Christmas Day 2011

Merry Christmas! It was our first Christmas in my parents' new house. A new setting, but our traditions remained the same. We took turns unwrapping our presents from Santa. I got a food dehydrator! Santa knows I don't like to waste food, so it's the perfect gift! I can dehydrate all that fruit Henry's mom gives me instead having to throw away what I couldn't eat in time. I also got a wooden crate with "potion bottles" inside! I'm a strange one, but I sure love glass bottles and rustic stuff. 

After a breakfast of yummy sticky rolls, we opened family gifts. I love giving these gifts as much as receiving! Thanks Santa and family. I love my gifts!

Our first look of what Santa brought.

Snip joining in on all the fun.

My potion bottles!

Haydie gave Danny some awesome Spongebob earbuds. We love Spongebob...

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We got to go to church on Christmas this year since it landed on a Sunday. It was so perfect getting to spend some time specifically reflecting on Christ. He is the true reason behind all the fun and joy of the Christmas season. He is the reason we're able to have happiness at all!

After church, I made everyone (except Paige who was out with a guy) take pictures on the back porch since I loved the scene and everyone was dressed nice for church, 

Kryssie

Danny

Haydie

Dad

Mom

Henry

Me

Merry Christmas everybody! 

Christmas Eve

Ah, such fond memories I have of Christmas Eve's past. As long as I can remember, we've gone out to breakfast and sometimes lunch with family then off to some fun activity. I remember going sledding some years and once I think we went over to the church gym and played basketball. This year, we went bowling!

Mom, Dad, and Danny with his puppy dog face.

Haydie got a spare!

Kryssie obviously did well on her frame as well!

Kryssie showing off the cornrows I braided on the side of her head.

My brothers bowling with the same frame at the same time. They both missed.

Nice form Henry!

My festive outfit topped off with sparkly tights and a bow!

Dad, me, Danny, Kryssie, Haydie, and Henry

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On Christmas Eve night we do a different event at each family's house: appetizers at one, dinner and music at another, and dessert and presents at Grandma's. Grandma has a tradition called a "Jack Horner Pie" that she always does on Christmas Eve. She ties a string to a small present for each of us, puts the presents in a big pot, covers the pot with wrapping paper except for a hole in the middle where the strings come out. On Grandma's count of "1-2-2 and a half-3!" we all pull our strings and get our presents. It's always so magical! 

Jack Horner Pie

Henry and me at my parents' new house. 

Mom and me

Me and Hayden. We laughed at how much we look alike. I found a picture of me when I was his age, and it seriously looked exactly like him! Not that you look like a girl Hayds... 

Kryssie and me

Me and my boys (Danny, Haydie, and dad)

Paigey sportin' her awesome gloves and jacket

After the festivities with the extended family, we go home and change into our pj's and set our blankets out for Santa to put presents on. Then Mom gives us our ornaments to commemorate some event from the past year and reads us a new Christmas book. My ornament for 2011 was a "shabby chic" scene that mom painted on a wooden ornament. Henry's was a Chinese snowman that mom painted to commemorate his trip to China last August. Then it was off to bed with sweet dreams of sugar plums dancing in our heads! 

Winter Tea Party

Henry and I drove to Utah to spend 10 days with my family over Christmas. While we were there, my mom hosted our first, hopefully annual, Winter Tea Party! It was a "girl's only" thing, and we had so much fun!

I was in charge of making the treats...

Tea cakes (aka sugar cookies). I thought it would be cool to have a stenciled snowflake pattern on them, so I cut a little paper snowflake and dusted powdered sugar through it onto the cookies. They turned out very snowy looking see?...

I also made a recipe called High Tea Lemon Cookies using lemons I picked from my tree and brought to Utah with me. I got a lot of compliments on them.

My favorite treat ended up being the Apricot White Chocolate Scones. They were yummy and looked so beautiful!

We had a few minutes before guests started arriving, so my sisters and I got a little creative with the blue napkins...

We cut out some snowflakes,

and I made some pom-poms!

The best part about the night was spending time with family. I tried to take a picture of everyone sipping their herbal tea...

Kryssie

Shan ( I love this picture by the way Shan!)

Lauren ("LaLa")

Sue

Paige

Mom

Grandma

Nicole and Paige

Me

Hayden and Dad joined us later on, even though it was a "girls only" party.

Dad's making a goofy face on purpose. He loved eating the lemons I brought!

Cheers!

Christmas Party at Noura's

Our first Christmas party was at Noura's. She always goes all out with the decor and food! This time a friend of ours, who happens to be a chef, did most of the cooking. It was amazing!

Love how she used wrapping paper as wall paper!

My brother-in-law Josh dressed up like Buddy the Elf!

Silly Justin and Henry in their ugly sweaters. Justin's looks like Christmas threw up on him!

Me, Kim, and Noura

Thanks for the party Noura! It was a blast.

Lacey's Workshop

I'm finally getting a chance to post about my holidays! Here's a few of things I had goin' in my holiday workshop...

Winter snowglobes! I made these trees out of sparkly garland beads. I glued them on one tier at a time, gluing the bottom tier to the lid of a mason jar with super strong glue. Then, I filled the jar with water, glitter, and fake snow and screwed the lid on tight. I think it's a cute way to display any little figurine. 

For my violin students, I ended up making these little "counters" to help them with their practicing. I often give them "drill spots" (trouble spots that they have to repeat correctly 10 times or so everyday), and these counters can help make that more fun. 

I used two painted wooden shapes that I had nailed a hole through for the ends, stuck a wooden dowel through one, slipped on 10 pony beads, stuck on the other end, then glued some jewels onto the ends.

I'm super excited to use the gift my friend Liz gave me...

A pen and ink set! It looks so beautiful as well as being useful. I want to make some herb labels with it. Thanks Liz!