Baking Day

Each year my mom, sister and I have our annual baking day before Christmas. It's a tradition we began years ago and my boys love it, too!

My mom is mixing up a batch of almond spritz cookies!

Nathan is in deep concentration trying to decide which design tip to put on the cookie press.

My sister, Megan, made oatmeal raisin cookies - from scratch! If you knew her, you'd know this is impressive!

While the cookies baked the boys worked on some Christmas crafts.

My house smelled DELISH and I loved spending the day with my mom, sister, and boys!

Straight No Chaser!

I was lucky enough to draw my sister-in-law's name for Christmas this year! Jamie is amazing and there are a million things I love about her. Her birthday is the end of the month, so I decided to take her out for a Girls Nite for both! Straight No Chaser was performing downtown, so I got us tickets to go. She wasn't sure who they were, but I really thought she'd love them - and she did! We had wonderful seats in the center orchestra section and the show was fantastic! The guys were funny and sang some numbers that cracked us up and then performed some Christmas carols that blew me away! They did a tribute to Michael Jackson, Lady Ga-Ga, and Mo Town - to name a few. One of their bass members performed "Mr. Grinch" and I have never heard a voice go so low! He was amazing! They also sang their famous "Christmas Can Can" and "12 Days of Christmas". Before the show we ate at Jamie's favorite restaurant, Kanki. It was a lovely evening spent with one of my favorite people!

Giving, a New Celebrity, and a Christmas Concert

A few years ago my parents decided to give a portion of the money they spend on Christmas gifts for the boys to the boys to buy gifts to donate to kids in need. I LOVE this tradition! Not only does it cut down on the amount of toys given to my kids, but teaches them the true meaning of Christmas. I am impressed every year by the time and thoughtfulness the kids put into choosing gifts for other kids. Nathan even bought a couple of things for "little kids" and Noah bought some things for girls.

For family night we took the toys to our local fire department and put them in the Toys for Tots bin. The firefighters commented on how many things the boys were able to buy!

We baked cookies that afternoon and brought them to give to the firefighters. Nathan handed them to the fireman and said, "Thank you for all you do for our community". How cute is that?!?

The lieutenant came out to meet us and took the boys on a tour of the fire station. The kids asked lots of questions and were really well behaved! I love this pic of them!

When we got in the car to go home I asked the kids to stop and think about how they were feeling. They shared their thoughts and I hope they remember how warm and wonderful they felt giving to others.

The next day Noah had a chess tournament with his chess club and he won 2nd place in the intermediate group! He won a medal and was so proud of himself! He said, "Let the celebrity status begin!" Where does he come up with these things??

To continue our insanely busy December, Scott and I bought tickets to take my parents to see Amy Grant perform a Christmas show. We all love her Christmas music and knew it would be the perfect gift for my parents! Her husband, Vince Gill, was there, too, and he was ok, but we really enjoyed Amy! I loved having my parents to myself for an evening!

Below is a series of pictures showing how challenging it can be to get a decent shot of my mom. She has very thin eyes and says she can't smile and have her eyes open at the same time.

Take 1

Take 2

Take 3 - her expression looks like my dad just "goosed" her!

Take 4

The next morning my dad sent me this email: We just wanted to say, "Thank You," to you and Scott once again for the tickets to the Amy Grant Concert last night. We enjoyed the show, and, more importantly we enjoyed the company.

Love,

Mom and Dad

I just love them!

The End of an Era

It was a bittersweet morning for me - my last time attending The Living Nativity our pre-school does every year. We've watched this every December for the last 7 years. This year Nathan's class wore the animal costumes. Nathan was the cutest sheep E-V-E-R!! (he's on the top left). The 2 year old class were angels, 3 year old class were wise men and the 4 year old class were shepherds.

At the end of the performance they sing and then sign "Happy Birthday" to Jesus.

Class picture. Nathan didn't want to put his hood back up.

But later I told him if he didn't put it up and smile for a picture he wouldn't get any refreshments that were being served in his classroom. I won!

The gift that he made me and Scott is in that white bag. He decorated the bag, made us a beautiful card and our gift was a little pillow with a holly print with his hand print on the back. I have one that Noah made us when he was in this class, too. Is he really old enough to be in kindergarten all day next year???

