graham crackers and gummy bears

We have been making gingerbread houses with the Walters family for, oh, probably 10 years now. With December being so busy for both of our families, often times it has been hard to coordinate. But it is one of my kids most cherished traditions, so we always make it work.

Always.

This year we found a couple of hours on a Sunday afternoon to squeeze it in before different evening festivities.

As always, we had a great time.

We are lazy and so we use graham crackers. And that is totally OK with us and with the house constructors. They have never complained. And we always have tons of candy and try each year to come up with new things to make the decorating more exciting.



One candy item that is a must are the gummy bears. We could not make the houses without the gummy bears. They are the gingerbread house occupants, the frolickers in the front yard, the participants in every outdoor activity. They are very much a part of our gingerbread day.

My new candy addition this year was that bowl of white stuff. It is white cotton candy and it was a hit. There were snowmen created, snowballs sculpted for snowball fights and snow covered roof tops. The cotton candy will definitely be back next year. It added a whole new dimension to the decorating.

The gummy bears were very busy this year, as usual. They were sledding outside their houses, stringing up tiny strands of nerd Christmas lights on their roofs, participating in snowball fights, hiding in snow forts, and a couple of gummies could even be found creating some "yellow" snow. Yes, you have got to love making gingerbread houses with boys and naughty bears.

Never a dull house around these parts.

My girls on the other had keep it much more appropriate and are more concerned with the overall aesthetic appearance of their houses. I overheard Brandon this year whispering to Bryce, "I'm just stacking on as much candy as I can so I can eat it later, it doesn't matter what it looks like!"

And it doesn't really.

Those gummies are happy with just about anything.

Even yellow snow.

riverwoods

We so enjoyed our trip to the Riverwoods last year during the holidays,

that we decided to make it a tradition.

Last year it was pouring rain.

This year it was just cold.

One of these years it will be perfect with lightly falling snow, I just know it.

We had a little visit with the big guy. My older children (actually just the boys) would like it known that they did not sit on his lap, they just humored me and smiled nicely for the picture.

We enjoyed a quaint, cold and somewhat stinky carriage ride.

And we played for almost an hour in the world's greatest toy store, Blinkenstaffs, which was totally bustling with holiday shoppers.

Once again it was a delightful evening, even without the lightly falling snow.
Maybe next year.

Subbing for Santa

Kara was pretty much in charge of the Sub-for-Santa fundraiser at the High School.

It filled all of her time.

(and I really mean ALL of her time)

It filled our entire garage.


It filled the whole main floor of our house.



And it absolutely filled our home with the spirit of love as we watched these kids serve and work so hard to provide a Christmas for 13 needy families in our community and their school.

They gave of their time and their talents and their hearts.

They gave.

And that's what Christmas is really all about, now isn't it?

Rockin around our Christmas Tree

For me it was a mouse.

A tiny mouse sleeping peacefully inside a tiny matchbox.

That was my favorite Christmas ornament, the one that I couldn't wait to find when I opened up the ornament box, the one that always had a special place on the tree every year.

One of my favorite Christmas traditions is giving my children a special ornament every year. I love thinking about them when I pick it out. I love watching them look through all "their" ornaments every year when we decorate the tree. I love that they have favorites too.


I love that way back when I only had 3 kids I found these ornament boxes.

They have a space for each ornament and then a label that you can write what the ornament was, the year, who it was from and why you bought it or what special meaning it has. I bought 6 of them. Three for my current children and three for the future children I hoped to have.

And then our sweet little number 7 came along.

By that time they didn't make the boxes anymore. Believe me, I have looked high and low. I have scoured the stores and Internet. They just don't exist. So, sadly, she has a big ole plastic ornament organizer for her special treasures. Luckily, she doesn't seem to mind one bit. (But I do!)

Some years I have really stressed about getting ornaments. How could I find the perfect one for each child to capture their year? One year I opened up their boxes and realized that there were several boring ornaments in a row. Like the year I must have been completely overwhelmed because I just bought a pack of simple snowflake ornaments and gave them each one (lame). Then the next year was the September 11th tragedy and so I felt I had to get a patriotic one and so they all got the exact same flag ornament. The very next year we moved into our new house and so I got them all "new house" ornaments. What was I thinking?

I have since simplified my ornament purchasing. I no longer have to find the perfect ornament. I just need it to be fun and whimsical and memorable. Kind of like a mouse in a matchbox. Now, every once in a while I do come across a really good one. Like last year when I found a snowman hugging a tree and it just happened to be Tyler's first year on the Tree Huggers football team. Or when I found the sparkly turtle wearing a Santa hat the year Brandon got Bilbo. Mostly though, I just go for the fun and different ones.

(No, that red ball is not one of her special ornaments.

I am a little more creative than that, thank you very much.)

This year I tried something totally different. In mid-November I packed all the kids into the car and headed to Hobby Lobby. I told them that this year they were going to pick out their own ornaments. I told them there were only 2 rules. One, they had to really look through all the ornaments and make their choice thoughtfully. And two, they were not allowed to make any comments about what other kids were picking. They couldn't say, "That one's dumb," or "Why are you picking that one?" They all agreed to the rules and the hunt began.

Some got it done right away and some took forever. And guess who was the only person that had a hard time with rule number 2? Yep, me! I would look at some of the choices and think, "Really? That's what you really want?" But I bit my tongue. I bit it hard and placed the big yellow smiley face wearing a straw hat up on the counter and paid for it.

