Merry Christmas

Wishing you a joy filled Christmas.

May you ponder the true reason to celebrate.

The birth of The only begotten Child of God; our Savior, Jesus Christ.

Take a minute to feel the peace and love that He provides for us.

Girls Night

About a week ago a new but incredible friend invited me over to make wreaths. Having been to her house I knew they would be amazing!

You should see how she decorates!! So cute!! In her entry is a framed picture of Santa, but really it is her father! How cute is that?

Back to the wreaths!!! I asked what I should bring. She said anything, maybe some ribbon. It just has some of this and some of that.

I bought a couple ornaments, including the bi-plane, gathered ribbon from around the house and at the last minute I threw some sparkly balls in the bag. I think I used like 5 things that I brought including a glue gun!

Candice the most talented wreath maker ever supplied the rest! It was so fun!!! Two other fun ladies came over and I can honestly say that their wreaths turned out just as cute, if not cuter!

Thanks Candice for sharing your talent and darling supplies! And thanks to Michelle and Tina for making the night such a blast

. I simply love my new wreath. Enough so that I yanked all the stuff of my old ones and am re-doing them as well.

I will post pictures when they are done.

The completed wreath! Looks cute huh? Kinda of crazy and fun!!
Glittery ornaments!


This one shows my favorite part! The little bi-plane. It reminds me of the beach!

The cute Merry Christmas!

Giant candy!

A ton of different ribbon!

And snowflakes!

Hidden presents!

Christmas, A Day Late And A Dollar Short

I threw it all in this one post!~ With not a lot of words~ There are pictures of Christmas morning, Morgans class Christmas morning, and the picture of Shawn laughing is when he opened the "moose sweatshirt" with the additions! Jingle bells! This shirt has been passed back and forth for the last few years. It was actually really funny!

The Reason for the Season

This Christmas I wanted to really focus with my family on the important parts.

Last week we attended the Christmas Devotional with the First Presidency. During that hour we heard the beautiful choir sing along with the orchestra and also messages from the prophet speak as well as the 1st and 2nd counselors. Each message was wonderful but President Monson spoke of things that seemed to be just for me. As we were driving home I talked with Charlie about re-focusing our time and energy on the more important part. He had the same feelings. We set goals to spend time each day reflecting on the true meaning of Christmas.


I recently found this great blog, LDS handouts. If you haven't heard of it you will thank me to hooking ya up! This sweet girl not only gave me a great idea of how to celebrate the season but also the sweet little handouts to go along! You can find her at: 12 Days of Christmas

Instead of giving these to a neighbor we are doing it for our little family. The intent is next year to branch out and share with a couple friends. We started with the stable and spoke about how blessed we are in our lives. How the Savior was born of such humble beginnings. We pondered how God used that simple birth as an example. How He could have provided any and all luxury for His son to be born. How there must be something for us to learn from His humble birth.

Shortly after that as I was tucking Morgan in; she asked me to read a book to her. Morgan picked "The Small One", by Alex Walsh. If you have not heard of it you should try to find it.

This story is about a young boy who lives on a farm with his family. The donkey, Small One, is old and no longer able to do his work. The boys father gives the boy the responsibility to sell Small One for 1 piece of silver. The boy spends much time trying to find a good home for his friend. The tanner offers 1 piece of silver but the boy does not want his friend to die. In the end of this sweet story Joseph buys Small One for Mary to ride. It is a lovely little story that we as a family have enjoyed for years.

Now here is the interesting part. The Small One is no longer in print. In face the original printing was in 1979 and was re-released in 1995. I remember buying this book years before I had children. I had seen it at the book store and fell in love. The publisher is Disney! Can you imagine Disney printing a book about the birth of Christ today? In fact the first page starts with a scripture: Proverbs 15:33, before honor is humility. I really was astounded reading this book tonight...couldn't help but think of just how far off track the world seems to have gotten. Today this would not be the popular choice at all. I am thankful that I bought this book before my little family started..thankful that I can share this sweet Christmas story with them.

