Cynthia

I have tidbits of experiences throughout the years. I recall one Christmas when Joe was 2 and Britt was 4 that I got pretty sick. Dad caught my illness just the last few days leading to Christmas. We had completed our shopping but Dad had to get his last gifts for me. He couldn't get out of bed so a good Sister in our ward offered to pick up those last items for him.

 

I love the traditions that we had through the years too. When the kids were young we read a story to them all of December. I sat on the floor outside their bedroom and read to them as they were tucked in bed. We continued to read our favorites that bring tears and laughter when we read from: "That Thy Alms may be in Secret", "Closing Time", "She Thought of Needs, Not Wants", "The Last Straw" and the funny poem, "See Mom".

One year we heard of a family that got their favorite box of cereal for breakfast, under the tree. So we began that tradition and boy did it save Mom!

Before Ian was born Dad and I went on a Cruise. It was so wonderful. However the kids were pretty disappointed that they didn't get to go too. When we got a Value Coupon Packet there was an advertisement for the Provo River Cruise. I wondered what that would be like since we had lived across the street from the river years before and the depth of it was about a foot or two. Anyway we thought we would surprise the kids on the day we planned to go that we were going on a cruise and they were so excited. They wanted to know where we were going and what they should pack and we told them they only needed to dress warm. Boy were they surprised when we arrived in Provo for the small river cruise. It wasn't a warm tropical excursion. I think they had fun...and it has always been a big joke in the family about our big Winter Christmas Cruise. Now we cant go a year without still planning a night in December to go back. 

We joke about the year that we decided to not put names on our gifts so the kids wouldn't compare package number and sizes. But our great idea flubbed because we forgot where we put the master list that reminded us parents who the numbered packages were for.

I love on Christmas eve when we write down on a paper a gift that we will present to the Christ child for the upcoming year. Some list going to the temple more often, be nicer to my sibling, talk kindly to others, read the Book of Mormon...I think its so easy to get caught up in gifts and forget that Christ is truly the reason for the season and how we give of our self, our hearts, how we transform and become more like the Savior.

Cynthia

Another Christmas memory is that for the past seems like 17 years we have been doing the Provo River Christmas cruise. This was initiated when Cynthia and I went on a cruise to the western Caribbean, and her kids were bummed that they didn't get to go. So in the Val Pak coupons there was a coupon for a Provo river cruise. We thought that was kind of strange because the Provo river isn't very deep maybe two or 3 feet at the point where we used to live beside. So I called the people and they said that they were further down the road on Center Street closer to the Utah Lake and that they had dredged out the rivers away it was a little deeper. So we told the kids get packed don't worry about bringing a lot of clothes we're going to Christmas cruise they were all excited but I said to them I have to stop by and Provo before we get to the airport to drop off something but dress warm tonightjust in case because we're driving a ways tonight. So we Pulled down Ctr., Street in Provo and got the spot and I said we're here, they all said we're here where, I said we're here at our Christmas cruise  they were not very happy. But ever since then, that this has been a family tradition every year at Christmas


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Eldon

One Christmas memory I had was when I was very young, my brother Ardwyn and his wife Louise and their children came home for Christmas. Usually there were three or four presents under the tree for each of us. But this year in particular I remember the Christmas tree was in the far corner of mom and dad living room and when we got ready to go to bed the Christmas presents would have covered two thirds of grandma's living room floor.I was amazed at how many present there were and later on came to realize that every Christmas for Ardy and Louise  was just as large. It reminded me of how simple Christmas could be but it was always more enjoyable  being with family and enjoying time together. 

Eldon

Another memory that we have of Christmas growing up is the Cherry Grove Alberta Canada Ward Christmas party it was always held on the new Christmas Eve from 4 to 6 PM and there was food music, dancing, and a visit from Santa Claus. Santa Claus would bring a bag of goodies for every boy and girl.  In that bag there would be a mandarin orange, a candy cane  and some candies and some peanuts. One of the games that we would play after Santa Claus had come would be to try and guess who Santa Claus was and sometimes it was very easy guess another times is really difficult

Eldon

Another Christmas memory revolves around my mom, one year on Christmas Eve my brother who was serving as the bishop of the church in Cherry Grove at the time came over at about 7 o'clock on Christmas Eve and with a sorrowful note in his voice he indicated that there was a family in the ward whose dad would not make it home for Christmas and that there will be no presents for their family that year. My mom said well let me see and she went under her bed and pulled out four or five boxes that were the size of orange boxes and those boxes were all filled to overflowing with all kinds of toys and trinkets. We ask mom where she got those from And her reply was that for all the magazines that dad had subscribed to and all the books he ordered that they had come with the little gifts so when they came she just put them in a box under the bed and thought they might be useful someday. The family had six  children and from those four or five boxes each of the children were able to get two or three gifts. It warmed my heart to see someone who is prepared to be able to give service a time when it would've been very difficult to find anything at the stores were now closed

Eldon

One Christmas memory I  have is when we moved to Layton Utah, mom and I found a Nintendo game system which the kids really wanted so we bought it but we bought about the last part of November. So for  every night in December until Christmas after we put the kids in bed mom and I would go and get the  Nintendo game and console out and play until wee hours of the morning and then we Would put it up in the box put it back in the closet. Sometimes when we're playing the kids would come walking down the hallway too tired to sleep or had a bad dream or needing to go  to the bathroom. We would  have to quickly cover everything up and then wait until the kids went back to bed.

