a very tender side from a pulled muscle I got while moving back in October. This preganancy has kicked my butt and I still have a long two months left. But, on the up side, Luke and Leona are great and very excited about the baby which helps me be excited. But Luke wants a baby boy and Leona wants a girl and I don't think they will be happy if they don't each get what they want, so we'll see how that goes. Thom has been in Hawaii for the past week and comes home tomorrow so he better bring me something awesome! I can't believe how hard it is when he's gone, even just for the weekend but this trip has been even harder because he was in Hawaii! What's up with that? Really, he better bring me something awesome! Anyway, I better try to get back to sleep. Love you all and see you soon!

I've noticed a paucity of entries on this blog. Come, folks. I've trained you better. Write. Write lots. Write often. Write well. Love, Pops

Time does fly

So I was just stting down to study and realized how time flies! I just realized that by the end of this semester (which happens to be in about a week) I will be able to apply for taking my boards for the LPN Program! I will actually have letters behind my name!!!!! Danielle DeGriselles LPN. CRAZY! It is wierd and kinda crazy that I will leagally be a nurse after I pass my boards. I will have to study some while visiting home but that will be fine. I also can't believe that I get to see the new place that mom and dad have in less than two weeks!!! Yep time does fly.

On another note we finally got our first snowfall. It finally is starting to look and feel like winter. Who else here thinks it will be wierd to have Christmas in the desert? I guess I will just have to go spend some time with Thom, Sarah and the kids. Oh darn :) I am so excited to see everyone.

PS Thom and Sarah I will be in town from the 15th to the 2nd and would like to visit :)

Our New Place!

Though Matt and I actually moved to our new place about 2 months ago I was finally able to get some photos taken (just in time to start decorating it for Christmas). If you would like to check them out (and check out Abby's new cute nursery) click here!

Dad's Email

I'm not going to let you give up on this site yet Dad!
I'm sending this because my postings on the family website haven't had responses: maybe this is just easier. Also, I've sent this to a number of duplicate e-mail addresses. Not duplicates, but I have more than one e-mail address for some of you. Tell me which ones are old, no good, etc. And, Harry Potter Deathly Hallows Part One was great! Can't wait for the grand finale!!!

Now, Christmas. Thom and Sarah and the babies will spend Christmas Eve in Big Bear with Rick and Jo. They'll have their own family time Christmas morning, then come down to Apple Valley to join us. We suggest that we have our traditional Christmas Eve dinner on Christmas day, perhaps early afternoon. Mom and I are thinking of something more . . . "traditional" for Christmas Day, such as a spiral ham or roast beast. We could then do a collection of odd things for our Christmas Day dinner when Thom, Sarah and the kids are here. Perhaps Chinese, perhaps crepes, perhaps "a little bit of this, a little bit of that." What do you think?

Finally, we'd like to have a sharing time, perhaps before lunch, after opening presents, or perhaps after dinner and clean up. We'd like to have a quiet time, opening and closing with prayer. Beforehand, each of us can think about it and come with with one scripture about Jesus Christ and be prepared to share it during that time. How does that sound?

Thanksgiving!

So, I was wanting you all to know how thankful i am for such an amazing bunch of siblings that i have, and that i miss all of you. I can't wait to see all of you in the coming months and i honestly cant wait to have a new niece coming into this world with what i think will be some of the best parents she could ask for. Abby DeGriselles will be loved by her whole family. Also since we all don't know what gender Thom & Sarahs child will be its kind of difficult writing about it and calling it an it... Sorry guys. I know this post is a day late but yesterday after we drove back to the parents house i was in a food coma till about 4 this morning when our mother dragged me to a bunch of stores and decided to have her own holiday called black friday. I am always thankful for how much mom always does for us, and today following her today i kind of get a picture how much she does... Those people are nuts!

Anyway i made an pumpkin cheesecake and if you want the recipe i will send it to you. Also i have made a Marble cheesecake and send you the recipe for that too if you want.

I'm going to end this by saying i love you all and i hope you guys have a safe weekend and safe travels to where ever you may go this weekend.

Tim D

Christmas Feast Part Dos

Everyone needs to submit their idea for the Christmas Feast by the Sunday after Thanksgiving. Please comment here with your idea and a brief description of what that entails. (Thom and Tim D. and Mom have all shared ideas, but please resubmit them as a comment here if that is what your suggestion is.) I expect suggestions from everyone including Dad...Aaron...Danielle...Sarah...Matt...You not-posting-too-much kinds of people need to make a submission for what YOU what please. Matt and Britt, are you going to CA or UT for Christmas?
After Nov.28th, I will make a poll and everyone will vote on the Christmas Feast ideas they like. Ready and GO!

note from mom

Ok, I going to give it a try.

