We started our month long holiday celebrations by attending Ella's 1st grade Christmas program. It was adorable. Each class put a lot of work into their part and Ella sang with all her heart. She just blossoms with her girlfriends.

You may notice something missing about Ella. She donated 10 inches of her beautiful hair to Locks of Love in October of this year. She doesn't miss it. I miss it half the time and Cameron misses it most of all.

I planned a lot of fun stuff to do with the kids in the three weeks they had off before Christmas. 

First, we had to tackle the beast of a tree we have. I let everyone help this year.

It was a lot of fun, but it took us the entire day!

Here she is, all done.

Top:

Middle:

Bottom:

We did a few kid friendly crafts we found on pinterest.com. Some failed spectacularly and some were adorable. We also made this gingerbread house. We were all pleased with how it turned out. The kids did a good job of designing it. I would definitely do a Wilton kit again.

We went to the Dickens Festival on their free admittance morning.

There was a lot of fun things to see. The kids were glad they brought their own money. Although it felt like a glorified boutique, it was definitely charming to have everyone dressed in costume. Father Christmas was a highlight for Bryce. No one else dared approach him.

a wooden toy booth

Scrooge (on the right) with the ghosts of Christmas Past and Christmas Yet to Come.

The boys with a Beefeater (official title:  Yeomen Warders of Her Majesty’s Royal Palace and Fortress the Tower of London, and Members of the Sovereign's Body Guard of the Yeoman Guard Extraordinary)

I made three different attempts at a family photo.

Here's some out-takes.

After attending Cameron's work's holiday party, we went to visit downtown Salt Lake City.

This is the tree in the center of the Joseph Smith Memorial Building.

Looking at the window at the Deseret Book store. They had a gingerbread man machine and handed out free cookies.

Crazy kids and fountains in the cold.

The Salt Lake Temple

Ah...Christmas morning. The kids were ready to start at 6 AM. Lucky for them, so was Mommy.

Church wasn't til 11:30 and somehow the kids let us have a two-hour nap while they played without disturbing us. It was a little surreal.

Cameron and I sang in a quartet on Sunday, part of a whole wonderful Sacrament meeting program.

After that we headed down to Cam's parents for the crepes and more Christmasing.

We ended the day with this chaos at my mom's house. One of my nieces had been throwing up all day and left early with her mom and Zealand was a dripping, unhappy baby most of the time. Poor kids! The rest of us had a lot of fun and haven't been sick (except Dane who was just getting past an ear infection before Christmas). We even fit in a game of Apples to Apples.

Favorite toys were a Pokemon White DS game (Dane), a baby doll (Ella) and a homemade crocheted octopus (Bryce). 

Since Christmas, the kids and I have been lying low.  We've done puzzles, cleaning, Perler beads, Legos, movies, Tinker Toys, Xbox and Wii. 

Dane's birthday is just around the corner. I just love this time of year!

and to all a good night.

May you all sleep in Heavenly Peace.

Last night, I thought I'd buy myself some future Christmas Eve sleep by wrapping presents last night.
As I sat on the floor, surrounded by what would soon be "Christmas Morning", I wondered who was going to get credit for all this thought (as in "it's the thought that counts...") and time put into all this gift gathering?

I used to allow Santa to be responsible for around 80% of all the gifts given. The kids didn't care either way and I got to be part of the magic anyway. I was the magic, just with a pseudonym.

Now my kids are getting a bit older and there are some gifts that I look at and I want them to know their parents came up with those surprises...

So, Santa and I had a little scrap between us. He wanted things to be the way they usual are, but when I divvied up the presents, the parents in this house came out on top.
As 3 AM approached, I sat surrounded, in smug satisfaction, by wrapped presents that were 68% from us and 32% from that big man in the red suit. Here's to release from mythical oppression! (LOL)



How do you do things at your house? Are both giving parties equally represented? Does Santa only have a small part to play? You could leave a comment, if you'd like, and tell us all about it. :)

Seriously?

Christmas Eve is in 10 days. Where has the time gone?

At least I'm done shopping. This is Bryce getting comfy at on an IKEA display.Though Cam and I still have to find a bicycle for me. Maybe we'll shop for our helmets as well. Nothing like a date w/ your hubby where you wear weird head gear and laugh at each other!

I have a few crafts to finish up.

My kids are endlessly singing Jingle Bells and Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer.


They're not fighting as much as I thought they would be.

I actually got to do fun crafting yesterday with my friend Rachel. It's not something we normally do and we had a nice time making hair decor for our daughters.
I'd better post it mine on Twiddle-Thumbs.

