Christmas Recap - part 3

After staying up most of the night on Christmas Eve getting everything ready, I was wiped out.  I didn't even wake up when Saxon sneaked into my room in the morning.  I woke up to him whispering "Mom...looks like I've been good..."  LOL  After multiple threats of "Santa is NOT going to come this year if you act like that!"  he had to sneak out and verify for himself.

Here we are, so excited we can't stand it!

Except for Dalton.
This is how he felt about it:

Saxon LOVED his legos:

Bridger LOVED his Hotwheels:

I like it when my kids get gifts that make them think (like legos, race tracks to build, and books, and games).  My least favorite toy of the year: "Doggie Doo."

My cousin thought it would be hilarious to give Dalton a dog that poops.  You feed it "food" (which is more like slime) and take it for a walk.  As you wiggle it along, the slime makes it's way through the dog's body until it lands on your floor.  It even comes with pooper-scoopers in a variety of colors.  Each kid gets their very own.  Yeah.

What is your least favorite toy?  Whoopie cushions, Nerf darts, and Moon Sand also top my list of least favorites...

Review

Amanda from Ninth Street Notions won a shopping spree from Craftaholics Anonymous Black Friday Event and chose to use it in my shop!  I was so excited that she picked my shop and even more excited when today, she posted a review about it.

Go check it out at Ninth Street Notions.

Christmas Recap - part 2

After the fruity pebbles disaster and the peeing on the shower curtain disaster...Nate got home just in the nick of time.  He finished putting the house together and dressing the kids while I finished putting dinner together:

Costco Christmas Ham:

comes spiral cut and with a package to make your own glaze.  I love "Honeybaked Ham" but they are so expensive, and the Costco one is a comparable alternative.

Salad:
This is my favorite salad recipe.  Not only is it fresh and fun, but I love the colors :)
-Romaine Lettuce
-1 Granny Smith Apple cut into pieces
-1 Pear cut into pieces
-Strawberries sliced
-Feta Cheese
-Candied Almonds (we mix sliced almonds with sugar in a skillet until the sugar melts and caramelizes on the almonds)
-Brianna's Blush Wine Vinaigrette Dressing

Christmas Lemonade:
2 liter bottle of lemonade
64 ounces of cranberry juice
orange slices

Christmas M&Ms:

Once we finished dinner, Gm. & Gp. G gave the kids matching jammies to open.  The big boys are Bumblebee from Transformers, and Baby E is a baby bumblebee :)  She's so cute!

After about a dozen attempts at a family picture...this is the best one we got:

Trying to get a "Grandma and Grandpa picture" was even harder.  We settled for getting everyone is the picture, even if no one was looking:

Once everyone left, we started trying to settle down the kids.  We tracked Santa online and let them know that they better hurry :)  We finally got Saxon down, and Dalton down, but Bridger was too wound up to sleep.  It was midnight by the time he was finally asleep...

I was cursing myself for not finishing wrapping all of the presents ahead of time.  At midnight, Nate and I started getting everything ready for Christmas Day...

Christmas Recap - part 1

This Christmas season has been unusually busy for us!

Between my etsy shop, and my husband having to work a million hours, it's been hard to get anything else done.

We invited my husband's family over for Christmas Eve dinner, but since Nate had to work all day on Christmas Eve, that left me to take care of the preparations by myself.

I was busy from the time I woke up in the morning...I didn't even dress my kids.  I wanted them to look nice for dinner, and I figured that the best chance I had was to dress them just minutes before dinner started.  I scrubbed the bathrooms...mopped the floors... folded the laundry... all while trying to make sure the rolls were rising and the fudge was cooling in the fridge.  

While I was entirely distracted, Dalton helped himself to breakfast...

Of course it had to be fruity pebbles that he dumped everywhere!  I was in a hurry, so I vacuumed up the mess and threw a tablecloth on to cover the fact that there were fruity pebbles wedged into the cracks of my table.  He was pretty impressed with his self-sufficiency:

While I was frantically cleaning up cereal, I heard Bridger go into the bathroom that I had just cleaned.  When he came out I said "Please tell me you aimed..."
Bridger: "Actually...I missed...sorry..."
Figures.
There was pee everywhere.  How does that happen?  So...back to cleaning the bathroom...

"My Gift" Ornament - Tutorial

I first saw this idea on A Lemon Squeezy Home and LOVED it!  I thought it was so creative, and such a fun way to teach kids to give back.  They are Christmas ornaments with a picture of Baby Jesus on one side and chalkboard on the other.  The kids can write what their gift to Baby Jesus will be on the back of the ornament.

Here's how to get started:

First, I had my husband cut and sand six, 4 X 4 inch, pieces of plywood.

Then I painted all of them, on both sides, with chalkboard paint.

You could also used chalkboard spray paint.

Next, I used Mod-Podge to glue and seal a picture of Baby Jesus on to the ornament.

I used several coats because I want this to last year after year...

(I bought the pictures at Seagull Book Store.  They were only 47 cents each.  They were a little hard to find this late in the season, so plan B was to just cut some pictures out of a magazine or ad).

Once it was dry, I flipped it over and stenciled each of the kids' names on an ornament.

I also had my husband drill holes in the sides (for attaching the string).

Last, I tied some twine on the top to hang it by.

I really love how they turned out!

