Daugs Family Party 2010

Yesterday was the annual Daugs family Christmas party. This includes my dad, his children, and their children, and some of their children. We are a big family. My brother Nate and his wife Christy, were in charge of planning the party this year. It was SO GREAT!! It was held at my childhood church..."the young ward chapel". The kids did a couple of performances. Logan and Ellie sang "When Christmas Comes To Town". We had Costa Vida style food that was DELISH!! And of course lots of good stuff like Sees chocolates. Nate and Christy tried something new this year and it worked out so great!! We were each assigned a family member to do a service, in their name. Not for that person, but as a gift to that person. Then at the party we all shared what service we gave. It was fun to hear what everyone did, from donating money to adoption causes, volunteering at the animal shelter, making and taking treats to the local police station, babysitting, donating food and household goods to those in need, volunteering at a hospital nursery, missionary work, etc. A few were emotional sharing their stories of service. I of course, was one of them. I seem to get all emotional at these things!! But for good reason. We had Nate and Christy's name. For our service we joined the National Angelman Syndrome Foundation, and will help plan the Utah Angelman Syndrome annual run in the spring next year. Nate's twin boys have Angelman Syndrome. I hope to become more aware of what life entails for their family, and to help educate and spread the word to others. They are happy babies, with amazing parents. Here they are with Christy in the picture below. Cute little Clint and Cole, our family angels.

After the indoor festivities, we all bundled up for an outdoor surprise. We went to a friends huge ranch and got ready for a horse drawn ride in the snow!! The kids loved climbing on the hay bales in the barn. And, YES, that is a CAMEL that Logan is standing in front of. These people have a camel, a zebra, donkeys, mules, llama, pigs, cows, etc. And we saw buffalo on the ride. Yep, just a snowy ride through the country in Cache Valley. I LOVE that place!!

All aboard!! It was snowing for the entire ride. I tried to take some pictures of the actual snowflakes. They were amazing. It was kind of icy snow and you could see so many perfect tiny snowflakes that looked like stars. Here I am with my sista, Ame Same.

Ellie and Ada ready to roll. A portion of the crew on board, and the amazing horses that pulled us ALL!!

After the winter wonderland outing, it was back to Nate's house to eat more leftovers and have hot chocolate. And time for the kids to open their annual PJ's from aunt Rachie. This year they all got matching Christmas star bottoms, sewn by Rachel. And different colors of T-shirts to match. The rule is, you get the matching PJ's until age eight. So this is the last year for Logan, Ellie and Wyatt. So sad. How did eight years of Christmas PJ's from Aunt Rachie go so fast??

I think this may have been the best family Christmas party ever!! We all had so much fun. Thanks Nate and Christy for all you did to make this day so memorable!!