Christmas Greetings from the Copeland Families!

George and Laura

Kevin & Angie, Taylor, Connor, Kade, Lauren, & Hannah

John and Alison, Bracken, Parker, Tyson, & Preston

Kyle and Kim, Carter, Jenna, & Brady

Jeff & Amy, Garrett & Isaac

Cameron & Anne, Sydney, Jaxon, & Mason

Kent & Natalie, Ethan & Ella

Craig & Cassie (Missing is their baby, Mia--the cat!)

Christmas! What a Wonderful Time of Year!

What an amazing time of the year! When we can all get together as family and celebrate the birth of our Savior. It's just the greatest!

This year we went to Utah for the Christmas vacation. We had quite the time getting there. First of all, we were detained in the Dallas airport for four hours, but this actually turned out to be a blessing. Cameron and Anne, who live in Dallas, brought the three grandkids and we got to spend some time with them in the airport before boarding the plane again for Utah. I'm so mad that my camera was, of course, already being routed on the airplane, so I didn't get pictures of our happy reunion with Cameron's family.

After the four-hour layover, I immediately called Kevin to tell him we were boarding the plane and the door was shutting. We were finally on our way to Utah. However, with severe weather in Utah, we circled the Salt Lake airport so many times, we were running out of fuel and had to be rerouted to Boise, Idaho! Then when we finally got back to Utah, it took so much time to get in again with only one usable runway, so poor Kevin ended sitting in the airport parking lot in freezing cold weather for 3 1/2 hours! But we finally made it! Instead of getting in at 7:30 p.m., we ended up getting in at 3:30 a.m.--very late in the night!

Saturday, December 20, we had our annual Rigby Christmas party which my Dad plans for each year. He has been so good to continue this tradition which he and my mother started many years ago. With nearly 80 people in attendance (which includes all of my six brothers and sisters, their spouses, many of their children and grandchildren,) we have outgrown my parents' home, so we always hold it in a church.

My sisters Joyce, Natalie, my dad, me, and my sister Beverly.

We had a wonderful roast beef dinner where everyone brought side dishes.

Brady with his dad, Kyle.

Jenna, with her mother, Kim.

Then my dad gave all the granddaughters and daughters a special statue to remember our mother and grandmother.

This is my dad with a picture of my mother when she was a junior in high school. He always pays the most beautiful tributes to her!

He also has a fun "Guess how much money is in the jar" game, with the person who guesses the closest to the amount getting the jar of money. Believe it or not, a Copeland has only won it once! Amy beat out Kevin by only $.04!!!!! Kevin and Angie and four of their children. Great-Grandpa Rigby with Kevin's daughter, Hannah.

Grandma Laura with Hannah and Lauren.

Grandpa George with Brady.

Then we all have a wonderful Bingo game where every person attending gets one card. As each person wins, they get to go into a huge room just filled with items like a store. My sisters Joyce and Natalie helped Dad pick up items for this all year. We play until every person gets to go into the room, then we start over. We ended up going into the room four times! There is everything from golf balls to sports gear, to toys, to clothes, to kitchen items, decorating items! There is a little bit of everything. Everyone loves Grandpa's Christmas bingo! Thanks so much, Grandpa, for such a wonderful party and for getting us all together! Ella loves her "Hello, Kitty" gift!Grandpa George with Lauren and Jenna.Ethan playing basketball with the big kids when the party is over. Kevin and Kyle with their Grandpa Rigby.

Thanks for "Thanks"giving!

What a wonderful time of year--a time for all of us to remember even more all the blessings we have been given! I am so thankful for a wonderful husband, fourteen dear children (the seven in-law children feel like our own), and twenty--soon to be twenty-one grandchildren. They are all such wonderful people who work so hard in their daily lives--but even more, they try to live the gospel as the Lord would have them live. I am also so greatful to be a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints--where or what would I be without it? I certainly would never want to know. I am also so blessed to have a dear father who is 85 years old--has never retired--he goes to the law office every day, and a mother who I hope I am living enough like her to be where she is someday. I love my seven brothers and sisters and their spouses, and George's brother and sister and their spouses. So you can see, I am surrounded by wonderful people. How great is that!

This year, we were given a whole week off from work, so George got a condo in Orlando. George, Jeff, Craig, and Cassie had to work Monday through Wednesday, but Amy, the boys, and I stayed down the whole week and did so many fun things. It was slightly cool for the pool even though it was warmed to 85 degrees, but with a breeze, it wasn't exactly swimming weather. That didn't stop us from doing so many other fun things.Disney Village is always great fun. They have a new Dinosaur Cafe which is like the Rain Forest Cafe. The kids loved the moving dinosaurs and searching for dinosaur bones. Jeff (with his 6" 5" body) could barely fit in the little train! It was hysterical!
We visited the Orlando Temple. What a beautiful sacred place it is.

We found wonderful parks to play in.
Amy and I took the boys by ourselves to Disney World. Whew! Keeping track of a two-year-old all day kept us both busy and made us very tired at the end of the day. But we made it home with him! This was the boys' first visit there, and they absolutely loved it! Garrett in front of his favorite ride of all: Peter Pan.

Amy made arrangements to meet one of her best friends she met while we lived in Gainesville-- Eva Poirer Snider--she is now married, lives in Orlando, and has three children. We had a great day with them. They have annual tickets to Disney World and go about once a week. How she does it with three kids I will never know. They all love it! Bye-bye, Disney World!

We celebrated Garrett's six-year-old birthday. It hardly seems possible George and I were in Dallas six years ago on Thanksgiving Day when Garrett was born. Although we ended up eating a Burger King hamburger because everything else was closed on Thanksgiving Eve by the time we got out of the hospital--it was so worth it to be there for the birth of a grandchild.We saw some fun Thanksgiving movies including: Bolt, Madagascar 2, Twilight, and Four Christmases. (The last two we saw when Craig and Cassie, Jeff, and George got there.) Of course, the girls had to hit the outlets and mall. Jeff took Amy at Midnight to The Childrens' Place and Craig took Cassie to get a new laptop at 3:00 a.m. at the Office Max. What good sports!

Thanksgiving Day in the condo was great! And we even got to call Taylor, our oldest grandchild, to wish him a happy 17th birthday. Happy Birthday, Taylor!

Even though we did a lot of this--it was just the greatest week!