Ellyn's Gift from Grannie and Great Papa

For Ellyn this year, her theme was cooking. She has been helping me in the kitchen a ton and loves it. So, Grannie and Great Papa sent her a set of cooking utensils, her own set of towels and hot pads, a timer and a recipe holder.

I don't think she knew what it was when she opened it. Daddy had to explain what it was, and what the things were used for.

Once she understood she love it. She was ready to go cook!

First thing she made was sugar cookies,

with a little help from mom.

So proud of her cookies!

And what is a cookie without frosting and sprinkles?

The finished cookie! The were super yummy.

The Box

When a box arrives with the return address of Tennessee, the kids know who it is from; Grannie and Great Papa Jacobson (Joy's parents.) The box is just as much a tradition as stockings and the tree. With the blending of two families we are trying to keep some of our own family traditions alive and add our own special one. One that I had growing up was opening presents early. I think my dad just got tired of me bugging him so much that he finally gave in, either that or he was just so excited he couldn't wait until Christmas. To keep that tradition alive we let the kids open one gift a day from my parents. It helps to spread out the gift giving and then the remember who gave them what.

Now the kids are big enough to open the box on their own and sort out the presents.

I think Mom Cat is looking for her gift.

Park Day

What do you do when the kids are going stir crazy in the house? Take them to the park, even on a snow day.

This is "our" park. The park behind the Spanish Fork Library. It looks a little different after a foot of snow in two days.

Snow make for some fun going down the slide. And when they fall, it doesn't hurt so much. The down side it we couldn't stay very long, it was just too cold.

It's begining to look a lot like Christmas

To kick off the Christmas season, we headed out to get our tree. This is the year to get a flocked tree, last year was a green year.

We were in our van, so we had to put the tree in the van. It did get a little squishy for Andy. But as you can see, he didn't mind. They were both so excited to get our new tree home.

The lights are always the first to go on the tree. And normally I have them all put away nice and neat so they are not tangled up, but something must have happened last year because they were just in a pile in the storage box.

Here the kids are looking at the ornaments and picking which ones they want to hang. Ellyn always wants to hang her ornaments first. Each year the kids get a new ornament, we try to get them one that shows something fun they did or something they really liked that year. Ellyn has Dora, Diego and Princesses. But we are moving out of the Dora and Diego stage and she has been getting rid of anything that has either of them on it. So, when she found the Dora ornament she wanted to get rid of it. But, I told her no, she used to love it so it stays.This is our flocked tree skirt. I don't think you can see in the picture but there is tons of flocking on the fabric, it is from the first year we had a flocked tree, and it never came off. So, on our years with a green tree I use a different skirt.

The kids take turns each year putting the angel on the tree. This year it is Ellyn's turn. And with a little help from dad, and a chair, the angel got put in her place.

We love our tree and all the memories it holds. Steve and I each have our ornaments from when we were kids and now our kids have the start of their own collection. And when they are older and move out (hopefully) they will take their collection.

Thanksgiving

With my parents living in Tennessee and having only Steve's family here holidays are easy for us. We just go where there is food! This year it was at Grandma Cannon's (Steve's grandma). There were Aunts, Uncles, Cousins and lots of good food. After lunch I (joy) took a turkey induced nap, while the cousins played cards. Then there was pie. I think the comment was made we should have started with pie, I believe that should be a new tradition.

Ellyn is ready for yummy turkey!

Uncle Steve and Aunt Michelle
Look at that yummy food.Andy and Steve.
Hope you had a great Thanksgiving.