Wild About Wildlights

On New Year's night, Lisa's family joined us for a night visit to the Living Desert's Wildlights holiday lighting event.  Alex and Nathan won enough tickets at school for all 12 of us to go for free.  It was a perfect night - not too cold - and there weren't too many people.

The Living Desert does Wildlights every year, but I have never been.  It was absolutely beautiful!  I love Christmas lights, and they were EVERYWHERE - wrapped around every tree and bush.

They even had a special Christmas themed animal snow featuring nocturnal animals that they brought onto the stage in gift boxes.  Cute hedgehog.

The kids loves the long candy cane striped light tunnel.

Bonfires  were set up for roasting hot dogs and s'mores.  Next time we remember to bring our own marshmallows.

There was a magic show and a free craft - darling butterflies made from coffee filters and sparkly pipe cleaners and beads.

Luke found the best seat in the house from which to view the lights.

Dylan opted for the wheelchair since there was a lot of walking and uneven trails.  It worked out great.

So many beautiful colored lights - the camera doesn't do it justice.

Luke is in awe!

Caleb loves the Coyotes.

All snuggled up together under the stars.

Thanks for the tickets Alex and Nate!  We had a great time.

Like Kids in a Candy Store

Our dear friend, and adopted grandma of sorts, Bev Evans, gave us a popcorn ball decorating kit for Christmas.  We also had a gingerbread house kit and gingerbread train kit.  SO we pulled them all out and pooled or resources.  With more that a dozen different types of candy it was a veritable colorful, sugary wonderland of sweetness.

Derek went for the classic snowman.  He is a purest, and went for simple.  Also, he wanted to be done fast so he could get back to his Guitar Hero.

Caleb did a snowman too.  I love his sweet creation with the tootsie roll nose and dapper gumdrop hat.

Dylan's purple popcorn penguin  was formally dressed in his bow tie, buttons, and matching top hat.  Love it!

Alex went a little crazy with the candy (typical of Alex and candy) and made the funniest alien with a wild and crazy hat and red licorice hair, or arms, or something.

Luke helped eat the candy.

Nathan was too busy rocking out on Guitar hero to tear himself away to decorate anything.

The boys also used the candy stash to decorate the gingerbread house and train.  Dylan was the architect of the front porch and designed the amazing gumdrop wreath.  Alex tiled the entire roof in Jelly Bellys.

SWEET!

Christmas Morning and the Sad, Sad Tale of the Gift that Wasn't

It is a classic tale of love and loss.

There once was a fair, not-so-young maiden who loved a camera, and the camera loved her.  They traveled the world, Venice, London, Hawaii, Yellowstone, taking beautiful pictures together.  But the maiden became increasingly selfish, used and abused her camera, carelessly dragging him everywhere, even places he did not wish to go, using him whenever she needed him, carelessly banging him into stuff, then tossing him to the side and paying him no mind when she didn't need him.  

The poor camera - cold, neglected, alone.  He dreamt of the days when she would pamper him and take care of him, lovingly caressing his lens with a soft cloth and carefully placing him in his nice warm padded case.  He had not seen the inside of his case for so long.  He, as any camera would, could only take such abuse for so long.  Then one day in early October, he clicked his last click... and he was gone.  

The maiden rushed the poor camera to the camera store, but the diagnosis was grim.  An operation could be performed, but at great cost, and he probably would never be the same again, and would die anyway.  She, tragically, discovered too late what her neglect and abuse had done and had to let him go.  In her sorrow, she made a solemn vow to never treat another camera that way again. 

The kind camera doctor, seeing her distress, offered to introduce her to another fine young camera friend of his, that he thought she might want to get to know.  The doctor pointed him out to her.  He was sitting in a glass case across a crowed room.  Her eyes, and his lens, met, and it was love at first sight.  She knew they were meant to be together, and she bought him on the spot and brought him home to occupy her now empty camera bag.  

But all was not well, for this fair maiden had a husband.  He had known about his wife's love affair with the first camera, but he was not the jealous type.  In fact he was the one who had introduced them in the first place.  He figured her little stint with the camera made her happy, and that made him happy.  However, he had watched with concern how she had used the camera, and had feared for the life of his digital friend.  When the husband discovered what had happened to the camera, and that his wife already had a new camera in her bag he was distressed.  He feared she had bought that new camera on the rebound, without carefully checking into him.  So the husband took it upon himself to do a little digging into the new camera's past.  

