Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve was very nice this year. We were planning on spending it by ourselves and I'd made a huge dinner (a little too huge), but our good friends Dave and Shauna Vess (who had been by multiple times that day helping both James and I with secret gifts for each other) didn't have much planned for the evening because of all their relatives joining them the next day, so we had them over at the last minute and it was very fun. It was the first time I had ever picked out and cooked a real ham myself, and I have to say it was highly successful. In fact, we all agreed it was about the best ham we'd had, even better than Honeybaked Hams. I don't remember what it was except that it was some kind of shoulder/picnic type roast and it was the very cheapest kind in all the cases they had at Walmart. Talk about a lucky pick!




As you can see, our boys are quite reverent. Ely is one of Henry's best friends. And yes, that is a can of prune juice by their cups. Ely and Henry picked them out on their own from our food storage shelves. Ely did not enjoy his, but Henry, very surprisingly, did and drank the whole thing!

A little storytime following dinner. We read "Mr. Willoughby's Christmas Tree" most nights leading up to Christmas. It's a tradition from James's family, along with Richard Scarry's "The Animals' Merry Christmas" and we enjoy them throughly. Nothing warms my heart more than hearing James read, "The Little Bear and the Golden Sled" to Henry. (Wesley has no patience for that long of a story. Not yet, anyway.)

Here's our attempt at a Christmas Eve picture by the stockings. Wes would not hold still and smile, that little stinker. So we resorted to other measures.

OK, and here's my big fun thing this year. I saw an idea in a Southern Living cookbook for a Christmas morning brunch and here's my set-up of it the night before, only we called it "Santa's breakfast." In addition to having the table set up, there were lights strewn around the room and a curtain over the doorway so that the kids wouldn't notice it until after presents.

And voila! The powdered-donut Christmas tree. This was so fun to make. The balls are on toothpicks stuck into a styrofoam cone. The ornaments are cranberries. I had a lot of fun embellishing it. I've never made anything like this before. I'm not usually a "presentation" type of person, more like "feed-the-family-and-I'm-done," but this was a fun new project for me.

Getting ready for Christmas

We had such a nice time celebrating Christmas this year. It was nice to know we'd have the best of both worlds--staying at home for Christmas and traveling to see both of our families for New Year's. We got to do lots of fun things with the boys--making lots of holiday goodies and going to parties and shopping for each other. We also watched a slug of Christmas movies from the library and on YouTube, making Wesley even more of a movie junkie than he already is. (The first thing he does in the morning is point to the DVD drawer and then to the TV saying, "That, that, that." I promise we don't actually watch that much though!)

In honor of our huge, new living abode, we get a huge, new Christmas tree. We went to Jack's Creek Tree Farm and opted for a huge White Pine, which was on sale, as opposed to the Frazier Fir we usually get or the Leland Cypress that most everyone in the South seems to favor. As you can see, it barely fit in our car yet our awesome Corolla triumphs once again! (I also got a fully-assembled play kitchen in the trunk and brought it home the other day. Who needs a minivan?!)

Here's our tree all decorated. It turned out OK--it looks good in this picture--but it actually was an interesting tree. I don't think we'll get a white pine again. The branches are too flimsy to hold anything and then when you put ornaments on the branches farther in, they area totally obscured by the soft, grassy pine needles. Hmm. And, as you can see, it was a little too tall, with multiple branches touching the ceiling and the star situated just near the top as opposed to on the top. Plus, it was so fat and full that it took up like 1/4 of the room with its girth and had such a presence that sometimes it felt like an awkward 3rd person in the room that I was leaving out of the conversation. Still, the boys loved it and routinely tore down the bottom third of it. It looked beautiful on Christmas Eve and brought the Christmas spirit in our home.

And finally, what kids like Santa when they're this small? I must admit most Santas we see make me feel a big edgy too. The mall here actually has an excellent Santa with a real fluffy white beard and friendly smile and who the boys might have a better chance with, but he costs $25 for a photo, no personal cameras please. So here we are at a different community event and Henry was brave just long enough to tell Santa he'd sent him a letter and to please not forget his younger brother Wes who is too young too write.

