"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.

Rock-on!

Last week I was vacuuming and was inspired by the handle--it resembled a microphone! I made a house-wide announcement: "It's time to ROCK-OUT!" Everyone came running and we blasted the Trans-Siberian Orchestra's "A Mad Russian's Christmas" and had so much fun! Iris even ran to the front door in a frenzy and body-slammed it. The door won. And yes, she was okay. Merry Christmas and take a little time to rock-out too!

Budding Scientists

I had my nephews over and we watched "Sid the Science Kid" on PBS. On this particular episode we learned about the natural process that food undergoes when it begins to spoil: Decay! They were captivated, especially when I inspected my own bowl of seemingly ripe fruit on the counter and discovered that one tangerine in the middle was in the advance stages of...you name it: Decay! They had a blast comparing and contrasting the healthy and spoiled fruit, and loved dissecting it with a cheese knife. Fruit, anyone?

Grandpa Lopez' Christmas Tree

On Sunday morning we visited my Grandpa Lopez' grave site to put up his Christmas Tree. The tree was given to us by Samuel's mom,Clista, and I'm grateful for her gift.

We all miss him.

The Christmas Story & The Tupperware Cupboard

I think we've watched "The Christmas Story" one too many times! Owen's favorite place is now the "tupperware" cupboard. He throws everything out (yea!), and then settles into his little hiding place.