Lance

Christmas story- I remember for one Christmas we went to Grandma Price's house in Texas for Christmas. I remember that i was super excited because i didn't know what i was getting, unlike some years. I remember waking up Christmas morning and was super excited for one toy in specific. It was a Gatling nerf gun. You would crank a wheel and it would spew our nerf darts. It was the best nerf gun around.

Brittany

I have a lot of memories of Christmas.

There will always be the first ever christmas cruise.  The Story that mom and dad will buy us all new clothes once we get there so don't worry about packing.

There is the Christmas in Layton that we had 3 families doing the 12 days of christmas to us.  I remember feeling so blessed that people cared about us.

I remember the Christmases we waited ever so impatiently for those missionaries to call home.   I remember all crowding around the phones just so excited to hear their voices.

We always had a grandma at Christmas.  If cindy lou wasn't there then it was grandma stonehocker and Loya.  They always enjoyed watching the kids open presents.

Eldon

My thanksgiving memories go way back as we celebrated Canadian thanksgiving in the 2nd Monday of October.. We would always have turkey and lots of vegetables to eat. We would usually have family activities and lts of cousins. We would usually have some type of shotgun shooting competition, with a wooden trophy made by uncle vaun or uncle Ardie. We would usually have some type of farm work to do on that weekend at the family farm, usually it was hauling hay, fixing fences or cutting firewood for moms wood stove.

Since we moved to Utah our thanksgiving have usually been with kids, spouse and extended family. The last two thanksgiving were spent in San Diego attending Ian's soccer tournaments.. Unique but definitely missing all the family bonding.. 

Brittany

Thanksgiving has always been a busy day.   I have loved the turkey that dad makes always the best.  But I remember the thanksgiving that we spent at mom and dads for the evening and ended up at the Hospital because I was miscarrying.  It was super hard experience but one that I won't forget.  Funny thing was after leaving the ER at 1 am Marshall and I went and stood in line for Black friday shopping at 4am.  Die hard idiots!!

I remember being 14 and having had my pacemaker placed in a few days before thanksgiving (1996).  I came home thanksgiving morning and my room was upstairs.  It sucked because I couldn't leave my bed because I was not allowed.  I remember grandma price gave me a bell to ring if I needed anything.  It smelled so good and the party seemed to be lots of fun.

Marshall

Thanksgiving Memory

I don't remember what year it was, probably around '05, and the food (particularly the turkey) was a little sub-par that year. Usually I have at least a second plate of turkey but that year it was all I could do to put down a second fork-full of turkey. I remember Britt stepped out and called my mom, whose house we were going to later that day, and asked them to save a plate of turkey for us so we could enjoy it. 

Marshall

My memory of playing games is when we all played Loaded Questions for one of the first times in St George. It had to have been 2006 or '07.  The question asked for something that all of the guys quickly saw as an opportunity to answer in a perverted fashion, to which we all obliged. It was funnier and funnier each time you realized that someone answered the same as you. But I remember really losing it when we realized that one of the girls (Lindsey) also answered the same way. We couldn't believe that any of the girls we as bad as us!

Cynthia

We have enjoyed the tradition of Dad making the most tasty and moist turkey every year as far back as I can remember. We can all thank Grandma Stonehocker for her tips on cooking!  Whether we had Thanksgiving at our house or somewhere in the Price/Marriott destination we can still claim that Dad made the turkey, except for two years.

My memories of the last 3 Thanksgivings were of Haley sitting in my bedroom and sometime during the day Izaiah, Indie and Libby would climb up on the bed with her and play on the IPad. We have a picture with her sitting in the big green back chair with her feeding tube pole hooked up and the children sitting in her lap. Last year I think she feasted in Heaven and slipped in some family time too.

Most evenings after feasting, the family would gather round the family room and sift through the newspaper and plan shopping excursions if they were brave and crazy enough to shop on Black Friday. Sometimes we would go to watch a movie. I cant ever remember any movies in particular but I enjoy the time we spent talking, planning  and going together. I love the laughter and good humor that seems to be present whenever all the children are all together.

Lance

Thanksgiving story- All growing up I only liked the brown gravy that mom made for mashed potatoes on sundays.  This meant that the gravy they made on thanksgiving was a white turkey gravy.  I was too picky to try it, so I would eat my turkey (along with pretty much anything else i would eat) with bullseye barbacue sauce.