What he found was that his wife had indeed chosen well.  He was an upstanding fine young camera from a remarkable family with an excellent history.  But while the price she had paid for him was good, her husband discovered the same camera at an online store for much, much cheaper.  So he took it upon himself to return the camera she had brought home, and order one from the online store, only to find that the camera he had discovered for such a great price was back ordered.  He reassured his hysterical grieving wife, who had lost not one camera that she loved, but two, in one day, that all would be well, and that a few hundred dollars would be saved if she could just hold on, alone and camera-less, for a few days.  So the woman, who loved her good husband even more than she had loved her camera (and that is a whole lot) agreed to wait.  But those days turned to weeks, and the weeks months, and alas, no camera.  

The maiden watched time pass and her children grow without being able to capture those precious memories.  Sure, she was a modern woman, and had another portable camera in her purse, but it took terrible pictures and was ornery and stubborn. As time passed she began to miss her beloved camera more and more, and hate her stupid purse camera more and more as well.  Her iphoto suffered, her blog suffered, and she became more and more despondent each day.  When her husband asked her what was wrong, all she could utter was "my camera, my  camera." He vowed to get her the camera of her dreams... someday.

Then disaster struck again.  This time a sick child and the accompanying medical bills.  All thoughts of a new camera were swept aside.  When a decent camera was needed, the maiden's father lent her his, and she survived this way for some time.  

Time passed, and Christmas was drawing near.  The camera widow mentioned to her good husband that Christmas was coming, and that if ever she needed a new camera, it was during this season of giving and love.  She believed that he was planning to get her the camera for Christmas, but in her greed she begged him to give her the camera before Christmas, so she could take pictures of all the holiday happenings.  Opening the camera on Christmas morning would simply be too late.  She just couldn't get though the holidays with that stupid pocket camera she had been using.    Her husband assured her that money was tight, and there would be no new camera.  But she held out hope, as any blogger would.  

Meanwhile, the crappy pocket camera apparently had heard all the nasty things she had said about him and disappeared - walked out the door and never returned.  There was no love lost there, after all, a new camera was coming soon, she thought.

Then suddenly, it was Christmas Eve.  She saw her children all dressed up snugly in their festive caroling attire and once again begged her husband to give her her camera early so she could capture the moment.  He assured her there was no camera coming for Christmas.  Frustrated that her husband, who usually gets too excited and can't wait until Christmas or birthdays to give gifts,  had suddenly decided this year to hold out until Christmas morning, the maiden ran to her father, told him her woes, and he let her borrow his camera for the evening.

That night she dreamt of her her old camera that she had loved so much, and hoped that her new camera would love her has much as she would love him.

Then it was Christmas morning.  The children were stirring, anxious to run into the living room to discover the plethora of gifts that Santa had left them.  In her heart she knew, that one of those gleaming packages also held the camera for which she had waited for so long.  It was going to be a very happy Christmas, indeed!

  She went to grab her father's camera to capture those first few moments of discovery when the children see the tree for the first time.  But the camera was not there.  Her father, believing she was getting a new camera for Christmas, had taken the camera home with him the night before.  She ran to her purse, and started to dig around, before remembering that her purse camera was long gone.  Desperately she went for her video camera, at least it would be something, but it was out of memory.  She ran to her husband, and pleaded and begged him to tell her which package her camera was in so she could capture the magic that was Christmas morning before it was too late.  

Again he told her that there was no camera at all, and a look into his eyes told her it was true.  There really was no camera!  He really couldn't afford it.  He was so sorry.

She crumpled to the floor, hopeless and camera-less.  How had it come to this, on Christmas morning of all morning?  Her despair overwhelmed her.

The children, who could no longer be held back, came bouncing into the room, their eyes gleaming, and shouts of wonder and joy escaping their lips.  There was tissue flying and paper tearing, stockings un-stuffed and shrieks of delight.  But the maiden could do nothing but watch those moments as they quickly passed, becoming mere memories fading into the distance of Christmas past. 

 Oh the depths that her own selfishness and greed had gotten her!  She had had a camera she had loved, and it had died due to her abuse.  Then she had another camera in her hands, but because of her greed had lost that too.  And her little camera, the only camera she had left in the world, she had hated and called names, until he, too, was gone.  

