Christmas Work Lunch

We got together with a bunch of Work friends today for lunch! We got together in the one and only indoor playland in Helena (and the germ pit of the century! LOL) But it was fun to catch up ad let the kids play. Merry Christmas friends!

Victoria's Winter Program

Victoria did a great job at her Winter Program. She looked so darling in her red dress and rose headband. What a gorgeous girl! Great job, Sis!

The 4th Grade singing Do You Want to Rock? with a debute from their rockin' teachers!

Glory's Winter Program

Glory did an amazing job in her Christmas Program this morning. She's such a smiley girl. And we loved her animation! She's getting so tall and her high heels made her looks years older. What beautiful girl! There were only 3 girls that stayed at school after the concert so she got to hang out with Ms. Martineau and her 2 best girlfriends for a bit before Victoria's concert started.

I sure hope this video works because it's such a cute song. Where does Mrs Nelson come up with these things? So darling!!!

P.S. Before Victoria's concert started they had a bake sale in the hallway. Justice got to volunteer for it. 

Our Holiday Room

After we finished up the food storage room, we moved to my Holiday Room. We drywalled, put up lights, put in a floor and hung doors. 

It's coming together nicely. Brett made me a little Christmas closet and hung some shelves.

I also have slowly been buying wire roller shelves. Liberty has been helping me put them together. It's taken quite a while but it's all put together. I know people get confused when I say my Holiday Room (they think storage) but as you can see- it's truly a magnificent Holiday Wonderland! I love it!

In other finishing news- my friend Heidi used to some fabric to cover the top of some furniture. I took her idea and updo-ed my craft table. I love it!!!

7th Grade Winter Concert

Justice's Winter Band Concert was tonight. He is doing so well on the trumpet. We are very proud of him!! Mr.s Nelson is is his band teacher. She is so phenomenal with all the kids and putting together these programs around Christmas!!!

Here's a sample if it isn't to long to load.

HHS Freshman Christmas Concert

Liberty played in the Freshman Band Concert tonight. Her and Ann played the bells. I mean- they rocked the bells!!! Great job, Sis!

Here's a closeup of Liberty in the Percussion section on the bells.

 I could only catch Liberty and her friend Marz afterwards. Proud of you girls!

Let's try a video:

Senior Seminary Christmas Party

Brett had his Senior Seminary students over for a Christmas party this evening.
They ate treats, played a Christmas Carol Charades Game, and had a Marshmallow Snowman Making Contest. They are a great group of kids!

They broke in boy/girl teams to build their snowmen.

Glory was their judge. She was soooo excited!!! ?But she didn't want to hurt anyone's feelings so she wanted to picklots of them! She finally picked the puppy that Liberty & Spencer made!

Glory made Little Ricky (our Trek daughter) a Christmas picture.

And they tried catching marshmallows in their mouths. Funny kids!

P.S. Victoria started throwing up downstairs halfway through the party. I was disgusting!!!! That's why I only have  pictures of some of the events. When the party was over- (they hung out for quite a while)- Justice & Glory started feeling sick. Shay spent the entire night watching Netflix on the couch so she could help the 3 of them as they threw up the entire night! Whew-- what a long night!

Seedall Holiday Recipe Exchange

My darling friend, Hailey invited several ladies over for a Holiday Recipe Exchange Party. She's like Martha Stewart on steriods! LOL I love her! Her table setting was amazing!!!!! She had somefruitslush and home-made hot chocolate. Fabulous stuff! Everyone's recipes were so delicious. Loved chatting and eating and exchanging together. Happy Holidays!

We had Nick take some pictures for us. I'm gonna have to teach these girls the art of "Jazz Hands" so I don't look like an idiot next time. LOL (I jumped in on the band wagon of butt touching--- I swear they were doing it first;) but Nick only seemed to catch me doing any touching, Shoot! Oh well- I'm the only one dressed Christmasy so guess I can excuse myself this time! What a fun group of ladies!

Coil Ugly Sweater White Elephant

We were lucky enough to be invited again to the Coil's Ugly Sweater/ White Elephant Party again this year. It's always a hoot. And super fun to get reacquainted with our old Ward friends. We pretty much laugh the whole time. So fun! 

We started out with some amazing food- soups, appetizers, delish!!! Then we voted on the ugliest sweater and the most Christmas spirit. I forgot to take pictures of the winners. Oops! I can't even remember the ugly sweater winner. Andy won the most Christmas spirit but declined the gift since it was his party. His suit was pretty stellar though!!! LOL

Here's the cute friends that came this year. I was brave and got a pic of everyone. Cuz last year Iwas super sad that I missed some.

