December and Christmas

It always amazes me how fast time flies during the holidays.  I always feel like autumn comes and goes too quickly, but this year it has all just blown past.  It didn't help that from September through mid-December we only had one weekend as a family that didn't have major interruptions from either school or church.  We hardly got any family time during these 3 1/2 months.  That's partly why I haven't blogged as much lately - I've just been enjoying the time that we finally have together.

December started off very busy with our ward Christmas party which I was in charge of.  I meant to take more pictures of the decorations and the tables etc, but in the moment I forgot.  I did manage to get a quick picture of Emma with Santa.  It helped that I had gone back to make sure things started off smoothly when he arrived, and Emma totally cut to the front of the line.  Apparently no one noticed, so I just quickly grabbed the picture before running off to the kitchen again.  I remember thinking in that moment that I didn't really care if anyone noticed and if they were upset by her cutting - I wanted my picture and I couldn't wait around for it.  (How nice am I?)  The party seemed to go great, there was plenty of good food, and all the kids seemed to enjoy seeing Santa.  Yay!

Until Emma was finally out of school for the holiday the rest of the month seems like a blur.  I love how cozy our home is with the Christmas decorations up.  It always makes me sad to take them down.  Maybe this year I'll just leave them up for a while.

Christmas morning came and went quickly.  We opened presents and then went to church.  We then had dinner with our good friends the Longfields.  It was fun spending some time with them.  Then later in the afternoon we were home again and Emma was finally able to really dig in and play with her gifts.  She was seriously spoiled this year!  When we asked her what her favorite gift was she couldn't come up with just one thing.

Christmas Eve - everything is just about ready!

Christmas morning by her stocking in her new pj's

Christmas night she just couldn't decide which new friends to snuggle with.

This week between Christmas and New Year's has been wonderful so far.  Eric was able to take the entire week off.  He actually had the Friday before Christmas off too, and doesn't have to go back until the 3rd, so that will give us 11 days together as a family.  And after the fall we had we needed it.  And what have we done this week?  Practically nothing!  And we've loved every minute of it.  Not since our honeymoon have Eric and I had so much time together without a big itinerary of things to do or people to see.  It's been fabulous.  And Emma's loved it too.  Just getting to play with all her new toys and stay in her jammies every day.  Any time we ask about running an errand or going out and doing something, Emma just says she wants to stay home.  Okay by me!

We're looking forward to the new year and all the possibilities it holds.  We've been living here for a year now, and we've loved it so far.  Here's to another wonderful year with wonderful friends!

Thanksgiving

There just hasn't been any time for blogging lately.  I have never been so busy in my life.  The past few months have kept me running around like crazy.  I wanted to post more on here about November and Thanksgiving, but now I just feel like I better throw a couple pictures up before Christmas comes and goes!

This is a turkey hair clip I made for Emma at the beginning of the month.

Thanksgiving was very different for us this year.  We normally spend it with my family, but this year didn't travel back for the weekend.  So it was just the 3 of us.  It ended up being a wonderful holiday as usual - just different.  Eric went to play some football in the morning while Emma and I stayed home and set the table etc.  Eric and both love to cook, so it was a lot of fun doing all parts of the meal.  We've done several turkeys before, so there weren't any surprises or mishaps.  We did keep it pretty simple since it was just the 3 of us - we didn't need to have enough food for leftovers for a month!  We just kept it to the Turkey, stuffing,  mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, green beans, homemade cranberry sauce, rolls, and chocolate marble cheesecake for dessert.  For the dessert we went over to a friends house and shared our cheesecake and they shared some pies.  Delicious!!

Eric's plate was kind enough to pose for a picture for us.

And Emma loved it all - which a mom always loves to hear.  She even told me it was the best thanksgiving food she'd ever had.  Hear that rest of my family?  Apparently I rocked this year!  Either that or it's just because Emma helped with every part of the meal and that was her way of giving herself a backhanded compliment?  Hmm...