Countdown Day 22

Cookies, Cookies, and more Cookies!!!!! Decorating cookies at Grandma nd Granpa K's house is a yearly must!!!







And this year we stayed and watched a movie too!!!! Popcorn anyone?!?

Countdown day 21

We love Pizza Sam's!!!! Sitting around visiting and watching them make pizza, it is probably one of our most favorite family traditions that was actually started by my parents. So again tonight we went there for dinner and came home and read The Christmas Story in Luke 2.

So shocked!!!

With weeks before school starting I was getting anxious because all of my children would be in school for 2 half days a week. I know most moms would welcome the child free time but I was on the verge of tears thinking about it. I decided then I would keep myself busy and had a list of things I was going to do. I accomplished many and 1 I just didn't get to in time, but there is alwasy next year for that one.

One of the first things on my list was to start freelancing. I have never been much of a writer believe it or not, but I have been told on numerous occasions I need to write a book. I am not in a place in my life right now to write a book but I thought if I spent 2 hours a month writing and submitting I did have time for that. I started off really good..ideas were flowing and then came the swine flu.... since then I have not done much with it. However before the swine flu arrived in our home I had submitted one article and I just recieved the acceptance letter and the check for it. Can I say I am SHOCKED!!!! Truly shocked!!! I never would have thought I would ever do anything like this and I love it!!!!

Countdown Day 20

I have been sick since Friday night all of a sudden I was sick with no voice(not good!!!) but I was given a respite for the party and by the time I returned home I collapsed on the couch until someone kindly brought us dinner tonight...Thank you Thank you!!!!

Tonights fun was delegated to dad and I had some things up my sleeve for just these occasions. They made "gingerbread" houses but not and old gingerbread house rice krispie gingerbread houses and the kids were thrilled!!!

Countdown Day 19

Obviously I couldn't put in our countdown on day 18 that Santa was going to bring his key so what was in the box was a sleepover with Grandma K which began with a trip to Pizza Hut. Which left my hubby and myself open for a date. Yummy food, great movies, and a craft project make a great night!!!

Day 19 was my Grandma's Christmas party. There were roughly 27 people missing but look at everyone that were there:




Dinner, visiting, singing Christmas songs, listening to the CHRISTmas story, and opening presents was enjoyed by all and we miss those that weren't there!!!!

Nativities??????

Our church recently had a Naativity open house with hundreds of Nativities. My children loved seeing all the different ones but none of them got my sons wheels spinning like the bionicle one that was there. Here are his versions:






Our church recently had a Naativity open house with hundreds of Nativities. My children loved seeing all the different ones but none of them got my sons wheels spinning like the bionicle one that was there. Here are his versions:

Countdown Day 18

Today Santa is going to make a visit and leave the ever prized "magic" key!!! We have no chimney so the kids receive a key before Christmas and a letter from Santa praising them for how good they have been this year and giving them some things they could work on to be extra good this time of year. Then on Christmas Eve along with leaving out cookies and reindeer food the key is hung on the door so Santa can open the door and leave their gifts under the tree(it only works for Santa that is the magic part)!!!

Countdown Day 17

Today while David was working we wrapped his presents and read a Christmas book!!! Not so exciting the last few days but time together is time together...but the kids have been so excited everyday just to be able to do something special big or small!!!!

Countdown Day 16

While I was taking a bubble bath David was teaching them the song Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer.

I have been teaching them the song Picture A Christmas since Day 1 of the countdown which was supposed to be pulled early in the countdown but it was decided we were going to work on it everyday until they all knew it by heart and that mission has been accomplished!!!!

Countdown to Christmas Day 15

Tonight is YM's and so it is a busy night around here and we are without David and Christian. SO after school we made these:

Elder Peterson Cookies



These cookies got the names from The Joker. The Elder that taught and baptized me loved these cookies I made and so the name has stuck through all these years Elder Peterson Cookies!



1 12 oz chips
¼ butter
1 can sweetend condensed milk
2 C flour
1 tsp vanilla
1 bags Hershey Hugs

Melt butter add milk and chips until chips are melted add vanilla. In a large bowl add chip mixture to flour; mix until flour is mixed in. Unwrap Hugs and wrap them in a 1 inch ball of your chocolate mixture. Bake at 350 for 6 minutes. DO NOT over cook. They will look shiny and look not done but believe they are. Let cool on pan for 5 minutes and let finish cooling on wire racks.

And after they leave for YM's we will watch the following:

Create

Create

I love this talk from President Uchtdorf and this video is amazing!!!

Countdown Day 14

First we went and ate at new little restaurant in our town. It was fun! There were games at every table and the kids had a blast!!!

Then kids are going shopping with dad tonight and I will be getting done all that needs to get ready for the kids class parties!!!!

Countdown Day 13

Okay I have been gathering all the items for making gingerbread houses and was oh so confident that I had plenty of frosting in my food storage and so today when I went to grab it before announcing it was time to open the next number....I was wrong and not only did I have no frosting I had no powdered sugar to whip some up with. UGGHHH, no gingerbread houses today!

Luckily for me I had read all these fun ideas in the Family Fun magazine the day before so they were fresh in my mind and one of them had jumped out at me. We always at this time of year go over the proper gift etiquette and as hard as the younger ones try I know there have been some missed thank yous and such statements as I think this is for someone else or simply tossing the gift aside. I knew one of our numbers was going to be this activity of a lesson on gift etiquette and lucky for me someone had an ingenious idea and the kids LOVED it!!!

This is the idea(I forget now what the game was called):

You need as many empty gift bags as people in your family(I labeled them one for every member of our family)and then laid them face down for everyone to choose one and not their own. Then we all went running through the house to find a "gift" for the person whose name was on the bag and ran back to the table. When we all got back we gave each other our "gifts" and then you had to look at the person and say thank you using their name and say something nice about the "gift". They had so much fun running around the house and they wanted to do it over and over again. By the end they were more excited about what they were trying to find the person and to hear the nice thing they were going to say than they were about what was in their own bag...this game was priceless and I am sure we will be playing it many more times over the next couple of weeks!!!!

Countdown Day 12

With all feeling swell we were off to have Christmas with my dad. He reserved rooms at a hotel and my sisters and their families came and my grandparents and we had fun together! Swimming, eating, and playing games!!!

Countdown Day 11

Okay this night we were going to the Ward Christmas party and then a fever came creeping up so we stayed home and played one fo our favorite games:



It is fun to learn interesting things about each family member. This is always a fun family night game too!!!!