California Branch Schut Christmas Party

All four Schut girls wearing black at the Christmas Party.

A long time ago when Matt and Julie and I lived in the same apartment building on Kester in Van Nuys 12 years ago, Julie started what has become a Christmas 'eve' tradition for us here in California. Instead of Chili and Oyster stew of the Wisconsin days, she had appetizers and finger foods. Most Christmases since then we've gotten together to celebrate Christmas Eve in the same way. It isn't always on Christmas Eve because of schedules and we've grown over the years from the the two original transplants to CA and now include three of the four Schut girls, their spouses, 10 children and a dog. We've celebrated at The Empress, in the blue Condo in Canyon Country, at the Waymeyers in Vista, and now at our new place back in California.

This year we celebrated on the 26th. Everyone enjoyed the afternoon together and the evening of food, performances, presents and family fun. There are a bunch of pictures below from the day. I think we have almost 300 pictures and I had a hard time narrowing down what to post. I hope you enjoy the selections.

For those of you wondering why there are only three girls in the picture and Julie is holding a phone... that's Laura. She was smiling for her picture as I'm sure you can tell. Notice Jake between Julie and Kathy? Luke was lingering on the other side of me trying to get in on the action, too. I really think he was just trying to get picked up so he could actually reach the whole plate of Christmas cookies.

And the Dog...

We can't leave Addie out of the pictures. She was a the object of love (and some fear) and added some fun to our time.

The Girls

We are an ever-increasing minority (is that possible) with the addition of all the baby boys in years of late. But they hold their own in the cute-ness factor.

The Parents

Derek and Matt.

Jessica, Sandy, Kathy

Kenny as we've come to recognize him... holding the video camera.

Kathy and Julie

Boy Time

The boys had a lot of fun together over the last 24 hours. They played laser tag, Wii golf, baseball and other games-- and that was just Kenny and Derek! The other boys (the kid ones) did a lot of the same... laser tag, Wii, battleship, wrestling and many other fun exploits. Zach and Luke sat most of it out this year. They're saving up the energy for years to come, I'm sure.


Tough man pose.

More nap time from the littlest boys.

A rare moment of quiet sitting.

Even the Christmas festivities didn't stop the wrestlemania.

The Kids

Singing one of the songs of the night. For those of you who aren't sure which kid belongs to which family, they are from L to R Jack P., Anna P, Leah P., Caleb W., Courtney W., Jessica W. and Jake W., Luke P., and Zach W.

Ethan, although he has a decent set of lungs, is not yet into the singing part. His smiles are sure are just as enjoyable!

Tired Even Before the Party Started

Zach and Luke took a pre-party nap together before our annual Christmas Party.

Merry Christmas

Good Morning! These are just a few pictures from this morning for our spread-out family to enjoy today. There are more pictures in the Youtube slideshow below.

We've had a fun time this morning enjoying each other, the gifts and remembering the birth of our Saviour. Merry Christmas!

Snow and Real Mountains (that's for you, Laura)

In Wisconsin they have mountains of snow-- see the Dray Family Blog for examples. Here in California we have mountains with snow. They both have their benefits. We went up to the mountain today to catch some of that snow. A lot of it has melted in the Cajon pass but there was still plenty for the snow-naiive children to think it was a blast. The place we stopped is about 30-45 minutes from out house which made it an easy drive for some cold snow fun.


A shot out of the window on the way home down the mountain.

Derek built a snowman with a little kid help. I didn't bring their gloves so their hands were cold and red and freezing by this point. It would have bothered me a lot more than it bothered them. When we go again in a week or so up to a different spot, I'll bring the snow gear-- or at least what we have of it.

They made snow angels, footprints in the snow, fell down into it for fun and threw plenty of snowballs. We didn't tell them where we were going but I told them to all where their tennis shoes. Anna didn't follow intructions and ended up in some mary jane style shoes and very cold, wet feet.

One of their tricks was jumping and falling into the snow. This was some jumping action.

Derek found an plastic toboggan sled buried under some of the snow. They made about 1 1/2 trips down the hill before it completely fell apart on them. Oh well, they still had fun. Cold, wet, child-like, did I say cold?, fun!

Less Dirt, More Grass

Since I started the front lawn saga, I thought I'd finish it. The grass has come in wonderfully. It is a little thin in areas but that will be easy to fix over time and our house looks so much less like a dump with grass in the front yard instead of weeds. I guess I should take a picture from the street but it is pouring rain right now.

