Today's Quote

"I slobbered when I bless-you'd" ~ Aly

*see comment for explanation*

Christmas through a child's eye is so refreshing and does so much to remind us of the real meaning of Christmas.

I was upstairs working today when I heard Alyson singing downstairs. This is not an unusual thing but I thought I would take a peak anyway. She had her Little People's nativity set out and had arranged it (if you look closely, she has everything/everyone surrounding baby Jesus) and was sitting over it singing "Away in a Manger". I was attempting to video it but she caught me and got her feathers ruffled. So much for the sweet and innocent moment.

After a while, she settled down and agreed to a repeat performance and even though it was a re-creation and despite a stuffy nose, it was still just as sweet.

Hope you enjoy!

Despite all the sales, advertising, decorations, etc. that inundate us from early fall till Christmas, I never feel like the Christmas season really gets going until we have attended our first Christmas party. Well, we were on the ball this weekend. We knocked all of them out in 2 days! How about that for efficiency? Of course, it was only 2 parties this year so I don't guess it was that huge of an accomplishment ;). We had our Sunday School party Friday night and had a great time. We played dirty Santa and we didn't come out too bad (because there were some really bad gifts there - for me, the worst had to be doe urine which was one of the most fought over gifts ?!?!) Anyway, the girls were surprised when their babysitter arrived and it was their beloved Judy Lynn. She came down from Starkville to keep the girls and spend the night with us. The girls really had a good time and were treated to making s'mores and building a chair/blanket tent in the living room. Judy's sister Michelle met them at the mall Saturday and they squeezed in a little shopping before heading back to Columbus.

We had Frankie's work party Saturday night and the food was so good. I made a meal out of the appetizers (which are my weakness) and then ate the equivalent of another 2 meals with the salad and main course. The few pounds I have lost since moving were quickly found! They always give away great door prizes at the party and this time was no exception. Two of the most anticipated prizes were a giant Santa and Snowman figurine. They were so cute. I didn't get my hopes up about winning anything because we never do. They were down to the last door prize so I knew our chances were about nil at that point. Of course, the next number called was not ours - but that person wasn't there. HA! The next one actually turned out to be ours! It took us a moment to claim it because we were sure we had heard them wrong. We won the snowman figurine and he is so cute!

He is standing in front of the Christmas tree and you can see the train in the background so that gives you an idea of his size (about 3 ft tall). I love him!

Our Plump Tree!

Ignore the title friends~that is somewhat of an inside joke that only my family will understand ;).

Well as you can tell by the pictures~this was decoration weekend at our house. I absolutely love the house when it is decorated for Christmas with all the lights and smells. I absolutely hate having to do it all! It's a tough job under the best of circumstances but when you have 4 very opinionated (and at times grouchy) folks working towards the same goal, it can become a bit of a struggle.

We started our day with a visit to Lazy Acres Christmas Tree farm in Chunky, MS. Don't blink or you might miss it. This was a really neat place. They had sprawling fields of various types of trees to choose from which they took you out to in a sleigh (tractor drawn). They also had several other stationary attractions to draw your attention. The girls enjoyed checking those out.

Natalie worshiping the baby Jesus and Alyson as the donkey~no comment;)Other features included an animal pen that had goats, rabbits, a turkey, dogs, pigs and a real reindeer 'Dasher'. This 'Dasher' has a lot of conditioning to do if he is going to be ready to pull Santa's sleigh in a couple of weeks! It didn't take us to long to find the perfect tree for us. After a little sweat and grunting, a very out of breath Frankie had the tree down and ready to load on to the sleigh. After a couple of other brief errands in town to finish collecting our decorating supplies, we headed to the house to face the challange ahead of us. It took us the remainder of the afternoon, evening (with a break for supper and the local Christmas parade) and this afternoon to finally get it all done. Whew! Now we can actually sit back and enjoy the beauty of it all.P.S. - Dad, this is the plumpest tree I have ever had ~ and I LOVE it!

After a raid in Daddy's closet!

The Results

Here are the final results of our ornament venture. Most of the paint and marker stayed on the ornaments, with the exception of Harrison. We think he mistook his face as an ornament at one point. If you are brave enough to attempt this with your children (which I highly recommend), here is the recipe to use:

1 2/3+ cups warm water

1 cup salt

4 cups all purpose flour (not self rising)

Combine water and salt, stirring until salt is desolved. Add flour. Move dough mixture to a firm surface. The dough will be very stiff. Knead dough until all ingredients appear to be well mixed and smooth (this take a fair amount of endurance ;) ), then knead it some more. On wax paper, roll dough out using a rolling pin until dough is smooth and no more than 1/4 inch thick. Cut your favorite shapes. Use a the end of a straw to cut a circle in the top of the ornament to put a ribbon or string through. Bake at 350 degrees for 20-30 minutes. Flip ornaments 10-15 minutes into baking. Bake the same amount of time on each side. Allow to cool on flat surface. Once cool, decorate with paint.

Dough Ornaments

This was a first for us - making dough ornaments. As crafty as I am (or least told I am), I am not very creative. The girls and I have been in Tupelo since Monday enjoying a little time off from school, a little R&R (as much as you can get with 4 kids in the house) and just getting in a little family time. One of Kerri's friends, JoLynn, graciously invited ALL of us over to join her and her 2 children to make dough ornaments. It was a house full to say the least. This was also a learning experience for all of us as well, but a very fun one. It took a couple of attempts to figure out the specifics to get the dough just right. We got a lot of laughs out of that. We hope to get them painted later today and ready for the Christmas tree. Here are a few pictures from our venture.

Sarah (JoLynn's daughter), Alyson, Kristi and Natalie cutting our first ornaments ...

a few kink's to work out as our first batch appeared to have a bad case of cellulite

Alyson working her dough...it had to be the smoothest with all the elbow grease she put in to it!

Natalie's own unique creation...??? Don't know that this one will make it to the tree. We may hang on to this one for Halloween next year ;)

Hailey and Harrison weren't in to the spirit of things just yet...

...however, mom was able to coax them into at least cutting one ornament each.

Thank you JoLynn for a memory making day!