Christmas

First, we wrote a note for Santa

Then we put out some treats for him, and his reindeer

Then we waited. And waited. And waited. Santa came while we slept, but the boy patiently waited some more. His Christmas started at bedtime.

And then the happy little child was sent promptly to bed.

We went sledding down the big hill.

And had a frozen little boy in the end

Its almost here!!!!

I don't know about you, but we're getting pretty excited around here.

We played pin the nose on Rudolph

And last night we went to see Santa!

We were prepared for a screaming little boy that wanted nothing to do with a complete stranger, but much to our surprise, the boy would have happily gone home with jolly old St. Nick (as long as he could play with his beard the whole time...)

 Had the last picture turned out, it would have been my favorite. Someday I will learn how to take a picture that you can actually see.

Now I just have to keep Rogan out of the presents for a couple more days...

tree hunting

We started off this years tree hunt my making approximately  1 million salt dough ornaments, which the boy carefully hand painted.

Then off to the woods we went, hunting for the ultimate tree.

We found a tree that fit our extremely high standards, and from there Darth took over to get it home.

And the dad hauled the boy home.

but took advantage of the big hill on the way and hopped on for a ride himself...

We got the tree home, and the boy loaded it full of his beautiful decorations...

And has happily been sitting and watching the train ever since.

Countdown to Christmas

Our Christmas countdown started out a little differently than the average countdown.

We headed to "the big city" for an archery tournament.

We started our big journey with this beautiful view:

 We then continued on our journey and made it to our destination.

Unfortunatly all of the pictures here were of the back of the husbands head. 

We did manage to squeeze in a little Christmas though- we hopped on the train and headed to Temple Square to see all of the Christmas lights.

Where, as usual, all of my pictures were a blur.

So sister kindly took a family photo for us-the first since....well, probably since the boy was born.

We came home and decorated (and ate) sugar cookies

And of course-we cant forget poor Darth at Christmas time, so this afternoon the boy and I threw together a quick treat for Darth's stocking

If you feel like baking one day but want need to give your own waste-line a break from the cookie madness this time of year, here is the recipe:

Homemade Dog Treats

2 1/2 c whole wheat flour (I used regular all purpose flour)

1/2 c milk

1 tsp garlic powder

1 large egg

2 Tbsp flavoring (bacon grease, chicken/beef stock, tuna juice....whatever. we used chicken)

Mix together dry ingredients, then add the rest. mix well. Will be thick. If its too thick for your liking, add more chicken stock (if thats what you used)

Roll dough on floured surface to about 1/4" thickness and cut into shapes of your liking. We did snowflakes and triangles (I got tired of cutting "cute"cookies for the dog, so finished up with a pizza cutter)

Bake for 30 min. at 350*. Let them sit in the oven while it cools off to make them extra crisp.

Darth taste tested (even though they are for Christmas. We'll assume he'll forget about them by Christmas) and loved them.