Hope everyone had a happy Thanksgiving! We had a great day. I didn’t take any pictures, unfortunately, so I have none to share, but our dinner was good and my mom, MIL and I had fun shopping on Friday. I can say that now that it’s over.

Onward to Christmas! I found this survey online and thought I’d post it here, feel free to copy and paste it!

1. Egg Nog or Hot Chocolate? It depends! I like to have a little bit of egg nog every year, but I love hot chocolate!
2. Does Santa wrap presents or just sit them under the tree? He wraps them! Half the fun of presents is the surprise of unwrapping them!
3. Colored lights on tree/house or white? The outside of our house is a mess right now. We bought lights that aren’t working properly. Another set of lights we bought aren’t what we thought they’d be. And we have three lighted Christmas trees for our yard, one of them got smashed by the ladder. It’s a sorry sight, but will get fixed! So it’s a little of both outside - colored and white. We do white on the tree.
4. Do you hang mistletoe? Not since I needed a reason to kiss someone LOL I’m guessing now my husband would LIKE me to hang mistletoe? LOL!
5. When do you put your decorations up? Last weekend of Nov/first week of Dec.
6. What is your favorite holiday dish (excluding dessert)? Overnight sticky buns
7. Favorite Holiday memory as a child: One Christmas Eve, my stepdad brought up a Huggies box (back when diapers came in a box) and I heard a little noise from inside of it. It was a puppy!! I even remember that we were eating chicken noodle soup that evening when he came home. It was the best!
8. How and When did you learn the truth about Santa? I think I was about 12 years old when I got up before my mom, stepdad and sister and I sorted all the gifts by person into piles. I was up at like 4am and couldn’t sleep I was so excited. When we got the film developed from Christmas that year, there was a picture of all the presents together under the tree, which means either Santa took the picture LOL or my mom took it after she set the presents out after we went to sleep. That’s when I knew for sure!
9. Do you open a gift on Christmas Eve? Yes, we spend Christmas Eve with my mom, so the kids get to open lots of gifts that evening from her. We don’t open any at home, though. When I was little, we did get to open 1 or 2 gifts on CE, it was always new pajamas and sometimes a book with it
10. How do you decorate your Christmas Tree? I don’t have a theme really. I have everything from homemade ornaments the kids made/painted to ones from when I was little my mom gave me when I moved out. Everyone gets a new ornament each year so our collection has grown quite a bit!
11. Snow! Love it or Dread it? We don’t get it enough! I love snow as long as I don’t have to drive in it. I love watching the kids play in it…. and them being all excited about having a free day off of school!
12. Can you ice skate? No! The two times I’ve tried weren’t pretty!
13. Do you remember your favorite gift? The puppy I spoke about above was a big one. One year I got a scooter that I begged for and my mom swore up and down I’d never get and after all the gifts were opened, guess what they brought up to me? A scooter! My dad got me some neat things when I was little when he was working as a merchant marine and traveling overseas alot, he brought me a Casio keyboard that I loved and a portable tv that I used to love watching Silver Spoons while I was taking a bath LOL.
14. What’s the most important thing about the Holidays for you? As a child… spending time with my family. Going to my aunt’s/grandma’s house and seeing my cousins. As an adult, the same thing applies, but we spend it at home with our kids. We usually have my sister and nephew and my dad and my other nephew over for dinner, and we just have a nice day. I love that Christmas lasts all month… I love the Christmas spirit and the joy it brings to people. I love traditions!
15. What is your favorite Holiday Dessert? My aunt’s peanut butter fudge and pazelles I think they are called!
16. What is your favorite holiday tradition? Candlelight on Christmas Eve!
17. What tops your tree? Angel
18. Which do you prefer giving or Receiving? I’d be lying if I didn’t say both. But I enjoy giving more
19. What is your favorite Christmas Song? Winter Wonderland

A friend of mine, Marcy, sent me this nifty little greeting. I was literally ROFLMAO when I saw her 4 adorable kids dancing on my computer monitor. It was hilarious! You can only make 4 elves on each greeting… which didn’t really meet my needs but I made it work anyway by making two of them. PLEASE go see these! At the end of mine, you will be prompted with the option of making your own. If you do, please post a link in the comments section - I’d love to see them!