I have laundry to do.
I take my phone to church because I have to ring the dismissal bells after the first hour and I forgot EVERY TIME until I set my alarm (it's on vibrate) to remind me. After church we were hanging out by the bishop's office and McK and Bryce looked so cute, I wanted to get their picure. My kids are dying to see inside our friends' new home.

Best wishes to everyone on your final holiday preparations and to all a good night!

I adopted the 27 thing-fling from The Fly Lady years ago and I was 27 at the time. I have just increased the # in the exercise to match my current age.

I like writing up the occasional list on this blog. Just my thoughts or even a to-do is fun for me. I combined the two ideas, for a very long Christmas to-do list. Santa has his list, now I do too.The Christmas 34-To-Do:

1. Remake my mother's famous caramel recipe because the first batch turned out crunchy.
2. Keep the poinsettia from our good home teacher alive until January.
3. Keep up with the exercise...just enough to keep me moving.
4. Hang up the rest of the ornaments on the big tree now that I have more hooks for them.
5. Keep the kids from shattering the dearest-to-my-heart decoration.
6. Keep the birds fed.
7. Make a snowman with my kids, if it ever snows on a day other than Sunday.
8. Make a Christmas mix CD with my kids
9. Make popcorn balls for my husband
10. Make ginger bread cookies for Santa with my kids
11. Divide my purchases for Cameron to see what he's getting for his birthday vs. what he's getting for Christmas
12. Do the same thing for Dane
13. Go on a date with my husband that has nothing to do with Christmas (Did you know I'm actually willing to hire teen-aged baby-sitters now? One giant step for this mom...and her marriage)
14. Go on a date with my husband so I can pick out a bicycle. Santa's getting me one.
15. Get going on that garland I've been planning since October.
16. Teach kids (yep, even the boys) to simple embroidery so that we can decorate the above garland. It involves a lot of felt, cut into a lot of trees.
17. Take more pictures of my kids, even if the lighting is bad, because they're so cute and they just keep growing.
18. Decide (quickly!) on the version on O Holy Night to sing at my parents' ward later in the month.
19. Try my hand at a great appetizer I tasted the other day. It involves chopped cranberries, green onions, cilantro and jalapeno.
20. Snuggle with this baby (my nephew)
21. Snuggle with this baby (cuz her momma lets me)
22. Put together gifts for my brother and his family.
23. Keep the house in good condition
24. Watch holiday movies. I hope It's a Wonderful Life is on TV for Christmas Eve again. Nothing like crying and wrapping at the same time.
25. Better remember my grandma for Christmas. She gives so much and sometimes I forget to be more than the spoiled girl always on the receiving end.
26. Get sleep.
27. Embrace the calories that will come into my life if when I don't get that sleep. (Hey Dr. Pepper)
28. Go to the beach. (Bryce threw that one in. I'll go in my dreams)
29. Finish Zealand's sweater
30. Whip up scarves for Dane and Bryce using my yarn stash.
31. Take our gently used items to the D.I. to make room for this year.
32. Deliver neighbor gifts
33. Read to my kids a lot
34. Read from the Gospel of Luke with my family, remembering the Savior together.

There you have it. Now, I think I'd best be getting on to one of those thing-flings myself and clean my house!

Well, crazy or practical.

Case Point #1:

My house has been turned into a Winter Wonderland sans snow. It's only November 6th.

Dude, have you seen the whopper tree, Cameron bought me a year ago? It is insane! If I have to have two trees, one five feet taller than the other, I am getting maximum use time out of them.

Case Point # 2

I stood half-hidden behind a beam on our deck for 10 minutes while my legs cramped to get this one good (iffy) shot of one of the several varieties of bird that come to enjoy the seed we've put out.

We have a great summer/fall watching all the birds come. When people say that someone 'eats like a bird' they do not know what they're talking about.

Case Point #3:

I hate New Years Resolutions in a big, big way. With any change, I like to be one step, or in this case, two months ahead of the game. I have exercised two days in a row with a hope and even a desire to continue. My practical reasons for this are simple because I hate that I can't fit into my skinny jeans that I bought for the Muse concert this past April. I think I'm crazy for exercising because I hate it sooooo much!

This is a picture of me walk/running. (Not really, but this is almost what it looks like outside when I go)

I've also notice that my body is freezing up without exercise. I'm walking around like a stiff old lady half the time and want to be limber and have more energy. I know I definitely had more as I carried four boxes of Christmas decor up our stairs. Go mama!

Crazy or practical? You decide.

Unless you go with crazy, of course.

CHRISTMAS
IS
GONE!!!
I cannot believe it has taken us this long to get all of our Christmas decor put away, but IT HAS!
Cam and I managed to take that massive tree down and it was not easy and I even got snapped at by the husband that never snaps, but it is all put away! Yay!
Yay for Cam! Yay for Me!