Cynthia

Dad and I began playing Gin Rummy when we were first married. I always liked playing word games like Boggle and Scrabble. Scattegories came next. We played card games with the kids  it seems like every Sunday night. It was a good way to spend the Sabbath and promote family unity. When Haley and Ian came along we had to find games that could appeal to the younger two. We played "Smurf on your neighbor" and "7 Eleven".

 Later,"The Great Dalmuti" was introduced to us by our neighbors, that calls for a King who is the Great Dalmuti and during their round in the Kings seat they get to pronounce some commands such as, whenever you play a 5 the boys have to do a 'Disco Dance' or sing, 'I am a Little Teapot". I find it interesting that a couple of the boys really enjoyed heckling and singing and trying to disrupt and irritate the girls sometimes...the girls were more serious players and hated waiting for their brothers to finally make a play in a hand. 

One of my favorite memories is when Eldon, Haley, Ian and I were playing a dice game that as you rolled them you ha to create words out of the pictures that were posted on a particular side of the die. Once Eldon rolled a stomach and dance and he came up with the word Belly dance. In that round he had to demonstrate what that was. So he grabbed his belly and jiggled it up and down. I will never forget how hard the kids laughed because obviously dad didn't know how to properly do a belly dance at all.

Conversation nov 21 2013

Britt--

I need your game night memory TODAY please!!!!! Alright everyone here is this weeks memory challenge, for Sunday.  Send your thanksgiving memory!  

Linds--

We are slackers. Working on it now 

Just emailed it 

Britt--

Thabks Linds!! 

Still need mom dads and Ian's !!

Joe--

That was my bad Lindsay should not be responsible for having to write a memory of my family game nights sorry

Britt--

You are welcome to  send what you can.

Linds--

I'm part of the family too 

Britt-

Lol! I really think everyone's experiences are great ;-) even if it comes from their spouse!

Ian-

Did Brittany really just use the word lol!?! What is this generation coming to?

Britt--

I'm hip with the jive!

Marshall--

Did Ian really just refer to "lol" as a word? What is his generation coming to?

Joe--

Smh... Lmbo

Britt--

You Guys are funny!

Linds--

😂

Joe--

😞💩

Linds--

Joe, quit texting and driving! 

Joe--

They are Emoji's they don't count as texting

Ian--

How about you two flirt in your personal messages

Marshall--

Best thing Ian has ever said

Joe--

It's called sexting Ian... Get with the generation! 

Linds--

Oh Ian, you have so much to learn about flirting. Nagging does not =flirting 

Britt--

I am really LOL right now

Joe--

Ian(this is how men do it) ahem... Women make me a sandwich I'm coming home for dinner!

Britt--

Thanks everyone for your memories!! Please write down a thanksgiving memory and send it my way!

Joe--

What! 

Britt--

Yep it's almost been 2 weeks and time for a new memory :-). I have a blog all set up too!

Stonehockerfamilyhistory.blogspot.com

Angela--

Britt you should just copy and paste this conversation for this weeks memory haha!

Joe--

I knew I liked you Angela! Great idea!

Eldon

One of the favorite game night memories were on Sunday nights, we would gather in the extended family room to watch a Disney or church movie.  Invariably this evening would turn into a wrestling match between dad and children. It would usually start by me taking my shoes off and trying to relax on the couch.  One of the children usually Britt, Joe, Lance would try and sneak up and try to pull off my socks.  The commotion that would occur following that was usually quite exhilarating and the kinds would try every ingenious way they could to distract Dad so one of the others could get his socks off.  It was on a rare occasion that they were able to accomplish that feat.  Haley at the time was probably 3 or 4, and she would call it , " lets try to be feet Dad"  That would usually get us laughing.

Lindsay

A fun game memory I have is playing Bananagram with the family. Haley and I struggled against everyone else in the game. Especially Eldon, Lance and Cynthia. They seemed to win every round. Haley and I couldn’t seem to beat them, no matter how hard we tried. I could not believe the types of words that they could come up with. Compared to my simple words-cat, are, rag.etc. I have a lot to learn from all of you and your big words. Although I got my butt handed to me each round, I have a great memory of that game and the laughs we had while playing.                       -Lindsay

Ian

Mine is I remember playing banana grams on new years eve. Me and Haley were having a blast but I was kinda getting mad because she kept beating me at it then we just kept playing! When we got home we went and bought the game and played for the rest of the day while listening to Christmas music

Lance

Game Night story- Story of me, joe, and britt. We would watch the show supermarket sweep. Where you try to put as much food from a supermarket into your cart in a certain amount of time. so one day we decided to pretend to do this in our pantry in provo. I dont really remember who won but I remember doing that and having fun.

Brittany

November 9, 13

Brittany Hooper

The theme is game night:

I remember being a little kid and we would always play cards as a family.   I think that it was on Sunday evenings but I don’t really remember.  The one we always would play was 7 up.  Rook cards, the person with a 7 on the right side of the dealer would go first.  Then we would all play.  Up to 14 down to 1.  It always helped the little kids in learning their numbers and it was a strategy game so lance really liked it.   The fun thing was that everyone from Ian on up could play.