The White Elephant Exchange is so hilarious! It has gotten a little crude the last 2 years but it IS funny! Some of our favorites from this year were:

* The Squatty Potty (see Shay squatting in the left bottom pic)

* The Goldfish Box full of a live goldfish (Reid in right top pic)

* The Correct Anatomy Roaster Sticks (Kyle in the lift top pic)

* The Selfie Stick in the "Cruise Survival Kit" (It got passed around a lot)

* The Pad-About Slippers with it's bonus gift

* Capn' Crunch- BooYah!

What a fun group of friends!!

Here's what we came home with. Taking into consideration that my family has had experience with boobs that you can handle and store on your shelf, the kids thought the boob was hilarious. They have been many "Hot Potato Boob" games going on at our house since. LOL

 Here's the gifts we gave this year. I seriously almost peed my pants. They turned out awesome!

 Closeup of the notes:

Love these people! Merry Christmas!

Christmas Card Bloopers

I love to create things!!! Oh, so much! But I haven't done as much of that as I used to. In fact, I feel like I've lost my Craft Mojo! But when Brett presented a certain picture that he wanted on our Christmas Card and I went for a search for others to go with it- I came up short. I needed to muster a little Craft Mojo if at all possible.
So... I pulled out my camera, dragged my family into the living room and took 250+ pictures. People sometimes think that my family instinctively just sit correctly and smile for every picture. And for the most part- they'd be correct. I have trained them well! LOL But the reality is that there's always a little whiny and craziness that occurs when I try to document our family.
Here's a little proof:

But I do love how our Christmas card turned out 

so it was all worth it. ;) Hurray for a little Craft Mojo! 

Merry Christmas!

2015 Figi Drawing

Continuing our Tradition of drawing a winner for our Figi's Christmas treat--
Victoria Glory got to draw out the name since she won last year. (Here's where Victoria actually won in 2013)
{oops! we thought Victoria won last year but when I checked my blog for this post, I realized that it was actually Glory that won. Shoot! Don't tell Victoria! She'll be ticked that she didn't get to put one in the drawing. And Glory will be bummed that she didn't get to pick it out of the bowl. Darn! We should have checked!!! Too funny!}

And the winner is ....... JUSTICE!

Cross Country (Yard) Skiing

Justice did a little Cross-Country Yard Skiing tonight. We found some skis at the thrift store this week and he is dying to try them out. We have tons of snow so he took them for a spin in our yard. He actually found that he could make it to a certain part of our hill and then ski all the way down the gully. He's in heaven! The only bad thing is that then he has to ski back up. Bummer! Maybe Brett could make a ski lift?

Missing my Friends

I was missing my old Ward friends so when they invited me to join them for their RS Christmas Party- I jumped at the chance to be with them. At first, I felt a little hesitant about crashing their party. But I told myself to be brave. It was funny because it actually took quite a bit of time for a few people to connect that I was actually supposed to be at the party. ;) It was good food, an uplifting message and amazing friends. Man! I miss them! Here's just a few that stayed at the end. Love you ladies!

Thrifty Shoppers

A while back- my kids came up with a list of things that they felt they should learn to do before they grow up and move out. Things like cooking, changing a tire, paying bills, etc. Among that list was the art of Thrift Shopping. So armed with $10 and a few tricks of the trade, we did a few Thrift Store stops on their discount days with the intent to find some Christmas outfits. We also got to include a few lessons on alterations but  they did awesome. They were way excited about their experience. Here's what we found:

Popcorn Popping on the Christmas Tree

I can't believe the Christmas Season is upon us again! Where does the time fly???? My family knows that I hate the commercialism of Christmas & I try hard to make us stop and enjoy Thanksgiving before we jump into the craziness. It's a family joke that they sneakily try to listen to Christmas music in November without me hearing it. I held them off as long as I could but the day after Thanksgiving- all the Fall decor was down and the red & green boxes were out!!!! Let the madness begin!
My family was super excited so, we put up Christmas trees this weekend. And lit them up with our Tree Illuminator! (Sidenote: I got these Illuninators on a killer deal at the end of the season last year. I thought they'd be fun. Then we ended seeing this Hallmark movie this year that uses a Tree Illuninator. Now- they are super special and the kids are loving them! You twist the candy striped poll and push it down. It plays music and then magically turns on the lights of the tree. Joy!)
So... Here's the fun:
3,2,1... uh??

3,2,1... what?

3,2,1... why isn't this thing working?

Try again. 3,2,1....

One more time! 3,2,1...Tada!

(We didn't know we had to twist it or the batteries were dead- I can't remember. But it was funny!)

The downstairs cooperated way better! 3,2,1...Hurray!

Then the kids decided to make the downstairs tree a CANDY Tree! They are going buy and tie all their favorite candies on it & then eat it all Christmas day! LOL But they wanted to start with a garland made of POPCORN! It was a fun Family Project! We strung popcorn and cranberries while Brett played Name that Tune with his iPod. Oh the Christmas Memories!

Here's what it ended up looking like after we tied all the candy on it. 

And here's my son eating all the popcorn off of it before we took it down. LOL