11th annual christmas eve-eve party

Our 11th annual Xmas Eve-Eve Party was a great success! Not as many donations for the Road Home as usual but we still ended up with a full truck-load of gifts for the shelter. Plus we had a good turn-out, tons of fabulous food and Lori brought some Price is Right-inspired drinking game called Drink-O (I did not play but hear it was hysterical!).

Thanks to Amy for the morning-after quiche, and thanks to all for the great company (even though I feel like I missed everything!) and generous gifts, thanks to the kids for wrecking the joint without breaking any windows with pool balls or crashing the TV or Christmas tree, and thanks to whoever left that bottle of vodka. We are so fortunate to have such wonderful friends...who have put up with all of our craziness and loved us through all the stages of life for 11+ years, and such an amazing family. You are all the best gifts. And you don't require wrapping!

The girls with the babies of 2010.
Big year of little ones!

all i want for christmas...

Old teeth...that left top cap has been
super-glued on since 2001. Zoiks! Or
maybe super glue is the way to go dentally.

Is my six front teeth. Yep, you heard me. SIX front teeth. In the list of dumb, over-ambitious things I've done over the holidays, I decided to get my veneers (front caps) redone before the end of the year. I had some FSA dollars riding on it and a broken tooth that was getting precariously close to, well, falling off. Had I totally realized that the process would screw my entire holiday season and that temporary crowns that last 12 hours (if that) are not really temporary, I might have done it differently. I was actually cementing my own caps back on a couple of times with a chopstick and then finally gave up and went with the Snaggletooth look. Hopefully they'll be gorgeous when they're done but for now, if you see me looking somber in any holiday photos, I'm just really trying to shield you from the sad reality of my teeth.

tis the season!

The first big snowstorm of the season and we were so outside! Tagg loved it! Stomping in the snow in his new snow boots while Daddy shovels the driveway? Uh, yeah!

Sloane was not happy about being
left out of the snow activities!

We built a snowman - Frosty - who had two eyes made out of decorative black rock (apparently you need something with more texture to really stick), a nice hat, a carrot nose and an onion smile. Yep, that's a red onion carved into that snowman smirk!

So today, a few days after the Frosty-building experience and six "let's-fix-Frosty" events because the rain and the warm weather broke that beautiful snowman down, Tagg was standing in the front window looking at the sad remains of his first snow creation, looks at us and says, "Frosty's not looking too good, daddy." Awwwww...

We started cramming in the holiday fun, early. Made a gingerbread house with Nana and Papa and the family (Papa watched Sloane while Mommy photographed and tried to keep Tagg from eating all the candy decora and glue-like frosting). We jacked up construction on the roof and ended up with a sunroof...with some stale M&Ms cemented on for kicks.  That will probably be a bigger hit in a year or so but it was still kind of fun. Especially for Tagg (candy is always a hit).

Do not tell the kids, but this is kind of what Santa's
workshop looks like at our house on Christmas
Eve. It's all the family presents, really. ;-)

So I pulled a few all-nighters getting ready for Christmas - photobooks, Xmas cards, and present wrapping. Whew! Apparently I got bags under my eyes for the Christmas! And we didn't even have a lot of put-it-together stuff. I am so amazed by all the wonderful people I know who always have their gifts done early, wrapped perfectly and are just jack-wagons for making the rest of us feel inferior.

bad santa

I can't help it. Every time (okay, so that's both times) I wait in line for the kids to see Santa, I think about that movie and hope that our Santa isn't a complete obnoxious, horrible lush with a soft spot for a kid named Thurman Murman.

Luckily, the Santa we went to see at Thanksgiving Point was, well, amazing! Like real Santa. Real beard. Of course, to get this kind of experience for 2 bucks, you have to wait in a Disney-style superline for oh, an hour or so. Yes, an hour or so with three boys under 4 and a baby in a hot sweaty room with mean grandpa elves who won't let the kids touch anything and want you to squish "really close together" for some unknown reason.

Panoramic shot of the Disney-like line to see Santa. I wish
there was sound so you could hear the screams.

There are kids everywhere (it is Utah county, you know) which equates to about one meltdown per minute from various quadrants. And apparently people use this as their opportunity to take family Christmas card photos (can you take one more? one more? Lady! You have 6 kids! They are not all going to smile at the same time! Give it up!).

The adorable Hawkins family...
Amy, Dustin, Greyson and Henry.

It was fun to go with Amy and Dusty. We definitely don't get to see enough of them and the boys. Next year, hopefully, we'll be able to join them for the hayride after but this year, we were just pretty happy to make it home with a marginal digital photo, a funny story and our sense of humor intact!

Amy with Sloane & Hen.

Actual tiny reindeer. They were
about as real as the Santa...
he was awesome!

Neither Tagg or Sloane were scared of Santa. Whew!
Tagg's Christmas wish? Cars, of course.

the purple christmas tree

It was nap time...hence
the crabby face. Tagg perked up
when Santa coughed up the candy cane.

We went to help my mom and dad get their Christmas Tree on Saturday. Scott had seen this local tree farmer advertising on Channel 2 the other day. They had reindeer, a Santa, a hot tub and they flocked the morning stunt boy like a Christmas tree so we figured that would be a good place to try out. It was, as billed, AND the big giant tree my parents got was only 55 bucks! I call that a screaming deal for a real tree!

While we were there, we found...a purple Christmas tree. I don't know why, but it spoke to me and we ended up bringing home this flamboyant purple-flocked Charlie Brown tree. It's all of about 4 and a half feet high. I think it's cool! It totally fits with all the vintage ornaments I have from my childhood...these shiny, jewel-tone balls with santas and reindeers. And vintage ornaments seem to be all the rage this year. I found a bunch to match for 70% off...woot-woot! I never bargain shop for Christmas stuff! See, that's why I love the Purple Christmas Tree!

pay it forward...

I work with this amazing man named Bryan. I've never been lucky enough to meet his wife or his 5-year-old adopted son in person but I feel like I know them from how much he talks about them and share photos and stories and his love for them. It's pretty special and in my gut I know that these people need to have another baby in their circle of love.

I know my guy is an amazing hubby and he gushes over our kids in ways that are darling and wonderful but borderline unnatural, but this guy ADORES his child in ways you don't always expect from a dad. It's very cool. So, in the land of share-the-word-these-people-should-have-another-child, pass it on. They are amazing, they should have more children to nurture and love, and they caught the best web address ever! dreamhopebelieve.com

It's a little strange to see how this midWestern family has to navigate the adoption process. Utah is a whole different world. We never had to have our own URL (of course, that was all of 7 months ago!). I realize that we were incredibly lucky to find our kids, but I always hope that everyone has the same good fortune, especially you guys.

finger painting to face painting

...in 30 quick seconds. Tagg and I were working on some works of art on Saturday morning. I was totally out of the washable paints so we were using acrylics - risky but worth it. Or so I thought. Sloane started crying so I went to pick her up, turned back around and bam! Tagg had finger painted his face. Pretty impressive.

Even more impressive? The acrylics washed off really easily! We've been "naked painting" (him, not me) to preserve his clothes and luckily these paints came right off with a little soap and water. Of course, after we cleaned up, we went straight to the store and bought more of the washables. Just in case...

And the picture turned out lovely, too!