First and formost I want you all to know I love you all very much. Dad and I have been enjoying our new home and our time together. I'm so thankful for joining the church and having a testimony of my Savior Jesus Christ. It is a very important part of my life. I do fill bad for not always letting you know how important my testimony is to me. As I look back I wish I had done somethings better. Two of the things I wish we had done better is Family scripture study and Family Home evening. I know we did it but not always consistently. I hope all of you do better than I. You will not regret it if you take the time for these important activities. I glad you guys are as great as you are. You are always in our prayers. I appreciate knowing how things are going in your lives. I enjoy talking to all of you. Just saying HI lifts my day.

I enjoy looking at the blogs and the items on the side of the blog (I haven't looked at all of them yet). Tim T, I was reading some of your comic strips and I noticed the flowers you gave Allie, nice. I like your cookies Brittany. I have some food color for frosting I can bring it to you when we see you in January.

I just want to let you all know I have a little part time job. I am working for Shamrock Flowers and Gifts. Just min. wage but I enjoy it. Max three days a week. This week only two. I'm also on the sub list for Lucerne Valley and will be soon for Apple Valley. Apple Valley is still putting the list together. I will work as a clerk in Lucerne for 3 days after Thanksgiving. I'm nervous but excited. I have been doing some volunteer work at a elementary school near us.

Still working on the house. I have a little painting to do, window washing, washing the blinds, haven't finished cleaning the guest bathroom and still have some unpacking. Yard work is going to start taking top priority soon.

Looking forward to seeing you all in the next couple of months.

Love MOM

A good friday night joke!

Did you hear about the two boats colliding?

One was carrying red paint and the blue and everyone was MAROONED!!!

But no seriously...

alot of people died... It was very tragic..

Oh Sigh

I'm writing this to ask for a some family prayers. Tim and I are having a rough go of it. We are praying and praying and doing everything we think the Lord wants us to do, yet we seem to be faced with more and more trials.

Tim was provisionally accepted to SJSU and we went in to Student Services almost weekly to double and triple checking that there was nothing else we needed to do, to see if everything was ok, especially since he was transferring from FIDM. We were reassured over and over that everything was fine and that he was more than qualified for acceptance. Just our luck, since FIDM was a "vocational" school SJSU will not accept most of his units. We demanded to speak to an admissions supervisor and finally we got one who was helpful. She said we needed to go to all the advisers of the different majors and get signatures on all 31 units and then hopefully she could get him in but we needed to get it done by the 22nd. We have been scrambling to get all the requirements, and people are just becoming less and less willing to help us. We have only been able to get some of the classes signed. We still have 16 units that professors do not want to sign because they do not want Tim to have too many electives. I understand that, but he cannot get in without them! This is Tim's third time in a row applying and getting accepted then denied. We know he is supposed to be applying to school, we keep praying and this is what we were told to do. We just don't know what to do anymore. Applying to school is putting a damper on job hunts too because he keeps getting into school (then later denied for something menial) which makes it hard to find a job since he doesn't know his availability.

Financially we are doing fine for now. We have been really blessed to be able to find dwelling in a cheap studio right across from Tim's sister so we have been able to help her out too. We are worried that the house may sell soon though because the owner keeps dropping her price (we live in a studio/garage of a house that is on the market).

I am working at Sunrise up here and their quality of care is awful. They don't care about the residents. They're rude, abrupt, pushy. I can't handle it. These people may have dementia but they still have so much to offer. To top it off, we just got a new resident yesterday who is SUPER confused. He knows this is not his home, but he doesn't understand what is going on. He gets combative sometimes which can be a risk to the residents, himself and us. My coordinator pulled the Lead and myself into the office to talk to us about this new resident. The Lead immediately says the resident has to go, that we can't deal with him here (just much more vehemently). I emphasize that we do not yet know him, he is confused, he is new, we do not know how to best help him yet, he doesn't know how to trust us yet, we cannot just kick him out because we don't want to try. The rest of the night the Lead gave me a hard time and it ended with her yelling at me in the parking lot because I'm "wrong."

Couple all this with the stress of school and just life...Well, long story short, Tim and I have had a long long long November and an incredibly long hard week. We could really use some extra prayers right now to help smooth life out a little bit. We just want some level of consistency for a while.

So... My christmas list??

So i have no clue who has me this year BUT i thought the best way to get my thoughts to you is by way of the blogosphere! Alright so here is a few things i would not mind :p

1: If you can find it i would not mind getting a hold of a nice foray (if i even USED that correctly) of some of the better Superman/Batman comics out there.

2:A nice pillow

3:Scott Pilgrim's Precious little Life (the first in the scott pilgrim saga of comics.)

4:the scott pilgrim vs the world

5:How to train your dragon

6:The new Bloc Party cd Flux or Intimacy

:D thank you Interwubs! also if this helps any you are welcome or contact mother to contact me lol

Christmas Feast

Mom called me a little while ago asking about ideas for our Christmas feast. She came up with a really really awesome idea that I support (and Dad says "eh" to.) Moms idea came from the Christmas we all made our own chowders for Christmas dinner. She loved that we all were busy in the kitchen together. She loved the excitement we all had making our own dishes. She loved that we were all involved. Keeping with that idea, Mom came up with:

Crepes.

