Tis the season...

...For pulling out our 'Charlie Brown' christmas tree we got the first year we were married--the $15 special that stands no taller than myself plus a good 6 inches has paid for itself many a time, and while it is stingy with the branches, with the many ornaments gifted to us from a loving Grandma Hancock & Messel we have been able to bring life to that little tree and make it a beautiful addition to our holiday decorating.  I have to admit it is not my favorite to actually add the ornaments to the tree, but my loving mister is a Christmas geek and he pulls the boxes out as soon as he can after the Thanksgiving meal has concluded and deftly places the sparkling goodness in ways I could not.
...For 'finally' listening to Christmas music--I CANNOT until after Thanksgiving.  I have my favorites and like a meal at Tucanos, where it is not complete until I get the turkey-wrapped bacon, top sirloin & grilled pineapple, it is not officially Christmas for me until I hear "Sleigh Ride"(look up Sleigh Ride, by Leroy Anderson on iTunes)--love, love, love this song.  It does throw me back to high school band concerts, but I crave it, tapping my foot along to the beat.
...For setting up the nativity and decorating the shelves around our little casa--unlike the tree, I get to do the shelves.  When we moved into our little house full of built-ins, some original, some not, there was a particular nook by the front door that begged to be home to my creche.  I simply had to convince the handyman in our couplet to rip out the 70's nod to decor--they ripped out nicely and Jesus, Mary & Joseph have a fine place to stand and be admired.
...For basking in the glow of my children's faces as they emanate pure joy and innocence.  We believe in Santa and I am gleaning a small speck of the magic my own mom provided with this most favorite of holidays.  It lives in the traditions those sweet boys asleep right now have come to expect and hopefully will remember for years and years.
...For getting excited about the food, mmmmmm, food, from Breakfast casserole on Christmas morning to fudge, chocolate-layer dessert, hot chocolate, Shirley's rolls, to Chicken Cordon-Bleu or Chimichangas (yes, I know those sound funny next to each other, but they rotated for Christmas Eve dinner).  My mouth is watering and my waistline is growing thinking about it.  ;)
...For realizing that time does indeed go by much faster than it did when I was 'little', seriously where has the year gone?!  It used to take forever for Christmas to get here and now I will blink and it will be here and gone...So in the meantime I am going to try to enjoy every single second of it, even if I am at work, or tired, or wondering how we are going to make everything work.  Tis the season for soooo much...

I actually finished a project!

So back in the middle of October I started a project with our family pictures (an idea gleaned from one of our student ward bishops--they had all of their family pictures through the years lined-up.)  Props to the local DI and a can of spray paint all of our cute portraits were framed..well, I am proud to say I actually followed through and at 9:30 last night coerced Scott into helping me get the pictures hung on the wall. I got to bed at midnight, a few hours past my original notion of a bedtime...But it was totally worth it! 

Check out our FAMILY ROOM:

a little bonus, completely unrelated to above post...

Scott trying to grow some facial hair--can you see it?  The only way I will let him kiss me is with super fish lips, his "hairs" are prickly and I am NOT a fan...  ;)

All Hallow's Eve

Halloween this year rocked it--I didn't have to work the night before or the night of, and we got to be totally lazy, no school for this non-holiday!  We started out by getting ready for the Wolf Den Halloween party...we made our own individual pizzas, played "In a Pickle", watched Disney's "Legend of Sleepy Hollow", played "eat a doughnut off a string" and then sent them home with a treat bag.

Later we finally carved our pumpkins, there was a little bit of a breakdown as Jorden didn't like how his pumpkin was turning out and Garrett thought it was more fun to dig in the sandbox then in a messy pumpkin, but the end-results were great!  We had dinner, got dressed in costumes, took pics and then left Scott, the garden gnome, to hand-out candy as I took the boys to scour the neighborhood for more candy, fortunately the weather was perfect, no coats under our costumes.  The boys were troopers and we made a pretty good haul.  Poor Garrett got tired by the end and I had to carry him home, but they had a blast, we ended it with a little Face Time with Grandma & Grandpa Messel,  stories, then bedtime...now to think of the next holiday, mercy, where has this year gone?!