Christmas Adventures - catching up on posts #1

Steph was good to post about all of our Christmas adventures together. I'm just trying to catch up a bit. Here is Campbell at our dinner at the Red Iguana in Salt Lake City. (He learned to wave "Bye, bye" today. The Garners, Eli and Brenna, Brett, me, and my MIL went up to SLC to meet the Fords and eat and go to Temple Square to see the lights. We had a wonderful adventure! I love being with my family.
Steph and Brett.
Creed, Brenna, Logan, and Eli.
Steph, Margrett and Larry.
Mike and Marissa.
Mike showing off the great food.
Then it was off to Temple Square to see the nativity.
The Garners
The Salt Lake Temple.
Marissa and Campbell
More Marissa and Campbell
Eli and my soon-to-be daughter-in-law, Brenna. (Isn't she adorable. I tried to warn her about what she is in for with Eli but she's taking him away. I should take a picture of his room...you can't even walk in the door. He promised me an immaculate cleaning for my Christmas present but I've yet to see it. I gave up in his bathroom it myself. I can only stand to be grossed out so much if you know what I mean.)
Don't they make a handsome couple?
My incredible husband and I. (A women in one of the medical offices I visit for work made the headband for me. I love it and it really does keep my ears warm in all the cold weather we've been having.)
A glimpse of the lights and the temple.
Just hanging out and enjoying each other and the reflecting pool.

There were tons of people. It made for a festive holiday spirit.
My favorite temple. I just marvel at the details and craftsmanship. It beautiful.
Eli, Larry, and Creed
The Garners. Yes, it was cold!


The Fords. Creed was getting a little tired and cold. We left soon after this and had hot chocolate back at Stephanie's house. We missed having the Stringhams with us so we had to call them and call them and call them so they could still feel apart of the hoopla. It was so hard not having them here. Of course, they did miss out on having the 24 hour stomach flu that went through everyone, plus fevers and chills, and colds. Amazingly everyone got it all but me. Hey, someone had to stay standing...
Logan and I made snow out of this stuff. You just add water and stir and it expands. He loved it. He played with it for hours moving it from one bowl to the other and making more batches. It was worth every penny (and it wasn't expensive. I bought it at our local grocery store.) It is made to use in your holiday scenes and reallylooks alot like snow.

Don't you just loooove that hair? It's so crazy.
See, doesn't he look happy?
Here is a close up of this year's present wrap so I can remember what I did when I look back next year. (I may have to use the same paper for the next 5 years. Each roll is huge. Some of it we found last year after Christmas for $5 a roll. I think you can literally wrap 100 presents with one roll.)

Steph designed my tag for me. I think she should have Eva (her friend at Sycamore Press) letter press them and sell them. I think they are great! There were two different styles.

My husband and I always write things like this on our tags. It's a carryover from my Dad who always wrote romantic tags for my mother's packages. I loved it! My husband even does a great job wrapping my presents. This year he surprised me with small hand letter press and die cut machine. I even tried it out this week as I made book marks with this year's youth theme for my lesson in church today.
A few more Christmas decoration pictures. I packed everything away New Year's weekend. It was hard to see it all go. It made the house so cozy and homey. I loved watching movies with my husband with just the Christmas lights on.



So, this is the last year that you will see this wall in my family room. If all goes well it will be gone to make way for a new bigger family room. The old family room will become the library and extra dining area for parties.

Sorry, but I have a few more days of Christmas posts along with some gift ideas I loved.

How is everyone doing with their New Year's Resolutions? I love to think about my life and decide what I want to have happen for the coming year. When I told my friend and exercise partner that I wanted to loose weight for Eli's wedding, she asked, "What are you going to do differently." I've given that lots of thought about more than just weight loss....just food for thought. So, what are you doing differently?