Christmas 2012

We've been having a nice Christmas break. It is great getting to sleep in past 5:30am and having lazy days.  On Christmas Eve my parents and brother joined us for dinner, games, and reenacting the nativity story.  Just like last year Nathan did not want to be in the nativity but he did make it into the picture. 

 We wrapped up the girls like snowmen as a game.  I had seen this idea on pinterest but keeping the toilet paper from breaking and falling off was almost impossible.

 Luckily the kids liked playing with the toilet paper even more than being snowmen in it.

 On Christmas day we went to my parents house for dinner.  Little Oliver kept the girls entertained.  He is such a cute baby.  Everyone just wants to play with him and hold him.

 The day after Christmas we headed up into the mountains to the new Moulton cabin.  They had a fun but very steep sledding hill at the cabin.

 Nathan liked sliding down it without a sled or gloves and holding his new sharp tooth dinosaur.

 Climbing back up the hill was quite a workout.

 The Standages came to the cabin with us.  When it was dark we all went on a walk through the snow to see Christmas lights.  We met this nice dog on our walk.

 My brother Bryce took this great picture of the cabin.

 Here is the cabin in the daytime.

 And here are the happy owners of the place. 

Today I am thankful that:
*Our live Christmas tree is down.  I do not miss the pine needles everywhere and we love having the space to play back.
*Scott has been so helpful with the kids over break.  I have enjoyed a lot of free time.
*The girls are having fun playing with their new toys together.

Waiting for Christmas



My kids are very excited for Christmas this year and none more than little Nathan.  Ever since we put up the Christmas tree Nathan has been asking every day if it is Christmas.  He loves getting new toys and can hardly wait.   He has a calendar and a Christmas tree  to help him count down the days but I'm still not sure if he understands time. 

I am enjoying the month of December.  I love all the decorations, the music, the lights and the treats.  I painted my wooden snowflake red this week.

 But it looked so plain hanging on the wall by itself that I glittered it up and put it on my snowy shelves instead. 

 On Thursday we received a surprise on our front porch.  It was one Christmas candle.  Someone was going to do the Twelve days of Christmas for us.  The second day we got two bags of pretzels, and the third day three snowman sliding.

 The fourth day we got four cupcake ornaments and the fifth day five Christmas tree cakes.  My kids love checking outside several times each day for the new delivery.  This has been very fun for them.  Thankyou to whoever is doing this!

My girls continue to make new Christmas pictures for me to hang on the wall.  This one of the nativity scene is so well done.

   

This week I am thankful for:
*Our nice home teacher that gave us this foam nativity scene.  He told my kids they could make a part of it each time they do some service in our family.  We are slowly making progress on it.

*All the Christmas cards we have received in the mail.  I just love opening them each day and attaching them to my kitchen cupboards.  As I work in the kitchen I am surrounded by friends and family.

 *Last week Holly got to take part in the living nativity that we do at our church each year.  The 9-12th graders act out the story 5 times on Friday and Saturday night.  Holly was an angel.  It was hard to get a good picture of her because it was so dark outside.

 There were even two long haired goats in the stable that they kids could pet after each performance.

December Fun

Megan is in choir this year.  This is her first time being in choir because it is only for 3rd, 4th or 5th graders and she is in 3rd grade.  Since October the choir has been learning holiday songs and this week they performed them.  They sang the songs at the Bellevue Sqaure mall.   The mall was super crowded on Friday at lunchtime though and there were not enough enough chairs to sit on.  Me, my mom and Nathan were there to hear her sing.

Megan had a fun time riding the bus to the mall, ordering lunch and paying for it herself at McDonalds, and being in a group with these fun girls.  They even got to go to Build a Bear were they could spend their own money.  Megan just bought a bear hat. 

I decided to try out another pinterest craft idea.  This craft is making big snowflakes out of popcicle sticks.  I just made one snowflake because it took a lot of sticks and about half of my sticks were bent.  You just can't make a perfect snowflake out of crooked sticks.

 Melissa posed with the completed snowflake.  I think I will paint it red and hang it on the wall.

