Our Caroling Tradition!!!

On December 23 we went out caroling with our friends the Wesels! We love this family and they are just wonderful! We went last year and such an amazing experience, that we knew we had to go again this year. Jess made wonderful treats to share with the families that we went caroling to! We had a great evening and I hope that we will continue this tradition every year!

It was also out night to protect the tree from the Grinch! We watched the classic Grinch movie and then the girls slept by the tree to protect the gifts and tree from the Grinch! It is a simple tradition, but one that they really love!

Another year without a visit from the Grinch!

Tale of 3 Trees

So this year I heard a few comments about having too many trees or looks from people like they didn't get it!! Well, I thought I would explain it and let you know why and how I feel about each tree.

This is the tree in our living room. I bought it on clearance for I think$7, if I remember correctly. It is a little pathetic, but it works when it is decorated and with the added garland. This tree is all to do with the true meaning of Christmas! The ornaments are all nativity or about Christ. I also have my nativity collection in here. I love sitting in here and feeling the true spirit of Christmas. I sit in here a lot during the season and just reflect on the great gift of the Savior.

I shared this last year, but these are the balls on my tree, all with the different names of the Savior.

This tree is in the Family Room downstairs. We bought this the first year we were married. We had bought a real tree, but it was the cheapest one we could find and I had to make very light ornaments to put on the tree or else the tree would fall over! Chris surprised me and came home one night with this tree. This was the 22 year we have used this tree and I can't imagine ever getting rid of it! It is tired and worn, but I love it!! This is the tree that has all of the ornaments that we've collected through the years. The girls love to hear the different stories about the ornaments and to put there special ornaments on. So many happy memories are stored on this tree!

This is the tree in my Sun room. I Love this tree!! It is all nature ornaments and with all of the windows in the room it look like we brought some of the outside - inside. It helps me enjoy winter and I love it! We bought this tree when we moved here and because it is on a wood floor we started a new tradition of putting the Lego train underneath it! Then we build a Lego village to put underneath it! Since we stayed home this Thanksgiving it was a fun thing for everyone to work on while dinner was cooking.

This is the Christmas house Tiana started and then we worked on together.

Tiana really enjoyed it this year and made several things. Her favorite is this ice skating rink she made!

Larisa made a Christmas Pyramid!
Chris made Scrooge's House. You have to notice the 3 ghost on the upper level - pretty creative!
The girls do have small trees in their rooms. They love putting them up and they get to put up an ornament every time they do an act of service. It is a lot of work and some might think it is crazy, but I love it!! It brings me a lot of joy and I really enjoy the seaon sooooo much!

A Green Family Home Evening!!

We had our friends the Greens come over for dinner and family night! They are such an awesome family! They are a lot of fun and always so willing to help others! After we had dinner, Larisa read a story that was shared in Young Women's. We sang songs and visited and a wonderful evening. Of course, we had dessert too!! I forgot to take any pictures, but here is an earlier picture of 2 of their little cuties!

Thanks Greens for such a fun evening!

Yes, Deer!!

The other night I went outside to turn off the Christmas lights. I was very startled when I opened the door and saw a deer a few feet away from me! If you think I was startled, you should have seen the deer!! We both stared each other down and then the deer pranced away! They next morning I looked out my window and saw some more deer in the back yard! I love all of the beautiful wild life that I can see in my own back yard!

Choir and RS Party!

We were excited to have our Relief Society Christmas Party, but we had to postpone it because of a blizzard warning. We rescheduled it for the same night as Larisa's Choir concert. The Relief Society Party was wonderful! We had a nice program with lots of singing and yummy food! It was so fun to visit with the sisters and feel the warmth and joy of Christmas. Larisa was singing the same songs as she did the previous week, but I was still sad to miss her concert! I was especially sad when I heard that it was at the Kellogg Manor! It is an old mansion now owned by Michigan State. I have wanted to go to their Christmas dinner since I have lived here, but could never afford it! I sent Chris with the camera and asked him to take some pictures -

Isn't it beautiful???? This is right on the lake, and it a home I have always loved!! I guess it is time to start saving so Chris and I can go there on a date next year!!! What a beautiful night for all of us!

