What's that smell???

Here comes another Christmas tradition - sheesh! we have a lot of these.

Christmas-time just would not be Christmas unless all of our senses were involved. This tradition is for the nose. We like to simmer a festive potpourri all month. The neighbors love to poke their head in to see if there's something baking because it smells SOOO good. "Sorry guys, it's not for eating!"

Here's the recipe:

Christmas Potpourri
orange peels
ground cinnamon or cinnamon sticks
water

Mix all ingredients in a sauce pan. Simmer on low for 1-2 hours. Replace ingredients each time you simmer. Enjoy!

Cheap Christmas Decor

Thanks to Rebecca for this great idea. She did a post about this free photo quality printables site (http://photos.vintageprintable.com/). Go there and check it out. Here's what I did:

1. chose my images from the site

2. saved them to my desktop

3. uploaded to Costco photos online

4. printed them in an hour

5. mounted them into $3 frames from WalMart

6. wa-lah! Christmas art!

(7. Now I have a spot to put some easily changeable seasonal art. I'm thinking something wintery for after Christmas...)

The Problem with the Tooth Fairy is...

So as you saw with the earlier posts, Logan lost one of his two front teeth this past Saturday. Logan was very excited about this, first because he likes the way he looks without the tooth (weird I know) and because he would be cashing in with the tooth fairy. The problem with the tooth fairy around the Ward home is that he/she is not that reliable. So we totally forgot to place some money underneath his pillow Sunday morning (we were enjoying sleeping too much), leading to a very deflated Logan when he woke up. Of course we felt like derelict parents because we had totally burst Logan's bubble.
We must not have felt too bad about it however, seeing as we totally forgot to do it again on Monday! What terrible parents! Jennifer came up with the great saving justification when she told a depressed Logan that, "maybe the tooth fairy takes the weekend off!" this was not the answer Logan wanted to hear, but he accepted it nonetheless.
He did get his money on Tuesday morning ($2.00), but being in a rush, I forgot to take the tooth and just left the money. Logan saw this and shouted, "this means the tooth fairy is coming back!" Feeling a little guilty already the tooth fairy did indeed return on Wednesday morning and this time left a dollar and did remember the tooth. Logan can't wait till the next tooth comes out...

"These are a few of my favorite things"

Homemade ornaments

Ornaments made by the kids

Christmas trimmings from the past
This one I made in 2nd grade

This tree topper I made when I was around 15 years old.


A new craft project.


The simplest nativity in the house.

A borrowed idea... Christmas gifts and festive words as decor above the cabinets!

What's your favorite this year?

Setting up Christmas 2008

One of our family holiday traditions is setting up the Christmas tree. We like to purchase the tree the weekend after Thanksgiving and then decorate it the next day. When Jeremy was a kid his mom made a big deal out of this event. She would make a special dinner. They would dine by candlelight. Christmas music would fill their house as they worked together to make a beautiful tree. That tradition has continued with our family.

I crafted a lovely centerpiece.

I set out a tablecloth. (That's when you know it is fancy at our house.)

Cook a delicious meal. We had dinner in a pumpkin, cheddar garlic biscuits, apple dippers and sparkling cider.

After dinner we watched a short Christmas DVD together then decorated the tree with all the kids' homemade ornaments, ornaments from my childhood and some new ones.

We give the kids their first gift of Christmas on this night - an ornament of their own to add to their collection. The kids love getting a gift at the beginning of the season. We were actually thinking ahead when we started this tradition. We plan to give them a box of their own ornaments when they finally move out and are on their own. Then they'll be able to decorate their own tree with memories on that first Christmas away from home.

What's Black and Blue and GREEN all over?

Well just on his eye anyway...

It's JACKSON! He got his first real black eye last week. I like to blame it on Uncle Matt who was playing Jackson's favorite rough and tumble game, but really it was just an accident. Jackson came down on the end table right on his eye bone. It swelled up and bruised up immediately. Then next morning he woke up with his eye swollen halfway shut and purple. It's going to take at least another week for it to go away completely. Maybe he'll be back to normal in time for Christmas pictures. Most likely he'll have a new shiner by then.

Choo-Chooed Out

Jackson has started an infatuation with these magnetic trains. He plays and plays with them all day long and refuses to stop until he is so exhausted he simply passes out. Grandma Karen has the biggest stash of these train pieces and he spends A LOT of time down at her house playing with them. He fell asleep standing upright in the middle of his train play. Maybe next time we should just put the track in bed with him.

The many faces of Logan

You may have noticed that we have an incredibly difficult time taking a family picture. I think I found the reason... it's LOGAN! He is a master at silly faces and even takes time to practice. Here is a small sampler of his creativity for your enjoyment:

"All he wants for Christmas..."

"...is his new front tooth. His new front tooth, oh his new front tooth!"

Logan lost his tooth last night just in time for the Christmas season. Perfect timing!

The Discovery Museum

We stopped at the Children's Discovery Museum on our trip down south. The kids love this place! You've been by it if you've driven down the I-5 to Orange County. It's the museum with the enormous black cube and dinosaur that you can see from the freeway.

We spent several hours there enjoying the bat display, the science rooms upstairs and down, and the outside dinosaur digging area. Matt & Aimee, Maree & Robert and all our kids were there. Here's a little slideshow from our fun day.