Let the Gifting Begin

Now that my work party has hit I can share what I made for the girls. Not that they look at this blog or anything, I just wanted to make sure no one knew what I was making.

Found the fantastic idea for a picture holder over at Shanty 2 Chic. Seriously, those girls are brilliant with some of the things they come up with. Total cost was around $8 maybe and I made 4. Found the 2x8 in the leftover wood bin for $2 and I think I had a good 4 feet of it. So I had five 9" pieces cut. The finials were in a 2-pack for $1.99 each. The girls loved them. I suggested they could use them in their kitchen to hold recipe cards, a picture or whatever you want to clip up.

Jolly Old Saint Nicholas

Luke has become very aware of Christmas this year. When he saw Santa at the ward party he was so excited. Quite a huge difference from last year. (see photo) I had to literally run after him and carry off the stage before he bulldozed some other kid of Santa's lap. As we were walking to the end of the line he yelled, "Santa! I'm Luke!" I'm guessing he's been a bit over exposed by the many holiday movies my husband, Chris, has been watching. When our turn came Luke went right up to Santa and sat on his lap. I was really shocked he even talked to him. He asked for a train for Christmas. On our way home he talked so much about seeing Santa. It was really cute.

For My Husband the Gamer

Mama’s Holiday Wish List Meme

TodaysMama (link to: http://bit.ly/tmwishlist) and GameStop (link to: http://bit.ly/gamestop10) are giving away a sleighful of gifts this holiday season and to enter I’m sharing this meme with you.

1. What is your holiday wish for your family? For everyone to be happy and healthy.

2. What is your Christmas morning / Hanukkah Nightly tradition? The past two years, which we will now continue forevermore, I've made a delicious Ham Puff breakfast and drank hot chocolate. It would be nice if it also snowed Christmas morning, but that's up to "Old Man Winter".

3. If you could ask Santa for one, completely decadent wish for yourself, what would it be? A nice long uninterrupted nap.

4. How do you make the holidays special without spending any money? Spend time with family and friends watching Christmas movies (we have quite a large selection), singing carols, and even driving around neighborhoods looking at Christmas lights at night.

5. What games did you play with your family growing up? We loved playing Pictionary and laughing at each others drawings. After awhile everyone discovered that my twin sister and I couldn't be on the same team since we seemed to read each others minds.

6. What holiday tradition have you carried on from your own childhood? We always got new pajamas on Christmas eve and before bed we'd read the nativity story. Christ is the reason for the season.

7. Where would you go for a Christmas/Hanukkah-away-from-home trip? America's winter playground - Vermont!

8. Check out GameStop (link to: http://bit.ly/gamestop10) and tell us, what are the three top items on your GameStop Wish List this year? 1. The hubs wants to up his skills with Rock Band 3 and the killer drum-set. 2. A Wii Fit has been on the wishlist the last two years. 3. I don't think anyone would complain if we had a DSi.

A First

I took Luke to his first theater movie over Thanksgiving weekend. My sister-in-law was taking her kids to see Tangled so we went along too. Because I am sheltered with no regular cable I had no idea what this movie was about except it was the story of Rapunzel. Luke had free admission, but I was nervous having to pay for a show I might not see. I know Luke can sit through a whole animated film (I've lost count at how many times he's watched Cars), but in the dark, with other kids I wasn't certain he'd sit still for that long. Oh happy day - Luke sat and watched the whole show! What a relief that was. There was 5 minutes of restlessness near the end, but he settled back down on my lap. I thought Tangled was great and I know the boy did too because I heard him laugh a bunch. Plus he loved having popcorn and sharing mom's soda. No more "taking a young child to the movies" fear for this family.