Too bad it'll all be back out in, like, 10 1/2 months. It's hard to believe that February starts this week.

Sleep in Heavenly Peace...

I present to you my top 5 favorite Chirstmas recordings of the season (if I can find them all on YouTube :D )

Mariah Carey: All I Want for Christmas is You



Harry Connick Jr: Ave Maria



Enya: Silent Night



Cocteau Twins: Frosty the Snowman



Sarah Mclachlan: What Child is This



Josh Groban: O Holy Night



Oh! Was that six? Oops. Well, you just can't keep a good song down.

Honorable mention:

Last Christmas by George Michael (this is for you, Jessica)

Do you have a favorite Christmas recording (specfic song by a specific artist) that you can't get enough of during the season? Leave a comment.

On a related Christmas music note, I'm a huge fan of Tori Amos, but after years of railing against God and organized religion, she has put out a holiday album. I don't get it. I've listened to a few songs and of course they sound great, but I just don't get it.

Here we are decorating our family Christmas tree.

I don't think Cam realizes how amazing some of these pictures are.

I love the grainy, flashless-ness of them.This one is so precious, just needs a bit of cropping to bring Bryce to focus. A favorite of Dane's. He still loves reading Garfield.LOTS of ornaments. Everyone gets a new one (handmade or store-bought) each year. We used the computer for our Christmas music player.Ella loves sparkly things!

Is your tree up? Do you have any special traditions that go with decorating the tree?

So I'm just sitting here ripping CDs onto my hard drive, wearing a very fluffy, very warm, very red robe and thought I'd drop a post of random thoughts.
Got up a little early to iron Cam's new work shirts and thought I'd also iron the boys' new bedding (bedspreads, dust ruffles, etc.) Tedious work, but punctuated by my dropping the searing hot iron onto the nylon mesh that goes under the mattress on the dust ruffle. Iron shaped hole there now. Thankfully it will be covered up and I managed to get the marshmallow-like goo off my iron plate.
Dane is already begging to play the Xbox. Chore time! After a few days of nothing but play it's time to participate in the betterment of this house before sitting mindless in front of a machine. I used to be such a gamer, but really am not happy about this acquirement.
Ella is wearing her new, adorable robe from Cam's mom. She hasn't put down her new My Little Pony figurines for longer than it takes to eat breakfast/lunch/dinner.
Bryce loves his little Lego guys, Dane's little Lego guys, his Bumblebee Transformer and his new teddy bear, Sam. He also likes having his Buzz Lightyear cell phone toy with him in the car. He uses this to call all his grandparents.
Sadly, my camera is down at Grandma's house so: no pictures. They were going to drive up on Friday, but the weather put a stop to that.
Now, it's back to sort-of normal life. Some things are going be taken down (like the 12 ft Christmas tree with three ornaments on it), but most will be left up. Gifts need to be put away, candy must be eaten, laundry needs to be done.
New Years will be spent with good friends and then Dane will be 7 years old on Thursday. That'll be another post.

One might not think it, but my very conservative, predictable husband (his own words, I promise) is very good at surprises. On second thought, that's probably why he's good at surprises, but anyway...

While doing his usual grocery shopping on Saturday, he called to tell me that he'd bought something. There was a pregnant pause and I had to ask him whether he'd been naughty. Another pause. Then I knew...

"You bought the tree, didn't you?"

Since last year, when we moved into this house, Cameron has wanted another Christmas tree...a very tall Christmas tree to fill these high ceilings. My bargain hunting man has been considering a particular 12' pre-lit tree at Sam's Club for two years now. Then on Saturday, with only one tree left, it was marked down by half and Cameron snatched it up. I suppose that's why we are conservative in money matters, so we can be extravagant when it's too good a deal to pass up.

I figured we'd just stick it in storage until next year when we have, you know, ornaments, etc. but of course, we had to make sure it worked and so yesterday we assembled a very tall, very wide tree. I admit, I was a bit annoyed. It was December 21st and I already had a tree after all, but when it was finally assembled, not even groomed yet, we hit the lights and it was like magic. Cameron stared in awe saying: "Do you remember being so small you could hardly reach any branches? I do. It's like being a kid again."

Ella said "It's the most beautiful-est tree in all the world!"

Dane could just say "Wow." Bryce may simply not have noticed (he liked hiding in the boxes it came in), but I was impressed. Bring on the glass balls in bulk!

I had made some gingerbread cookies and the kids ate those while I read them two Christmas stories for bed...while they sat in the tree box. They asked to sleep in the boxes, but I did say no to that.

Final note: I totally recommend those Christmas stories. One was sweet and one was really great: Old Sadie and the Christmas Bear by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor and The Christmas Knight by Jane Louise Curry.