Tuesday's activity

This evening Sara and I baked two kinds of cookies and watched "White Christmas". We made shortbread cookies with a big chocolate kiss in the middle (cookie mix from Target), and then we made my Aunt Vickie's sugar cookies. She always made them Santa faces and added coconut to his beard, but I only had a snowman cookie cutter (and no coconut). David and Dallin were watching some other movie and Lauren was babysitting. Tomorrow, the plan is making fudge and then boxing up some goodies to take to friends. Oh, and start on our holiday puzzle. I used to hate puzzles growing up, but we've been setting one up at Thanksgiving or Christmas for the last few years (since the kids are old enough to help and not just lose pieces!). Tomorrow evening is a party/dinner at a friends' house. There will be 9 families there. All but one of the families are from our ward. The one that isn't from our ward is from a neighboring ward and are brother/sister-in-law with the party hosts. Should be a lot of fun. Good food and company and a gift exchange for the under- 20 crowd. The hostess, Cheri, assigned each of the kids another child of similar age to buy a $5-6 gift for. My goal is to remember my camera! Hope you are all having a relaxing, joyful holiday!

Monday's activity

While David, Dallin and Lauren went to finish up some Christmas shopping, Sara and I worked some magic. We turned this:

into this. We had a fun time, but neither of us knew how long it would take. After sticking the sides together, we had to wait an hour to put on the roof. Then we had to wait 2 hours before decorating. And, of course, decorating it is the most fun part! Sara was in charge of decorating the roof and I did the icicles. We worked together on the windows and door.

Happy Birthday Dallin!

Today is Dallin's 15th birthday. He's such a great kid. I'm glad he's my son. I love him more than he can imagine. Here's a picture of him when he was 6 1/2. We were at the Oregon Coast on a little weekend getaway.

The other picture was taken at the beginning of October right before a stake dance.

Here are some things about Dallin:

favorite movie: Breaking Away and School of Rock (for the Jack Black quotes)

favorite drink: Dr. Pepper

favorite color: green

favorite college: University of Oregon

favorite sport to watch: cycling

favorite sport to participate in: cycling

favorite thing to shop for: shoes

favorite day of the week: Saturday

favorite food: Mexican

favorite holiday: his birthday

favorite class: geometry

what book are you reading: Into the Wild

favorite outing: Iron Maiden concert w/Dad

favorite scripture: Matthew 5:14-16 (you'll have to look it up!)

Have a great birthday Dallin! I love you :)

I just purchased a very cool mini album kit from my friend, Donna. She has them for sale on her blog (www.donnasalazar.typepad.com). I'm excited to get it and get started on a little album about the things I love about Christmas. If you are interested in buying one, get it quickly. I think she only has a few.

I've been trying to look for some Christmas gifts at Etsy (www.etsy.com). I want to support the "small" business people as much as possible. Don't get me wrong...I love Target. But if I can find something I want from a smaller place, I'll buy it there. Even if it's a little bit more expensive. I did find a birthday gift for Dallin on Etsy. I'll post a picture of it after he opens it. His birthday isn't until Tuesday, though. Is the suspense killing you? I thought so. But you're going to have to wait.

Here are some pictures of decorations I've got around the house. Sorry about the blurry ones! This year, I've added lots of glittery stuff. The star on the top of our tree is so sparkly: beads and sequins. I love it! It's from Target. Oh, and the glittery red trees on the dining table are from a second hand store...love that! Hope you are all enjoying the season!

I'm getting sick. Yuck! My throat started hurting last night and I woke up several times during the night with my throat and my head hurting. I should've rested more today, but I did do a little Christmas shopping. Some online and some at Target. Now I'm wishing I had stayed home and slept. I need to rest tomorrow because tomorrow night is a birthday party for Dallin and two of his friends. We are celebrating all three boys' birthdays. They have Nov, Dec and Jan birthdays. The party is at our clubhouse. There will be pizza, soda, cake, loud music (the boys all put music on their ipods to be played on a Bose speaker), dancing and swimming/hot tubbing. The boys printed 100 invitations and passed them all out at school. And they've been telling people to bring friends. I hope we have enough food! But when you have a party, don't you usually only get about 40% turn-out? We'll see tomorrow night! I'm so glad we have the use of the clubhouse. I may have to take some Thera-Flu before the party. There will be another mom there with me. Hmmmm...2-4 adults and who-knows how many kids...we didn't plan that very well, did we?