O Come, Emmanuel

After the creator of the heavens and earth was brought forth to lay in a humble manger, the angel of the Lord visited shepherds who were keeping watch over their flocks that night. That impact of the visit of heavenly messengers and news of good tidings of great joy led those shepherds to go to Bethlehem with haste to visit the Christ child. There thy found Mary, Joseph, and the baby as described by the angel of the Lord. 

Christmas allows us to ponder these things, as did Mary, in our hearts. But as we ponder the birth of our Savior, his mortal ministry and atonement, let us also be like the shepherds and share this knowledge broadly, glorifying and praising God for all we have heard, seen, and felt (Luke 2:20).

"Donkey-hotay" and the Nativity

Last night, for our Family Home Evening lesson we played out the nativity story with a little nativity set that Adi has (based on the Christmas nursery lesson). We began by singing, "Away in a Manger" because honestly, it's the best only way to retain any attention from the two-year old.


After getting the nativity story down, which took on its own life with the donkey with a missing ear, who Adi has named "Don Quixote"(I guess donkey sounds like Don Qui-xote, right?), Adi was done (5 minutes max, folks) until we read the poem included in the lesson.

A baby in a manger, 

A loving mother near, 

A star shines in the heavens, 

The Son of God is here!

A simple and beautiful message to help us all retain our focus on the meaning of our celebrations.

I have found that I am not much different from my two-year old when it comes to becoming overly distracted by holiday-season garnishments. 

Santa Claus Came to Town

This week (and the coming week) has been insane and with finals and an event every night (and for ten consecutive days), we've felt a little (or a lot) overwhelmed.

Because of all of the insanity, we missed the annual Santa Party. But, once again, my amazing mother-in-law stepped in and suggested that Adi Tango with Santa.

So, she did!

After having spoken to all the kids that were here, Jennifer handed the phone to Santa Claus and Adi got to smile and chat with him for a minute.

She was completely overjoyed with one of the most incredible ear-to-ear smiles I've ever seen!

She told Santa she loved him and got to blow kisses to him before he had to head back to the North Pole!

Here's to technology and being able to chat with Santa even if we couldn't make it to the party!

Best $1. Ever.

My husband is pretty amazing.

When we first got married I wanted to buy a fall wreath, but he was unsatisfied with the options available and wanted to make one instead (he's picky). So, he and my mom created a wonderful masterpiece.

The same has been true since. Today at Lowe's he was so very excited to see that fresh garland and wreaths were on clearance for only $1!

He looked at me with those eyes and a "please" expression on his face and we bought some. :) (How couldn't we, it was $1 and the garland was in great shape - still fresh!)

And, while I was at a baby shower for my cute neighbor, he and Adi put it up.
Gorgeous. I wish it had been there the day after Thanksgiving to have enjoyed it longer. But we'll make the most of it in the coming weeks!

Simply chic.

Oh, and the tin stars? 

We made those. 

Older, Fatter, and Wrinklier

Birthdays are not my favorite anymore. I'm getting older, fatter, wrinklier, and I'm not where I necessarily envisioned myself being at this point in my life. That said, I can't complain because life has been good. Speaking of good, this past birthday was good. Low key, that's how I like it.

I took the day off work and spent it with this little munchkin...

Who was Santa and made me sit on her lap and tell her what I wanted for Christmas, even though I didn't quite fit.

She was the cutest telling me the night before my birthday that my happy birthday presents were downstairs. I think she was as excited, if not more, for me to open my presents as I was.

We watched some Christmas shows.

Finished putting up some lights and decorations.

And then took the Frontrunner into Salt Lake for dinner and lights at Temple Square.

We may have stayed up a little past our bedtime, but it was worth it. 

And I realized that feeling tired wasn't just me getting old.

Making Tin Stars

There was this one time that I used a left-over catering tin to make stars and I cut my finger on the sharp edge. I got the idea here (and she gives a better tutorial than I do, just fyi). 

We first fell in love with tin stars and lamps while visiting Mexico. 

