What WAS I thinking??

Annabelle's expression says, "Seriously? Do I HAVE to be here!"

Abbie's says, "Ahh...this is nice and comfy."

Sam's favorite Christmas present this year is a 6 week old kitten! She only weighs about 1 1/2 pounds and her name is Abbie. Annabelle didn't like her much in the beginning, but she's getting used to her. After a couple of days I was beginning to wonder if I'd lost my mind - by getting her a new kitten - but it's actually kind of fun to watch them run around and play with each other.

Christmas Party, Cookies & Caroling

This last Saturday was our Ward Christmas Party. The Young Women and Young Men were asked to wear a green, red or white shirt and they were provided with cute little elf hats to wear. They were going to be Santa's helpers, but he ended up not needing help, afterall.
Last night Sam's friend, Kasey, came over to hang out with Sam. They went to grade school together, but they go to different junior highs and they haven't seen each other in several months. They had a really good time making Russian Tea cookies (better known as "snowballs" around our house). As you can see, they had a GREAT time with the powdered sugar. I think they got more on themselves than the cookies!

Tonight we met up with some friends of ours and went caroling around their neighborhood. The girls have never been caroling and it's been years and years since I've gone. It was so much fun to walk around singing Christmas carols and visiting with each other. Afterward, we all went back to our friends house for cookies and hot choco. What an amazing way to get more into the Christmas Spirit!

Did someone say Christmas music???

This past weekend Amanda was asked to put her amazing musical talents to good use.

On Friday night she was asked to play her saxophone at the Christmas party for our old Ward. We went online to get some sheet music and she chose "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas". When we got to the church building, she about had a heart attack when she saw how many cars were there! Then we walked into the cultural hall and it was PACKED! There were about 300 people there! When her time came, though, she got up on the stage and absolutely FLOORED everyone there. She did an AMAZING job! I wish I would've had my camera there...or better yet - Amanda's camera...so that I could have recorded it to put on here. But, I forgot it! (Go figure!)

Then on Sunday, (in Sacrament Meeting) the Young Men and Young Women in our Ward sang "Far, Far Away on Judea's Plains", and Amanda played part of the song on her flute. Once again, everyone LOVED listening to her play. She does such a great job playing her instruments. I am so proud of her! She has such an amazing talent!

You're never too old....

......to put together and decorate a gingerbread train! Instead of decorating a gingerbread house - the girls decided to make a train this year instead. My friends daughter came over to hang out yesterday afternoon, so she joined in the fun, too. They put a Christmas movie on the TV and went to work!

Rudolph the Red Nose.....CAT????

Sam decided the cat needed to be part of the Christmas decorating! Annabelle didn't have the same opinion. Poor Annabelle....

The look on her face says it all...."I really don't like you right now!"

Time to decorate!

> The finished product!!! Isn't it beautiful??!!

Technically, according to Amanda, it was actually time to decorate about 3 weeks ago! But I held her off (sort of) until the week before Thanksgiving. Then over Thanksgiving Weekend, we went out and got our Christmas Tree. What an adventure that turned out to be! We had alot of fun going to a tree farm, walking around and picking out the "perfect" tree. We tied it on top of the car with twine - which turned out to be alot easier than I thought it would be. On the way home, Sam would stick her head out the window every once in awhile to make sure it wasn't flopping around....and it wasn't! We made it all the way home with it moving at all!! I was going to take a picture before we took the tree off the car and then I forgot! Anyway - that night we decorated it....which is my favorite part. I love looking at all the ornaments from previous years. The ones the girls have made are always my favorite.