Now onto the side slope, and the back yard, and the dog run, and the RV area, and on and on...

I Love This Kid

Leah wanted me to measure her today for some reason. She is four years, three and half months old. She is the same size that Anna was when she was 5 1/2 years old. At the rate they are growing (Anna petite, Leah not), Leah might close the gap by quite a bit on her older sister.

Palm Trees and Snow

We're closer than we used to be to the snow... we can even see it from our porch. There is a big mountain range that spans our entire northern view; this isn't the best picture of it, but you get the point. After a cold, rainy day we woke up to a beautiful, sunny, snow covered view. And the palms in the foreground remind us that it is still California.

We're now only about an hour away from some true sledding and snowman making, which we hope to get a chance to do this winter with the kids. Being able to see it gets them more excited to go-- and me, too. Nothing like the holidays for a little (snowy) nostalgia.

Addie, too

Last night I had to coax Addie out of the bed she was sleeping in with the girls to put her in with Kathy. I took a picture but must have accidentally deleted it... Leah was sleeping horizontally across the top pillow, Anna was on the other end sleeping vertically and Addie was curled up in the middle next to Anna's legs all in a twin bed. It looked cozy... sort of!

Ethan Came To Visit

And Kathy and Addie came, too, of course! Luke is sitting on my lap as I type this saying 'ee-fan, me hold, ee-fan' as he looks at these pictures. He was a great little houseguest and slept like a trooper. Come again soon!

Sweet Kisses

Luke is such a sweet little kisser. He usually grabs my whole face and turns it towards him so he can give me a kiss. His kiss consists of puckered lips, sometimes a little slobbery, and a fake little 'blah' sound that is supposed to be the kiss sound that we make when we kiss him.

Luke was trying to sweeten up a deal for me so he could come along to the Nutcracker. I'm usually the one holding the camera so it was fun for me to have the sweet memory of my little kisser on 'film'.

We all made it to Disneyland!

Derek has some travelling to do next we so we squeezed in a trip to Disneyland with him before he leaves and before the blackout dates hit our annual passes for the busy part of Christmas and New Years.

I neglected to check the Disneyland calendar before we were planning and we ended up heading there in the afternoon of a day the park closed early for the Cast Member Christmas Party. It all worked out well, though, since we got a glance of the parade, made it on Small World before it closed for Fireworks, got to see the Fireworks and the 'snow' at the end of the show.

We all left as the park closed early and headed over to California Adventure for the rest of the night. We got fastpasses for Soarin' over California and went to the Wilderness Trail for some slides, climbing and swinging. The three older kids all love Soarin'-- I hadn't been on in years and it was so fun to go again! Anna was a little uncertain, but ended up enjoying the ride.

It was a little nostalgic being there on the night of the Christmas Party. 9 years ago I was a Disney employee and I brought Derek with me to the party at the Park. Little did I know that the next day he was heading out to buy my engagement ring and a little over a week later we would be engaged. Four months later we were married. Soarin' over California ends with a fly over Main Street Disneyland. We were there on Main Street that night that they filmed for Soarin' which was set to open in the new California Adventure. As the helicopter went overhead we were standing outside the Blue Ribbon Bakery. I try to look for us in Soarin', but it is too blurry to make out-- plus they might have used a different clip. But it is still a fun memory for us!

Norco Winter Parade and Festival

The city had a horse and light-filled parade on Saturday night. It was chilly but not nearly as cold as this first picture makes it seem. Probably in the 50's! After the parade there was a festival that we went to for a short while. It was worth the walk just for the sledding... yes, sledding. They had made/brought in snow and all of us (except Grandma) took a chance on the slope.

Anna and I wet together, Leah and Jack wanted to go by themselves and Derek took Luke. Jack had a Southern California moment afterwards. He asked me if that was really snow. I told him that it basically was (it was pretty wet and icy). He didn't get it. He thought you could roll up snow like a blanket... how else do you get it to make snowmen and snowballs?? This stuff wasn't rolling up the way he had expected.

Laura, I'll show him the real stuff in your pictures!


Looking cold on the parade route.

Wow, this is snow?!

Jack coming down... a little blury because of my camera setting. He wasn't going that fast!

Leah hit a bump a little ways down the hill and ended up going the rest of the way with her legs up in the air and mostly on her back. She didn't seem to mind!