Twas the Night Before Christmas!

Twas the Night Before Christmas and all through the house, not a single kid was fighting and it was still as a mouse...for once. So I decided to blog about the fun month we have had. It really has been a fun one! How can Christmas not be?? :)

You know those crazy people that browse the Christmas section in October and decorate their house the day after Thanksgiving? That is TOTALLY me! I really love this month. We watched Christmas movies almost every night. I got my fill of the Grinch, Polar Express and of course, a little Griswold Family Christmas ["You serious, Clark?"]. That was for my family :)

The kids enjoyed playing with our Little People Nativity, as they do each year. Some of my favorite decor around the house...the wonderful nativity that my mother-in-law gave us. This comes from Israel, so it is one of my most prized Christmas possessions. The kids are really into taking the decorations and playing with them or hiding them around the house, so I tried to put this one a bit hidden, but still can be seen by older ones.My mother-in-law Bev also have me the idea to string cranberry-popcorn garland around the house. I loved how it turned out! It added a lot to our greenery on the fireplace mantel. I had ambitious plans to string it on our Christmas tree, but after this strand, I called it quits! :):) It did take a while to make. Maybe next year!And now for our newest interior addition: real stockings! We haven't had real family stockings with our names and everything, so this was seriously so exciting for me. Matt's mom gave us some Pottery Barn stockings (that she picks up at Downeast for cheap!) and they had names embroidered on them. She had all her kids! So we picked off the embroidery of all his siblings and kept the Matt one. Then my friend Beth embroidered Lacy, Reagan and Nolan for me~! Fabulous, huh? I love the way they look. I can't wait for them to be filled :)
I also love the ginormous poinsettias from Costco, I get one every year and it adds so much to the home and our freakishly long fireplace :)Last but not least, our TREE! Last year we got our tree from Costco like we had the year before, but the top was lopped off all weird. We didn't realize it until we got it home, cut and placed in water. So we kept it, but it BUGGED me all season long. So this year Matt was sure to get a good one and he totally scored! This is one of the most beautiful firs I have ever seen. And one of the thirstiest, I think I have watered this bad boy every day this month. Last week we went to a Christmas performance at Woodside Elementary that the kindergartners put on. It was adorable. Reagan loves to perform, especially singing. She was in the back row, but was heard loud and clear :) She knew every word to the 8 or so songs they performed. Matt got to attend as well, going into work a bit later that day. Here she is, all dressed up for her performance.
This is the kindergarten classes. Reagan is back row, 8th from the right.
The next day her class had a party. Nolan came along with me and he got to make a gingerbread house, along with Reagan! That was pretty fun for them. Her class intern had made 32 gingerbread cottages for the kids to decorate. They were the real thing.
We also made so many goodies to give out to friends, but nothing is more fun for the kids than sugar cookies. I give them their own batch of dough to work on. Nolan just plays with his, but Reagan actually made several decent cookies! She is my little helper in the kitchen.
Last week Matt came home from work and as he walked in the door, he "found" some letters Santa had left on the front porch. Reagan and Nolan each had their own letter, addressed to them specifically. This played out well for me because the Santa card I was throwing out for discipline reasons became much more powerful :)
For church one day, Reagan wore her beautiful dress with the Christmas corkers in her hair. I couldn't help but take a picture, she looked so cute.
We went to our ward Christmas party and the primary children did the nativity. Reagan and her friends Ella and Addie were angels. They looked darling!I bid you farewell this Christmas Eve with some pics of our house. Do you know that I could hardly contain my excitement that we put up lights this year! We hummed and hawed over color and style but finally decided on the classic, white lights. We love them. Matt was a pro at putting them up. He used those plastic clips and arranged them to be very neat and precise. Many neighbors commented on them and I loved that it validated his hard work.


Merry Christmas to all and to all a GOOD NIGHT!!