T'Was the Days Before Christmas!

On the 10th Day of Christmas, my Mommy said to me,

"Let's go to Grandma's and Make Cookies!"

Grandma had all sorts of yummy things for making cookies and Grandpa got goofy with the frosting!

Thanks G'ma and G'pa! You guys are the best!

On the 11th Day of Christmas, we went to see the Jolly Ol' One

We waited for 2 patient hours, catching a glimpse when we could

of the Big Guy!

Exhibit A: J happily playing just moments before being plucked up and plopped on St. Nick's lap

Exhibit B: What is it about the Fellow in Red that makes the wee ones weep like babies?

Good thing Mom is so brave!

And then the best moment of all,

When Santa Claus took the time to read each note

and admire each drawing!

We Love You Santa Claus!

Merry Christmas!

My talented friend Jackie takes our pictures, check out her talents and some pics she did for us!

The black and white pictures on my side, were also done by her- she's great, huh?

Thanks Jackie!

Also, I need to add that this was created using a kit called Who-Ville by GingerScraps

Cute, cute kit!

On the 8th & 9th Days of Christmas..

On the 8th Day of Christmas, we delivered our treats.

We were supposed to go visit Santa, but due to Santa's scheduled breaks, and Mom and Dad's other list of obligations, we only saw Santa from a distance, but we will return

Sunday was the 9th Day, so we learned more about the Reason for the Season!

We watched Luke II, did a kind deed, talked about how Jesus is the Light of the World, and then went to see the lights, on what we call affectionately, "Christmas Street". Its a street of houses that all work together to put up tons of lights, with a sign in every yard reading a section of "Twas the Night Before Christmas". Check out some of these houses!

On the First Day of Christmas...

I'm doing the "Twelve Days of Christmas" for the boys, doing an activity every day to help the looooong days before Christmas pass. Each morning they find a new package beholding the day's activites.

The first day we wrote letters to Santa.

I don't have any pictures of them, but Cameron's went something like this,

"I want a toy gun, so you can mark off that blue race car I wanted."

Blake's went something like this,

"I want a Batman walkie talkie, make that two, so Cameron can play, too"

On the second day of Christmas, we played outside in the snow-

snowballs were flying, and we made a laying down snowman

On the third day we went to Grandma's and made suncatcher ornaments

On the fourth day of Christmas we worked with some Christmas trees

On the Fifth day of Christmas we made cookies!

On the sixth day we painted Nativities

Today was the 7th day and we gave to others. We gathered our old coats, gloves, hats, etc. and donated them towards a homeless shelter, then we made treats to give the neighbors.

O Christmas Tree!

Why I Love My Christmas Tree

a picture of my tree, several weeks ago, before the kids rearranged everything to suit themselves!

a few snapshots of my tree

I like to refer to my tree as a Memory Tree. I have lots of pictures on it. I have an ornament made each year with a picture from Christmas. I write the year on it, and its fun to see how we've grown each year, and to look back over the last 10 years and remember different things about that particular year. Like our first Christmas together in our freezing cold, tiny apartment, the Christmas where we wanted a baby so bad, I thought my aching heart would smother me, then the Christmases with first one baby, then two babies, then a third baby. I also add an ornament of a picture of the newborn baby, if we had one that year. I have things the kids have made, things I have made and an ornament from each vacation we've had. I like to see lots of sparkle so I have glass, and crystals that twinkle. And I love tin and wood, so I have lots of that, too. I have cut and dried oranges and I love how they look with lights behind them. I have ornaments out of apples and cinnamon, and I love the smell!

This is a garland that I made a few years back out of dried oranges, apples, cinnamon ornaments, buttons and rag ties!

I love it!

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Before Thanksgiving, we went to Ryan's parents home and helped decorate their tree. All their family was there- kind of a surprise, remember how we all used to decorate the tree together, type of thing. Of course they loved it! These are some pictures of Cameron and Blake decorating the underside of the tree- a very important task.

a very careful hanger upper

What I've Been Up To

Making 120 of these

Making 100 of these, the gifts for the Sisters,

for which we used like this:

As Centerpieces for our dinner, using various silver and glass dishes, cake stands, truffle bowls, etc.

Making one of these for each place setting,

...And everything else that goes into preparing a dinner and program for our December Home, Family and Personal Enrichment. I had lots of help from our Enrichment Committee, for which I'm so grateful! The pictures of the tables were taken as we were hurriedly trying to throw the finishing touches and the individual salads on the tables. The pictures catch none of the ambiance of the low lighting, Christmas songs in cool jazz softly in the background, and the simple elegance. The picture of the table with the three trees on it, is where we (the Enrichment or RS Presidency) had our Husbands serving the choices of pasta and sauces. They (our Husbands) also cleared the tables and had the desserts all prepared and sitting at each place when we returned from our program, which was a nice touch. They also were a huge help in getting it all cleaned up at the end!

Our Theme was "Were You There"

and we had everyone bring a flashlight. After a musical number titled "Were You There on That Christmas Night?", we had everyone gather into the other side of the closed off gym, that was all dark, and we used our flashlights as our Heavenly Glory as we spotlighted and sang to shepherds, who led us to the Nativity Family, as we continued singing- ending with Silent Night, as we softly lit the family. We had real people being our shepherds and Family. Our sweet family that did the nativity has a tiny baby and no crying he made, as he softly lay on the "hay", and went right to sleep, it was so precious. Our objective was to remind us that we were there, as spirits we rejoiced and declared his birth to the world!

Painting Ornaments

Grandma sent over some ornaments for the boys to paint. The boys love to paint, and as you can see, they work very thoughtfully at it. They had a great time! Thank You Grandma!