Santa, Help!

I think Fred and I were both feeling a little overwhelmed trying to keep our eyes on everyone and keep them all on the nice list, so Fred invited a couple of his friends along to help him watch. Meet Wassail and Tinsel. ( They also answer to Christmas and Mistletoe because there has been much debate as to what their names should be.)

Since they are a bit smaller than Fred, they are harder to find - but that just makes the search that much more fun, I guess. With 3 elves watching, it's a lot harder to get away with anything, but I'm pretty sure that Fred was still shocked when he saw the state of the girls' room. Good thing they still have a few days before his last report to Santa is filed.

This Ever Happen To You?

So this morning, I woke up with a terrible headache - that wouldn't go away. Didn't really want to go to church or fight the battle of getting everyone ready, but what could I do? Thought I'd go to sacrament meeting and then maybe go home. Finally got everyone ready and into the car, running a little late. First attempt at parking, slide past. Get parked. Go running, sliding into church. (By the way, I am never late, but today I was.) In the hall, run into one of the Relief Society Presidency who asks if I'm all set? Huh? No, that's next week. I teach on the 3rd Sunday. Apparently, they changed the schedule. I missed Relief Society last week and didn't get the calendar. Seriously, this is one of my worst nightmares. Kind of felt like I imagine it would feel to walk into a class and find out that there is a test and I didn't know. I HATE being unprepared for things. Some people, handle this sort of thing well. I do not. So much for going home. I didn't even have my manual. Borrowed a manual, read during Sunday School and taught the lesson. I survived, hope I never have to do it again. I guess the good news is that I won't have to stress about my lesson all week.

This Is so NOT in the Training Plan or I Won! I Won!

So recently, (and by recently, I mean before Thanksgiving,) I was picked on Michelle's blog and I won some of her fabulous homemade brownies. (Mint - and they were delivered Monday night. Mmmmm mmmm.) As mentioned in my title, this so is not part of the training plan, and yet I will enjoy every bite.Now in the tradition of winning something on a blog, I feel I should also offer something for you my 3 loyal readers to have a chance to win. The only problem is, what. I really can't compete with Michelle in the cooking department and I'm not particularly crafty. I have been known to make a decent loaf of bread and we're due to make some carmel corn here in the next week or two, so at the moment, I am leaving it open for a vote as to which of these you would like to win - please post your choice and then I will offer the option for winning the chosen object in a few days.

Decorating the Tree

Monday night's Family Home Evening Activity was decorating the tree. This mostly consisted of Shawn putting the lights on by himself (with a little "help" from the girls.)
And the kids making a big mess pulling all of the ornaments out of the boxes. They did mange to get most of them on the tree as well. We just had to spread them out a little after they were done, and fill in the top branches. Here's the finished product.

Of course, decorating the tree involves more than just hanging ornaments. You generally have to dance around in the tree skirt for a little while....
and put on some reindeer antlers...
Which of course, everyone wants a turn with...


and TA DA, you can call the evening a success.

A Weekend of Christmas Festivities

It all started Friday night when we ventured out to choose a Christmas tree. We managed to pick one fairly quickly without the major tantrums associated with last year's tree. (Still lots of protesting and whining, though.)Sometimes I think we are the lone holdouts as far as "real" trees go, but we just can't bring ourselves to get an artificial one yet. (Although, the price every year brings us closer.) But I just love the smell of a fresh Christmas tree.Saturday night, we went down to the planetarium to see Santa vs. the Snowman.
Here's everyone sporting their cool 3D glasses. (Duffy was not fond of the 3D format - she started crying as soon as the first thing came at her. Oh well, she still liked it well enough without the glasses.)
Following the movie, we bundled everyone up and walked to temple square to see the lights and the nativity. The lights were spectacular as always.
Shawn and Peter were like a little mini tourist attraction. Everyone pointed, commented or laughed at Peter inside the coat and several people even took their picture.
The little girls got pretty cold, so we stopped in the building to warm up a little bit. Amelia laid down on the ground and put her chin right on the heating vent. And Duffy tried to warm up her hands.Then we hopped on Trax for a quick ride back to the planetarium parking lot. All in all a fun evening.
This is why the Stringhams don't often stay out past bedtime - they just can't handle it. Everyone of them was sound asleep before we got home.
Some photos of the boys on Sunday morning.
Sunday night we built a fire in the fireplace and cuddled up on the couch and read Christmas stories. (We've determined that we will need a bigger couch before too long - but it worked for the cold weather.) Next, we'll move on to decorating the tree - I hope.

This Year Is Going To Be Different

Every year, around Thanksgiving, it starts happening. All around us, the neighbors start putting up their Christmas lights. And every year we talk about maybe putting up lights, maybe we even intend to put up lights, but just never quite manage to fit it in. (Now in our defense, a number of our neighbors - from a certain generation - have people to put up their lights. If we had "people", our lights would be up, too.) Anyway, every year it ends up that we are surrounded by fully lit and decorated houses (including the neighborhood self-proclaimed Griswolds.) So, when you pull up to our dark house, you can't help but think, wow, this is a house of scrooges. (Now, mind you, we go all-out inside the house to make up for it.) But this year is going to be different. Not because Shawn or I have gone out and hung up Christmas lights - no siree. This year is going to be different because we still have our bat lights up from Halloween.Festive, isn't it? I was thinking I could just flock them, or maybe a little tinsel....

8 Months Old

I can't believe it, but it's true, my boy is 8 months old. I just love this kid. He is always so smiley and happy. He still acts like it is pure torture whenever we try to feed him baby food, but loves anything that comes off of our plates - no matter what it is.Fortunately for me, he still isn't crawling, but is starting to lean over onto his hands and knees a little bit. I will continue to enjoy this time while he is still stationary and I know exactly where he is and what he's getting into.

He's improving a little with his sleeping - there are good nights and bad, but not as bad as they used to be. He still gets so excited when I come to get him out of bed, with a big double leg kick that rocks his crib.
Peter loves to talk. He blows raspberries and babbles all the time, and especially likes to have conversations with us - "talking", waiting for a response and then "talking" some more. It's pretty funny, and sometimes loud. And he loves a good game of peek-a-boo. It gets him laughing his cute little laugh every time. It even works to stop him from crying on the rare occasion that he gets upset. All in all, I am really enjoying this baby because I am fully aware of how quickly time flies.