Nerf guns are pretty amazing

One little boy wanted nerf guns for Christmas so I got it on good authority that Santa would come through. He brought a revolver type for just Andrew and the double gun set with targets and goggles for both of boys. Paul and I should have asked for our own. They are pretty fun. The boys already had one from this summer so we really do each have one for a major nerf war, but I might have my eye on my own now.

Merry Christmas

This year Nathan was one of the children who got to read a scripture during our family Christmas Eve service. He practiced a lot this week and it showed. He spoke in front of the whole congregation with a calm, even voice, and spoke nice and slow so he could be understood. We're very proud of him.

Merry Christmas

a special visitor

We had a special visitor come by the house last night. Nathan is older and "wiser" and as such when I asked him to tell Santa what he wanted he looked at me and said "a surprise" - what a twerp. Al tough, he might just have a surprise waiting and I'm excited to see his face when he gets it. Andrew is such fun. His face had a flicker of terror when they pulled out the naughty and nice book to see where his name was (he made the nice list). He has not a doubt in his mind ~ so magical to see that he still believes. The kids friend Sam has an elf that moves from room to room overnight watching. Mrs Claus told the kids all houses have an elf, some stay more hidden than others that report back to the North Pole every night with a status report on their children's behavior. Andrew asked me today in a slightly worried tone where our elf was. He thinks its a boy elf, because as he informed me, most elfs are boys.

Natalie, this is for you - This is Bob

buckeye balls

As a kid, we'd go to Grandma's and help make candy every year this time. She made all kinds of candy, tons of it, like grandmas do. Fudges, turtles, chocolate covered nut clusters, coconut mounds, and my favorite, peanut butter balls. Sadly she quit making candy before I got the shutter bug and she has passed away. I have no pictures of that tradition. I have all her recipes. I pull out her pans every year. I get teary eyed when I see all the score marks from each batch of fudge. I can master the fudge. But I tried making the peanut butter balls the year after she passed. They weren't the same.

A couple years ago I met Holly. I didn't know she had a little secret. Last year she brought over a tray of buckeyes. They looked suspiciously the same as my grandmothers peanut butter balls. She swore she'd never make them again (they are a bit time consuming) but my kids who were never able to have one of grandmas candy's fell in love with these and I was wallowing in memories. We kinda told her she wasn't getting off the hook and that we'd gratefully help. Today we spent the better part of the day 'cooking', talking and having lunch. Now, I haven't compared the ingredients but I think they are the same, although Holly has a different technique that I dare say might actually work better. And this time I have pictures!

The hunt for a tree

We started a tradition when we first started dating to go cut down our own tree for Christmas. Originally it at at tree farm in Payson, but with in a couple years it was really thinned out and they weren't planting anymore. The next year it was sold off to become a subdivision. We heard a rumor the owner was going to start again somewhere else, but we never found out where. Over the coming years we'd find a new place and the next year it's would be come a subdivision. This has gone on every couple year for the last decade really. One year after driving around the state for five hours we ended up in a store parking lot feeling like failures. We've planned better since that year ~ but even with the Internet, it's hard to find any info on tree farms, let alone accurate info. Did I also mention Paul is also allergic to the trees. We've talked about getting a fake one, but it wouldn't be the same. This year I found two prospects of places to go and then the morning of, I got a tip from a fruit farm of where our old original owner might have gone onto. I called the number and with anticipation of a child waiting for Santa hoped someone would answer. I hit the jack pot. I found our original tree farmer and when I asked if he still grew trees, not only did he say yes, but he said he had a couple thousand. I was sure he was exaggerating, but I didn't care, I only needed one. We packed up and headed out. It was about a hour away. The kids even convinced Paul to play Christmas music on the way this year (I've never been able to do that) and we played Christmas trivia as well. We got there and he wasn't kidding, he has thousands of trees. All mature, all perfect, mostly blue spruces - Santa must have thought I've been good. There were so many trees you could barely walk through them in some places. Enough for us to come back many many years (we'll stock up on antihistamines for Paul). Nathan is old enough he helped Paul cut the tree down. Andrew only wanted to watch - another bonus for me, I got a super cute picture of him :)

Happiness is

These pictures are from a couple weeks ago, right before the Thanksgiving break but it was too cute not to post.