Reasons I NEED a Clubhouse

I have had a dream for the last few years of having a clubhouse. Our family is growing, and growing, and there are few places to host all these family gatherings. We have very few places to host a Stauffer Sunday! When I hosted last February, I had 52 people in my house!! Amy's baby shower had 25 people, Thanksgiving at my house was 30 people, and Christmas with my Dad and Step Mom was 23 people. So we NEED space to host these events. So that's why I want a clubhouse. I have it all planned in my head. Nothing fancy, just practical and room for all these people! The kitchen would hold commercial grade appliances, big roasters, commercial coffee pots and everything needed for a large group. I keep adding things to this clubhouse in my mind......until I hosted Christmas last week with my Dad. Dad likes to buy the "boys" some sort of weapon, have them all rip them open and start battling in my house. After the pictures frames started falling off the wall, I realized one thing that the clubhouse will NOT have is breakables.

A Christmas to Remember

A new baby in the family, Dan being home for more than 5 days, surrounded by family and friends, and of course the annual Stauffer/Dykman battle.......gives us one Christmas to remember. I am so thankful for these memories, and the blessings we have been given!!

Soup of the Month Club

Need a gift idea for the parent/grandparent who doesn't need anything? For my Grandparent's I do the Soup of the Month Club. I make out a list of a different soup for each month, and give them the list for Christmas. Each month I make a big batch of soup and deliver it to each of them. I even bought a set of reusable plastic containers, so they could just trade me back and empty container when I delivered more soup. In the past I did the bread of the month club, you could do just about anything! The idea is that it's homemade, and I will stop by once a month to visit! They LOVE this and look forward to it each month.

Family Photos, 2011

A BIG thanks to my sister, Amy Parsons, who took these pictures! We were lucky to get them done while Dan was home, and before Amy had her baby!!

Busy, Busy, Busy!

Wow, I have been so busy that I didn't realize the blog template was messed up! I'm working on finding a new one I am happy with! With Christmas approaching, I haven't had much time to keep up on the blog! I will work on that......once my shopping is done! In the mean time, have a Merry Christmas!!