And so the end of the tragic tale of the Christmas gift that wasn't.  (Not a classic Christmas tale, to be sure).  That is why there are no pictures of Christmas morning this year.

 Let this serve as warning to all.  Love your camera while you still have it.  Treat it well, pamper it and let it know you love it.  Lives of cameras are short, and you just never know when they are going to stop clicking. 

 (By the way, that goes for people too.)

Great Performances on Christmas Eve

Our favorite part of Christmas is Christmas Eve.  We always meet at my parents' house for soup and sandwiches, and tamales - always tamales (we are so lucky to live in a place where amazing tamales are available!).  Then after we are fed and happy, we don our Santa hats and go caroling.

This year we lucked out.  As soon as we hit the road we came across some lit-up golf carts.  It was so fun.  They were weaving around down the street.  And guess who, of all people, was riding on one of the golf carts?

It was Santa Claus himself.  What are the chances of running into him on Christmas Eve? Imagine that!  Luke and Caleb were so excited!

Give whole new meaning to the term "electric cars", huh?

A few cheery carolers.  My mom makes sure all the kids are armed with instruments.  Luke has a triangle.  We make quite a racket going down the street.  We don't usually catch people unawares.  They always hear our gang coming.

Alex looks like an elf, compete with genuine silver sleigh bells my parents found once at a garage sale.  They have a beautiful sound.

I don't know if we had a wonderful sound, but we had fun bringing good tidings to you and your kin.

We always sing the same three songs.  Jingle Bells, Silent Night, and We Wish You a Merry Christmas.  The kids are allowed to bang and clang to their hearts content on the first and last songs, but they have to keep their instruments silent during Silent Night.

We work our way to my house where my yummy white hot chocolate and coconut wreath cake were waiting to warm us up. 

  The kids dig into our nativity costume bag and get all read for the big performance.  In this year's production, the kids had their own, rather nontraditional, version of the wondrous story.  Their version, was slightly less wondrous.

Too old to be Baby Jesus any more, Luke makes a perfect Angel.

At some point during the show, the actors became more interested in the Christmas tree than in the performance.  What ever happened to "the show must go on?"

This year we even had a special walk-on (well, limp-on) part by our very own Tiny Tim (I know, wrong Christmas story, but you have to work with what you got.  I said it was nontraditional). 

 God bless us, everyone!

Bringing Us Glad Tidings and Great Joy

On the night before Christmas Eve, Dylan and I were sitting on the sofa singing carols while the boys were doing the dishes.  The doorbell rang.  Someone answered it, and in filed about 20 carolers, all festively dressed in black and red.  They were all the youth from the Thermal Ward - one of the Spanish speaking units in our stake.  They smiled and asked if they could sing to Dylan. He was still on the sofa in the family room.  The sang a beautiful carol from the Spanish hymnal, all verses  It was absolutely lovely!  I recognized a few faces but didn't know any of their names.  Apparently, one sweet little girl who had been on the stake children's choir with Dylan and the other boys  (in the Santa hat), felt so sorry for Dylan and what he has been going through, that she arranged the whole thing.  She was clearly excited that her arrangements had finally come to fruition, since she was grinning and bouncing around the whole time.  

Then they sang Silent Night in Spanish, and invited us to sing along, in English of course.  The beautiful, unexpected music filled our home with such a sweet peace and spirit!  It was simply magical.  When they were done, they all wished us a Merry Christmas and wished Dylan to get well soon.  I hugged them all and thanked them so much for their lovely music as they filed out the door into the cool night air. 

 

When the door closed I burst into tears.

  

I was so amazed that these sweet young people, strangers, had gone to all the trouble of practicing, getting dressed up, arranging rides, and coming all they way over here to sing for a sick little boy and his family on the night before Christmas Eve.  It brought forward all my emotions - deep feelings of gratitude for all the service, well wishes, and love given to our family over the last two months, from loved ones as well as strangers, near and far.  It was all too much - too much love that I hardly know what to do with it all.  I realized that all these kind acts could never be repayed - only received with glad and thankful hearts.    And I am so grateful - grateful that Dylan is still with us - and thriving, grateful that our family is all together again, grateful for all those people who love us, and grateful that there is so much good in this world, grateful for Christmas, and for the salvation offered by the one whose birth we celebrate.

I bawled for a long time.

Funny how a few songs sung by a few young people can do all that.

Thank You Thermal youth!  And Merry Christmas!

