Our Christmas Tradition

The most significant tradition we have started in our family is the three gifts. It keeps Christmas morning simple and helps us to remember the true meaning of the holiday. We always start the morning by reading Luke 2 and the kids retell the Christmas story using our Little People Nativity. Jared complained because he wanted to open his presents. We explained that when Christmas presents come before Christ, we stop getting presents. Needless to say, he quickly started setting up the stable. :) Anyway these are the pages I put together with our pictures of Christmas morning.

Sew Amazing

Grandma Holtry made scrubs for each of her 12 grandchildren for Christmas this year. Don't they look adorable? Corinne even got some mini chef scrubs so she could be just her mom.

Way to go Grandma! You are amazing.

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Warmest Holiday wishes from our family to yours on this wonderful day.

Christmas Card

Remember how I said I'm not one to disappoint? I guess that's not entirely true. Every year for at least the last 8 years I have come up with some sort of crazy Christmas letter to send with my cards. This year it just didn't happen.
However, I did send a note saying "Mama got a job so check out our blog," therefore I feel the need to address anyone who is now logging on to check us out. So, here goes.

THE CAT
Yes, we have a cat now. Kaylee and/or Jared heard something in distress in one of the empty lots by our house. When they went to have a look they found a kitten who couldn't have been more than a couple of days old. Of course they immediately brought it home and I immediately told them to put it back (I figured it's mom would be coming back for it.) The two of them stood vigil waiting for the mama to come back, she didn't, it got dark, and the cat now lives at our house.

Rod bottle fed the little guy for about 4 weeks and to our great surprise, he lived.
His name is Tyler but I usually call him Stupid Cat. He lives in the garage but he thinks he belongs in the house. Every time the door opens he manages to sneak his way in.
The truth is he is a pretty funny little guy and believe it or not, he has started to grow on me. Who knew?

Our ultimate wish for the cat is for him to become a great mouser. We live by a field and a irrigation canal so he could really earn his keep. So far he's only caught a couple of grasshoppers. Rod wanted to buy a mouse for him to practice on. Don't worry, I helped him to see the flaws in this plan. Let's be honest, there was a pretty good chance we were going to end up with a pet mouse too.

Please check back with is again soon and if you have a blog leave a comment and I will add you to my list.

Merry Christmas

Grandma's Cookie Night

Each year in December the girls in my family meet at my mom's house to decorate something. It started out with cookies but it has evolved to include gingerbread boys, cookie nativities, and this year, Gingerbread houses. My mom found these great kits. They were really easy and not too messy. Here are a couple of pictures of all the fun. Kaylee just needs another year or two of practice and I'll have her helping out with my cookies. :)

Getting the roof just right.

Kaylee did not want me to help her at all.

She came up with this roof design all on her own. I thought it was pretty cute.


Cute cousins with their adorable houses. Looks like they didn't need our help.

Kaylee's finished product. I think she used every piece of candy in the package. Still, you have to admit, it looks great.

Christmas Cookies

It's that time of year again and I just had to make my Cookies. This is one of my favorite Christmas traditions. They are actually pretty easy to decorate and they taste great (thank you Grandma Poulsen). My favorite part is the reaction I get from our friends. The people at Rod's office expect them every year and you know me, I can't disappoint. I took some pictures of the process this year. Enjoy.

This is how Rod and the kids like their cookies, plain and yummy!

This handy outline holds in all the frosting.


Smooth as a baby's you know what.


Once the frosting is dry on top I add the detail frosting.

Time for the sprinkles.

Finished at last!

This is what 190 decorated cookies look like at 1:00 am in the morning. :)

Christmas Songs

What Christmas song do you HATE?

Sorry, but I just have to vent a little. I was driving home from work today, listening to the "Sounds of the Season", and that Dan Fogelburg song "The Same Old Lang Syne" came on. Who decided this was a Christmas song? He met his old lover in a grocery store on Christmas Eve and they drink in her car, can't you just feel the spirit of the season?
And as long as I'm at it, that WHAM song makes me want to tear my hair out! "Last Christmas I gave you my heart, the very next day, you gave it away." Who did she/he (we are talking about George Michael) give your heart to, the DI? Good Will? or did he/she just re-gift it? And what did they do with it? Did they call you up and ask if you were missing a vital organ?
This one could be fixed with one word, THREW. If your heart got thrown away you could just pick it up out of the trash and move on, but now George has to go looking through all the thrift stores in town just to find it so he can "give it to someone special".

I can't be the only one who has a Christmas song they just wish would go away. What songs make you want to scream?

Christmas Recital

Pause the music player to watch the videos.

I was so worried about Ren playing this song. He didn't have it memorized until just a couple of days ago. Honestly, this was the best I ever heard him play it. :)

Kaylee did a super job. She lost her place at the end of the second song which is funny because that's the one she's had memorized for about a month.

We were very proud of both of them. I just hope I can keep them playing until they are good enough to accompany their mom. :)