Christmas Bedtime stories

We are really enjoying a new tradition this year.
I took all of the christmas books I have collected over the past couple of years, and I wrapped them up, and put them under the tree. The boys take turns picking one book each night. They get to unwrap it and we read it for their bedtime story. I had 12 books already, and I have ordered 4 more from Scholastic thru Thomas's school. They haven't arrived yet, so we are down to our last book tonight (for now).
I decided to start on Dec 1. eventhough we didn't have 24 books, cuz I figure we can just reread them for a while, cuz honestly these stories are all so great!
You may recall that we do not do santa at our house. So a few of the books are just generic "christmasy", but most of them are retellings of the Nativity. I LOVE hearing Grayson talk about "baby Jesus", as we meet him in each story. :)

snail mail...

Last year I decided I didn't want to send christmas cards, just to save myself the hassle and pressure.
This year, I WANT to send christmas cards, and I feel the pressure to do it, but being a card maker, I feel anxiety that I have to make cards that have to be amazing and perfect. Today was supposed to be my card making day, and I got a start on them, but just wasn't happy with anything I came up with.
So hopefully before this christmas season is over, I will have found just the right combo, and get my cards sent out.

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow!!!

around 3:30ish the itty bitty, teensie weensie, tiny snow started to fall.



By dark, we got a cute little SKIFF of white. It makes everything look completely Christmasy!

I enjoyed watching it come down, all bundled up in a blanket, near my fireplace, listening to Pandora internet radio play nonstop christmas music.

Hurray! It's December!

the start of Dec. means for me - "Journal Your Chistmas" - a fabulous online class to help me scrapbook, keep memories, and make the most out of my christmas season. Last year was my first try - after signing up for the class, it's a lifetime "membership", and I now look forward to doing it year after year.

I will be doing the same thing I did last year. I will blog each day, then later when I have the time, I will create a christmas scrapbook to include all the thoughts, pictures and precious memories.

Happy Thanksgiving!

I know I haven't blogged in sooooo long. I have so much to catch up on, I guess I feel too overwhelmed to get started - but I did want to come here and express my gratitude for all the blessings I have. I am truely blessed with a wonderful family, friends, a nice community, the gospel of Christ, and much much more.

We had a simple dinner here at home. Tyson always gets a gift of a Turkey from work (thank you Walmart!). We got a big 'ol 16 pounder. I keep cooking a turkey simple, because it totally grosses me out to prep it, LOL. So I put it upside down in an oven bag in a disposable tin broiler pan, put one stick of blue bonnet margarine in the cavity, and stuck it in the oven at 350 for 3 1/2 hours. It turned out sooooo good!

I made the mashed potatoes with Yukon gold potatoes! After they boiled I mixed them with a little margarine, minced garlic, Mrs. Dash, and a few tablespoons of cream cheese!

This is the first year I attempted to make my own gravy - only because I forgot to get premade stuff at the store. But it turned out pretty good. Nothing amazing, but it smothered the tatoes just fine :)

We also had stove top stuffing, and green bean casserole!

Haven't had the pie yet, but I made pumpkin pie and a dutch apple pie. YUM!!!

Our "centerpiece" on our table was our "thankful tree". For family home evening on Monday we wrote down things we are thankful for on fall colored leaves (cut out with my cricut), and then I tied them onto some branches we picked up on a nature walk last week. The boys have really enjoyed looking at it, and talking about all the things they are thankful for.

Celebrate Veterans Day

my to-do list:

I have been spending a lot of time on Pinterest. for anyone that doesn't know what it is, the easy explainations is that it's a great place to find and collect fun ideas from the internet. so it's a bit addicting for me. And one reason I've been spending so much time, is because I am bored. I have lots that I could be doing, like updating my blog (hanging my head in shame LOL)... but I don't seem to have much motivation lately.
ANYWAY - on Pinterest someone pinned (shared) this idea of decluttering one space each day in a creative way. They called theirs 40 bags in 40 days - I guess since my house is relatively small and not too cluttered, I only came up with 20. So in 20 days I should be feeling much more clean and organized around here.

I decided that I would actually LIKE to do this - so here we go.

Here is my list:
1. junk drawer in the kitchen
2. utensil drawer (all the measuring cups and spoons, and random other things).
3. computer desk drawers
4. magazine basket (living room)
5. coat closet
6. Grayson's closet (it's bad, all the clothes he's outgrown are still in there)
7. Thomas's closet (its not bad)
8. boys bathroom
9. laundry room cupboard (cleaners)
10. my bathroom
11. my closet (clothes)
12. my closet (stuff)
13. under my bed storage
14. garage (just the stuff on the floor that needs to be out of the way)
15. pantry
16. toy room (toys)
17. toy room (books)
18. toy room (blanket pile)
19. my scrapbook desk
20. the "Hub" (thats the catchall spot in my kitchen)

so I guess half my goal will to spend less time on pinterest LOL - so I can get stuff done around here.