Christmas day

Ahhhhhh. There is no better feeling than finally sitting down at the end of a long, and very happy Christmas. We were lucky enough to wake up this morning to a gorgeous white Christmas! It was beautiful to see everything with a fluffy, pure white cover and so different from our usual warm San Diego Christmas. The kids got to go out and try to make a snowman out of the powdery white snow that fell the night before. Santa came to visit early this morning and the kids all seem very pleased with the goodies he delivered...no lumps of coal for this bunch! Much of the day was spent getting ready for the big Christmas feast with Grandma and Grandpa and all the aunts, uncles and cousins. We had our usual snowball competition at the end of dinner. We started this competition when we were all little kids - Mom made a "snowball" (made of vanilla ice cream rolled in coconut) with a candle in the top of each - the winner is the one who can keep the candle burning longest. It is a silly, fun way to end our celebration. This year we got a family cup to pass from winner to winner each year, this year the cup goes to the Riggs house because Lily won! Truman was pretty upset that his candle went out just before Lily's and he thought he had won...oh the disappointment.

We're looking forward to a few more snowy days in Utah and we going to take the kids skiing for the first time. That should be a great time, we'll keep you posted on how that really goes!


Hope you all had a wonderful day too!

birthdays

When our kids have had birthdays in the past I used to get a little teary thinking about how big they were getting and how fast they were growing up. Now, I try not to get caught with my mouth gaping open from awe at how amazing our kids are growing up to be. Of course I also don't know to spend too much time thinking about it or I'll realize how old it must make me now that I have one teenager and one nearly teenager.



Madeline had a birthday earlier this month and she had a few friends over for snacks and a movie. For party favors I made each girl a cute bag (darn cute if I do say so myself!) from the pattern in one of my favorite books and we filled each one with water and snacks for the movie. OK really it was filled with water and movie candy...snacks imply some nutritional value & there really was none to be found in that bag!

scarves and mittens...

Look under the beds! Maybe with the dress-up clothes? Where would you look for scarves and mittens at our house? Those have become accessories that we play with, not really wear since we've come back from London, but today we were on the hunt since we were going to be ice skating! There is an outdoor ice rink set-up outside Horton Plaza downtown and we went with a homeschool group to do some skating and socializing. It was such a fun time! Too bad all the hats and mittens we spent so much time searching for were quickly discarded - it was sunny and about 70 degrees - the kids were all sweating within a few minutes! It was pretty funny to watch the kids skating - because it was so warm, the half of the rink in the sun had several inches of water on top of the ice - and the kids skating would splash water at each other! Only here in Southern California would you see that!

Day of Thanks

Thanksgiving - what a great holiday. Relaxing, cooking, eating, telling those you love how much you appreciate them - some of my favorite things. It is especially a favorite of mine since there are no gifts to stress about, just an overall feeling of joy and gratitude. This year we decided to try a turducken and some other new recipes rather than our traditional turkey and Schaeffer Sweet Potatoes. While the turducken was very yummy, we all agreed there really is something to be said for sticking with tradition. We loved the new brussel sprout recipe we tried from Bon Appetit and the rolls we made were divine!

We hope you too had a wonderful day!