Christmas 2005 - Part II

Jamie looking at Gram's Christmas tree

(MUCHAS GRACIAS to Esteban for capturing these Christmas memories...)

Christmas morning at Gram's house was fun. Most everyone that was there had a bad cold or the flu. Esteban made a drugstore run and everyone sat around, half asleep, sipping hot Thera-flu. We muddled our way through, though, and the kids all had a great time opening and playing with their new things. It was fun to celebrate Christmas with family this year.

Gram & Chuck

Gram & Shelby

Wanda & Austin

Shelby & Esteban

Shelby & Owen

Owen & Julie

Jamie hamming it up for Esteban's camera!

Shelby & Jamie

Julie, Bill, Jamie, Cody & Ryan



Brian, Cody, Sharon & Ryan

Chuck, Melissa & Everett

Tyler, Daron & Chick



Jamie & Bill

Jamie, Bill, Tyler, Daron (in back) and Ryan playing with his new PlayStation

Christmas 2005 - Part I

WOW!!! I can't believe it's February already! Guess it's a good time to update our blog and post Christmas photos.


We went to Albuquerque for Christmas and spent the holidays with Julie's family. Bill's sister, Bonnie, was in Albuquerque with friends and we were glad to be able to visit with her also. On Christmas Eve, we went to Julie's uncle's house for enchiladas and posolé and other goodies. We also drove around and saw lots of beautiful lights and luminarias.

This is Julie's grandmother's house on Christmas Eve. Shelby helped her set up the luminarias (farolitos) that afternoon. They don't show up in the photo very well but the entire cul-de-sac was lined with them and it was beautiful!

We stayed at Julie's mom's house in Rio Rancho with Emily & Shelby and had fun watching Shelby and Jamie tear through their presents on Christmas morning. Julie came down with the cold/flu on Christmas Eve and felt horrible on Christmas Day...you know she wasn't feeling good when she turned the camera duty over to Bill!

Shelby and Jamie scattering "reindeer food" in the driveway on Christmas Eve.

Jamie & Grandma Betty on Christmas morning. He opened one package on Christmas Eve...Thomas PJ's.

Christmas morning - Bill & Jamie

Christmas morning - Shelby with Hilary poster.

Christmas morning - Jamie ripping through the paper!

Julie bought this Thomas computer game last July and was so excited to give it to Jamie for Christmas. He was excited to open it and we took this very nice photo of it. Good thing we have this photo because the Thomas game hasn't been seen since...must have been gathered up with the trash. Bummer!

Christmas morning - Bill and his new Denver Broncos fleece. Julie bought this on eBay from someone in Kansas City. (A true fan will recognize the irony of this.)

Emily & Julie being Christmas couch potatoes. Julie was actually wishing she was in bed!

HIPPY Christmas Party

Jamie has been involved this semester with the HIPPY (Home Instruction for Parents of Preschool Youth) Program, offered through Alamosa County. The program promotes school readiness and early literacy through parent involvement and utilizes the parent as the child's first teacher. It is a great program and seems to have good long term correlation with school success. The curriculum at age 3 is mostly reading, comprehension and role play which has supplemented and reinforced what we have already been doing.

The annual HIPPY Christmas party was held on December 20th at Polston Elementary School. There were lots of kids, submarine sandwiches and hotdogs, Christmas music, Christmas candy and Santa Claus...with PRESENTS!! Jamie had asked Santa earlier for a 'super fast toy' and, as fate would have it, his gift from Santa was a racing motorcycle toy. He was so impressed that Santa remembered his request and said that it was "just what I wanted". Today, someone asked Jamie if Santa was going to bring him a present and his jubilant reply was, "he already did"!

FCC Christmas Pageant

The children in our church presented the Christmas Story during last Sunday morning's worship service.
(Yes, Bill & Brenda are also considered "children".)
Jamie was one of the wise men and he brought his gift of gold to the newborn King.

Cast members
Mary: Brenda
Joseph: Bill
Angels: Demi & Amy
Shepherds: Tyler, Case & Spencer
Wise Men/Three Kings: Mason, Aaron & Jamie

Christmas 2005 letter

Dear Family and Friends,

It’s hard to believe that another year has passed. Our hearts go out this holiday season to all of those who have been touched by the tragedy and disaster of hurricanes, earthquakes and war. We are certainly blessed to have our home and to know that our families are safe. We will not ever again take these things for granted.

