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.