Christmas Celebrations

So, I wasn't so good at doing something Christmasy every day of the month or for the last 10 days. (I made the 10 days goal after I failed at the first one.) We did end up doing almost all of the stuff I had wanted to during the "winter break" (in other words- Christmas break!) We got our Gingerbread house baked and decorated on a day Emma had some friends over for a sleepover. We also made donuts- today for part of our New Years Celebration. I really like it for New Years. I remember us always doing it around Christmas, but I don't know when. Maybe my mom used it the same as I did- "Wow, we are getting bored, what can we do?! I know, lets make donuts!" They turned out so well. I ate way too many of them and now I am sick. I also remember doing that in my youth!

It was a fantastic Christmas season. Santa was way to nice to all of us, like he is every year. We had wonderful friends over for dinner. We got to go out and have dinner and a movie with a couple of friends. Rob got to do a couple of football games with friends and we had a football game watching party. Now we are enjoying the last minutes of 2007. Do you remember growing up and thinking how terrible the world would be if we were all still here in the year 2000? Now it is almost 2008- crazy, hu? I hope you all had a fantastic 2007 and are looking forward to some good goals for 2008. I hope one of your goals is to keep up with our blog and make one of your own and let us know what it is, so we can keep up with you. We love all of you. Happy New Year's!

I Elfed the Kids- Check it out!

http://www.elfyourself.com/?id=1877643492
This is really cute. I elfed the kids and they look so cute!

Christmas House of the year 2007

We didn't do so well with the doing something every day to help us spend more time together as a family or think about Christmas more, but we did get in a few things that were lots of fun. One new tradition that we picked up while reading random blogs was to go out and see all the lights in the neighborhood and then proclaim one of them a winner and deliver a prize to them. We had a lot of fun looking at all the houses that did light displays. This is the house I picked. The picture doesn't do it justice. It was absolutely beautiful! They had greenery everywhere and the whole yard was in a winter theme. We dubbed it the "Winter Wonderland" house. They even had a projector that made it look like snow was coming down. This is the one the kids all wanted. Again the pictures don't do it justice (I am still learning to take pictures that look decent!) It had blow up everything- including a Flying Snoopy and the Grinch. It also had the Manger scence and blow-up's in every window. The guy was out with his dog, so we stopped and asked if we could shake his hand and told him that he was the winner this year from our family, (Mom was out voted!) and gave him a big Symphony bar wrapped up with a bow. He thought that was really great and we had a ton of fun doing it. This is definitely going to become a tradition in our family!

A Few of my favorite things

Some one asked me the other day how "A Few of my Favorite Things" became a Christmas song. I had no answer for that. I was reading on the internet, though and someone was saying that it was time to take stock of the year and see the big picture and enjoy all of your favorite things. So I decided to share a few of my favorite thing with you. My favorite colors are shades of red and green. I have way too much green in my wardrobe. I really need to branch out a little.

I love Anne of Green Gables series and most of the stories by Jane Austin

I love wonderful smelling candles

I love Christmas cards. I hang them in the shape of a Christmas tree, because that is what my mom did- at least once!

I love Chocolate!!! My favorite is Cadbury, but Ritter Sports are pretty close. This almond roca that I can't eat this year because of my braces was something I made with my maternal Grandmother the first year I was away from home for Christmas. I have made it almost every year since then. Unfortunately, it only works out about 1/4 of the time. It is real finiky! sp? But so, so good. The carmels are from a recipe I was given from my mother-in-law and they are the best! Emma begged and begged until I made them this year. They are soft enough that they don't stick to my braces, but chewy enough to not be gross.

I love Christmas period! It's my favorite time of year, besides warm falls and warm springs- which I also love!

I love really high thread count sheets that have no wrinkles in them. I don't like wrinkles at my feet when I am trying to sleep!

I love my many different creche displays. I want more!

I love being married to my wonderful husband and being a mom to my beautiful children.

