The Blog of Luke: Christmas Catch Up

Liam loves to come in my craft room and "create".... I really should move these as I have to rewind them far too often:)

This is a really nice name plate Jason's civilian workers gave him as a present when he promoted to Major.

Christmas picture of the kids. So hard to get them all looking nice at once, let alone looking in the same direction.

With their cousins on Jason's side.

Every year Bridal Path homes in Simi Valley have a Christmas parade. We've been hearing about it for years from Jason's aunt and this year we got to be in it! So fun to decorate the wagon and slowly wind through the homes waving to all the neighbors. The kids had a great time bouncing around in the back as we drove at 5 mph.

Jason's sister Kelli and her husband Dani.

Us. :)

Greyson fell asleep as soon as we got in the car. The wagon has such a large vibration it rocked him to sleep.

My man:)

Bouncing kids.

Grey finally woke up at the end and joined the fun.

Grandma Barbara made a super cute nativity out of plastic lawn birds. The manger is a nest.

Havin' a laugh with the Grandma.

Decorating the tree. This year I was determined to decorate the tree with some whimsical ornaments I have and haven't used in years. Then, as I was going through boxes, Liam spied my carosel and rocking horse decorations I collected as a kid. He is a horse fanatic right now and that was it. He made a few horse noises and we HAD to use them this year. (Sigh) Oh well. Maybe next year for the other ornaments. He had a fantastic time playing with all the horse ornaments and even slept with a few now and then. I have to admit, they sure made for a pretty tree.

My Grandmother made these crocheted balls. They are so pretty. She really had a talent for this.

When I was a kid my sisters and I all picked a "theme" for Christmas Tree ornaments to collect. Then each year our grandparents and others would give us one ornament that went along with our theme. By the time we got married and had a tree of our own we had enough ornaments to fill the tree. I tried to do this with Ilana a couple of years ago. She chose Snowmen as a theme but I don't think I explained the tradition very well. Within two years Ilana had enough snowmen to sink a ship, I mean to decorate a full tree by herself. Oh well:) Maybe I'll try to start the tradition again in a few years.

This is a nativity my Grandmother made a long time ago. It has a white pearly coating, I've never seen one prettier. It's my favorite decoration to get out each year.

The boys playing with a magnetic nativity scene. It quickly turned into some laser fight scene or other. :) I really am trying to teach them the gospel, I promise.

Mr. GQ. Jackson has a fantastic sense of style. He is wearing sweatpants, a t-shirt, church vest and pea coat. Several times during the holiday break I found Jack chasing after Liam trying to get him to try on a shirt combination of Jack's creation. Some of the time Liam was a good sport about it. The rest of the time he hid behind me screaming, "Help!" Ilana is totally a tom boy and could care less what she wears it's my boys that give me trouble about clothes. Each morning I pull out a shirt for Liam (2yrs old) to wear and he tells me "No" then directs me to the shirt of his choice in his closet. Really? Really?

All set for Christmas Eve dinner. I love pulling our big table all the way out. We had too much elbow room here but it was fun anyways. I made napkin ring holders to match my dinning room chairs. To see the rings up close click on the link to my craft blog here.

Don't ask. I really don't know.

Christmas Day we all went to church together. My Dad is the ward choir director in his ward and he strong armed us all into being in it:) He had his wife, three daughters and two grandaughters in the choir that day. Plus his sister playing the music. (Poor guy had 7 women telling him what to do during the rehersals:) It was fabulous. As you can see, my disease of color coordinating clothing schemes is slowly but surely infecting the rest of my family. I've got some of them calling to ask me ahead of time what they should wear to match my kids:) (Insert evil laughter HERE.)