Christmas Eve

I'm going to be honest, December seems more like a blur! What did I spend all my time doing? I was working on a scrap booking Mike's, mission as a gift, so the house always seemed to be a mess, wrapped presents and we watched a lot of TV. Every Christmas special, we watched it, even the dumb ones. But it all lead up to this glorious night. I love Christmas eve! There is something so magical about it.

The lights set a romantic mood after the sun has gone down so early. Then there's eating good food and thinking about the true meaning of Christmas.

Michael made the most amazing roast I have ever had in my life! It was perfectly done! I was savoring every bite!

While we were eating the doorbell rang and someone doorbell ditched a baby Jesus in a manger on our doorstep! It was life size, not a little one from a Nativity set. My girls loved that so much! They each wanted to have a turn caring for baby Jesus. It was so precious and it made our evening so special! Whoever you are, thank you so much! It was a gift that will never be forgotten and re-used forever!

Here is our stockings hung by the chimney with care. I love that our new house has a fireplace! It i so beautiful and fun t have this here!

My tree is so simple. You might think that after having done that magnificent tree that I would want a polished and perfect tree, but this tree that has my kids ornaments, and my traditions and my memories and my Christmas cards on it is perfect to me. Iv been using the same stream of stars since Mike and I got this tree and it seems to me to be symbolic of year after year of putting it up and taking it down.

Merry Christmas.

Family Visit

On December 9-11th Mike's brother, Devin, and his expecting wife, Becky, came to visit with their two boys. It was so fun to see them! I have really missed Becky, since we used to live so close to each other all through the first 4 1/2 years that Mike and I were married. We had so much to catch up on! We were regular chatterboxes! :)

That is after I got back from doing volunteer work at Tsadakah's school. I love her school! It is really amazing! It is a charter school that includes elementary and Jr high so I went to help during their etiquette dinner and dance. It was fun to see the nervous little 14 year olds. I was expected to serve them with proper waiter etiquette, which was so crazy, cause I had to take from the left and serve from the right, but the tables were too close together so I was awkwardly stumbling over people and dropping silverware and bumping kids in the head with the serving tray. I almost dropped the stack of 5 used salad plates in one kids lap! It was a funny evening.

So then that night after I got back we hung out and had a chill evening talking and having so much fun. Becky kept me up until way too late! Both our husbands went to bed before us. The kids loved seeing each other again and Eliannah and Xander really bonded.

The next day we made this Gingerbread house. It was a wonderful gift from our new friends, the Bergantz family. We think they are amazing!

It was right after breakfast so we were still in our pajamas with messy hair. It was a way fun project. They kids loved being involved.

Jaxton, Tsadakah, Eliannah, Xander, and even MiKaylah were in there making it "pretty".

Xander ate more than he put on the house. lol

Me and my angel baby.

MiKaylah is so hungry for some that she is eating the table. haha

Later that day we went to Kravers for lunch. I am totally a fan! It is good food for a good price! Becky was so excited too. There were so many things on the menu that she liked.

We also watched Christmas Vacation, and went shopping! It was a fun visit! So glad that they could come!

This year Michael got really excited about decorating our new house! First time in 7 years that we have had Christmas decor outside the house! I am oobers excited about it!

I think that it looks really pretty! I told him that the hanging icicle type lights were my favorite and he totally remembered and got them! YAY! I love our new home!

A great experience!

A year and a half ago I had a dream about a Christmas tree that was decorated in symbolism of Lehi's Vision. It has always been a dream of mine to do the Festival of trees and create something beautiful for charity. My sister's mother in law donates to someone every year to make a tree and I thought why not to us? So I asked my sister if she would do it with me and ask her MIL if she would sponsor us. She said yes and gave us a budget.

It was so much fun! We loved shopping together and laughing about the things that didn't work out. There were some things that we imagined one way and it just wasn't possible so we had to re think that idea.

All in all this is what we ended up with!

It is a 12 ft tree with an iron rod leading up from the bottom, past the rivers to the tree of life at the very top. On the tree are ornaments of fruit, ceramic statuettes of things that help you hold to the rod, and signs that explain what things are. It really turned out beautifully!

Some of my favorite ornaments!

This top was a wow factor. I guess that the newest thing is to have branches on top of your tree instead of a star or angel. Which I think turned out really perfect for our theme. This is the tree of life!

So it was our first time and we chose a tree that was way too big, so we couldn't put it together until we were there. So this baby took us the full 2 days to set up. (That includes a time when we had to tip it over and change out the stand!) We actually snuck back in after time was up to finish the last 10 minutes of it, but all the craziness was worth it. It was so amazing to be in that room as see all the designers working and making such a magical place!