I'm sure I have more, but I can't think well with the baby screaming his head off!

So what are some of your favorite things?

The "This is where you are at dress"

I have this dress- it was the one my mom made me out of fabric that was leftover from my bridesmaids' dresses. I call it my going away dress. It is what I put on to leave the reception. Every year I take it out around are anniversary and put it on for that Sunday. Some years I have been pregnant and not able to wear it, but so far there has only been 2 years I wasn't able to wear it when I wasn't pregnant. It is my "this is where you are at dress." This year it was not comfortable at all. I told my husband that it was cutting me in two. Sam looked at me and said, "why didn't you just take it off, then?" Ah, men. They just don't understand. I have to wear that dress for at least the three hours of church. It is the rule! This year we had tithing settlement right after church, though. I was very happy to take it off as soon as we got home! I was not happy with the way our bishop handled a certain situation, so I went straight back to church to talk with him instead of letting it fester all week, but I did not wear the dress! Next year, I hope to report that it was not cutting me in two!

This is the dress I bought on-line. I looked and looked for a decent Christmas dress. I didn't like any of the dresses out there. Mostly they don't have dresses, they just have skirts. I finally broke down and bought a skirt/shirt compo. Of course I had no idea how formal it was. It didn't go all the way to the floor on the model. I am 5'8 and it drags all over the floor on me. The shirt, I thought was a nice velvet. NO way- it is a stretch black with sparkely copper thread all over it. At first I thought it was hideous. But now I like it. It is just a little formal for church. I will probably only get to wear it on Christmas and then never get to wear it again until I have a formal. Luckily, in the army there are usually plenty of formals. Just not here in D.C. Which seems really odd to me! I decided that I would look at it this way- for $60 I got a formal and a Christmas dress. Now if I can just find a dress I like!

Tag your it!

Ok, a couple of people have tagged me and so I thought I had better write one, finally. You are suppose to write 5 things about yourself- I think. So here goes:

1. I hate to shop. Always have! I love getting new things, but going and looking at things and fighting the crowds and not finding what I want over and over and lines, etc. etc.- not my idea of fun! My mom used to take me shopping for fun until I finally told her that it gave me a headache. Now with the kids it is even worse, but I don't enjoy it even without the kids.

2. I love men in uniforms. I guess that is obvious from my choice of a husband. It started with football uniforms and by the way, I still like guys in football uniforms. Then it turned to military uniforms. Almost any guy looks good in a military uniform!

3. I am a typical Mormon mom in that I feel guilty at all times. If I am cleaning the house, I feel guilty that I am not playing with my kids. If I am playing with my kids, the whole time I am feeling guilty about not doing my ironing. If I am writing a blog, I am feeling really guilty that I haven't run yet today! Got to go do that soon!

4. I eat way too much junk food. All that running and my really good metabolism (thanks Grandma and Dad!) are the only things keeping me from gaining some serious weight.

5. I loved growing up like a military brat. My dad wasn't actually military, but it takes too much time to explain, so I always call myself a military brat. I loved the moving and getting to meet new people and see new things. I loved living in Germany and getting to travel. I really get itchy to move after 3 years, still. I want to move, right now, but there's no chance of that- stupid housing market. Maybe it is good for me to learn to stay put for a while, though!

Ok, that was 5 things about me. Now you are suppose to do the same thing ;)

Straight No Chaser - 12 Days

This is a fun Christmas song to enjoy and get you ready for Christmas!

Emma's Sermon

No one remembered who had the scripture and prayer and talk for this week at Primary, so they asked the older girls if they would do it. Emma volunteered to give the talk. She did this completely on the fly and on her own. This is sort of how it went: This month we are celebrating Christmas. Jesus was born on Christmas day and so we celebrate it. The angels cames to tell the shepherds about Jesus' birth and they came to see him. A lot of people get good this month, because Santa claus is coming with presents and that is good, because if you are bad all year long then that would be bad. So it is good to get good this month. I think she noticed me laughing at this point and quickly ended and sat down. I am such a bad mom!

