December Recap II

Ahhh, the rest of the month. I couldn't possibly leave out Christmas!

Here we are assmebling the tree. Julia had been begging all month long to set it up, and finally on December 14th we did. It seems we always get sick the first few weeks in December, so we promised ourselves next year the tree is going up the day after Thanksgiving. After throwing things together so late in the game this year, I think we really will... I hope...



Here it is folks, the Bob Vila gingerbread house. We had a blast decorating it. We have a tradition of doing this on Julia's birthday. I assembled the house before we went to Winger's so it could really set up and then over the next day or so we put all the candy on it. I love the little "rocks" I found for the chimney, front walk, and front of the house. I'm told they tasted delicious as well.



Bob and Kristie came Dec 23rd and Kristie and I immediately went out to go last minute shopping. I hadn't bought myself a single gift yet. Oh, my husband and I have a somewhat unorthodox gift-giving tradition. To avoid being disappointed by what you got and feeling guilty about returning it and/or feeling like a shmuck for getting the wrong gift, and to retain that "oh wow!" surprise feeling, we purchase our own gifts. That way we always get exactly what we want and we get to be surprised by what the other person bought for themself. It works great for us. Anyway, we ran to Kohls. After a mad dash through the store and a joyous time in the dressing room (imagine this last part laced with sarcasm) the hubbies call to tell us to come make their dinner. So we dashed to the check out line only to get the slowest checker on the face of the earth made even worse by a lady demanding price checks, but we make it through run out the door and then, "hey, where did we park? Wasn't the car right here? We got a good spot didn't we? I swear we parked right here? Where is my van???" We walk up and down every aisle looking for my green Mazda and all I can say is, "Why when we are surrounded by Honda Odyssey's and Chryslers would a stupid car thief choose my MPV???" We're getting pretty paranoid by this point, imagining what our husbands will say (hers is a SHERRIFF!!) when suddenly a light goes on, "was there more than one entrance?" We head back inside and remember we came in by the shoes, so we go over that way through the doors and guess what? There's my van right out front like it should have been. We were laughing so hard with relief and were so mortified by our experience, that we vowed not to tell our hubbies the real reason we were soooooooo late.

I have been waiting for big sis to put this on her blog, but she hasn't so here it is, her Ric Rack Purse. I think it is absolutely adoreable and I really want one for myself. Hopefully I will be able to knit it myself before too long. Julia absolutely loves it, it is perfect!!








Christmas Eve -- another tradition we have is opening jammies on
Christmas Eve. So here are Daddy and his girls in their coordinating jammies. Sydni looks thrilled, doesn't she? Daddy didn't buy himself any jammies, shame on him!! I had pink ones to match the girls but we didn't get any photos of us... We also wathed a video of the Christmas story called "Joy to the World" and sang songs and took a moment to remember the Savior and the true reason we all gather together this time of year. It was a nice break from the hustle and bustle. After the kids went to bed it was a mad dash to get presents wrapped and orange rolls baked. Big sis and I were up until 4 am!


It was all worth it Christmas morning though. The kids had a great time, Sydni was more interested in passing out all the red presents than actually opening any, but she did like the toys inside. We had a great time!! We had Christmas dinner at my in-laws. Ja's little sister that is my age came with her hubby and 2 girls and it was wonderful to see them! Gotta love the holidays.