What's Not To Love?

Valentine's Day on a Sunday isn't my favorite. And let's face it, with the kids home from school ALL last week due to snow, I was already behind on life in general, not to mention any sort of plans for V-Day. But due to cancellations aplenty on Saturday, I was able to sneak away with the Hubby for some delicious Thai food and last minute shopping which resulted in a lovely Valentine's Day for everyone.

We usually have a big breakfast on Valentine's day, including heart shaped biscuits and sausage. Not possible this year with early church. I thought the Hubby's solution was perfect. And the kids didn't complain one bit!

On Saturday night I was able to combine Olympic watching {did you see that Apolo take silver?} and heart garland sewing, using these hearts here. All the cutting out was worth the look on little faces Sunday morning as doors were opened. And it's reusable, so I'll be tucking this garlandy cuteness away until next year.

Ollie has a wicked cough right now, so he and I stayed home from church, which gave me time to finish up one last little project. I got three small $1 boxes of Russel Stover chocolates from the grocery store and embelleshed them with paper and scrapbooking do-dads for each of the kids. After removing the chocolates and disposing of them in an appropriate manner {chomp, chomp, swallow} I filled the boxes with conversation hearts and special coupons custom made to fit the loves of each child. Here's Big C's box:

The boxes {Hannie B's pictured} were front and center on the pink plates adorning our table. These pink dishes were a thrift store find and only come out twice a year - on Valentine's Day and Easter. Pretty cute!

 

My energy level kicked in at the last minute and I ran down to the basement to get all the heart shaped dishes right before it was time to eat.  This one was perfect for chips and salsa!

The dinner menu this year included Red Chicken Enchiladas, Heart Shaped Quesadillas, Salad, Strawberries, Cherry Jell-O {crowd fave}, Chips and Salsa and Strawberry Ice Cream. What's do be done with poor evening lighting?  {Suggestions Sue?}

The coupons were a big hit with the kiddoes.  I even made some for the Hubby {not pictured}...

We ended our day with a family dance off to the Wii game "Just Dance".  If you have not played this game, you must.  It is hilarious and had us all laughing our heads off. I may or may not have actually wet my pants whilst dancing and laughing so hard.  Love was everywhere yesterday!

Tomorrow:  The awesome outtakes from my impromptu Valentine's photo shoot with the little Owl.  And one Valentine's note that stole the show.  Happy Monday!

The Fam : A Year In Pictures . . .

The idea was this: take a picture of the family every Sunday in the year 2009. The actuality was this: 36 pictures in 52 weeks. Where are the other 16 weeks? Ask this guilty looking little guy:

Teach Me Momma . . .

On Christmas Eve day Hannah asked me to teach her how to make Ginger Snaps. I feel at peace knowing that some day she'll make them for her babies.

{and yes, I look super nasty in this picture and cropped it tightly because my bottom was looking big, thanks to said Ginger Snaps.}

Ooh Baby!

For the past two years I have blogged about these cookies. This weekend I made thirteen dozen of them. They are now gone. Today I will make thirteen dozen more and they will not last 'til the end of the week. In our house these babies are the quintessential Christmas cookie - filling the air with the spicy aroma of my childhood and making all mouths water. If you click on the link above, you too can have the recipe for this deliciously soft Ginger Snap.

Do you have a favorite Christmas cookie or treat? If so, would you be willing to share the recipe in the comments section? My waistline and I would be ever so grateful.

I'm off to wrap presents {of the birthday kind!} because today is Big C's twelfth birthday. Being 12 is a HUGE deal around here. I'll talk more about that on Thursday. Don't forget, you have until 5:00 EST today to enter the December giveaway! It's been a real treat to read about all the special gifts you've received over the years. I can't wait to send this package to one of you . . . maybe I should include some cookies.

Simplified Gift Giving . . .

Although it is fun to shower others with gifts this time of year, for me it can often become an overwhelming frenzy of buying, wrapping and mailing with much of the joy missing due to chaos and lack of preparation on my part.

There are a few friends I exchange a small gift with each year. In years past I have felt pressure to out do my previous year's gift causing myself undue stress. These friends and I have all agreed to simplify our gifting to one another by choosing a set gift.

For my friend Scharman and I it is a book. I look forward to this tradition each year, knowing that come Christmastime, I will have a good read awaiting me under the tree. It is also comforting to look on the bookshelf in my bedroom and see the gifts she has given me over the years - words of wisdom and understanding that have blessed my life.

As a family we send a new {and difficult!} puzzle to close friends back in Utah each Christmas. This tradition started with my parents and our close family friends the Peters. I cannot remember a Christmas at home that did not involve the mass of us hunched over a puzzle at the dining room table. Now I have my children helping me with our own puzzle - and I still go help my parents with their puzzle too.