It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas!

OK, Now if you've read my earlier posts, you know that I get a bit carried away with my holiday decorations.  Well, if you thought my other holiday decorations are out of control, my Christmas decor is way over the top.  I really can't help myself. I just love, love, love to transform my house to a magical Christmas wonderland.

If you have been reading my blog, you also know that I have been struggling, with all that is going on, to find the Christmas spirit, in what is usually my very favorite holiday.  Usually I start decorating the day after Thanksgiving, when everyone is out busting down store doors.  It takes a full 3 days to get the decorations up, but I usually get them all up and finished by the first of December.  I love to have my home all decked out.  It really gets me in the holiday spirit.  This year the first of December came and went, and I didn't even have my fall decor down.  I was tempted not to bother this year, after all, I had enough to worry about.  But I hoped that if I took the time and trouble to get them up, I'd catch the Christmas spirit that I so desperately needed.  I had to try, and guess what? It worked!   As soon as the decorations were up, I started to feel Christmas, and got the drive and energy I needed to do all the things we love to do at Christmastime.  It turns out that it was exactly what I, and my family, needed, to get back to some semblance of normal. 

 You might think its is shallow or vain to need to deck the house out like this, but I think it is wonderful thing that we light up and decorate out homes in the celebration of the birth of Christ, the Light of the World.  I try to make my home warm and cozy, a place where we want to be together.  And the best part about it, is that I haven't spent a lot of money to do it.  Mostly everything is either found at yard sales, 75% off after Christmas sales, handed down in the family, or I made myself.  But I think it looks like a million bucks.

In the front, I hang wreaths on the windows and put flickering candles in the windows, which I think give it an Eastern stately flair, that works so well with the symmetry of my house.

Dennis found the huge wreath at Sam's Club.  It is awesome!  The long-needled pine garland is from TPT, and looks so real, which is great, since fresh greenery usually doesn't make it through the holidays here.

My secret is garland, and luscious ribbon EVERYWHERE imaginable - hanging from every light fixture and ceiling fan.  Huge bolts of ribbon are cheap at Sam's and Costco, so you can be liberal with it.  The kissing ball in the entry way is a family tradition we had when I was a kid.  Daddy had 4 girls, and was always catching one of us under it.

The poinsettia picture was one I painted for my Christmas card a few years back.

The first thing you see when you walk in my house are my nativity scenes.  I don't want my children, or anyone else for that matter, questioning what we believe Christmas is really about.  I have so many beautiful nativity sets, from large to tiny, they are all so different and I love them all!  My favorites are the ones that were handmade for me , or given as gifts by people I love.  My kids love to look at them, and the ones on the lower shelf are kid-proof for the kids to play with.

The two jewelry trees are very special to us.  My grandmother made the red one, and Dennis' great grandmother made the purple one. It must have been one of those things everyone did in Homemaking meeting years ago.  I think they are fantastic.  I'd love to make one myself! When we got married I was so excited to find out that we had each inherited our grandmother's jewelry trees, like it was meant to be.  That is why they get a place of honor in our home.

I am so glad my family room is red.  It really help make the place cozy at Christmas.  This is where we all hang out and I want it to be just warm, friendly and fun in here.

I looked everywhere for a perfect wreath for the fireplace, and when I found this it was so exactly perfect.  I got it cheap because some of the enameled berries were broken, and the white styrofoam was showing through.  So I found some nail polish the perfect shade of red.  I dabbed it over the white parts, and ta-da, good as new.  I was so proud of myself.  Then when I was hanging it up, I dropped it and it broke into 4 pieces, and lots of the berries were broken.  I was devastated, and should have thrown it away, but I knew I would never find another wreath as perfect, so I painstakingly put it all back together and used a lot of nail polish.  You would never know by looking at it now.  It is extremely fragile, though, and every year I have to touch it up with the nail polish.  Well worth it, I think.

We have our "fun" tree by the fireplace that holds all the handmade ornaments I have gathered from my ornament parties, all the ornaments my kids have made over the years, and all the ornaments I get my kids each year as a tradition. It is strung with red wood beads and fake popcorn strings.  The kids love this tree, and are always looking at all the ornaments, and finding their ornaments on it.

I love the garage sale find feather trees in garage sale find old crocks.

By the fireplace are the fantastic old wood skis and happi-time sled, both garage sale treasures!  Also, not pictured, are my dad's old boyhood ice-skates (he grew up in Colorado).  They are black with a festive red plaid lining.  

