Cha-Ching!

Yes, my Ava is missing some teeth now, and it made me a little sad to know that my baby is not so much a baby anymore...at least, she doesn't have as many of her baby teeth. Several weeks ago, when her tooth was getting increasingly loose, Sam tried to convince her that we should pull it out on Christmas Eve so we could get the Toothfairy and Santa to visit on the same night. Ava agreed to let him try, until she realized that "pulling it out" means "pulling it out!"-and she made him stop. We did miss the Christmas Eve deadline, but two days later it popped out, and then several days later another one came out too! Cha-Ching!

Christmas Night Appetizers with the Elmer Clan

Christmas Night we gather with Samuel's family for some wonderful appetizers, more gift-opening, and just plain ol' visiting. Samuel's brother Joe played Santa this year, and soon the living room was a mass of wiggling kids and crunchy wrapping paper.

Here is my mother-in-law, Clista, holding the newest grand-baby, little Veronica Wyllie. We joke that all the babies love to take snooze on Grandma, or the "Serta Perfect Sleeper".

The crowning glory for the night, was when Samuel's mom presented each of the families with blankets featuring our Alma Mater, "The Highlands Highschool Scots"! Go Highlands!

Christmas Dinner at Mom's

It looks a little crazy, but Christmas dinner at my mom's was actually a peaceful and relaxed affair. There was lot's of wonderful food, my mom always make tri-tip, and family. How can you go wrong?

Sam's Nightmare

One of Sam's greatest pet peeve's is to see grown men in one-size too small sweat pants with elastic at the ankles. Throw in sports socks, Velcro sneakers, and a fannie pack, and he has to look away. So of course, I always tease him that when he's too old to care for himself that's the first thing I'm going to stick him in. And when I saw these bad boys for sale at Walmart...well, I had to have them!

"He came! And he wants a Book of Mormon!"

When we haul Christmas decorations out of the garage, one of the first items that gets placed in the house is the ring of jingle bells. This beautiful/annoying musical instrument hangs on the door knob of the front door, and each child knows that if they are the first to wake up Christmas morning, they may ring the bells throughout the house waking everyone else up. This year, for the second year running, Isabella earned the honor...and she also discovered the special letter that Santa left for us.

Amongst other things, Santa thanked the children for leaving brownies instead of cookies (He always gets those). He also encouraged Isabella in her piano studies and Ava in her quest to learn to read. He also said he had spoken to the toothfairy and knew that someone in our house (Ava), had some wiggly teeth, and that we could expect a visit soon. But the most exciting news, was Santa declaring that he had found our copy of the Book of Mormon, and that he had taken some time to read it! He said it was a good book, and asked that we send him a copy to the North Pole! The kids were ecstatic, and it was a nice start to a wonderful day.

Playing Santa

Every year Samuel and I say midnight is our deadline. We will be done wrapping presents, stuffing stockings, and "setting the scene"...by midnight. As you can see from the picture above, Samuel's still looking pretty plucky...unfortunately, it's 2:30 A.M.

The final detail that absolutely cannot be overlooked...eating Santa's goodies! This year, Santa also left name tags for all the family members, that corresponded with their special wrapping paper, and he also left a letter for the kiddies on top of an open Book of Mormon! More on that later!

The Night Before Christmas

One of our family traditions is one that we picked up from our former Bishop's family: New P.J.'s for Christmas Eve! Even Samuel and I get a new pair, only this year, in the early Black Friday daze, I had purchased p.j.'s that were woefully, woefully too small for us! Oh well! The kid's dressed on the spot and we set out our brownies and milk for Santa and carrot's for the reindeer. Ava's class also made reindeer food to sprinkle in the front yard (oatmeal & glitter), so Samuel & the kiddies had to make a mad dash into the frosty night.

Christmas Eve Dinner...Mexican Style!

What could be better than a traditional Mexican feast of homemade tamales, spicy chicken mole, and steak fajitas with all the trimmings!The main event though was the homemade tortillas Grandma and I made just seconds before the feast! Talk about fresh food!

Here we are gathered at the table. There is nothing better than being surrounded with the people you love!

And last but not least, Christmas Eve is also my dad's birthday! We celebrated with a favorite of his, a homemade ice cream cake.
This recipe turned out fabulous and comes from Cooking Light Magazine.
If your interested in giving this recipe a try, follow the link below.
http://find.myrecipes.com/recipes/recipefinder.dyn?action=displayRecipe&recipe_id=1134120

"Her name was Lola, she was a show-girl..."

"...At the Copa, Copa-Cobana..."
That's the song Sophia & Dave, my sister & brother-in-law, dubbed for my niece Lola Chloe. She's a beautiful strawberry blond with striking blue eyes, not anything like my dark-eyed, dark-haired sister!

FRA-GI-LE'

But it's a "major award"!

I love the movie "A Christmas Story", and this year we saw the famous leg lamp on Dove Court at their annual Christmas display. I told Sam "I want that lamp!"...and then I researched it on-line and found it for $139.00-on sale from $250.00! Yea, I'm over it now. But it's still really cool.