Every year when we get out our Christmas ornaments, I'm going to have my kids write what their "gift" to Baby Jesus will be and we will hang it up on the tree as a daily reminder.

I hope everyone has a Very Merry Christmas this weekend!

See you next week :)

Baking Day

BAKING DAY!!!

 Don't you love having a baking day around the holidays?

My sister-in-law and my cousin came over to help make dozens of treats!

We made:

Brown Sugar and Maple Cookies from Cheeky Kitchen

Oreo Truffles:

1 pound oreos crushed

8 oz. cream cheese

Dipping Chocolate

-Just mix the crushed oreos with the cream cheese until it forms a consistency like cookie dough.  Then roll them into 1 inch balls and put them in the fridge to firm up.  After 15-30 minutes, take them out and dip them in melted dipping chocolate.

Chocolate Cake Mix Cookies with Mint M&Ms.

Soft Gingerbread Cookies

(I cheated and just bought the Betty Crocker Mix.  I still haven't found a made-from-scratch gingerbread that I'm in love with)

My too-cute-for-words-identical-twin-nieces helping themselves to some oreo truffles :)

We finished by making English Toffee from my other cousin's blog.

Every year I buy cookies tins after Christmas when they are 75% off at Walgreens.

Then I pack them away with my Christmas stuff until the next year.

That way I always have a cute, "free" gift ready to give to a neighbor or friend.

Every surface of my house was covered in cookies!

So fun!

What I Wore...Holiday

This is what I wore to church on Sunday.

It is my FAVORITE skirt!

My mom sent it to me one year for Christmas and I wear it all the time!

Skirt - Surrealist

Sweater - Target

This skirt is solid lace.

I actually had to buy a slip to go under it because it really is all lace...LOL.

It is different types of lace in different layers, and sheer from the knees down.

I had to wear legging under it because it was FREEZING on Sunday!

I asked my husband to take a picture of my skirt so that I could show you the details in it, and this is the picture he took...LOL...oh well.

I'm also getting a little bored of my hair lately.  I need some suggestions for long-hair ideas.  Any thoughts?

Tradition

   I LOVE holiday traditions.

I look forward to doing the things that make me happy and bring back wonderful memories.

When we lived in Chicago, we would go to my grandparents house every year on Christmas Eve and reenact the first Christmas.  Each cousin was assigned a part.  There were a lot of cousins, so we had everything covered...animals, shepherds, angels, etc.  I loved it.  The best way to learn is by doing and I felt like I learned the true meaning of Christmas when I was very young.

(My cousin Mike and I as Mary and Joseph)

Once we moved to California, we always had a formal Christmas Eve dinner and Christmas message at my Grandma's house.  On Christmas day, we would go over to my Grandpa's house because it is also his birthday.  I was a party! :)

Now that I live in Utah, away from family, I miss my traditions.  Nate didn't really have any Christmas traditions growing up, and we were too far away to participate in my Christmas traditions, so we've had to be creative and come up with some of our own.  The most important thing, is that I want my kids to know the real meaning of Christmas.  I want them to know why we celebrate.

And the Grinch, with his grinch-feet ice-cold in the snow,

Stood puzzling and puzzling: “How could it be so?”

“It came without ribbons! It came without tags!

“It came without packages, boxes or bags!”

And he puzzled three hours, till his puzzler was sore.

Then the Grinch thought of something he hadn’t before!

“Maybe Christmas,” he thought, “doesn’t come from a store.

Maybe Christmas … perhaps … means a little bit more!”

(Dr. Suess, How the Grinch Stole Christmas, New York: Random House, 1957.)

Every year, on Christmas Eve, I dress my kids up in their church clothes and make a fancy dinner.  After dinner we talk about the true meaning of Christmas.  We talk about baby Jesus and why his birth was so important.  I talk to them about it all month, but on Christmas Eve, we make it the our sole focus.  We always play a DVD slide show that my Dad made for me.  It is music and pictures of Jesus, starting with His birth, through His death and Resurrection, and ending with one last one of His birth.  It's beautiful.

"At this focal point of all human history, a point illuminated by a new star in the heavens revealed for just such a purpose, probably no other mortal watched—none but a poor young carpenter, a beautiful virgin mother, and silent stabled animals who had not the power to utter the sacredness they had seen.

Shepherds would soon arrive and later, wise men from the East. Later yet the memory of that night would bring Santa Claus and Frosty and Rudolph—and all would be welcome. But first and forever there was just a little family, without toys or trees or tinsel. With a baby—that’s how Christmas began."  Jeffrey R. Holland

This year, we have invited my in-laws over for Christmas Eve.  They are moving here from Nevada on the 23rd, two of my sister-in-laws will be here with their families.  I want to make sure that everyone has a good time, and that everyone learns a little bit more about the true meaning of Christmas.

Here are some ideas that I've found:

-I found a cute family activity on Family Volley about having Christ and Santa in the same holiday.

-Read The Forgotten Carols by Michael McLean.  I have been to the live presentation of The Forgotten Carols, and it is beautiful.

-I LOVE this Christmas ornament tutorial from A Lemon Squeezy Home.  I'm definitely going to make some of these.  I'll post about it when I do because I think it is such a cute idea!

-Watch the video of Luke 2. 

What are your favorite Christmas Traditions?