Snowflake Party Pictures

Last Saturday my sisters and I hosted a Christmas party for several of our friends from church.

We called it a "Snowflake Party" because our craft for the day was making snowflakes from paper! Not the nonsensical, randomly cut up pieces of paper like when we were kids, but intricate, delicate ones made from patterns!

We had so much fun planning for the party, and Ali took great pictures, so I thought I'd post them.

Even the dry erase board got decorated....

This was my magnum opus...

Creating a a station where everyone could create their own personalized cup of cocoa with all the fixin's.






Ha! And we tease the boys about eating alot.....

What's a party without games? And better yet, an icebreaker game to get the ball rolling!

In this case, our icebreaker game was a relay with two teams. Each team member had to unwrap and eat a Hershey's Kiss wearing a giant pair of snow gloves!

We had about 13 girls.


Snowflake time!!!


Cut them out, flatten for a few minutes under a giant textbook, (the best use I've found for biology yet!) and decorate with lots and lots of glitter; all the while gabbing with sweet friends and drinkin' the good stuff. (and yes, I mean hot cocoa....)

Next game... pass the gift that's wrapped in who-knows how many layers of paper. When the music stops, whoever has it unwraps one layer. Whoever takes off the last one gets the prize.

Lovely, lace-like snowflakes.



Finish up the afternoon singing Christmas carols around the piano.

(Those who can't sing can just play violin...)

What a fun time we had celebrating this fun season!!!

Merry Christmas! (kinda early?)

The day after Thanksgiving. Known as Black Friday to most of the U.S.

But at our house we call it...Christmas Decorations Day! (Yeah I know, that title was really a stroke of genius.) But we look forward to this day almost as much as Christmas itself! While many people dread the day due to the crowds, traffic, irate customers, too little sleep and over all chaos, for the most part, we stay huddled in our cozy, comfy little house. We dig out the first Christmas music of the year, (Bing Crosby and Frank Sinatra please!) and the decorations come out! (He's SO CUTE!!) lol, I was so born in the wrong era...

Our decorations and ornaments are like old friends...

When they come out each year, so do all the memories! This is the ornament replicating our cruise ship from a last year!

Lots of Christmas music.




Don't forget the wreath on the door!

"Hmm.... How can I take this picture so they can't see the dishes in the sink??"

So what are your day after Thanksgiving traditions? Are you a shopper? A holiday decorator? An eat-the Thanksgiving-leftovers-er? Or just a hang-out-with-the bottle-of-PeptoBismal- thanks-to-yesterday-person? I'd love to hear your traditions, so drop me a comment and let us all know!

Happy Thanksgiving

But Thanks be to God, who giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. ~ 1 Cor. 15:57

Worthy is the Lamb who was slain, to receive power, and riches, and honor and glory and strength, and honor and glory and blessing! ~Revelation 5:12

Thou hast given so much to me,
Give one thing more, - a grateful heart;
Not thankful when it pleaseth me,
As if Thy blessings had spare days,
But such a heart whose pulse may be Thy praise.
~George Herbert

Christmas Cookies and Decorating

Sorry I haven't been blogging lately, but I am subject to a crazy schedule (as we all are this time of year) But the time I haven't spent blogging has been spent in enjoyable holiday hubub and activities. Some of my favorite things to do at Christmas time are bake cookies, and decorate.
So... today was cookie bakin' day. Shortbread, Cherry Flips and Almond Roca for starters. (Yes you can make your own Almond Roca, oh so yummy!)

Oh umm..that's not Crisco...umm...really. OK, OK, it is Crisco shortening. But the ONLY time we use shortening is in Christmas cookies and lighter desserts were you can taste the lard. Promise!

Cherry mice and peanut butter thumbprints are up next.

Mrs. Williams gave me this adorable idea for holiday candle holders. Cranberries is canning jars with tea lights in the center. SO cute!

Ready for the tour? Welcome to the 'House of Christmas' as we like to call it. :)



Mom and Daddy's mistletoe. :) Like they needed another excuse...

The Christmas tree looks the same as it does every year, but our angel is on straight this year, this year we're not going to let her fly. :)

Hand crocheted angels made by my great-grandma for each of us girls.

