Haircuts

Hair: before and after

How is it that I can drag myself out into a blizzard for a haircut but cannot for the life of me make myself go to the grocery store? It's been way too long around here and we are fishing things out of the freezer and storage room. I really, really do not want to take 3 kids to the store and yet when Joseph's home in the evening it is just too cold and dark to venture out.

Christmas Morning

Can you tell that Beans and Livs (my early risers) had to wake up Cares (my sleep late girl) so we could discover stockings all together? The next picture says it all...

Love this classic pic.
Next year I will try my hardest to get PJ pics on Christmas Eve
when all are merry and bright :)

Livs showing off her new snowman slippers from Santa while chowing on a sucker from her stocking. She also got a 10 pack of bubblegum (sugar free of course) and ate 5 pieces in a row. Made her such a happy Christmas baby!

Caroline's Pet Vet gift from Joseph and me. We consider it our handmade gift because we found all the little parts/tools/bandages at various locations and then Joseph designed the labels.

Cares, animal lover that she is, has played with it for hours each day since and I love seeing her growing slew of animals all bandaged up in different ways.

Over to Nanny and Grandpa's for brunch and family time and more presents.

Love this crew all snuggled up on the couch

Grandpa and baby Anders

Joseph and Johnny

and a pic I had to steal from Krista's blog--Bentley displaying his new bank from Nanny and Grandpa. All the kids received one along with crisp new bills to fill up the sections. My little boy was thrilled about handling money and eager to spend it--only he had trouble finding the "spending" section...

Cinnamon Rolls

I am a huge fan of family traditions, especially when it comes to Christmas, and I owe much of that to my mother.

When I was in college, for a Western Lit. final project, I collected my favorite family recipes, one for each letter of the alphabet. I then compiled a recipe book and each page consisted of the ingredients and directions for each dish, as well as my own reflections/memories related to that particular food. The recipe book earned me an excellent grade in my class (this was in the days before Picaboo and iLife so the whole thing was hand made—with the help of my graphic designer husband of course.) I made a copy for my mother as I finished up finals, and have since made copies for each of my siblings—because the recipes are among our very favorites.

This year was my first time making a classic from the book: my mom's cinnamon rolls. And the smell, the taste, the flour all over the counter and dough rising by the heater vents will forever and always remind me of Christmas. This is a portion of what I wrote about them in the recipe book:

"I love to watch my mom make cinnamon rolls every Christmas Eve. She's always happy to be in the kitchen and creating a treat we have all come to love as part of a family tradition. I wonder if she remembers watching her own mom do the same thing as she knowingly kneads and rolls the dough. Carols accompany her rhythm and sing of her favorite holiday."


Those tasty treats are a key part of our Christmas celebrations—along with huge handmade stockings, German carols sung by Heintje, Wechtersbach dishes, and reading Luke 2 on Christmas Eve, gathered together as a family. I love that each tradition is rooted in a specific part of our family history: my big sis, born in December, came home from the hospital in a stocking big enough to fit a new baby—so my mom made each of us a big stocking to set out each year; we lived in Germany for 3 years when I was very young and all learned to speak the language fluently—German carols became so familiar and we learned to sing many of them...) I fill my home with these same things each year, in part to remind myself of the happy Christmases of my childhood but also in the hopes that they bring my darlings the same joy, the same anticipation, and the same reverence that I felt, and feel, every year.

*For the original recipe click here

Eve

We started our day with sibling gifts in the morning—a great way to entertain the kids until our real festivities began later in the day. Bentley and Caroline have really caught the joy of anticipation and were eager and excited all day.

All dolled up
This girl's daddy could not get enough of her and took about 50 pictures of her big, beautiful curls (he said he was just testing out the new camera's settings...)

Handsome boy all ready for Christmas Eve

And finally to Grandma Bobbi's for
our traditional Christmas Eve:

This picture had great potential.
I sure love my silly boy.

A focused and doting Mary, my Caresie was so loving and tender. Her reverence and peace were so beautiful that night.

The littlest (adorable) angel.

Chatting with Heid and Ben's family (in Minnesota) on Skype

My only nativity shot with Mason and Connor (kind of) in it. Can you tell that Sam the cat was much more exciting than being a sheep...

Happy girls with new dolls from grandma and grandpa

Livs was so excited to have her very own big girl dolly too

Tye and Stacey's family

Cec and Chad's family

A very merry Christmas Eve.

Christmas Eve Angels

A glimpse into our special night.
And yes, the angels themselves are a sweet sight, but all of those children were (and are) our Christmas angels.

including darling Max who beautifully sang along with us as he joined us on Skype
(and the slumbering Sadie and nimble Mason who only managed to get his foot in this clip)

More to come later. Much more. All the family gatherings have kept us quite busy these past few days—and we wouldn't have it any other way.

Let it Be...

"Let Christmas be a time that lights the eyes of children and puts laughter on their lips. Let it be a time for lifting the lives of those who live in loneliness. Let it be a time for calling our families together. Let it be a time of forgetting self and finding time for others. Let it be a time for discarding the meaningless and for stressing the true values. Let it be a time of peace because we have found peace in His teachings.

Most of all, let it be a time to remember the birth of our Savior, Jesus Christ, that we may share in the song of the angels, the gladness of the shepherds, and the worship of the Wise Men."

—President Thomas S. Monson
from the First Presidency Christmas Devotional 2010

Rembrandt's Adoration of the Shepherds

Merry, Merry Christmas

All About Santa

A little something my hubby created for work this week:

Via: DegreeSearch.org

(click on the image to see more of his work)

You should see the homemade Christmas gifts he created and designed this year...love having him around this time of year!