Christmas Time 2011

Putting Up the Trees
There's something magical about bringing out the tree and hanging the ornaments while listening to Christmas music.

Here's our new family tree, still with clumps of ornaments at the bottom from our ever-willing decorators...

And with the purchase of a regular-sized tree, the girls inherited our "D.I. special" mini tree for their bedroom. Of course, they really liked that!

Here's our famous nose-warmer that Paul gave me after our first date. It gets hid all December long, and when you find it, you get to find a new hiding place. Unfortunately, the last hiding place was a little too good. We haven't seen it for awhile!

Advent Sundays
Here's our first Advent Sunday. On each of the four Sundays before Christmas, we light candles for our special Christmas thought and treat. This is one of our favorite Christmas traditions!

Making Christmas Gifts
This year, we really wanted to focus on teaching our daughters the joy of giving. We recycled old crayons and melted them into beautiful Christmas crayons for a few of their friends.

And for gift tags, they made some beautiful ornaments.

First they painted stripes on a big paper...

Then we traced and cut out ornaments, and added glitter designs...
 

And last we added decals. They turned out so cute that they didn't want to give them away. I had to remind them that we give away things that we like. They wrote notes on the back to personalize them, that were quite precious. And our favorite part was caroling as a family when we delivered them.

Millie's Christmas Outfit
(I just had to slip this one in) On the day of their school Christmas sing-in, Millie was wanting to wear Halloween striped tights with a purple skirt and a random colored shirt. She really just wanted something fun and different to wear. I convinced her that she should try to wear something with Christmas colors. When I suggested looking in at Claire's closet, she got excited. She found this dress (24 mo.) and turned it into a shirt. She looked as cute as can be!

Here she is in it back in 2007...

Candy Houses
This year, the girls got Grandma's full, undivided attention and help in making their own candy houses. That was good bonding time, and they turned out so cute! After all these years, Grandma is a pro at this!

Afterward, we got to read Christmas books with Grandma and Grandpa...

Thatcher Family Christmas Party

 

Yorgason Family Christmas Party

Christmas Morning

We've got proof that Santa really came...

What a great neighbor gift--reindeer food! Looks like Rudolf and the gang enjoyed it!

Reminiscing
We found this picture of the first Christmas we were married. This Paul's first year at a Yorgason family gingerbread-making party, and our first gingerbread house together. Although it is typically a competitive event in which "bigger is better" and uniqueness is a must, we went for a normal, modest-sized home with stability and character. Paul's influence on me is great!