The second counselor and I decided that it was actually a very deep sermon, brought down to the level of the children. It was all really an allegory of Jesus and how he was born and brought us the great gift of eternal life. If we are bad our whole lives that would be bad, but if we use his gift of repentance, even at the "last month" of our lives than that would be good and we will receive the gifts he came to bring us.

Her friend mentioned that she forgot to tell about the wise men and told her how she would have done much better. I told her that the wise men didn't come for about 2 years, so she didn't forget it at all and that girl could talk to the hand!

I will leave you with this thought. You better not pout, you better not cry, you better not frown, I'm telling you why. Santa Claus is coming to town! He sees you when you are sleeping, he knows when your awake. He knows if you've been bad or good, so be good for goodness sakes!

Hanukkah

We are so excited, because our next door neighbors are Jewish. Yesterday we were invited to the 6th day of Hanukkah. They let the boys wear yamikahs and all our kids light the Menorah. We also learned to play dredal. We ate potato latkas and donuts and M&M's. Do they know how to eat or what? Ok, I must admit I was a little sick afterwards. We also scored an invitation to Passover. We rock! Now we just need an Indian neighbor who teaches us about Henna on your hands and fun stuff like that!

Happy St. Nicholas Day!

Happy St. Nicholas Day, all! St. Nicholas is a European thing. We still celebrate it in our family, because it was tradition in my family since we grew up in Germany. He comes on the night of the 5th of December and puts little treats and toys in your shoes that you have left out for him. Ours nicely coincided with our first snow day. I was not quite ready for this. We have only had about 2 weeks of jacket weather (50-60's), then all the sudden the last 2 days have gotten really cold and then it snowed last night. All the schools around us, both north and south are opening 2 hours late, but not ours- no they decided to close for the entire day. Bunch of wimps! The roads are completely dry, now and there is only a skiff of snow on the grass. It looks like spring in Idaho.

I drove in the snow to Alexandria to my card club and had a nice night out. I was a little worried about the snow coming down so hard, though, so I left early. By then it had actually gotten better and I drove home without any problems. But since I had worked the night before and hadn't gotten any rest (I had to make 10 cards for goddness sake!) I was tired and St. Nicholas still had to come, so it was a good thing I left early. My cards turned out pretty well considering. Rob even fainted when he saw how beautiful they were. He said he had been practicing for it all day. I don't seems to have time to get everything done this year, so I am not making my cards for Christmas this year. I have about 4 of the homemade ones that I can give out, so the first couple of people to respond can have one for Christmas. You better hurry, though, because I am sending out Christmas cards in a couple of days at the latest!

A NO GOOD, VERY BAD DAY- but boy am I blessed

I was in a "Everybody hates me, Nobody likes me, I'm going to go eat worms" mood yesterday. (as my mom used to say.) It was too bad, because Saturday went so well and we had so much fun, but it just ended bad and that's what started all of this. We went to our last ward's Super Saturday. They really know how to do things. From actually doing a craft fair to having great speakers, to putting on breakfast, lunch (on China and crystal) and having a chocolate fountain. And everyone was so nice and friendly. We really had fun. Then we came home and prepared for and hosted a mother-daughter hair-do learning/Christmas party, which was oh so fun. Here are some pictures of the night.

Rob was so good with me, Sunday. He let me cry, made sure it wasn't his fault, told me he would beat them all up for me, gave me a foot rub and told me how wonderful I was. The thing is, he was just as "dissed" as I was (to use an 80's term). Some days I would love to be more like a man. Of course that man had to deal with a very emotional woman. Maybe not so great after all. I spent the day with my husband and played legos with my little boys and realized that we teach the kids all the time that friends don't matter that much- they come and go- but family is the most important thing and we should treat them the best. So was I living that teaching? Just before bed Joseph looked right in my eyes and said, " I love you Mom, so much!" There is nothing better than that! I am truely blessed!