Home Made 3D Glasses

This girl made her own 3D glasses out of some clear red and blue candy wrappers, a popsicle stick and a toilet paper tube cut in half.  Clever kid! She tried them out with a blue/red 3D Barbie movie we have and it worked!

December: Christmas Jammies!

I think this is the most successful Christmas Jammies photo we've ever had!

 These "Forever Lazy" jammies I got for DMP was the BEST $5 I've ever spent. He is such a good sport and let me even take a picture of him.  He looks like a blue oompah loompa.  He was impressed with the zipper bum flap, though...

Of course we had to leave cookies and milk out for Santa (and carrots for the reindeer!)

December: Christmas Eve Dinner- With Pig Brains!

Our friends, the Rabners, invited us over for Christmas dinner.  They do something really out of the box and special for Christmas every year (last year they roasted a goose!).  This year they ordered a whole pig to roast!  They decided against cooking it in a pit, because they were concerned it wouldn't cook all the way because of their inexperience, so they hacked it apart (seriously- I saw pictures!) and smoked some, roasted some and even cooked the head.  As you can see, it was a huge hit with the kids :)

Baby Lily even volunteered to kiss "Charlotte".  Note- This pic is as far as she got. I think she got close and realized "What am I doing!?!?"

Aside from The Pig, the food was amazing! You can't beat having friends who own a smoker :)  There were also awesome sweet potatoes with pecans (and I don't even LIKE sweet sweet potatoes!) fondue, salad, and Vietnamese spring rolls (our contribution, naturally). Laugh all you want about the spring rolls- they were a huge hit and everyone gobbled them up!

Naturally, given the availability of pig brains, we had to try them (and dare others to try it- including talking one of the elders into it!).  Another friend said it was like sucking a crawdad head and it was supposed to be the best part of the pig.  We smeared a bit on a cracker and it was OK.  The texture was nice and creamy, but the taste was very iron-y and organ-y.  Like liver patte, apparently. DMP went back for seconds (!) and another woman at the party who likes liver had some more, too. So I guess if you like liver (or don't think it is gross...) you will enjoy some pig brain.

I did find out that just after Christmas, my Dad offered to pay the grandkids $5 each to eat a bbq mealworm.  He had to pay out a lot of dough!  I wish I had called him before I ate pig brains for free. I wonder how much that would be worth?!?

Between dinner and dessert (crepes! So yummy and easy for a party!) we played a Rabner Christmas game called the Reindeer Race.  Each person picks a reindeer name and then they "race" against each other to see who can tear through a 2-3 in. strip of newspaper the fastest without going off the edge of the paper (i.e. it has to be torn completely from top to bottom without veering off on a diagonal).  It was surprisingly fun for such a simple concept! I think we'll add it to our Christmas fun in the future!

After the reindeer games we participated in a Philips family tradition: Acting out the Christmas story.  Everyone, including adults, dresses up and participates in the retelling.  It isn't very reverent, but it was a lot of fun.

Baby Lily played the part of Jesus' nanny this year. She is very into her baby dolls and did NOT want Mary to hold, touch, or move baby Jesus. It was so funny!  The best part is that when we were driving home, EJ said "I don't remember in the scriptures where it says Jesus had a nanny...."  Nothing like some good false doctrine with our Christmas!

Here is our fabulous cast of party goers (not pictured: DMP, the narrator).  We had so much fun with our friends and we feel so blessed that we have such great people to celebrate with!

December: Pre-Christmas Dinner & FHE with Friends

We got together with some of our favorite Texas family, the Millers, for a little pre-Christmas FHE dinner.  We both were going to another friend's house to celebrate Christmas eve, so we wanted to get together and share our families Christmas eve traditions before! 

Amanda's family always has a really yummy Mexican soup with hominy and pork called Pozole.  Her grandparents met while they were living in Mexico, so her family has some Mexican traditions.  It was my first time eating hominy and I LOVED it. I'm now looking for other ways to eat it!  The soup was yummy, and you add lime, salsa, lettuce, sour cream and whatever you like to it!

We continued our international-themed Christmas traditions with our Christmas Crackers.  This is one of our favorite things to do on Christmas eve.  Everyone enjoyed "cracking" them!

Bear wasn't too thrilled with the "crack" but he sure liked the prize inside!

When we broke out the paper hats, things got a little crazy (also, best photbomb by Bear, ever!)

We took turns reading the jokes and asking the trivia questions and a good time was had by all!

Bear's Cozy Spot

Bear spends a lot of time in his little cozy spot between the ottoman and the couch. He plays "guys" there, watches TV and plays the tablet. It's also a great place for a 3 yr old to make his own tent.   He also is really into snatching Mom's Diet Coke and this is his special hiding spot where he gulps it down before he is caught. Adorable. 

P.S. He wants everyone to know this is his "mean" face.

December: Fire Truck Santa!

In our town, our Fire Department gives Santa a ride around the whole town- sirens and horns honking and Christmas music blaring.  It takes several nights and you don't know exactly *when* fire truck Santa will come down your street. It is one of our favorite Christmas traditions! For many nights before he comes to your street, you can hear the sirens and horns on streets nearby. We spent a lot of time on the porch or front yard listening to see if it was getting closer or further away.  The Mom's on our church FB page report when they see/hear him on their streets and everyone has a lot of good old-fashioned Christmas anticipation!

This year we spent a couple of nights outside, listening.  Of course, as luck would have it- he came to our street when DMP was delivering goodies.  As they were driving home, the heard him as he was passing our house! The kids were super-bummed, but Daddy saved the day and hurried to the next street over and parked so the kids could wave and get candy.  Bear wouldn't get out of the car- it was too loud and scary!

The best part of fire truck Santa is that we live quite close to a fire station, so we hear sirens a lot when they go out on calls. Every time, Bear looks up hopefully and says "Fire truck Santa is coming!!!"

Christmas: Ward Party

I can't possibly share in one blog post how much these people mean to me! I love, love, love our Ward- the Lewisville 1st is amazing (P.S.- In our church our congregations are called "wards").  I have learned so much, made such good friends and have really felt like they are my TX family.  I know these aren't great pics of them, but I *DID* get on a chair and hollered for them to smile and wave, but they were too interested in the FOOD.  We do food really, really well in this ward!

Check out the smoked turkey- so good (and the gravy from a smoked turkey? Awesome) and a couple of sweet potato dishes.

These two ladies are my example for what I want to be like if I'm blessed to make it to my 80's. Jo, on the right, is learning to play piano, and I see her at the gym.  Connie (left) is fantastic and funny and both of them took shooting lessons together and do other things to have fun!

Here is our family. Bear didn't want to be in the picture. We got our festive attire at the Dollar store. Except DMP- he is a humbug.  Also, I know I'm chubby (what!?!? you are all thinking it). I'm working on it :)

Bear was in love with his tie. It has a button you press and it plays "Jingle Bells" in that annoying high-pitched beep.  His hat is his sisters, but I think he is rocking it.

Bear partying with BFF Mikey.  He and the other teens grabbed Bear and I pretty much didn't see him all evening. I'd call that a success!  Also, there is a Dad in our ward who does balloon art, so we got him to do ballons for the party and it was a total success. The kids had a blast, he taught some of the youth how to do it and it was really fun!

The Ward party even included a visit from SANTA!  The kids all got to take turns telling him what they wanted, Our YW designed and painted the backdrop.

We love our ward so much. It is great to party with them and we are so, so blessed that we moved where we did so we can be a part of the amazing LV1!