A houseful of cousins made for fun gift opening over at Grammy and Boppy's house. Dylan absolutely could not get enough of his drill. 
The kids all gather around Grandma to look at her brag book.
The dogs wanted to get in on some of the food action!
Dom's favorite gifts of the morning were his StarWars galactic heroes and his clipboard loaded with a supply of paper!
Evan enjoyed a couple of rounds of intense "Transformers" chess with Uncle Paul.
The boys were shepherds in the St. Mary's Christmas program. It was a little hectic getting them there in time with the snow falling and lots of families arriving at the church. We barely got there in time to save a partial pew for the Deming clan. Luckily everyone comes to Christmas mass with a Merry Christmas attitude. We then proceeded to Mom and Dad's house for a festive Asian meal. Kevin made his wonderful Chinese pork loin and I made lumpia and pancit. Before dinner we took all the kids out into the wintery night and rang some neighborhood doorbells to sing some carols. The kids loved it so much, I think this will definitely become an annual thing. It was a perfect snowy night to go carolling. 
Santa came! We were of course awakened very early by our dear Evan. Mel and I always think of the line from the Family Man movie when the kids wake us up. "Strong Coffee!"
This is the first Christmas that Evan and Dom got ready for Santa to come without us spearheading everything. They got the cookie plate ready and wrote the note themselves. I like Evan's choice of words here, not "I have been good this year," instead, " I have been having fun this year." Well every kid knows that by Christmas Eve it's too late to tell Santa whether or not you have been good!
Every year we have to be reminded again how much fun it is to keep track of mittens, snow boots, hats etc! With snow comes the joys of sending the kids out to play. They always come in before you want them to (through the wrong door, of course. "Didn't we tell you to come in through the laundry room?) The fun is all worth it!
(I don't think the mailman is coming today!)
Got up early this morning knowing that it would be a little work to get the driveway shoveled and make my short trek to the transit center to catch the bus. We got one side of the driveway cleared after 1/2 hour of Mel and I both shoveling. I warmed up the Subaru and backed out into the street attempting to crank the wheel just right to get into the center of the street where a couple of cars had already driven. Well, I didn't get any further than that. Tried to pull forward and got stuck, tried to back up again and got stuck. Mel had to shovel out the front tires and push to get me back into the driveway. I know this sounds wimpy and silly because when you are a Montana native, you're supposed to be able to deal with snow. In this case there is just too dang much of it! The news last reported that we have gotten accumulation of 26 inches in Spokane Valley and guess what, it's still snowing! I'm going to just enjoy and share these photos!
If you look at a blown up version of this photo, right below where it says, "stupid idiot" it says "trouble just beginning." Well, who's the stupid idiot now? It appears that Ron Deming made a pretty good catch in marrying Nancy October 26, 1963. 45 years later, 4 kids graduated from college and married, 10 grandchildren, and still able to actually enjoy each other's company. They will be looking at that same hill that's in the background, from Washington Grizzly stadium next weekend while attending the Griz game with Hank and Kay. They have certainly come a long way! We have to laugh at the fact that Nancy having only retired from her 15 years of flower shop ownership within the last year, actually had flowers at her wedding that were cut out of a stranger's yard! If there's anything we can learn from them it's that it's a sacred trust in God and each other that we all can celebrate. They have always chosen to spend their time with each other and those they love.
Oh, and by the way, she still makes "killer" peach pie!
We got to host Maria, Christina and Brian for a fun day of playing in the leaves and going on an outing to Riverfront park downtown. It was opening weekend for the skating rink, so we took advantage of that with it being the first time on ice skates for the kids. Dominic opted to sit out because he's the type to observe the first time. Evan, was all about speed, and Maria wanted to be good at it right away. They both did great but not without some good falls. Maria hit her head on the ice, but she is not the type to give up, so kept on skating after that. I dusted off my skates, and they still work. The kids know what I want to do on my birthday this year!
We got to go on a family outing for the Griz game in Missoula last weekend October 18th. Mom and Dad were in Billings and Hank and Kay were in Washington D.C., so we got all 4 tickets! The weather was perfect for football and with the Griz dominating the game, it made it even more fun! We made contact with our old friend Shawn and daughter Ella who is just a sweetheart. She thought Evan and Dom were a little on the crazy side, which I can understand why as she witnessed them chasing squirrels across campus and throwing nuts at them and then Evan taking on the Grizzly bear with his Taekwondo moves.
Shawn and Ella
Dom, as a Big Man on Campus
We had Mark, Sarah and Co. from Tacoma here last weekend on their way through Spokane to Billings to visit Great Grandma. It was good bonding time once again. I'm gradually winning my way to the hearts of Henry and Morgan through their sweet tooths! Morgan and I made some cut-out cookie dough together and baked some ghosts, pumpkins and cats. Morgan enjoyed cutting out shapes and all, but the best part for him was the beaters. Henry is learning the ropes of endearing himself to the cook from his father. He saw the cookies on the cooling the rack and said, "Can I try one of those cookies to see if they are any good?" Anyhow, Sarah and I had a good visit too , between feeding the crew and taking them up to Green Bluff to try and wear them all out at the pumpkin patch. 
Evan enjoyed playing with Max 
Aren't they darling?
It's definitely Fall because it's all about food with me at this time of year. Yesterday, I fell victim to checkout stand marketing and bought the "Crockpot slow cooker recipes -- Crocktober issue!" And todayI'm in the mood to bake. What else would it be but apple crisp? Mom went and got us some farm fresh pie apples the other day, so I get to bring the apple crisp over to her house for dinner tonight. I can still remember when Mom used to make it and Paul and I would keep sneaking into the kitchen while it was cooling on the counter and eat bits of the topping off. We would try to redistribute the crumbs as best we could so that Mom wouldn't be able to tell. Let's just say, she could usually tell.
Here's some fun Fall moments we had last weekend which included front-yard football. Jen and Kevin went to homecoming in Pullman and we got to have Dylan for a whole day. He fit right in as one of the boys! I had to warn Jen that she would be shocked when she went to do his laundry and saw how dirty his clothes were at the end of the day! You'll notice in the video, Dylan rubbing his eyes. Of course he hadn't taken a nap, there was just to much fun to be had.
Planting bulbs with Auntie. 
Well, our anniversary was in August, but we are just now getting to enjoy our gift to each other. 10 years ago Mel bought a flag pole for his dad at the Puyallup fair. He's wanted one ever since. Well, we bought one at the Spokane County fair this year. We figured it was a good time to do it since we have vowed to stay in this house for "at least 10 years!"
