Models

Jenna is NOT a girly girl. In a way, it's kind of sad. No Barbies, very few baby dolls, etc. She has no desire to play sports or dance or tumble (as she informed Kristen and me last night). But she LOVES makeup!! I was getting ready the other day and she got into my makeup and did herself up. Blush, lipstick, and charcoal gray eye shadow (which is hard to see, but the way she put it on made her look bruised). What a girl!

Christmas Dance Recital

Kristen's dance recital was on December 11 and what a day that was!! I was solely in charge of our church Christmas dinner. We had to set up all morning and then rush off to a dance recital. This year, the teacher decided to have 2 recitals to cut down on the time and people, but...since Kristen's on the competition team, she had to perform in both. Then it was rushing off to get the dinner going. B-u-s-y day!!

Kristen did a production number (red, green, silver, and gold costumes) to "We Need A Little Christmas" and then she also did a dance to "Run, Run Rudolph." Her ballet class did a beautiful dance to "Bring A Torch, Jeanette Isabella" in these gorgeous pink costumes. She wasn't cooperating with the camera that day, so I didn't get the pink costume, but they'll use those again for comps.Kristen and her BFF, Hannah.

Gingerbread Houses

I decided to make some small gingerbread houses for the kids to decorate this year. I found a recipe and pattern online--but ended up using my own recipe. The pattern printed really small, but it was perfect for the kids. Jenna helped me buy the candy, hence the Swedish fish sea animals. :) They had fun making them and nibbling on the candy. Maybe I'll make this an annual tradition.Jarren's house. He looks so excited!! He really does have quite the sparkle in his eyes, he just gets silly for pictures.
Kristen's house. She did a very "perfectionist" job on hers.
Kendall's house. He just slapped some things on in about 3 minutes, so he could move on to more important things.
Jenna's house. She put as many sea critters as she could fit on there. Little Miss Sweet Tooth.

O Christmas Tree

We got our Christmas tree a couple of weeks ago. Jon had to go out of town, so we decided to get a real one before he left. We got it and he got the lights put on, but we waited until the next day to do the decorating, since it was so late. Jenna was soooo thrilled!! So excited that she had to sleep under the tree all night. Jarren was excited because he was the one who chose the tree. It's a very beautiful tree indeed. We had a "fancy" fake tree (all matching decorations) that we put up downstairs, but with all the remodeling going on down there, there's no room for it. Hopefully next year....

A Trip Down Memory Lane...

I'm feeling very nostalgic lately. My very favorite Christmas songs are the "classics" by the greats--Dean Martin, Johnny Mathis, Frank Sinatra, the Andrews sisters, Kate Smith, Perry Como, and of course, my most favorite of all, Bing Crosby, among others. Sometimes I think I was born in the wrong time period. I would have loved to have grown up in the 1940s or 50s--I love the movies and music. As I listen to these songs, they make me think back on my childhood and how magical everything was.

I remember it snowing in November and not melting until March--or even April. We would make sledding hills in the yard, snow houses/forts, etc. This year, we've had snow, then it melted and was warm and fall-ish. Now, we have lots of snow again (about 5 inches and still snowing)--but it's supposed to rain and melt it. I'm seriously dreaming of a white Christmas. There's nothing I love more than to wake up on Christmas morning to lots of fresh snow, with it still falling.

I remember that Christmas didn't come to the stores before summer was over. It didn't really hit until after Thanksgiving. I was in a store in August and they had aisles and aisles of Christmas stuff already. Stores had toys way back when, but not as many as around Christmas time. And the catalogs!! Oh, how much fun to look through those and decided what I was going to ask Santa for.

I LOVED waking up early, plugging in the Christmas tree lights, and sitting on the heat vent, watching the lights twinkle in the dark.

Christmas music wasn't non-stop until 5 days before Christmas. A radio station would do the 100 hours of Christmas music--8 pm on December 20 and play through midnight on Christmas night. I loved listening to the radio and hearing a Christmas song come on here and there and looked sooo forward to when it was non-stop. In fact, I used to put my radio right next to me in bed on Christmas Eve night and turn it on very, very quietly and listen to Christmas music all night long.

Even Santa comes earlier. I was in the mall before Thanksgiving and there sat Santa with a line of children waiting to visit him. I remember Santa making a big entrance the day after Thanksgiving.

I don't know if all these things make Christmas seem more magical or if I've just gotten older, but I miss the way things used to be.

Silver Linings....

Bad things always seem to happen in threes, right? At least that's how the old wives tale goes. I think our streak is over for awhile.

Our oven died--the day after my HUGE ward Christmas party. Thank goodness I made it through that first. And the new one is delayed and won't be here for awhile. Thank goodness for slow cookers (crock pots) and stove tops....and microwaves.

Our van needs new tires, new brakes, a new motor mount, struts, etc. Yeah, $3000+ in repairs. But at least we don't have a car payment and it runs.

Our remodel is going sooooo slow and STILL isn't done! At least the house is livable and warm though.

Kendall and I both had a day last week that nothing went right. It was one of those days when you just want to go back to bed and start over. At least not every day is like that.