The Brooks’ household has had a fairly uneventful year. We continue to be inspired by Jamie who, at 3 years old, fills our hearts with pride and love. He is growing and learning and becoming his own little self. He is a creative and energetic boy with a caring heart. This past year he has kept busy with gymnastics, Musikgarten, swimming lessons, Vacation Bible School, story time at the public library, playgroup and Awana. He has also started going to daycare/preschool 2 mornings per week. His favorite toy continues to be ANYTHING trains, especially Thomas the Tank Engine. His other favorite toys include construction trucks and race cars and he loves to work jigsaw puzzles. His best friend is Spencer. (Spencer has recently moved to Farmington, NM and Jamie is having a hard time understanding why Spencer doesn’t go to Awana anymore.) Other friends include Ryan, Ashley, Parker, Ryan, Aaron, Justin and Ryan. (Yes, there are three Ryan’s!) He loves baseball, soccer and football and we are looking forward to the upcoming summer when he will be old enough to participate in city leagues, if he so chooses. He also loves to sing (favorite song is “Old McDonald Had a Barn”), have stories read to him (his favorite books are “Racer Dogs” and “I Stink”) and watch videos (favorite videos are “Thomas the Tank Engine”, “Dora The Explorer” and “Bob The Builder”). He is also learning to master the potty, FINALLY!

We were able to take a couple of family trips this past year. We did Spring Break in Arizona and went to a Rockies game, the zoo and found the Maricopa Live Steamers Railroader Club where we got to ride miniature trains for an entire afternoon. We spent Father’s Day in Durango with Thomas the Tank Engine. In July, we spent a few days with Bill’s family in Salt Lake City and, then a week at our timeshare in Las Vegas, NV. It was too hot to really enjoy the time we spent in Las Vegas, but we did have fun riding the monorail and playing at Circus, Circus. In the future, we will be sure to not visit Las Vegas during the summer months. In October, we went to the Balloon Fiesta in Albuquerque, NM.

Bill’s job as school counselor moved him from the high school to the middle school this year, which has been a welcome change. He is really enjoying his work with this age group and also enjoys not having to deal with registration, scholarships and college prep and graduation. He misses the students at the high school but continues to be the SEADS (Students Educating Against Drugs and Suicide) sponsor. For fun, Bill finds time to work in his shop on his scrollsaw, play Scrabble, play volleyball, play bass guitar in church and serve as church elder. This year, he is especially proud to be a Denver Broncos fan as they are having a great season!

Julie continues to enjoy her job as SAHM. Her symptoms with CFIDS and Fibromyalgia restrict her activity but she does manage to find some free time for scrapbooking, weekly Bible study, mom’s group and cruising. (She is a Cruiser wanna-be and the designated co-pilot to Emily’s P.T. Cruiser. She & Emily attended several P.T. Cruiser events this past year.) She also continues to play recreational volleyball and will become a home demonstrator for Stampin’ Up!© in January.

We will spend Christmas with Julie’s family in Albuquerque. We pray that you will also have the opportunity to share the joy of the season with those you love. We thank you for the love you have shown to us in the past year; it is the greatest of all gifts.

Love,
Bill, Julie & Jamie

A visit with Santa

Jamie had a good visit with Santa at the Villa Mall in Alamosa.
Jamie told Santa that he wants a really SUPER toy for Christmas.
(Whew, I think Santa can handle that request!)

The Puzzle Master

Jamie loves to work jigsaw puzzles! He is very good at figuring out where the pieces go and can work this 48 piece puzzle all by himself!

Stampin' Up!

Julie hosted a Stampin' Up! party and Bill volunteered to babysit the kids. I'm not sure he knew what he was getting into but the kids had a great time! Jamie was excited to have his friends and his cousin, Shelby, here for the evening. They played trains and did tumbling on the couch cushions. Julie and her friends learned more about rubber stamping and scrapbooking and had a great time also.

O Christmas Tree

We went to the mountains in search of the perfect Christmas tree. The weather was so nice. There is not much snow yet so our search was fairly easy. We saw three potential "keepers" and finally decided on this one.






Jamie was excited to help with the tree and used his toy saw to cut "lots of things".





