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Christmas Bells are Ringing!


Christmas time is here!

little musings of the holiday are spread throughout the house, my favorite thing to do is to nest in my home :)
 I got to decorating after the thanksgiving weekend was over while my mom was still here.

this little ornament has a history: I went to a holiday faire with my mom when I was in the 3rd grade and she had our new house number painted on it from the home my parents built in Solana Beach.
 I credit this ornament for making me love small, cute cottages :)

decorated the front door to what I am now calling the Greenhouse
Green door, green house...obvious name

to start the month off, our youth made a temple trip down to the Los Angeles temple. Audrey and Henry were able to attend. The leaders said it would be COLD. I think they still have their Colorado blood though :)


I can't believe I did this.
I. Bought. An. Artificial. Christmas. Tree.
Talk about guilt!
I have never had one, we have always had live trees and made an event out of picking them out. 
So why did I do this?
I don't know. I thought it would be too hot and it would die.
 I thought Clay would be out of town too much and we wouldn't get one til too late.
But, it's flocked...yay! Easy to set up and 9 feet tall :)
A keeper for now

my mom and I modeling it before she left for home

a christmas party was had down at the church and Santa came.
Guess who wanted to still take his photo with him and say what he wanted for Christmas?


The last couple of years our holidays have changed. 
When you do a winter sport and season starts, it's staying at home or going to tournaments(she gets to go to one up in San Francisco on the 26th) and practice everyday. 
Also, she made the paper. They are 2-0 in league and she had a double digit game last night; 14 pts, 12 rebounds, 5 steals.
She was on fire!

the 3 youngers nestled in bed and reading a book together :)


more holiday cheer around the house!


Chester's cub scout pack did community service by caroling at a retirement home in Santa Clarita,
it warmed my heart!


I met Byrd Holland at the retirement home.
He was a movie actor and make up artist. He told me lots about his life and with it, stories of Hollywood! He mugged this shot with me. He was so fun to listen too. 

our 2 days of winter weather

it gets near low 40's sometimes with some rain but everyone from here said this storm lasted longer than normal :)
So it is mainly pleasant to hot to never not hot here!
I will take any cool days I get.


Audrey had her first school dance, it was a masquerade winter ball. She met her girlfriends there and had so much fun!


stop taking my picture MOM

I tried to give her a cute but cool hairstyle, think it worked!


Next day I took Lucy out to Covina for a tournament. Covina borders Glendora, where I was born. And also, this is the in n' out my Mom took me too when I was 6 years old! I remember feeling so special and excited. This is an old one(ouch, I'm old according to in n' outs) so it has only 2 drive up windows and one walk up window...no sit down. 
Also, I could see Mt. Baldy from the drive thru with snow on it and loads of childhood visuals came back to me just like that!

Audrey and I popped over to Glendora to see my childhood gumdrop trees!


there were carolers and carriage rides and the trees were all lit up :)


Moving along, Clay hosted his first holiday company party.
 There were extra tickets so he invited employees to bring their kids!
 It was fun to be there and see him in action. 


we forgot this prize for the party so we got to keep it...




around the house...

we had a free night and watched cheesy movies

the paper whites bloomed and boy are they fragrant,
 borderlining on giving me a headache, haha

Henry had a choir concert

he will only mock my photos...he actually quit choir and will be doing theatre 2 after auditioning for it

I helped Lucy hold a candy cottage building night with some of her girlfriends from school :) the weekend before finals


Audrey and Chester waited patiently for them to be finished to start their own cottages.

Audrey's before most of the candy. She was really into building the fence and roof that was pitched out, "the perfect place to put my piles of candy" !

He literally is pained to do most things creative with his sister but the candy enticed him in the end :)

Chester is happiest playing sports!
He made a team after trying out. He was 2nd on a wait list but the coaches watched him and wanted him right away. Clay and I met the coaches, we both noticed this was the happiest we have seen him since we moved here.
Christmas miracle!

I took the time to do one craft for myself. 
It took all of 20 minutes but I like how these pomanders turned out!

We are waiting for Christmas, waiting to spend the next week with each other, waiting to slow down, waiting to have some fun and hopefully feel the spirit more of the season. 
For me Christmas is these next few days.
 These are the days I look forward to all year:)


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