Evening with Friends!

We had so much fun with our friends the Leflers last year that we had them over again this year! We had a nice dinner and we enjoyed their company so much, they are an awesome family!! The children all had to come up with a skit to put on! They did a great job and even wrote a song - I'll post the lyrics if I can find them!! We enjoyed sharing the evening with them!

Mary on the donkey!

The Nativity - Do you love the stable?

The shepherd singing!

Kyle & Kurt

Sherry and Avi

Tony and Adri!
Thanks Leflers for a fun night!

Choir Concert

Larisa's show choir had a Christmas Concert! It was a lot of fun to go and listen to just her choir and hear the pretty pieces!

It was even more fun to watch Larisa! She is so animated when she sings. She gets along well with the girl that she stands next to and they make each other smile and giggle. After the choir sang, a few girls choose to do solos. I loved watching Larisa with a big group of friends support the soloist, by cheering and swaying to the music.

It is so fun to watch her become a happy teen and watch her enjoy the activities that she participates in!

Christmas Friend Family Night

When we first moved to Michigan, we didn't have much time to feel too homesick because of these sweet families who welcomed us and made us feel right at home! They are amazing families and they made the transition so much easier for us! We were all in the same ward for about 6 weeks and then I was put into another ward! I have really felt that I needed to move here when I did so I could meet these awesome families! This is the 3rd year that we have had a Christmas family evening at our house. We share traditions or Christmas stories, have hot chocolate and cinnamon rolls and enjoy visiting!

This is the Cook family. They welcomed us by inviting us over for dinner the first Sunday we were at church - they are awesome!!

The Staples family - The are such a kind and thoughtful family!

Lisa always sat by me in Relief Society! She would always look for me and I felt like I had a dear friend right away! She is such a sweetheart! Her family is singing a fun arrangement of a Star Wars song - it was so cute!!

The Statens invited over the 2nd week we were here!! Katie and I hit it off right away! She laughed at everything I said - if you know me , you know that's all that I need to go into performance mode! I thought she thought I was so funny and I was so proud of myself, then I learned that it's just Katie, she smiles and laughs all the time!!! They are an awesome family!!

The Thompson are such a sweet family she is such a huge help to me in my calling and they came for the first time this year!

You probably know these 2 cuties!! It is fun to see my girls go straight for the babies!!

This year after everyone shared their story or tradition the kids decided to do an encore!! It was a lot of fun watching them have fun performing!
Luke even did some break dancing for us!!

This is one the highlights of the holiday for us and I am so grateful for the blessing of good friends!

Gingerbread Houses!!

My girls love to make Gingerbread houses! This year I decided I would try making them from scratch instead of buying the kit. I learned a lot and will probably do it again next year! The girls have so much being creative and decorating!!This is a picture of Tiana's house. She knew exactly what she wanted to do! Her biggest request was to put on a pond - made of sucker syrup!This is Larisa's house! I love that she put bears doing cheer stunts on her pond!
It's hard to see the windows, but the are also made from sucker candy, we put a little light in the house, and it looks cool when you can see the light through the windows!

It was a fun project!!

Christmas with Friends!

We had our friends over for dinner and a Christmas celebration! We had a lot of fun together and enjoyed dinner! The girls all made up a skit for us! They seemed to be having a lot of fun together and we enjoyed watching them! Here is a pictures of Mary Joseph and the donkey!

Here is a picture of the mean cat in the skit - I told you they had fun!!

Now a reindeer!!

The Nativity scene!

Tiana is the shepherd and Anna and I are the sheep!!!!

It was a fun night!!

Blizzard Warning!

We had a blizzard and received some gorgeous snow!! I love it!! It was pretty and it gave an extra gift of the girls having 2 snow days!! When I look outside it looks like a Christmas Card to me!

I think winter is officially here!