Sorcerer's Apprentice

Christmas!

We held our 4th annual cookie day with my sisters this year!  As usual, Reanna made some pretty scary cookies. James got to decorate his first cookie!  There was a lot of frosting and half-eaten candies, but he had a lot of fun.

Decorating his cookie.

After years of failed cheater houses, we decided to make our own. Martha Stewart provided the recipes and inspiration. They actually turned out amazing. Sadly, this is my first successful gingerbread house EVER.

On Christmas Eve we headed up to Salt Lake for the day. We walked around temple square for most of the day. We took James to the visitor's centers and the Beehive house. He had a lot of fun running around the Joseph Smith Memorial building and looking at the pretty trees and fountains.  We probably should have started a little later than we did because by the time the lights were turned on James was ready for bed! 

I made orange rolls after James went to bed and we unloaded the closets full of hidden presents.  I'm so grateful to all the people that knew of our situation this year and thought of him. I'm pretty sure he had the best Christmas ever!  THANK YOU THANK YOU to all my amazing friends!!  We are truly blessed. 

We have spent December studying the New Testament and reading about Christ to James. In the December Friend there was a tree with lots of little ornaments. Each ornament has a scripture that answers a question about Christ's birth. We would read one every night at dinner and let James put the ornament on the tree (with help).  He really loved this. We got this great book for Christmas about making Christ the center of the holiday in our home. We got some great ideas for next year and will be starting a wonderful new tradition next year!

At the PIE in Salt Lake City.

Christmas morning was awesome. I think I woke up first...pretty sure I did :) James ran out into the living room and just stood there with wide eyes whispering "wow" over and over again. It was so cute. He ran over to the powerwheels, hopped on and said "bye" and waved, like he knew he could drive it away! He's so funny. He's having so much fun playing with all of his toys.  He only had baby toys before and was very bored with them. I wish I had taken more pictures, but we have it all on video.

I hope that you all had a wonderful Christmas!  We're excited to start a new year and make new goals for our family.

Christmas Festivities

We have been so busy with Christmas festivities that I almost forgot I had a blog!
Here are some highlights of what we've been up to.

• Made Christmas cards for the elderly with my sister.
• Collected tons of clothing for poor children in El Salvador. Paul started the drive last week and sent the clothes home with one of his International employees.  With only 5 days we managed to collect more clothing then she could take with her!
• Made candy: caramels, chocolate covered cherries, orange truffles, mint truffles, fudge and divinity. whew! Thank goodness that's over with.
• Watched a million Christmas movies.
• James learned to say "ho, ho, ho!"  It's absolutely hilarious. Any time he sees anything remotely Christmas related he shouts it as loud as he can. It's awesome.
• Attended our Family Christmas Party.  It was our first year with the new tradition and it was a lot of fun. Yay for new traditions!
• Wrapped James' presents--Finally!

Now we're getting ready for Paul's work party tonight. We have our annual Sister's Cookie Day coming up and then we're spending Christmas Eve in Salt Lake (hopefully it's not freezing cold).  I have been really bad and haven't taken pictures of anything this year. I need to charge the camera battery and get on that probably.  Have a great Christmas everyone!