One day, I'll make these, too. 

Until then, I'll be taking baby steps until I reach that point and this was a good way to start.

Step 1: Here's the tin in all her glory. We actually got this from our caterer at an office Christmas party.

Step 2: I cut off the edges. This is where it became dangerous. Those edges were sharp.

Step 3: Flatten it out. I had to cut it in half to do so. 

I bulldozed that sucker like a boss with the rolling pin.

Step 4: Print out some nautical stars. I printed out a couple of different sized stars. You can just find these by doing an image search on Google for "nautical stars." (Be prepared to see some gnarly tats while you're there.)

Step 5: Use a pen to trace the image on to the tin.

It will leave behind the indented image of the star, which you will cut out in step 6.

Step 6: Cut out the star, but leave about 1/4 of an inch around the edges. 

This is what it will look like after you have cut it out. Make cuts at the angles between arms.

Step 8: Fold the edges. You can use a ruler to do this, but I just re-traced the star edge and they folded easily (you can see that some of my lines were a litte crooked, which I fixed when folding). 

Fold away and you cut the extra from the points. 

Step 9: Fold along the middle lines - this will make it pop out. And you're done, unless you want to paint it. We didn't because we liked the reflection of the tin.

We put them in our tree for a little while, but then decided to use them to decorate some garland we bought for the banister. In the tree, we just had them sitting, but you can also poke a hole in one of the tips with a safety pin and add a hook to hang them. This is what we did with the garland.

I'll keep you posted on more progress towards making these:

Speaking of which, anyone have a tutorial (or Moravian star making artisan friend) to help me out?

Domesticity realized.

Ryan had a vision.

He was going to wire three sets of these to the railing. One right side up, the other upside down.

I wasn't quite sold. 

We have been seeing some pretty Christmas door sprays lately, but we wanted to do something unique. Something pretty. Plus, we like our door wreath, a lot (these actually match the wreath pretty well, too). 

So, while at Hobby Lobby, we bought a couple of these, used some wire to attach them to the railing, and voi la! 

Our own unique garland. 

Happy December! 

We might add a bow to the middle. What do you think?

Dreaming of a White Christmas

Remember how in November we had multiple winter storms pass through Utah? 

The Binx built her first snowman using tomatoes from the garden.

And when I went for a run, I felt like a bobsled dog pushing that stroller with Adi mushing me along the trail.

And with snowmen towering over me along campus, I was sure we were in for a long, wet winter.

But yesterday, the three-month outlook appeared dismal for those dreaming of a white Christmas.

The images predicted it was going to be warmer with equal chances of being wet or dry (aka, they have no idea).

This is completely uncharacteristic for me, but after last year's brown Christmas and summer wild fires, I'm praying for some snow this year. 

And a lot of it.

Feel free to join me.

Dashing through the... Trees

After Santa pictures, we had about 20 minutes to wait for edits. So we hung around Thanksgiving Point to check things out.

There was an greenhouse.

And reindeer - Adi loved them.

And, best of all, a Christmas-tree lot. 

It didn't take long before she realized what these mini-forests are good for, and that's running.

This little one got a hug.

Santa!!!

Last year we gave FotoFly a try and did Santa pictures there. It beats the mall Santa pictures because the parent can dress up like Santa, which relieves a lot of anxiety for the kids. They also have a Santa on site, just in case you want Santa's face to show. And, it's cheaper or about the same price as the mall Santa (if you're into that kind of thing). 

Binx wasn't too sure about me dressed up like Santa last year, but this year she thought it was hilarious and wanted to dance with me because she was a princess. We compared the pictures from last year and this year - what a difference a year makes (especially in terms of hair)! 

There seems to be a default set of poses - our suggestion is to come prepared and assertive with the photographer if you want something different. Regardless, the pictures of the Binx were pretty cute.

 And I guess the poses allow for year-to-year comparisons, right?

So as Binx would say, "Santa Claus came to town!" 

And as Elf, a personal favorite, would say, "SANTA!!!"