 This month Megan has been working on a Heritage report for school.  She researched the country of Denmark (where some of her ancestors are from) and then made a powerpoint to present to her class.  Today was the heritage feast for her class.  All of the students had to bring in food from their country to share with their classmates and all the parents.  Basically this was homework for the parents.  I don't think any third grader did any cooking.  I made Danish Apple cake and it was actually pretty good.

 I ended up with  a lot of leftovers so it's lucky I like the stuff.

 Here is Megan tasting food at the feast.

 These cool snowman were hanging on the window in her classroom.   Megan's is on the second row with the green hat on.

Today I am thankful that
*I get a Christmas card in the mail almost everyday.  I just love receiving them from family and friends.
*I got a lot of Chrsitmas shopping done on Saturday.  I took my four girls to Kohls and Target and let them pick out their own gifts. 
*My week of driving the seminary carpool at 5:50am is almost over and then I don't have to drive again for 5 weeks!

Christmas Fun

This week I heard about a big nativity exhibit at the Mormon church next to the Seattle Temple.  So on Saturday morning I attended the temple and then went to the exhibit.  I was there right when it opened so that is why the place looks empty. Over 500 nativities were on display in the cultural hall.  Over 100 Christmas trees were around in the building and there were additional activities and displays in the most of the classrooms.  It was very impressive and would have taken a lot of time to set everything up.

 This nativity was my favorite.  I wish I knew which company made it.

 I snapped a picture of myself in front of this cool nativity mirror from Mexico.

 Back at home our house is all decorated for the Holidays.  I was inspired by some door swags I saw on Pinterest and made this for over our front door.

 The girls have been hard at work cutting out snowflakes for our back door.

 I turned our white fridge into a snowman again.  The Christmas cards are starting to come in.  I have four hanging from the kitchen cabinets already.

 And the kids each made a snowman face for our snowman banner (another pinterest idea).

 Our tree is decorated and still alive.  I hope it stays green until Christmas.

 Our kitchen wall is covered in new Christmas themed pictures courtesy of the girls.

 This week I am thankful that
*Scott helped Emily live out one of her dreams by taking her to audition for the TV show America's Got Talent.  They were in Seattle on Thursday. Several hundred people were there to audition and apparently most were girl singers like Emily.  We will hear in January if she made it past this preliminary audition.

*Nathan is excited about going to preschool.  His teacher decorated the classroom with a castle theme and brought in some cool knight and dragon toys that Nathan really likes.  Normally he doesn't want to go to preschool but because of theses new toys he can't wait to go back.  I hope the castle theme lasts for a few weeks.
*Scott and I survived his work Christmas party.  It was at a dinner/theatre place in the Seattle.  It sounded like lots of fun but the seats were uncomfortable, it was 4 hours long, the dinner wasn't served until 9pm, and the entertainment was very strange.  Luckily we had some of his nice coworkers to sit with at our table.

A real Christmas tree at last!

Scott and I have been married for 16 years.  The first 6 years of our marriage we decorated a ficus tree with lights and a few decorations and called it our Christmas tree.  Finally, when Holly was 5 we got a artificial Christmas tree.  This year I was determined to get a real tree and not just from a tree lot, from a Christmas tree farm.  I had heard good reviews of a Christmas tree farm in North Bend called Christmas Creek.   So on the Saturday after Thanksgiving we all packed into the van and drove there.  Luckily it was a dry day. 

 

 

 The kids had fun running around through the Christmas trees, it was like a Christmas tree maze.

 Megan thought we should get this cute little tree.

 But we finally decided on this 8 foot Douglas Fir.

Nathan and Scott used one of the provided saws and cut it down.

 We drove it down the hill to "Santa's shop" where a strong man shook our tree to remove dead branches and bugs, and then sent it through the bailer machine.

Then he tied the tree to our van's roof.  We've had this van for 8 years and this was the first time we have ever used the rooftop rack.  Yes, it is about time!

 Hayrides come complementary with visiting the tree farm so me and the girls went for a ride.

Then we visited Santa's shop and got to see Santa.  He looked like the real thing and was very sweet with all of our kids.

 We successfully mounted the tree at home.  We have found about 5 little black spiders but no squirrels so all is good.  I thought getting the live tree was lots of fun.  Maybe we'll do it again next year!