All different kinds of crepes! While some people work on making the crepes, others work on making their own fillings. At the end we will have a smorgasbord stuff to put in our crepes for dinner (meats, cheeses, spreads...) AND a whole different assortment of innards for dessert crepes later that night (fruits, spreads...). The idea is for us all to become creative, spend time together, and be able to mix and match.

Mom would like to know what everyone thought of this idea/what other ideas there might be. Please comment!

P.S. Dad, this can be eaten with a fork.

Ok so... Dis is a blag!

I decided to start blagging on here dis interwab! Um i decided to make my own personal blog so i can start maybe getting my thoughts out of my head. if you wanna head over its Breaking In Against the Hot. Also if you can tell me HOW to show the URL here so guys can just jump on over that would be appreciated. Anyway it kinda explains itself on the first (of hopefully many) blog postings. well here is just a link to it itself http://timothy-todd-donald-duck.blogspot.com/

ALSO i have a family oriented question. Do we wanna do the whole "LETS MAKE LOTS OF FOOD EACH AND SHARE AND BE FULL OF DELICIOUSNESS" for the holidays? i think that should be the official title. Anyway i know what i want to make, and i know i flaked out last year. that is why i am wanting to start this so maybe ill have the kick in the butt already going to actually pitch in. comment for ideas and then we maybe can make a post all on it own for LMLOFEASABFOD or LMLFESBFD if you cut out the ands. and of's. ANYWAY i think it would be alot better (not that last year was wrong in anyway) if it was a little more organized. Im rolling on the floor laughing out loud. or roflol. just for dad to learn more terminology to confuse his old fogie friends. Anyway give me ideas.

Please.

Ok, so, there's these two sausages in a frying pan. It's getting all hot and sizzle-ey. The first sausage turns to the other and says, "Man, is it hot in here, I'm sweating like a pig." (However pigs don't sweat, the sausage was unaware of this because he was just a sausage.) The second sausage turned and screamed, "AAAAHHH, A TALKING SAUSAGE!!"

Ok, now that we're on the same page, I just want to ask at the beginning of our new adventure with family blogging that we use this space to enjoy each other and NOT tease, pick on, or make fun of each other here. Some times I feel like it is too easy to take light teasing too far, which can become very personal to the person being teased. Why bother when we can skip past that and just enjoy each other instead.

I'm sorry if this is awkward/forward, but it is important to me and we're all adults here.

If anyone decides to break this law you'll have to deal with this guy!

Testing, 1, 2, 3... Testing

WHIPE THAT A SMILE ON YOUR FACE!!! YOU THINK YOUR BACK ON THE BLOCK AND CAN DO WHATEVER YOU WANT WITH YOUR HOMIES!! WELL LET ME TELL YOU SOMETHING MISTER: IN CASE YOU MISSED IT YOU'RE MINE NOW. YOU BELONG TO ME AND THERE ISN'T ANYTHING YOU CAN DO ABOUT IT. AND I WILL MAKE YOU PRETTY...

How to Post...

Just FYI for those new to blogger, if you want to leave a new post...
-make sure you're signed in
-go up to the top right hand corner of the screen click on the button that says "new post"
-click that and tada, you are at the screen to post!

Happy posting :)

You knew I had to do it...

Since this is a "family" blog I thought I would introduce (though its a couple of months late and I think everyone has already since this pic) our newest member...

Isn't she cute!!

Second Time is the Charm

Dear DeGriselles family members,
This is attempt number two to create a place for the family to all come together and update each other. I spoke with Timothy and tried to think about why the group site failed. We decided that out of a number of things that it mainly was out of the way and not incredibly user-friendly. We thought maybe a blog site would be easier.
I want to point out from the start that this blog is not to replace the blogs that family members already have, but to support them. We have all the blogs to the right for everyone's convenience!
The features that the blog has is that we can have upto 100 people be authors on a blog. This means that (and I still have to figure this all out which may take some time so I ask that you all bear with me) everyone from the family can log on and post something for the rest of the family and comment on each others posts. I hope we can use this site as a place to update each other in a less obtrusive way as facebook and more conveniently than mass emails.
The great things we can all do here is:
-Post pictures
-Let the family know we updated our personal blogs
-Give "personal" updates about milestones or setbacks that we want to share with family but not the whole world
-Plan upcoming trips together
-And to just communicate with each other in general.
PLEASE PUT THIS SITE AS YOUR HOMEPAGE or IN YOUR BOOKMARKS AT THE VERY LEAST. This will help us all go back and check often. I also put every ones emails into the mail list so we all should get emails when someone has posted here.
Again, I am still working this all out, but I wanted to let you all know about this new idea Timothy and I had.
Leave a comment and share what you think!