Disney on Ice

Each December Nathan's pre-school gets discounted tickets to see Disney on Ice. We go every year, get fantastic seats and only pay $12 per ticket! I like to pass along this offer to friends and family and ordered 20 tickets this year! How fun!

Here is one of my dear friends and her beautiful girls! We've already pre-arranged my 2 boys to marry 2 of her girls. Katy and I are kewl like that.

This is my super fun friend, Jennifer and her cutie, Tanner.

Another dear friend, Jennifer and next to her is her handsome boy, Chandler! Then my charming Nathan, and front and center is my adorable nephew, Xander!

My SIL, Jamie, was still on her vacay in China, but her AMAZING dad was here taking care of her kids and got to come to the show! He's holding my niece, Gabi - although I call her Gabi-licious!

I KNEW Nathan's reaction to seeing Buzz would be a big one and it was!

The aliens are my favorite and I'm thrilled "The Claw" made an appearance!

SOOPER cute cousins!

Behind Goofy is Barbie and Ken. If you've seen Toy Story 3 there's a part where Ken puts on a fashion show for Barbie. That was incorporated into Disney on Ice and was hilarious!

Nathan said he favorite part was when Buzz spoke Spanish (another part from the movie) and when Rex was playing a video game and trying to beat the evil Emperor Zurg. Buzz came to save the day, in the video game, and said to Zurg, "You killed my father!" Zurg replied, "Buzz, I AM your father!" Nathan just cracked up at the Star Wars reference! After the show, we got to take Xander home with us to play and didn't take him home until it was time for bed. Disney on Ice was a great way to spend a day!

Office Christmas Party

For the last several years, Scott's company has had a blow-out Christmas party for the kids of the employees. They used to have a fantastic party for the adults, too, but decided a couple of years ago to donate that money each year to charity. How cool is that?


The first thing the kids did was to get in line for face painting. Both boys decided to get Batman characters painted instead of something Christmas-y. Not my thing, but whatev.

Nathan decided to be the Joker...

...and Noah chose to be Two-Face.

A bit creepy, no?

Next, they decorated a couple of HUGE sugar cookies!

How much frosting can Nathan put on that cookie?!?

The new thing they had this year was to have The Scrap Exchange visit. They brought tons of things in bins and barrels and the kids could create things until their hearts were content. Funny story - Noah had to make a model of a dog sled for a project in reading. He said, "Mom! I can work on my project here!" I told him it would be funny if he went to the Christmas party and ended up getting his project done. And he DID! There was so much going on that I forgot to take pictures, but my creative kid went to work and got it done!

Every year they provide several tables of any and every snack item kids would like. Chick-Fil-A nuggets, different chips/popcorn, animal crackers, granola bars, fruit cups, chocolates, several different drink choices, etc. The boys were full!

The boys visited Santa where Nathan asked for Fazoodles and Noah asked for a Lego Harry Potter set. I have a feeling they'll get their wishes!

Afterwards, the boys played ping pong, air hockey, cornhole, and magnetic darts. Going to dad's office Christmas party is so much fun every year!

Snow and Cookies and a Christmas Tree - Oh My!

Last Saturday the weather said we may get some flurries - we did! I cannot remember the last time (if there was one) that it snowed in early December. Scott was outside putting up the garland during our "blizzard".

The boys were so sad...can't you tell?

The snowflakes were HUGE!

The next night Scott's brother's family invited us over for dinner and a short family night. Heather made an amazing roast and everything was delish! After dinner, Dylan shared a puppet show with us using a set Heather bought him when she was in Germany. The story told of the real meaning of Christmas and he did a great job! Matthew played some songs on his guitar for us and I was so impressed! Afterwards, the kids decorated sugar cookies and then played together. Scott and his brother spent some time together upstairs and that left me to have Heather all to myself!

I love this picture of Matthew and Noah! They are 6 weeks apart in age and love being together! They have so many things in common and are just too funny when together!

Cookie decorating is a very serious business.

Brinley's cookie looked like stained glass when she was done!

The BEST part about decorating cookies!

Cute Dylan!

Blue Dylan!

My Nathan

Two days later we went to buy our Christmas tree.

Why can't they always get along like this?!?

Drinking hot apple cider and eating sugar cookies!

Time to decorate!