I mean, a smiley face in a straw hat is whimsical, right? It's fun, isn't it? It's definitely memorable and I think it will make us laugh in the years to come, and actually I love the thought of that.

And so, nestled all throughout the branches of our magical Christmas tree are the ornaments of my children's lives. The ornaments that tell their stories, that reflect who they are and how much I love them. We have doggies and leg lamps, BYU footballs and cell phones, we have fairies and sparkly shoes, Star Wars and snowmen, we have pianos and trains, a pine cone hedgehog and a Santa eating at McDonalds.

In my opinion, we have the perfect tree

And I think my kids and my tiny mouse would agree.

All the way from Norway

We usually get together on the Allred side each fast Sunday for dinner. This month we were treated to a fancy and foreign Norwegian holiday feast since Grandma had spent some time in Norway and wanted to let our family experience a little bit of this far off place where our cousins live.

We ate sausage and parsnips and cabbage, boiled potatoes, fish and sweet rolls. It was interesting and different and definitely foreign to some of us. It was a good "mission meal" test for my boys. "Now what would you do if this was served to you on your mission?" We have this test often in our home to get them to try things they don't like to eat.

It usually doesn't work.

For dessert we had rice pudding, the traditional Norwegian Christmas Eve dessert and one lucky person found an almond in their bowl. Whoever found it got a wonderful surprise. A marzipan pig. My kids were fascinated.


After dinner we gathered around Grandma to hear about Norwegian Christmas traditions.

(See that little guy in the front, that is the Nisse, the Norwegian version of Santa.)

We learned about St. Lucia, and the festival of lights.

My girls were thrilled to demonstrate and pass out gingersnaps.

And then the doorbell rang.

And right there on the doorstep was the cutest little Nisse you have ever seen.

All the way from Norway!

He brought bags of treats and candy for everyone.

I sure love that Nissa. And I love Grandma for putting together this wonderful festive evening. How do you say thank you in Norwegian? OK, I have no idea.

But, thank you thank you in plain old English!

We had a great time!

live

Last year for the first time we went to a Live Nativity. We had such a great experience we decided we wanted to make it a tradition. So we headed out again this year. It was up in Alpine and it was FREEZING! I am talking like 19 degrees freezing. It was bitter cold. But we braved the cold, bundled up and we began our journey.

Please pay no attention to those boots on my feet. They are hideous old fashioned grandma snow boots (especially hideous with skinny jeans). And nobody was supposed to see them. It was dark and I didn't realize that the picture Trevor was snapping of us warming up by the fire with hot chocolate was a full body shot. Embarrassing, yes, but did they keep my feet warm, totally!

OK, lets get back to the nativity please and get as far away as we can from those boots!


Along the path to Jerusalem we visited with a donkey.

And chatted with some camels.

We really liked the camels.

We were stopped several times by the soldiers who were looking for the baby Jesus.

And then we entered the bustling city of Jerusalem.

Inside we saw carpenters, leather workers, pottery makers, seamstresses, and basket weavers.

We ate unleavened bread and saw animals, sheep, geese and more camels.
We enjoyed it all very much.

But this is why we really came.

We passed the angles singing to get to the stable.

We felt the spirit.

And despite the cold weather, our hearts were warm.

the scout with a spear

Bryson came home so excited from Scouts the other day.

His leaders are his heros because they made spears with real arrowheads as the tips for their activity.

They totally made spears!

I'm just hoping he doesn't use it on anyone around here.

He kind of looks ready too, doesn't he?

trees, trees, trees

The Festival of Trees is always a great way to kick off the Christmas season. As usual, we had a great time.

We even had time this year to do a little browsing in the "little" tree section.

Ashlyn, as usual, was drawn to the book tree.

And Ethan chose the spider tree as his favorite.


Here are some of our other favorites this year:

I enjoyed this "Seasons" tree.
It wasn't the most fancy or anything.
I just really love the changing seasons.


We enjoyed the "Up" tree.

And of course, "The Christmas Story" tree, complete with the little boy with his tongue stuck to a pole as the tree topper.

(Too bad, I cut off his head in my picture)

And who can resist a tree made entirely out of fancy barbies? Not us!

Another great year at this great festival of great and meaningful trees.

the 1st

It is December 1st and we are excited around here.

We are ready for some holiday magic.

The first thing we do on December 1st is open the little window on our chocolate charts marked #1. There really is no better way to start the next 24 days than with a little chocolate. Sends everyone out the door in a good mood.

That's kinda what chocolate does.

We also get out our Christmas decorations. This brings back such fond memories for me. I can still remember standing at the bottom of the ladder as my dad came down from the attic carrying box after box of dusty Christmas decor. It was so very exciting to lift those lids and find our cherished Christmas treasures. We too have collected some pretty great Christmas treasures over the years and although we don't have a dusty attic we do have a dusty garage and that works just fine for us.

My little girls were so excited to help. The boys didn't really care, so they were off doing other things, but not my girlies. They carefully unpacked each item, oohed and ahhed over it all and then took great care to put everything in it's proper place.

I am grateful they love the magic of Christmas decorating just like I did when I was a little girl.

It was so much more fun doing it with them by my side.

My boys did emerge from the cracks and crevices when it was time to set up the train.

And now our home is ready.

Let the magic begin!