10 of My Top Reasons Why I should never shop the week of Christmas!!!

And when I say "shop" it is not for gifts because that has been done for weeks--I am simply saying shop for groceries.

1. My optimism is shot when I see the parking lot of Costco is full only after being open 10 minutes AUGH!
2. I have to take at least one child with me so that Kylie can babysit at home--EEW
3. I have to come home before making the last stop to make sure Kylie is ok, and that Tanner gets fed lunch (important!)
4. DREAD!!!DREAD!!! Going to Walmart for the staples DREAD!!!DREAD!!!
5. when I finally get there---I see a parking spot close to the front---only to have someone come down the wrong way AND BACK INTO IT!!! ( really?)
6. Have to park at the back just like everyone else crazy to shop at Walmart
7. At my age I have to have Eli remember what aisle we parked in, I dont want to have to click my alarm to find my way back.
8. I hate standing in line---then to top it off I get the person who is in "Holiday Training"
9. A round about is NOT a merge stop in the middle type of road---just keep on going--don't wait for us to have to stop because if I keep on going I will hit your front end of your car because it is sitting in my lane.
10. And last but not least why not to shop the week of Christmas.....You have to come home and put it all away---then put on a happy face because it is time to go caroling!!!!!!

Listen to our Favorite Song this year!

This is one of favorite songs this year. Hope you enjoy it as much as we do. Merry Christmas!

So what is next?

As if our lives are not busy, lets add something else. This coming Saturday, my piano students will be performing Mozart, and Christmas songs for their recital. This has been 6 months in the making. My goal was to have ALL students play Mozart, so in able to do that I had to arrange 6 songs for the beginner students. I am so excited to see them all perform.

Way to go Tyson!

Tyson joined a choir group this past couple of months. He has had many performances, but this is the first one we took our camera too. His group sang at the Annual Lacey Sing along! His group will be on t.v. this coming week. He did great! I will post them as soon as I can shrink the size of them.

Lets try a new tradition--A carmel popcorn house?

Ok, so I sound a little scared of this idea, well I won't say that, just scared of the mess!, and that it was! But is was very fun. Taking carmel corn, and molding it into Christmas trees, and a house, and Santa's sleigh. Then decorating it with candy. The kids had alot of fun. And it was fun seeing Tom as excited as he probably was when he was a kid.

THE DAY IS FINALLY HERE!!!!!!!!

So we FINALLY got my "Auctioned 26$ " Christmas Tree. I was so excited to go. What would I get? How many to choose from? What will it look like? So many questions, Come on family lets go!!!! Augh, we finally got there. There was 3 acres to choose from. SO many from short, tall, bushy, thin etc. There it was the tree that I wanted. Tom took out the measuring stick---to tall 15 feet. Well lets keep going. So as we walked the normal height just looked to short ( a weesly 8 foot tree) Tom looked at me and said " Dedra, you are limited to a 9 1/2 foot tree" Ok, well that eliminated alot of trees. Then as I walked up the hill there it was ( again) my tree. Come on Tom measure the tree!!!!???????? AUGH! It was 10 foot, but who cares that is the one I want. We can shave the bottom. So off to get the chain saw, TIMBER! It was ours. YIPEE! Lets get this small tree home. So when we got home I had to help get it off the car, oh man it was HEAVY! Now when you are not surrounded by 15-20 foot trees , our tree was a little big, you can say I had very very big eyes. In fact, we had to cut off the bottom to make it fit in our tree stand. My beautiful tree had a crooked stump, that it gave us problems for a while! What is the solution in the end? The tree is propped up with books on one side. So when you look at the pictures tilt you head to the left and smile. It was so fun we are going in July to tag our tree for next year! I can't wait!

The day after we got home from Coeur D Alene........

I was asked this year to put on our Ward's Christmas Dinner, which happen to be 5 days after our return for Thanksgiving. It was alot of work---and yes I am very glad it is over. It was well attended, we served 300 people, with food to spare. The Menu: Honey glazed ham, baked potatoes, rolls, Caesar salad, Spring Salad with feta, walnuts, craisons, and a Poppy seed vinaigrette, and ofcourse we can't forget dessert, it was a yummy Brownie bar with ice cream and all the toppings. Tom and I thought we would throw in a "Mormon Jello Contest" for fun. As you can see we had many jellos that came! Kylie wanted to make her own, she did great. She made a candy cane. She was chosen to be the winner for the night! (It was the bishopric who judged) And what was the grand prize? Ofcourse "A CARROT GRATER" would you expect anything else for a mormon jello contest?

TANNER IS WALKING!!!!!!

The day that we have been waiting for came Thanksgiving week! Tanner is walking. He does great. He definitely has balance issues, but he is walking without assistance. Way to go Tanner!

Thanksgiving---Ok lets play catch up!

Thanksgiving was another fun trip to Coeur d Alene Idaho. Ever since Tom and I have been married I think I have missed 1 maybe 2 Thanksgiving with my family. It has been a tradition for the Annual "Girls" Black Friday shopping trip. This year was no exception. WE all agreed NOT to shop at the wee early hours--but we all settled for 4:45 am. (Yes this is late for us) All of us got what we needed and was a successful trip.



It It was fun to be with cousins for "Grandma and Grandpas gingerbread house decorating" I do have to say that my brother's wife Autumn put on a WONDERFUL Thanksgiving dinner. The children ( all under the age of 13) had a seperate room for eating, and the parents had to dish them up to make sure we would not be interrupted for our formal dinner. We ate with GLASS dishes (for us a big step) A champagne glass for a drink, a glass for water, a salad plate, a roll plate, and then the regular entree plate. We had many, silverware to choose from, and to top it off a beautiful napkin ironed and pressed into a design. The funnest part was yes no kids, but our place setting was a double dipped carmel apple with our name on it. Then we ate family style instead of the usual buffet style. We were all pretty stuffed at the end, and dessert was not necessary for most. But plenty of pies were available!