The Best of Christmas in Denver

Christmas PJs for all the cousins!

and Uncle Mark too.

and Mom and Dad. 

Sleeping Under the Christmas tree on the night before Christmas Eve - a Maxwell Family tradition!

Getting to see Maxwell Studio up and running and doing extremely well!

Sledding! (where, luckily, they actually had a decent amount of snow since the boys got snow tubes from Santa for Christmas.)

Swimming at Grandpas Hotel

BFFs (Jack & Amee - Mom's best friend's kids; makes as good as cousins and Colton and Amee are practically twins since they were born just 14 hrs apart)

Spending time with Great Grandma Likely (who is 102) and Grandma Barbie and Grandpa Bob (who just moved back to Colorado from Portland)

Sleepover with Matt and Layna!  Pizza, video games and 3D movies, what could be more fun?!

Christmas Nativity Pageant - another Maxwell Family tradition!

Mary and Joseph

 the Angel

 the Wisemen

 the Shepherd

The whole cast

And then of course, there was Christmas itself, but that will have to another post . . .

Keeping Christmas

Love this poem by Henry Van Dyke:

It is a good thing to observe Christmas day. The mere marking of times and seasons, when men agree to stop work and make merry together, is a wise and wholesome custom. It helps one to feel the supremacy of the common life over the individual life. It reminds a man to set his own little watch, now and then, by the great clock of humanity which runs on sun time.

But there is a better thing than the observance of Christmas day, and that is, keeping Christmas.

Are you willing to forget what you have done for other people, and to remember what other people have done for you; to ignore what the world owes you, and to think what you owe the world; to put your rights in the background, and your duties in the middle distance, and your chances to do a little more than your duty in the foreground; to see that your fellow-men are just as real as you are, and try to look behind their faces to their hearts, hungry for joy; to own that probably the only good reason for your existence is not what you are going to get out of life, but what you are going to give to life; to close your book of complaints against the management of the universe, and look around you for a place where you can sow a few seeds of happiness--are you willing to do these things even for a day? Then you can keep Christmas.

Are you willing to stoop down and consider the needs and the desires of little children; to remember the weakness and loneliness of people who are growing old; to stop asking how much your friends love you, and ask yourself whether you love them enough; to bear in mind the things that other people have to bear on their hearts; to try to understand what those who live in the same house with you really want, without waiting for them to tell you; to trim your lamp so that it will give more light and less smoke, and to carry it in front so that your shadow will fall behind you; to make a grave for your ugly thoughts, and a garden for your kindly feelings, with the gate open--are you willing to do these things even for a day? Then you can keep Christmas.

Are you willing to believe that love is the strongest thing in the world--stronger than hate, stronger than evil, stronger than death--and that the blessed life which began in Bethlehem nineteen hundred years ago is the image and brightness of the Eternal Love? Then you can keep Christmas.

And if you keep it for a day, why not always?

Flashbacks of Cowboys

As the boys have been getting out our costume box and getting ready for Halloween, one of the costumes of choice has been "the cowboy" (which sometimes includes spiderman wearing a cowboy hat and boots that at are too big), but it reminded me of Cody's cowboy experience this summer . . .

Mutton Bustin' at the Spanish Fork Rodeo has become a tradition in our family.

Why do we torture our children like this?

Actually, I think he had a good time, despite the heat and the dust (and getting the wind knocked out of him).  And we all enjoyed watching the rest of the cowboys and cowgirls do the same.

Cody was happy and surprised that Grandma & Grandpa came by just to see their favorite cowboy ride!

(To see Corbin riding in the rodeo click here or for actual video footage you can click here.)

Thank you Columbus!

I'm so glad we have this day to celebrate the discovery of America.  Why don't we have the day off of school?  Why don't we have parades and parties and barbeques??  Maybe because it's not as fun in October (or maybe we are trying to forget the decimation of native peoples that occured because of his discovery).  At any rate, hooray for America!  Maybe I should say thank you to Washington and Jefferson and all those guys for giving us a real holiday to celebrate . . . 

Happy 4th of July!! (Yes, I know this post is a little belated, but better late than never.  Maybe.)
The 4th for us is all about family and firetrucks. And even though I was SERIOUSLY jet-lagged, we had an awesome weekend. I got home from India Saturday afternoon, crashed about 6pm, woke up for good at 4am and when the fam finally woke up 3 hours later, we had a yummy breakfast and then headed up to Russ' Uncle's cabin for the day.


It felt so good to be outdoors after spending 3weeks in a city of 7 million people.  My favorite part of the day?  Riding 4-wheelers to the top of the world.

 

 

 

 

 

And hanging out with family, of course!

 

And for the actual day (post should be titled "How much fun can you pack into one day") . . .

FIRETRUCK Tradition:

 

PLAYTIME at Murray Park:

 



POOL PARTY with firefighter friends:

 

 

 

And finally FIRECRACKERS and GLOWSTICKS at Grandma's:

 

 

So, thanks again, Benjamin Franklin and George Read, and all the other signers of the Declaration of Independence.  We truly are grateful for this land of the free!