And with a few of my friends here in Virginia, I exchange an ornament each year. I like to keep my eye out year round for something special that reminds me of them or relates to what's happening in their life at the time. It doesn't have to be expensive - just meaningful.

These little set gifts make my Christmas shopping easier and more focused. What do you do to simplify your gift giving?


Ps. Speaking of gifts . . . you'll want to check back tomorrow for my December Giveaway! I heart brown paper packages tied up with strings!

Our Advent Tree . . .

As a young girl growing up in Germany, I looked forward to the tradition of an advent calendar. Ours were not fancy. They were made of cardboard and had a smattering of glitter highlighting the snow capped areas of a cheerful Christmas scene. I enjoyed opening a little window each day to find a tiny picture underneath - a candle, a mouse or maybe a sprig of holly. The simplicity of it made me happy.

I decided that this year we'd make an advent calendar out of this Charlie Brown tree I got for $2 at a garage sale.


I delved into my paper stash and found all the pretty prints in blues, greens and browns and crafted some little envelopes using a coin envelope as my pattern. I then wrote the numbers 1 through 25 on each of the envelopes.

Each morning before school one of the kids takes that day's envelope off the tree. Inside I have placed a scripture about the birth of the Savior. We look the scripture up as a family, read it and talk about it briefly.

I'm really liking this new tradition for a few reasons: the tree looks so lovely sitting on my kitchen island, the kids are excited to do the countdown, we're together as a family when we do it, we're thinking about Jesus' birth which is the whole reason for this time of year, and my kids are getting a spiritual boost before I send them out into the world for the day.

Do you have an advent tradition?

Oh Christmas Tree!

I've spent the morning doing two things -- sleeping to make up for a night awake with a sick baby and pouting over my serious lack of video production skilz. Though I've got 33 minutes worth of footage from the tree decorate-a-thon, I will be showing you absolutely zero of it. Instead, here are a few lame still shots of my tree in sections.

Here's my formula for a beautiful {to me} tree:
1. It has a color scheme. {mine is blues, browns, silver and gold}
2. White lights. Sorry, just not a fan of the colored kind, although they would be appropriate for a kids tree.
3. There is a general theme - mine is aviary in nature. But I added a twist and along with nests and flowers took the liberty of adding lots of shiny baubles since I know birds are attracted to shiny things.
4. Since my tree is artificial, it was important to cover up the "trunk" of wires and tags. I accomplished this with dried hydrangeas from my mom's yard and twig balls from Michael's Craft. These filler pieces help to cover up the large areas of dead space towards the center of the tree.
5. A great tree topper. Mine is a vintage St. Nick from a thrift store. I love his peacock blue cloak and beautiful beard.
6. A nice tree skirt. This is essential for artificial trees. With live trees it helps to have access to put water in the stand. My skirt was bought on clearance from Target two years ago and is cream wool felt with embroidered snowflakes. I love it.

And here is the tree all lit up! I could sit here by the tree for hours. At night I love to have all the lights off and sit with the Hubby chatting and enjoying the golden glow of the tree. I am always sad to take it down as it makes the family room seem so naked and lonely.

What about you? What's your formula for a beautiful {to you} tree? Will you send me a picture?

Under The Kids Tree . . .

See all those flat packages wrapped and ready to go under the kids tree? Bet you think I'm pretty on the ball! You would be wrong. These are presents for the kids, but they're not new presents. They are our collection of Christmas books. Each night right before bedtime we let one of the kids {who's been caught being good} sneak down into the basement to grab a present. They then unwrap it in front of the family and we share a Christmas story before bedtime.

The first book of the Season, chosen by RedDog, was a book simply titled "Christmas" by Robert Sabuda. If you've not heard of Robert Sabuda, it's time to educate yourself. He is a famed children's pop-up book artist. This man is seriously skilled at the art of paper creation and engineering and even this little book about Christmas blows my mind. The kids loved looking at and talking about each page's beautiful 3D illustration.

The kids love this tradition. I've even roped my greater family into the tradition this year {whilst simplifying the ever complicated cousin gift giving} by suggesting that each family give a Christmas book to the family they are gifting this year. I only need ten more books to fill the twenty-five days until Christmas.

Up tomorrow: video of me decorating my "control freak tree" - if I can figure out how to get it from the camera to the web. Where is Jared Foster when I need him?

Christmas Tradition . . .

I am a Christmas tree snob. It's true. I like our large {artificial} tree in the family room to look a certain way. And that means its ornaments and other decorations follow a color scheme and are placed "just so" on the tree. It's an outward manifestation of my inner anal control freak. I'm so healthy I can totally admit it. What it also means is that all the ornaments my kids have made at school or church over the years are not invited to play on mommy's tree.

