December Happenings

December is upon us.  I have never felt busier in all my days.  More of that busyness has to do with my calling in Primary than Christmas and for some reason that is a weird realization for me.  So much to do it seems.  But what would Christmas be like without a little frazzle?  

Our month started out with a song.  Ethan decided this year (completely of his own accord) to join his elementary school choir.  If you can, try to imagine Ethan's dad, who grew up in Cache Valley where boys are boys and if you're awesome enough you're a cowboy and you have your own herd of cows, you drive a truck and you wouldn't be caught dead down the choir hall in the school let alone in choir.  So you can imagine how this went down when Ethan voiced his interest in singing in a choir.  Luckily, Ethan has a totally awesome mom who thinks singing is great and doesn't sway boys to the "dark side" and who totally has Ethan's back.  And if Mom's on your side you win every time, so choir it was.  

Dec. 1, Ethan had his first performance with his choir at the Festival of Trees in Salt Lake.  I've always wanted to go to the festival but have never taken the opportunity, so this was a fun night for me all around.  It was just Ethan and I and lucky for us Grandma Taggart was volunteering that night at the festival so there was a little more support for Ethan.  Now don't start thinking that JayDee was sour from losing the choir battle that he wouldn't even come to his son's performance, that's not it at all, we just decided that we didn't  want to take everyone because if there is one thing JayDee hates worse than choir it's a crowd.  Anyway, Ethan's choir was fantastic! And after we walked around and had a look at everyone's hard work. Can I just say AMAZING!!  I seriously have never seen trees like these and half the time I didn't even think you could make ornaments out of the things some people made ornaments out of.  Here's a smattering of some of our favorites.

 Here's Ethan in his choir shirt next to his favorite gingerbread house.

My personal favorite!

So clever. . .and who doesn't love Toy Story?

 This is the tree topper.

 

 And the mid-section of the tree.

I never got a good shot of the whole tree but I just loved it.

 Also loved this guy.  There were a couple of trees with this 

same idea but none of them measured up to him.

 Now if I owned a Rumbi Island Grill I would totally buy this one. AWESOME!  

That's 4 trees all together, flocked blue with just the tips white and bent over like 

the white caps on a wave. Then decorated to the hilt with all kinds of ocean life.  

Seriously, who thinks up this stuff?

Now this one just made me laugh.

Barbie's Winter Wonderland Ball

 Up close, all the Barbies and Kens paired up and dancing. 

I would have killed for this set up when I was little. :)

We had a great time.  I may just have to force JayDee to come with us next year.

We've had Christmas themed Family Home Evenings all month.  One Monday we talked about the symbols of Christmas and how they all tied back to the Savior and then went a picked out our biggest symbol of Christmas, the tree! Another week we read a story called, I Believe in Santa Claus, which compares Santa to the Savior. Don't worry it's not sacrilegious it's actually really nice.  After that we made sugar cookies. . .lots and lots of cookies. . .so many cookies there were still some hanging around the next Monday.  I couldn't give them away because they were from a boxed mix and really not that good but the kids had a great time rolling and cutting.  All I kept thinking was this is why I never make sugar cookies.  When it was JayDee's turn for the lesson he read the kids that Christmas classic that we all know and love. . .The Christmas Orange.  To my surprise none of my kids had heard it before.  And the activity following this story?  Well how about pass the orange?  Where you have to pass the orange from one person to the next without using your hands or dropping it.  This turned out to be quite a humorous activity. 

In case you're wondering, kids necks are really not big enough to hold oranges.

This activity would have worked better with clementines. :)

Later in the month Ethan had another choir concert at the school which was attended by the whole family. (Reason #2 that everyone didn't come to the Festival of Trees)  And even though this picture stinks I told Ethan I'd post it.

 I waited almost until the last minute but was successful in making all my traditional Christmas cookies and getting them delivered.  I love my cute cookies.  I grew up making these with my mom every year.  There was no question what was going to be the neighbor gift every year it was always cookies.  Now these aren't just your run of the mill sugar cookies cut into Christmas shapes and iced with too much icing, no sir, I'd dare say they border on gourmet! The best news of all . . . they are simple.  They make a dazzling display on a plate and people think you spent days making them but the truth is I take one day, make them all and deliver them that night.  I should have taken a picture of my kitchen, that was a sight, but I didn't think to get out the camera until almost all 30 plates were loaded.  Yep, 30!  I slave all day making mountains of treats and usually my own poor little kids don't get any.  This year I decided to make a round 2 because my kids are worth it!

 Wouldn't you just love finding this plate of festiveness on your front porch?

I like to call it "Christmas joy on a plate!"  They're a joy to make and a joy to give.

I hope they bring Christmas joy too!