My mother has hand embroidered each of our beautiful stockings.



So the tour wasn't that long right? Thanks for hangin' in there with me. This could very well be my last post until after Christmas, unless something absolutely incredible happens.

(i.e. It snows six feet, Ali sits on her Guinea pig, or I win the lottery. which would be amazing since I don't play the lottery)

It was always said of him that he knew how to keep Christmas well, if any man posessed the knowledge. May that be truly said of us, and all of us! And so as Tiny Tim observed, "God bless us, every one!" ~Charles Dickens

So Merry Christmas my dear blog readers!

Blessings this Christmas,

Emily

Weddings, Holidays and Shopping.

The ol' blog has been mighty silent lately. Weddings, company, Thanksgiving etc, have all conspired together against blogging. But at least here's a bit of what I've been up to lately.

The best part of all the hubbub was the Marriage of Jon and Kelsie. Now Mr. and Mrs. Criss

So sweet! I wonder who will be next in our group to get married...?

Our friends the Moores stayed with us for three days, and as usual we had so much fun having them with us. Games, walks, fiddling, (aka 'jammin' ) and discussing theology are some of our favorite pastimes with them. We look forward to their visits so much. They are a joy to be with.

You can visit their fiddling website here: http://www.siblingstrings.com/

But now that the craziness is over, we have two days of vacation! This week mom and the girls and I are kicking off our Christmas shopping with our annual tradition. Two full days of shoppin' till we're dropin', starting with the Victorian Country Christmas, a huge Christmas fair down at the Puyallup fair grounds. (complete with our standard lunch; homemade chicken salad on Cost-co croissant rolls, Mmmmmm!)

We hang out the rest of the day in Puyallup and spend the night in a nearby hotel. The next day, we head out for Ikea, and then the Alderwood mall. Heading home usually around 9pm with Starbucks coffee in one hand, and shopping bags in the other. It's such a fun time, and very sweet memories are made with momma and sisters. No boys allowed. :) But they have fun guy stuff and lots of food to keep them happy.

So that's what I'll be doin' tomorrow and Thursday. Oh, and then the Messiah concerts on Friday and Saturday night! Ahh, busy, busy holidays. Tis' the season. And I'm lovin every minute of it.

Happy Holidays!!

Christmas is not a date, it's a state of mind. ~M.E.C.

A Christmas tree with lights, and a new floor!

One of my favorite Christmas-time sights is our beautiful tree, lit and decorated, and decorated and DECORATED! Our poor tree has so many lovely ornaments, it looks like it might fall over! But we love it, and think it's perfect!

And we all love our angel, but because of a few technical difficulties, she leans forward! Maybe she'll fly this year! :)

Does anyone else have all their Christmas shopping done? I do! And what a relief, it's always so good to have that done.

Dear me, I've been so busy, but I really can't think of anything else to post! But we're doing our annual Christmas cookie baking with my aunt and my grandma, so I'll blog about that!

I hope everyone is having a blessed Christmas season!

~Emily

Christmas is Just Around the Corner!

Hooray! My favorite season is finally upon us. I love Christmas, and everything about it. The music, the decorating, the family and friends, the music, the cookies...I get excited just thinking about it!

My siblings couldn't WAIT to put up the Christmas tree, and today we finally got to do it. But then, (there's always a "but then" in good stories right?) when we went to put the lights on it, only one little string would work! :( Daddy did every thing he could think of, but they are just too old. So the tree part will have to wait until we can get more lights, but there's still the nativity scene and all the other fun stuff to put up!

We decorated every available surface while we listened to everyone's favorite Christmas songs. Let it Snow, and Jingle Bell Rock remain two of our favorites!:)

Whew, What a mess! Decorations, nativity scene pieces, dead strings of lights all over the place!

And then I spilled this sparkle stuff ALL over the floor, Oops. I was wearing socks, and by the time I finished vacuuming up the sparkle, I had found a new meaning for the term twinkle toes!:)

It made us all giggle, and we laughed about twinkle toes for quite awhile!:)

I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving, and that you are all as excited for Christmas as we are!

With Love,

Emily