Christmas Morning 2008

Kelsie and Brooke were all about Twilight and electric blankets!

Santa brought Cade a video rocker chair and an xBox game

Dillon was a very good boy and so Santa brought him the electric guitar 

that he'd had on his Christmas list since July!  Now he needs lessons.

Paige was happy with the puppy stroller set she got from Santa, but especially liked the candy and nuts!  She wasn't too excited about Santa before Christmas, but decided Christmas morning that he was okay.

Here is the cute bunch anticipating finding out what Santa brought the good Mercer kids!

We were very blessed to have many nice gifts under our tree thanks to the generosity of many family members.  We were grateful for each one!  Thank you!

Christmas Eve 2008

We acted out the nativity story with our family at Grandma and Grandpa Mercer's house.  Jeff and I played Mary and Joseph, Kelsie was the shepherd, Paige the angel, and Brooke, Cade, and Dillon were the three wisemen.  So cute. . .except for mom.

Posing with Santa

Here we are with Santa!  You can see how happy Paige was to be within 10 feet of Santa.  What a cute bunch of kids. . .hope they're on Santa's good list!!

We Got A Job!!!

What a blessing to be employed again, especially in this economy where people we know and love are being laid off every week!  Jeff will never again take his employment for granted!  Unemployment is a trial that is very stressful, faith trying, and yet a blessing in disguise.  Every time we have been through it we are humbled to see the Lord's hand in blessing us.  We don't even try to add up the numbers to find out why we still have money in savings and how our one month's salary lasted for 5 months and through Christmas.  I will ALWAYS pay my tithing first, avoid debt, and live frugally because you never know when you will have to live on very little.  All of a sudden, our 10 year old Suburban is looking pretty fine when I know it is paid for and we don't have to worry about making a payment every month.  We are blessed that it keeps running, along with our 12 year old Honda.  I know that with the Lord's help we CAN do hard things.  With a little effort and faith on our part, he will make up the difference for our weakness.

I am sooo blessed! 

By the way, Jeff is working for a company called Language Access Network selling video interpretation services to hospitals.  It is similar to a job he had a couple years ago and so he has a jump start on his sales with the contacts he has maintained.  We are hoping his hard work pays off soon!  Right now he is traveling 3-4 days a week trying to cover his 15 state territory as the mid-west sales VP.  Go Jeff!!

Christmas in Nauvoo

Jeff and I were asked to play Joseph and Emma Smith in a little play at our ward Christmas party.  It was more work than I expected, but ended up being pretty fun.  Jeff was thrilled to finally be on stage with me.  I think people called me "Emma" for a few weeks after that.  It was a bit tricky to figure out how to curl my hair like that!  I could never be a pioneer!

Papa's 62nd Birthday

We celebrated Papa's birthday over Thanksgiving weekend while several of us were there from out of town!  Wow was there a lot of smoke from those candles!  We love you Papa!