Our Tree did so very well! It was not put into the live auction because they never put in a tree that has first year designers, but by the end they were wishing that they had. They are begging my sister to do it again next year.

So with the silent auction they have the value of the tree as a starting off point. It was $2,100. Then they have 15 lines for people to bid on. Then there is a Buy It Now price if people want to pay top dollar for it and avoid the stress of bidding. The first day our tree sold for top dollar, $3,000. Then there were two other people who wanted it and asked the administration if they could still bid on it higher than the top dollar price! (That is why they wished that they had put it into the live auction, because they had to turn those people down to follow the rules.)

Our budget from our sponsor was $1,000. So we had the second biggest increase from spending to purchase price percentage wise!

This really was a once in a lifetime experience and I am so glad that I got to share it with my sister. She really is amazing! Thanks Simcah!

Tsadakah said, "Guess what mom, Uchtdorf has a oo sound in his name!" I'm so proud of her that she knows who he is!

ThanksgivingS

So, we had 3 Thanksgivings! Talk about over eating! Luckily all those dinners were not on the same day. Mike's family decided to do it on Saturday and mine decided on Frieday so Thurday was wide open. So we celebrated it ourselves. Mike brined the turkey and stuffed it with hebs and spices. It tasted delicious!

I wanted to really keep everything healthy because I knew we had 2 others to gorge on, so we had unsweetened yams, salad, corn, and cooked carrots with our turkey. We also had crissantsand apple-raspberry juice. We talked about what we were thatnkful for and that was that. It was a wonderful simple day.

I got the dishes at Walmart for a buvk! lol It was the best thing for the little ones who have a tendency to have butterfingers. They weren't fancy or expensive, but they were fun!

The Fershtut party was done at a church. It was put on by my sister, Leah. She did a great job! Her husband brought a movie to project on the wall and planned a fun candybar game. My mom went all out on the decoratns! I think that because she didn't have to work so hard at her house that she was able to spend time on the stuff that she really loves to do, DECORATING!She made these placemats, and the stuffed turkey and also bought a whole bunch of gourds. She made a felt covering to fancify the stage. It was all beautiful!

The food was amazing! It was all homemade original Thanksgiving traditional food! It was so good I couldn't say no! hahaha

Eliannah kept smiling with her mouth open and it was showing her food. I took this picture like $0 times! I guess I need to work on her manners more. heehee, but she loves to read the book Polite As A Princess. It is so wonderful for teaching lil girlie-girls! guess we better read it more often. She actually asks for a napkin all the time. :)

Zeke, Simcah, Stratton, Hayley, Carson. My mother made these place mats. She also made the cloth stuffed turkey! She is The most amazing seamstress! I love that about her. I admire it a great deal and wish I had a greater desire for it!

Next we went to Mike's family for Thanksgiving. This is the long table of ethnic foods that we all sampled and shared! It was so fun! I love this. We had food from Mexico, Peru, Heiti, the Islands, Israel, and Brazil.

Eliannah fell asleep snuggling with Grandma Carol! So sweet! Since they came in October to visit, by kids have been so much closer to these grandparents and I love that!

Friends of Mike's family came as well bringing teens and other such. Their daughter was reading to MiKylah and it was so cute! She was listening and eating her lil snack, happy as can be! she is so my little darling!

For an activity we played lots of games. (One thing that I LOVE about Mike's family) First we played Fruit Basket, which is always a blast and even the kids can participate.) Then we played Human Foosball. (Mike's sisters that got everything neeed for this game were amazing!) Then the men played b

Veteran's day

Don't forget about Veteran's Day! Its a special holiday too. Every now and then I have a great memorable one. This year I spent it reflecting on the service of a very special veteran, my Pop Pop Leonard. He was so handsome in his uniform! He was such a good and honorable man. I am so grateful to him for all that he did and all that he was. His memory will always and forever be with me.

My dad talked about something that he read in the paper about Abraham Lincoln dedicating the holiday of Thanksgiving as a national holiday during the time of war, when people needed hope. They needed something to remind them to think of the things that they are grateful for, they needed something to renew their vigor for what they were fighting for. I love the fact that we have lil patriotic holidays all year round. This reminds me that I am thankful for the sacrifices that the servicemen have given so that we can all be free to worship God as we see fit and that men and women of all races can vote, choose and live in peace and plenty.

God Bless America, the Land That I Love!