But before you write me off as the meanest mom on the planet {oh, wait, I am that}, here's a Christmas tradition we've had for years that solves the problem. Each year our kids get out their boxes of ornaments and decorate A KIDS TREE down in the basement. Just like a kids table at Thanksgiving, the kids tree just makes sense. There are enough ornaments between the three older kids to fill an entire tree AND since it's in the basement, they get to enjoy it where they spend most of their time playing!

When we take special trips we frequently pick up an ornament for the kids to put on the tree. Here's one from our last trip to Disneyworld:

Here's an ornament my mom made years ago to honor my dad's West Point heritage. Isn't he a crack up? Seriously, she made an army of them - look at all the detail. Mom, you're crazy! But my kids LOVE this ornament!

My favorites on the tree are the ornaments handmade by my kids, like this wreath out of puzzle pieces by RedDog.

Or this wreath out of macaroni by Hannie B. It's kitschy, I know, but I can still see the look on her face when I opened this on Christmas morning when she was a Kindergartner. She was so proud of her creation, so to me it is priceless!

I think my favorite handmade ornament is this one - a little peanut Baby Jesus made by Big C at church. The kids love putting him front and center on their tree. When RedDog was little we had to tell him not to eat this ornament!

Here's the kids tree. They decorated it last night for Family Home Evening. The Hubby and I looked on and reveled in the laughter, remembrance and joy that this tradition brings each year. And we are excited that this tradition will keep on giving. As our children leave home to start their own families, they will get to take their collection of ornaments with them. Some lucky boy who marries Hannie B will get that gold macaroni wreath! Awesome, right?

Tomorrow I'll tell you about the tradition that's under this tree.

{ps. Want to start a kids tree of your own? I got this tree for 60% off at Target at the end of the season last year. It cost me on $39.99!}

Thanksgiving Part II . . .

Since it's still November for one more day and I don't have any Christmas decor up yet, I figure I've can still blog about Thanksgiving until I'm accused of being a grinch who's in denial about December actually being here.

Here's our the adult table festooned in berried garland, plate side harvest candles and very last minute place cards scrawled out by yours truly. And my Thanksgiving table is only complete when the brown transferware dishes are brimming with all the holiday fixings.

This year I pretty much left the fixing of the fixings up to a highly skilled and really capable kitchen staff. I'm pretty sure I have completely used up my "I just had a new baby" excuse after this.

Meet talented and capable. No kidding, these to gals here made EVERYTHING {except the green beans and store bought rolls - yeah, I'm lame}. Thanks ladies. I love ya - and not just for your mad kitchen skilz.

This guy here is my dad, The Kernal, and he had two jobs: first, to bring and serve our beverage of choice {it's not champagne . . . it's Martinellis - remember, I'm a Mormon!} and second, to charm us all with his witty personality and fantastic stories. He did a great job at both.

Minutes before the meal, the candles are lit and the stomachs are growling. How was your Thanksgiving?

Ooh, just thought I'd tease you all a little bit and let you know that I've come up with {what I think is} a great idea for my December give away! And it has to do with this gal right here:

Trust me, you're gonna want to win this one. Happy Monday!

Gratitude Week . . .

I am so grateful for my kids! They make life exciting and joyful. Challenging and hard, but mostly exciting and joyful!

In our house on Thanksgiving one of the coolest parts about being a kid is getting to sit at the kids table, separated from the parents, laughing and singing, chatting and eating with cousins and other young visitors. This year the kids table was "the place to be"-- as noted by the fact that the volume level and giggling increased as the evening progressed. Here are a few shots of this year's Kids Table:

The Thanksgiving Blessings Mix (a great idea from the Blonde Designs Blog) was a huge hit! A few of the kids helped me put these little after-dinner goody bags together during the day and we had a wonderful conversation about the Pilgrims and the symbolism of each item as we placed it in the bag.

{Who doesn't love a treat that contains both chocolate covered pretzels AND Bugles?}

I decided that this year the Kids Table needed some whimsy. So we covered it with craft paper instead of a table cloth and put cups of crayons out. The kids enjoyed doodling while their parents filled their plates. I also drew place mats and names on the paper in lieu of place cards. The kids loved searching for their name on the table and I didn't have to wash any linens!

Miss Hannie B. started working on these Indian headdress napkin holders about a week ago after seeing the idea in a book from her school library. She is a clever and crafty girl!

Here they are . . . eight cute kids ready for their turkey and potatoes! Don't even talk to me about the fact that the big guy at the end of the table will graduate to the adult table next year. I have to go cry over a leftover piece of pie now.

PS. Don't forget to scroll down and to Wednesday's post to leave a comment for a chance to win that awesome New Moon t-shirt. Comments will close at midnight EST TONIGHT! I'll announce the winner on Monday.

Happy Black Friday!