Remember this holiday season while you are running from place to another the real reason we celebrate this holiday.

I am so very thankful this Christmas for my savior Jesus Christ. I know that it is through him that I will return to my Father in Heaven one day. I know that without his Atonement I would have no chance to achieve that! I also know that God loves me. That all good in my life comes from Him. I feel such joy and peace in that knowledge.

12 Goodies of Christmas

English Toffee??? Why English?? No Toffee in America? Anyone? Anyone?

Chad gets his spacers on Thursday and braces the following Thursday! Merry Christmas to Chad!! His request?? As much toffee, carmel, and overall chewy stuff before that day!!

So I thought why not include the recipes that will please my son!

Toffee, recipe from Wanda Wach, my sister's cute mother-in-law!

1 cup butter

1 cup sugar

1 tbls water

First of all coat a jelly roll pan with butter, not the spray kind, rub a cube all over it!! Next, put the above ingredients in a saucepan heating over medium heat. Heat until it comes to a boil, start timing from the rolling boil point. Boil for 5-7 minutes. So 5 for a more gritty dissolving kind or 6 or 7 for a more sticky kind! Spread onto pan. Then sprinkle the milk chocolate chips on top. Let sit for a minute, then spread with a spatula. Now you can put this in the fridge for 2-3 hours. Or like I do...set it on the cast iron planter hanging by your front door. Colder then the fridge but safe from the wind and snow!! Now that's resourceful!!

Ringing in the Season

I am joining in with asoftplacetoland-kimba.blogspot.com for a little open house. There are so many cute homes on display. Go visit and see all the fun blogs!!

My little Nativity! I first stitched the outline of each item, including stars, then painted inside with a q-tip. I made several of these, they are even cuter with pastel paint!!

My entry table. A little Christmas village, the green tree my daughter made in Kindergarten.

A little seasonal plaque. The 3 blocks change with each month.

My very first Nativity!! These boxes stack and inside each other. My kids have played with this each year. I bite my tongue and let them. We have used this as a family night lesson, putting a scripture in each box. We have also used this for Sunday school, or primary as well!

And....the advent calender. My mom made this before I was even born. I never remember a Christmas without it! She gave it to me and we love it. My children love all the little ornaments. The funny thing is that my son thinks that the Star goes on top, the final ornament, because that was the sign! My daughter wants the baby Jesus on top, because it is His day. How do we solve this? We add ornaments every other day and whoever ends up on Christmas morning gets to pick.

One of our two Christmas eve traditions is to read the Christmas Story from the book of Luke. That always invite a nice spirit and helps us all calm down! Before that we read a cute little story that my sister shared with me. The story is of a Christmas program at school, where the little girl holds one of the letters upside down. So instead of saying Christmas Love, it reads Christ was Love. That little girl really had it right all along!

Ho Ho Ho!!!

Festival of Trees!!

Chad and Santa

Morgan and Santa

Every year we go visit Santa at Charlie's mom's office. She is a real estate broker and puts on a fun Christmas party! Well the last couple years Chad has been griping about sitting on Santa's lap. This year he put his foot down...no more pictures with Santa! So we explained how there was just no way Santa could bring him any presents without a visit and a picture. Well Santa made things easy by suggesting a "gangsta Santa" would be acceptable. Chad jumped right on that train!! Morgan on the other hand was all over it...she loves the whole magical experience. She also gets nervous....so nervous that she hoped on his lap and promptly told him what she would like for Christmas. The only problem is that she got all panicked and just asked for the first thing that popped into her head; something that I had never heard her ask for before. Something that was not on the way from Santa!!! YIKES...so I asked her if she had changed her mind, she giggled and said that she just was nervous and that she forgot what she wanted. So we are go for "Julie" the American girl doll! WHEW!!! Also, the nose on Morgan? She had danced at Festival of Trees that night. Her dance company was super cute. Unfortunately my camera has a super slow shutter speed and the only pictures I have are with her back turned. She is still cute as a bug!! Or reindeer as it may be!