This year I added this jar of delicious old retro glass ornaments that I got for a steal at a GS.  The colors are so fun and funky, and I love looking at them.  The boxes they came in as just as fun, but I couldn't figure out a way to display them yet.

I used to collect snowmen, and the ones I have kept are up in the blue cupboards among the white milk glass.  The white and blue make a perfect winter wonderland for my snowmen peeking down on us.

I also just love old stocking.  These are my favorite.  They have names scribbled on them with a ballpoint pen: Amber, Fran, Roy, and Frank.  Garage sale, of course.

Another favorite old stocking was hand-knit with the name "Guy"  on it.  It fits great on my antique wood sock stretcher that hangs on the wall all year.  GS finds, both.

The picture of a mug and cookies was another card cover I painted a few years back.  I just love my felt Santa and his friend.

Target has the funnest advent calender cabinets with little doors for each day.  We read a little advent book with a scripture and a Christmas activity each day before we open the door.  This year we were less than stellar at following through with this one, but we have been pretty consistent in years past.

I love my dining room.  I make the festive chair covers from table runners.  They are so easy.  You just cut one table runner in half to make two chair covers, hem them, add ribbon ties, and sew tucks to make them fit your chair.  If the tops of your chairs are straight it is a piece of cake.  The hard part was finding 4 matching table runners cheap. That is why I have red and white.  While you are at it, also buy a table runner for the top of your table if you can find enough.  The chair covers do so much to dress up the dining room, don't you think?

I dressed up the top of the china cabinet with my old mantel scarf, since this house doesn't have a mantel.  Then I topped it with some old branches from an artificial tree we had long ago, stuck in some poinsettias and lots of ribbon.  So easy and looks so rich!

Also, I love the fake pastries, cakes, and chocolates from TPT on my cake plates.  They look real enough to get your mouth watering.

 What did I tell you about lots of ribbon?

On the hall table an old photo of my grandpa and aunt as a baby feeding a reindeer has a prominent position.  I stamped these frames and gave them with copies of this picture to all my siblings as gifts last Christmas.

While the family room/kitchen is warm and fun, I had to go for the glitz in the living room.  This year I decided to go for gold.  I don't know why I am so into glitz lately. I was inspired by the gold leaf garlands and square wreath I got weeks after Christmas at Target last year.  I didn't need it, but at 75% off, I couldn't pass it up.  I am so glad I did, because I just love the new direction my living room took this year.

The gold inspired me to do a gold tree.  This year I didn't put on any ornaments that weren't gold, silver, cream, or white, and once again, lots and lots of gold ribbon.  My kids actually decorated the tree this year, and they did a great job.  Dylan did the whole area next to the chair that he could reach.

My favorites are my new fat pearl garland, glass birds with feather tales, gilded mirrors, and my handmade ornaments.  I have been collecting for my elegant tree for a long time. As you can see, I believe you can never have too many ornaments. When I was a kid we always had two trees too, the Santa tree and the Victorian tree, and now I do the same thing.  I just love both, and between them there is a place for every ornament.

I just love the gold!  The balls in the vase are more old crazed glass balls I found garage saling - silver and gold in all sizes.  They all had old red bows tied on each that I removed.  The old photo is my dad visiting a department store Santa when he was about Caleb's age.  He is dressed like a kid in A Christmas Story and the Santa is perfect.  My favorite picture ever!

I love the vinette in the corner of the living room.  Dennis surprised me with these wisemen last Chriatmas.  I was thrilled.  I love them with the big mirrored star that I previously didn't know what to do with, and the "wisemen..."sign.  

Above it is last years Christmas card picture.  That was by far the hardest one I have ever done, but my very favorite.  I have only started my picture for this years card, and it is already Christmas Eve.  This year something had to give, and my Christmas card was it.  They won't get sent out until after the new year.  I hope people won't mind.  But I am going to paint a Christmas picture anyway.  It will be the only picture I painted all year, and I am excited to have such a great excuse to take the time to paint again.

So there it is.  I love my cozy, yummy home this time of year.  It helps, I hope, to keep us in the spirit, and remind us of Christ and family and memories, (and keep everyone's attention off all the messes all over the floors at the same time.  Keep guests looking up.  That is my philosophy.)

May your Christmas be cozy and yummy too!