Popsicle Stick Christmas Trees

After recovering from food poisoning, I decided to eat my weight in cookies at the cookie exchange. Then we had a fun night with some good friends making Popsicle Stick Christmas Trees.

The big boys handled the hot gluing. 

At some point during the wild night, Nash must have grabbed my camera and taken a whole bunch of self-portraits like the gorgeous one above. 

Finally, we watched the autobiographical movie that our elf left for us.

Will Bake to Party

Tis' the cookie exchange season and I have two cookie parties in the next few days.  So, I spent most of today preparing for the first exchange which required a mere 6 dozen cookies per person.  I made these...

Pretzel Chocolate Chips
(These are the MOST perfect combination of salty and sweet.)

Recipe

(Adapted from this Source)

3 cups flour 

1 tsp. salt

1/2 tsp. baking soda

1 cup butter

1 cup brown sugar

2/3 cup sugar

2 eggs

2 tsp. vanilla

1 1/2 cups chocolate chips

1 cup slightly broken pretzels

Coarse Salt

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Combine dry ingredients and set aside.  Soften butter and combine with sugar, eggs, and vanilla. Add dry ingredients mix well. Add chocolate chips and pretzels.  Place on baking sheet and sprinkle with coarse salt/pretzel salt. Makes about 40 cookies.

Not only did I make 6 dozen cookies, okay more like 8 dozen cookies, we ate at least a dozen during the process. I also made frosting and filled up a hundred baggies in preparation for the cupcake decorating portion of our Church Christmas Party.

I made sure to remove all the air from the baggies and wrapped tape around the baggie just above the frosting.  Then at the party we just had to cut the tips off the baggies.  It made for relatively mess free cupcake decorating.

Finally, the elf packed the boys lunch today.

Would you Rather...

SOURCE

Today I asked the boys the questions above. Some of their responses were pretty funny.  This is what I learned about them today. Both would prefer to wear a Santa suit to school everyday for a week, which is great because they would both rather make presents for their family rather than buy them. They both prefer celebrating Christmas over their birthday. Nash would like to have Frosty for a friend while Atley prefers Rudolph.  They both would rather have a giant tree in their doorway to avoid any unwanted kisses from the "girls wandering around in the hall."  Atley wants tinsel for hair and Nash wants fingernails that light up.  They would much rather be home for Christmas and get presents than go to Disneyland.  Atley would rather do math problems, while Nash would rather write a five paragraph essay.  Nash would rather go to Bethlehem, while Atley would rather go to the North Pole because, "it isn't like Jesus is in Bethlehem anymore, but we all know Santa is at the North Pole."  Nash wants socks for Christmas as long as they are not church socks and Atley wants a dictionary, like a Star Wars Dictionary.  They would both rather get one big present instead of a bunch of little ones.  Uh, oh! I might be in trouble.  Nash would like to be an elf because he believes he is "cute like an elf." Atley wants to be a reindeer because they can fly.  They are both budding ballerinas who would rather dance in the Nut Cracker than watch it and while Atley prefers watching Christmas videos all day,  Nash wants to spend the day at the mall.

Here is what our magic seeds grew into...

A Few of My Favorite Things

Today we didn't have time to do anything very spectacular besides school, shopping, homework, dinner, some prepping for Nash's birthday party, a baby shower, and a Christmas story or two.  But, I did manage to walk around my house and look at all of our Christmas decorations.  I come from a long line of women who love Christmas, my mom and my Grandma Edgar in particular. When I got married my mom gave me lots of her old decorations which remind me of my childhood and how wonderful each Christmas season was for me.  My house at Christmas does not look like Pottery Barn, but it looks like the Christmas' I remember full of handmade ornaments, mismatched stockings, lots of color and especially memories.  I snapped some pictures of my favorite Christmasy things today and while I love all of my decorations (all eleven boxes worth) these are the best of the best because of the people and memories associated with them.

We have two Christmas trees. This one is the first artificial tree my parents bought. I remember being so upset about it and constantly spraying the tree scented spray that came in the box. It was our fancy tree growing up and now it is mine. It isn't so fancy anymore. In fact, a lot of ornaments have been broken and it stands only because Scott manage to rig it into a tire jack. Despite all of that, it still reminds me of the view from Main Street into our front room during the Christmas season.

My Grandma Edgar made this ceramic tree and gave it to my parents for Christmas in 1981.  I was just three and don't remember a Christmas without it.  One of my favorite things each year was putting the little plastic bulbs in the holes.  Now my kids love doing the same thing.

This was the first Christmas item I bought as a married woman. I got it at a craft fair in Provo. Scott and I had only been married for about six months. It reminded me of a similar felt advent my grandma always hung in her house.

My mom painted this years ago and at some point I inherited it. It reminds me of a time when we were living in Bolivia and took a painting class together. She was a natural and I totally sucked.  I think she let me quit when she realized how hopeless I was.

Our mismatched stockings!

The kids build a snowman village every year and play with the snowmen almost everyday.  It is by no means cute, but it is one of their favorite things.

My Christmas book basket is overflowing and I am so excited to read the books each year, sometimes a dozen times each.  Their favorite is Frosty the Snowman and The Berenstain Bears Christmas Tree.

These two items are just a couple of gifts I have received from my friend Shae over the years.  We don't see eachother very much and we have too many kids between us to really exchange gifts anymore, but I treasure our friendship and the memories that we have made throughout the years.

I have lots of lovely ornaments on my tree. I have lots made by the precious little fingers of my children, but this one is my favorite.  Atley gave it to me right after Nash was born. Perhaps it was the emotional state of just giving birth, but it made me so happy when I received it and each year when I hang it on the tree it makes me cry.  

The top of our piano is filled with creches some homemade some not.  Harley asks me to show her all of the baby Jesus' on a daily basis.

My little cousin Clay painted this pine cone tree for me when he was in preschool. He is seventeen now!

Okay, so I don't actually have BING in my house but Christmas is not complete without his music. My cousin April used to play this CD non-stop from Thanksgiving until Christmas when we were roommates at BYU. I can't hear Bing without thinking of her and how much I love her.

In other news, the Elf asked us to plant seeds today. Funny, but the seeds look an awful lot like Tic Tacs. I wonder what they will grow into.

Moustache's on Ice

Today we went to National Harbor to view this year's ice sculpting extravaganza. The theme this year was Shrek the Halls! Of course the kids only cared about sliding down one of the four slides made of ice.

   

Our naughty little elf showed up again last night and this is what he did...

Devotional & Gingerbread Houses

Our Elf generously left us Gingerbread House Kits last night. ( I think he picked them up from Trader Joe's.) 

So, we built our houses while watching the First Presidency Christmas Devotional.

My favorite part of this day was not when I dropped my IPhone in the toilet but when Harley asked me to take some pictures of her. 

She started striking the most hilarious poses and asking after each picture. "I'm so beautiful, huh mommy?"

Yes, sister. You are Beautiful.

Magazine Trees

After Family Home Evening last week we made some Christmas Trees out of Magazines.  There is a great TUTORIAL in this month's Family Fun. 

The kid's woke up to the toilet and even Harley's potty chair wrapped up in paper, all thanks to our naughty little elf.