November happenings

Well, a lot happened in November. Shortly after our move, I left with the boys to Utah to give James a chance to get some serious work done. The boys got some great bonding time with grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins. Aunt Amy threw a little tea party for the cousins and they had a wonderful time snacking on little pizzas and cinnamon rolls and sipping miniature glasses of hot chocolate. It was so fun. We also had a great time with Grandma Eyring at the Children's Discovery Center in Gateway Mall in Salt Lake. It was AMAZING! I've never seen such an awesome place for children. I even loved it and got excited about every new thing like the kids did. The boys also just loved playing in the yard and things like running races with Grandma Robertson, back and forth through the house for 30+ min.

Henry was a pretty lucky boy this year. Not only did he get to celebrate his birthday with family this year, but he got two parties--one with his Robertson cousins and one with the Eyring extended family. We had a blast and he got some wonderful gifts from everyone. We had a Little Einsteins theme for his cousins party. I've never spent so long working on a cake--until late into the night--but the look on his face in the morning made every minute worth it.

Finally, the big reason for our visit to Utah was for my brother Kenny's wedding. He married Megan Jaussi from Idaho Falls in the Bountiful Temple. It was a wonderful experience. We were so happy for them. Megan is beautiful and is so fun. We really liked getting to know her and her family better. They're awesome. I hope we get to see them more in the future. There was a reception in Kaysville the night of the wedding and one the next night in Idaho Falls. The following morning we drove over to Rexburg for a quick visit. We got to see the beautiful new Rexburg temple. I wish we could've gone inside but it won't be finished for another month. It was fun taking a quick walk down memory lane. How could it be already 9 years since I started college there? How could I already be back with a husband and two kids? At least I don't feel as old as I think I used to picture that stage in life to be.

Thanks everyone who made our visit so nice! We love you all a bunch. Thanks, Mom and Dad Eyring, for making it possible for us to come out. Congratulations Kenny and Megan and best of luck!

Goodbye Cherokee Circle.

These are just a bunch of pictures we took of our Cherokee Circle neighborhood we took before we moved to the Watkinsville house on Nov. 1. It was sad. We've been in that original basement apartment for four years. I brought my babies home to that little blue bedroom with the cute little whale James painted on the wall. We've been on a thousand walks to the two oak trees and to Athens Academy next door. It felt like a little piece of heaven to me--so many happy memories. We were sad to say goodbye even though we're not even leaving Athens yet--now that is going to be tough!

October happenings

Yes, I post October happenings near the end of November. The time-lapse that is very true to my way of doing things. Enjoy!

First, we had a good time at the Watkinsville Fall Festival again this year. James ran the 5k again and got an excellent time as usual. Henry loved the hay ride, and of course we all loved the funnel cake. Yum! We went to a performance by the Georgia Gymdogs (gymnastics) who are the current national champions and I got to talk to Courtney Kupets (you might remember her from the last Olympics--I think she got a few silver medals.)

Then, nothing special about these pictures except for my cute boys. The first one shows our messy house when we were all sick. I thought Wesley was pretty cute watching the movie. And James and Henry taking five together but Henry woke up just as I was taking the picture.

And of course there was pumpkin picking...

And then there was Halloween. Henry was a knight/Prince Phillip (from Sleeping Beauty). He had a great time running around the ward Trunk-or-Treat with his sword in one hand and a sucker in the other. Several of his friends were also either knights in shining armor or princesses. Some of the pictures are also from his "school" group and the rest are from Halloween night. Wes had a pretty good Halloween too, once he got used to his mane. He went through about 4 or 5 suckers while we were trick-or-treating--what a treat!

Wesley's Birthday

Well, better late than never. We've had a ton going on the past few months, but I have to at least say a bit about some of it and post some pictures. Wesley celebrated his 1st birthday on October 1st. Instead of a huge shin-dig like we did for Henry's first birthday, we just did things as a family and had our landlords down for cake in the evening, and actually, IT WAS GREAT! I loved doing it that way.


Wesley loved his presents--thanks so much everyone. We also had an interesting, yet delicious cake. While I was gone helping Wesley, Henry decided to squeeze nearly the whole dropper of yellow food coloring into my bowl of frosting. So we had an EXTREMELY yellow cake with seagreen clouds. Luckily the cake itself was amazingly one of my better creations so that made up in part for the color.

Wesley dug in pretty well. It was a fun day. He is such an amazing wonderful boy. His personality is just like his cake--amazingly sunny and and sweet and happy and with a little bit of a kick!