Christmas Card Album

A few years ago, I did this post about how to have and display old Christmas cards. I just have to say, this has become the favorite Christmas decoration in my whole house. I only bring it out in December and I leave it sitting in my front room. My kids love it, my neighbors love it, I love it. Pretty much anyone who comes in and sits down in my front room, ends up looking through it and there are always comments, often giggles (usually at the expense of me and sister's big 80's hair) and comments about how my kids have changed. Best thing I ever put together. And, since I am in a bossy mood, you should do one for your family too.

Happy Birthday to Me

I turned 37 and we celebrated by going back down to Thanksgiving Point.

Here are my kids looking at the reindeer.

Here is one of the reindeer.

One of the ice sculptures outside.

Waiting for our food

Cute toothsome #4. She chose this red shirt to wear that day because the blue one I had picked out of her was "too boring".

My "cake". I am not a big cake fan, so we always eat ice cream of some sort on my birthday. Toothsome #1 took the picture.

"Eating the zebra". When we get dessert some place, we only order one and get six spoons and call it "eating the zebra". (You know, like how lions all attack a zebra in the wild.)

It was a great birthday.

FYI

I would love to sing Ave Maria in a duet with Michael Buble.

Christmas China

Dentist husband and I got married in December (the 27th).

As a wedding gift, my aunt gave us two dinner plates of the Spode Christmas tree pattern china. Throughout the years, I have picked up more pieces and now own 12 of the dinner plates as well as several serving bowls. It is a tradition that starting December 1st, we use the Christmas tree dishes for every meal until January 1st.

There is something so festive about eating on these dishes daily. And, as everyone knows, I hate to cook but knowing that I will be serving lunch and dinner on these dishes motivates me to make good meals because it is just so fun and festive to sit around the dinner table and eat on these wonderful dishes.

Christmas Fun

A few years ago, I did a post about creating our Christmas Fun list. Things really haven't changed that much and the list is pretty much the same. This year, we decided to watch "Elf" as part of our Christmas Fun and in honor of the movie, I made pasta and the kids pretended to put maple syrup on their noodles. (OK, maybe toothsome #3 actually did put it on his noodles, but as a mother, I chose to look the other way).

My front porch

Its beginning to look a lot like Christmas.

Lights at Thanksgiving Point

I never bring my camera, so I have no photo evidence, but every year, our favorite holiday tradition is driving down to Utah County and going to see the Lights at Thanksgiving Point. We laugh, we sing, we oh and ah over everything and then enjoy the Nativity Story at the end. We then go grab dinner at the deli inside. They even have reindeer. In my humble opinion, if you live in Utah, it is a must attend event.

Nutcracker 2009

Toothsome #2 participated in her dance studio's production of "The Nutcracker." This year, she got to do two different dances--the soldier and a Chinese Dancer.

This is the one time during the whole year, that I get to be alone with her for two days and we both just soak it up. We always go to Olive Garden during the Saturday performances and I love getting to spend this time with her.

Dentist Husband is kind enough to stay home with the others while I do this with toothsome #2 but they do always come of the matinee, so see her perform. This year, after watching it he said, "Let me see, some pirate comes to a party and brings some crazy gift, laced with some hallucinogenic substance that causes Clara to see visions of people dancing?" I have been watching "The Nutcracker" my whole life, so the story never seemed that strange to me but when you really look at it, it is a little weird.

Next year, toothsome #4 will be in it too. With this season's performance over, it is now onto more Christmas fun.

Merry Christmas!

This video brings back so many happy memories. Oh and Sting still "does it" for me. :)

Thanksgiving in Wisconsin

Dentist husband's brother lives in Wisconsin and this year, we decided to spend the holiday with them. Our kids are all compatable ages and it was a delightful but too fast trip.

We had to get up at 3:00 am (yes you read that right) to be at the airport on time to fly to Minnesota, then to Chicago and then drive two hours to Wisconsin. The trip there was flawless with the exception of me slowly getting sicker and sicker as the day went on. I ended up with the full on flu by about 2:00 pm (Chicago time) and was in a haze for about 24 hours. Fortunately, I felt better about 11:00 am Thanksgiving day and we were able to fully enjoy the vacation. The only casualty was me being too sick to run in the 10K I had registered for.

Hanging out, watching football on Thanksgiving Day. (Earlier, the men had all gone and played football with some friends).

The day after Thanksgiving, we all headed up north to the Wisconsin Dells. If you read Family Fun, you will know what I am talking about. It is basically a whole city dedicated to in-door water parks. We stayed in a very nice 3 bedroom condo.

The men

The women--my sister in law, married my husband's brother, me and dentist husband's sister. She and her husband (green shirt above) live about an hour away and work for Lands End one of my favorite places to shop.

Outside one of the gift shops at "The Dells"

In the water

And, no trip would be complete over this Thanksgiving without going and watching "New Moon". Here we are recreating the cover of this book of my nieces. I got to be Bella since I am the shortest.

Fun, fast trip.

Back Home

Just got back from a whirlwind trip to Wisconsin. More later once the laundry is done and the house is decorated for Christmas.