It's a Wonderful Life

After a fun day on the slopes, we headed home for a nice

spaghetti dinner, listened to carolers who came to our door,

ate the cookies they brought, and settled in for a relaxing

evening watching our favorite Christmas movie,

It's a Wonderful Life.

That show always makes me feel more gratitude for my

family and all the good things in my life.

Christmas Dinner

In order to get all the celebrating in, Christmas really ends up

lasting a week or so. Sunday before Christmas we had our big

turkey dinner. We also invited both my mother and Keith's

mother to spend the day with us and go to church with us.

It was wonderful to have the whole family sitting together.

We took almost a whole row. Then coming home to a delicious

traditional turkey dinner with all the fixins was heavenly.

I just love Christmas time!

More Gingerbread...

I Love Gingerbread Houses!

Our family makes gingerbread houses almost every year.

Not just the graham cracker or packaged variety, but the

completely from scratch, Grandma's Old Fashioned Molasses

kind of gingerbread. It's a lot of work. But the house smells

delicious. For days afterwords! Everyone gets to put their

best building and decorating skills to work. It's fun to see

what the kids will come up with each year. Lani and Diane

wanted to get together, so Lani stopped by with Brody on

Monday. Brody was so excited to make a house!

Devin worked into the evening so he put his house together

after the tumult had died down. Nice use of royal icing.

Josh and Katie have a fancy candy cane fence and a rather cute
Santa on the roof.

Diane and Dennis put a cute candy cane arch leading into the

pathway.

We all loved Eric's nice gumdrop tower-like chimney.

Traditionally, we don't eat them until Christmas. They're

actually pretty tasty too!

It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas!

There's just something so cheerful about a yard full of

Christmas lights during the darkest part of Winter!

The porch gives off a nice golden glow with the lights

wrapped around. See the tree in the window?

Devin got some nice pictures with his fancy new camera.

So Christmasy!

Oh Christmas Tree Oh Christmas Tree!

The boys and I were on our own getting a tree this year,

Keith was putting in a long day of work on our tree buying day.

We took off in Devin's truck for the McLean Rd. Tree Farm.

Most of the trees were either too big, like this one the boys

had to get a running jump at to get their hats up to the top,

or too small.

Hey that's a Charlie Brown tree if I ever saw one!

Ahh, this one's just right.

Let's cut it down!

And haul it back to the truck...

And tie 'er down real good. Devin's got some good lashing

skills. We'll get it home and the real work of getting it into

the stand and making sure it's nice and even begins!