It's hard to believe that we're already decorating for Christmas but we are looking forward to a fun holiday.

Happy Thanksgiving!

We spent the holiday at home. After some quick, last minute cleaning, we enjoyed a relaxing day watching the Macy's parade on TV and then watching football.The Broncos played the Cowboys (and WON!) which made for extra celebration and thanksgiving.

The Hamilton's roasted the turkey while Julie prepared all of the necessary side dishes. After we all had our fill of yummy food, we watched "The Polar Express". We missed spending Thanksgiving with family but it was nice to be home and share it with good friends.

Paradise FOUND!

Jamie was invited to a birthday party at the Sand Dunes Swimming Pool (AKA The Hooper Pool).

We have lived in Alamosa for 17 years and had not yet discovered this SLV oasis. It is a natural hot artesian heated swimming pool that is open year round. It has a kiddie pool that goes from 1 foot to 2 feet in depth and is PERFECT for Jamie. He had so much fun playing in the water with the other kids and didn't have to cling on to either one of us. He felt completely comfortable and independent wading in the shallow water or floating on his swimming noodle. The water going into the pool is about 118 degrees but cools down to between 98 and 104. They also have a therapy pool where the water is 108. We all had a great time and will definitely spend more time there now that we know more about it.

A perfect day to climb a tree...

Jamie was having fun playing at the park with his friend, Parker, when they both decided that they'd try to climb this tree. I couldn't resist the photo op!

FCC Craft Show

Julie & Jamie were in Denver but Bill was at home in Alamosa putting on the 5th Annual Craft and Bake Sale at our church.
He really enjoys his scrollsaw hobby and looks forward to the holiday season when he can show off his masterpieces. This year he has done craft shows in La Jara, Albuquerque and Alamosa. His next show is Dec. 2 & 3 at the Villa Mall in Alamosa (not a real mall, just a strip mall).

Chuck E. Cheese

Julie & Jamie and Emily & Shelby went to Denver for a Colorado PT Cruiser Club meeting on Saturday.
We spent most of the time running errands and decided to reward the kids for their "good behavior" with a trip to Chuck E. Cheese. They had a great time!

Remembering Granddad

Julie and Jamie spent this past Veteran's Day weekend in Albuquerque. This was the one year anniversary of Julie's grandfather's death. Her cousin, Esteban, also came in from Los Angeles to be with family and remember.

Saturday, Julie & Esteban searched high and low (really, we even went to a casino) to find the USC vs. California football game on TV. We ended up at Hooters and had a great time watching the game and catching up. The Trojans won...still undefeated and still number ONE!

Later that night, we met at Gram's and were talking about different things when the subject turned to our family history. With Esteban's laptop and my Gram's wireless DSL (yes, my 89 year old grandmother has wireless DSL), we started digging. We came up with a few names that I'd not come up with yet which triggered Gram's memory with even more names and information. She then remembered an envelope of family history information that one of her nieces had put together and sent to her over 10 years ago. Wow, it was like hitting the jackpot! They had to kick me out and send me back to my mom's at midnight just so they could go to bed.

On Sunday, Owen & Shelby and Wanda joined us at Gram's for yummy roast & turkey dinner. We all went to the cemetery to place flowers on Granddad's and Everett's gravesites. I had not been to the cemetery since the funeral and had not yet seen the headstone that had been designed by Esteban. It was a beautiful autumn day and it was sweet to see Jamie & Shelby playing near the gravesite...almost as if they were playing in Granddad's lap. Granddad's memory and legacy will forever shape our lives.

Happy Halloween!

Jamie was so excited for Halloween. We thought he was going to be Thomas the Tank Engine but he changed his mind several times before deciding on Buzz Lightyear. (He went as Bob The Builder to the playgroup party.) We went to the Harvest Festival at the Waverly Church where Jamie and his best friend, Spencer, had a great time together. They played all of the games, including ring toss, bean bag throw, cake walk, field goal kick, free throw shooting and bowling.

Jamie & Spencer

We had so much fun at the festival that we got a late start on the trick-or-treating. We only made it to four houses for the boys to belt out their well rehearsed "Trick-or-treat!" As you can tell from the contents of the pumpkin, they were well rewarded at those four houses.

The LOOT!