Tis the Season

Love this time of year!

My kids especially love to sing Christmas songs. Here is just one interpretation:


Is the season chilly cholly, fa la la la.... Now we know our scriptures darrel, fa la la la la....

We went to see Santa at the mall last week. Waited an hour. The family in front of us had their toddler in his stroller. Attached to the stroller was a balloon advertising the inappropriate place they went to for lunch. I was a little incredulous that they took their kid there, and tried to ignore the balloon. Mr. J saw it and asked, "Mom, what does h-o-o-t-e-r-s spell?" It's the name of a restaurant, I told him. "But what does it spell?" he asked. Something immodest, I told him. Didn't know what else to say. Moms always gotta be on their toes, I tell ya.

Anyway, J & M were good sports and dutifully visited with Santa. I didn't want to pay $20 for their tacky 5x7 photo, so I snapped one myself. I don't think I was supposed to do that because Santa very deliberately frowned. Geesh, ba humbug to you, fake Santa. We tried to coax Big A to visit with Santa, but he freaked out, climbed up and over my shoulder and refused to visit with him. When we were finished and on our way out of Santa's display area, Big A said, "That was fun, mom!" And he was smiling so big.


We also enjoyed our church Christmas party. Aka: follow your kids as they run around the halls of the church all night. I just don't like them running around in a big (dark, cold and sometimes freaky) building unsupervised. Does this bother any other parents out there? They won't stay with me for the party, so I follow them around. And I got to see what all the kids were doing. Man, kids can get pretty mischievous.

Here I am wondering where my oldest has gone...

Later that night, we loaded the kids in the car and drove around to see Christmas lights. Big A must have been feeling pretty nostalgic. He kept requesting to go to Grandma's house (which is 1300 miles away.) He wouldn't let it go. We realize we've spent all of our Christmas Holidays with family, so it must be strange for our kids that we're not going there this Christmas.

"Is this the way to Grandma's house?" He kept asking.

Last week we did one of my all time favorite activities since moving here. We went to see Handel's Messiah performed in the St. Paul Cathedral. It was completely mesmerizing. It reminded me how much I love classical music and attending concerts. I haven't done it for so long (comes with the territory when you have a bunch of little kids in in such a short time). I was in another world as I listened to the singers. The tenor's voice was especially gorgeous; transcendent was the word D used, and he was right. I admit, I teared up a few times. The cathedral was so beautiful - a perfect setting for the music.

This is a picture of us in the near empty cathedral.

We were an hour early.

My husband is very punctual.

Hey, I'm not complaining - we got an awesome parking spot.

Because the parking lot was empty.

(Just teasing you, D.)

I am so proud of my little brother! He wrote and published this Children's book. It's called Other People's Shoes. You can order it here, or here. It is such a cute story, I highly recommend it!! It would be a perfect Christmas gift.

Some of my favorite things this month are:

Home made pot pourri that has simmered in my house all day.

This perfect weeknight meal to enjoy during this crazy month.

Salted carmel hot chocolate.

And these yummy boots from Nordstroms.

And here is what our entry way looks like in the winter.

Who invented mudrooms?

Whoever you are, you are a genius.

And I wish I had one.

Here's Little E in a darling hat that Dad found.

She loves to be pretty.

I know the first picture isn't the best, but I love her smile in it.

And finally for your viewing pleasure,

here is our Christmas card that didn't make the cut this year. I really liked this one. It was meant to be developed into a large size, and the photo lab that specialized in the larger size was too far away. With bad weather, limited time and just too many things to do, we didn't make it there. So, we're mailing a slightly different one.

Have a great holiday, my lovely readers!