First I made one with just the 4 girls: Katelyn, Ashlyn, McKenzie, and Bailey.

http://www.elfyourself.com/?id=9571843839

Then I made one with David, Tanner, and myself. Do you know how long it took me to find a full on facial shot of David? Forever!! I had to go back to our Family Reunion in 2006! And, actually… the one I ended up using is not the greatest. It shows him at his finest… grumpy gus LOL.

http://www.elfyourself.com/?id=9572061217

Enjoy

We spent the day making decorations and pies. MIL just got here and we are getting ready to watch Deck The Halls together. It’s been a pretty nice day. The weather is gorgeous, my pies are done and I’m looking forward to relaxing for awhile!

The kids made these adorable turkeys out of this packaging cardboard that I got with a set of bowls I bought the other day. McKenzie came up with the idea….. You will see it in the picture of our ABC’s of Thanksgiving poster below. I got this idea from a blog called The Homespun Heart and we will most definitely be making this a yearly tradition. We started about a week ago and have done a few letters each day. We all wrote down things we are thankful for starting with that letter, even Bailey was able to contribute a little bit. We are trying to remember all the little things, small blessings, there are in life that we need to remember to be thankful for. This has been fun and something the kids looked forward to doing each and every morning before school! We have so much!!

The girls watched me bake pies this morning and they couldn’t wait to eat my leftover pie scraps. I baked them with a little bit of cinnamon and sugar - yum!

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving from our family to yours!

Just thought I’d share a Bath and Bodyworks deal I am hoping to take advantage of this week. Signature Collection shower gels, bubble bath, body spray, etc are 5 for $25 through Wednesday. They are regularly $10.50 each. There are two coupons that should be able to be used together to make this a whorthwhile deal.

Enjoy!!

We’ve been doing the Chuck E Cheese thing forever it seems. Katy had her first birthday there, back when there was only one to go to - the one in Portland. They built one out here a few years ago, and the kids are always asking to go there. Katy has outgrown it of course, but the other 4 still love it. We spent 5 hours there yesterday for Bailey’s birthday party. Bailey’s friends Maddie, Brittney, Connor, Emma and Sara came. And cousins Lane, Austin, Haley, Travis, Hannah and Tyler. Then we had Plain Grandma, Grandma Lisa, Grandpa, Aunt Myndi, Uncle Joel, Aunt Barb, Angie, Theresa, Scott & Becca, and Uncle Brian. Whew! We had lots of people there to celebrate with us. :o)

Bailey wanted curls in her hair for her party, so she would look like a princess. We put curlers in her and McKenzie’s hair the night before. Poor Mckenzie — all that work for nothing, there were no curls in her hair! But Bailey’s came out SO cute!

Pictures (click to enlarge!)

~Curlies~

~Left:
Birthday Girl! ~ Right: Bailey & Best Friend Maddie~

~Bailey
and her cousin Lane~

Opening
Presents!

~Mama &
Bailey~

I can’t believe how quickly this month is going already! The trees are barely hanging on to a few single leaves, Winter is on the horizon. This layout reminded me of winter a bit. I love Winter. Well, I love Fall more… I so look forward to fall all Summer long. When it gets here, I can’t make it stay around long enough.

I love rain storms. My mom and I went to the Holiday Food & Gift Show this morning. It was raining quite hard when we came out. Some of the ladies in front of us took the plastic bags they had laying out to put our purchases in and tied them around their heads to keep their hair dry. I was wearing a baseball cap, so I didn’t much mind it. I can’t imagine living somewhere that didn’t get as much rain as we do! I love laying in bed in the morning listening to the rain pounding the window. The wind storms are so fun to listen to also. There is just something comforting about rain - does that sound silly?!

So the holiday season is getting underway. We heard Christmas music at the show today. Many people were dressed in their Christmas sweaters. Santa Claus was even down for a visit. Something is getting me down about Christmas this year. I’m trying not to let it. Christmas is my most favorite holiday. Some of my fondest memories were at Christmas. Not just the presents either. People always say that the holiday is so commercialized, kids only like the holiday for the gifts and have such high expectations, etc. Just wasn’t always about the presents for me. My sister and I always got plenty of gifts, of course, but there was so much more to it than that. Traditions, focusing on family time, being kind to one another, etc. These are the memories I treasure more than the gifts. I remember very few actual GIFTS I got. I remember more of the things my family did together and the times we shared.

Anyway, enough of that. I need a good dose of Christmas Spirit. Someone has taken mine from me and I’m having trouble getting it back. Someone in general, not someone specifically

Check out my other blog: http://www.theulloms.com/every_day_is_a_holiday.htm

Maybe McKenzie will be asking for her two front teeth for Christmas? She lost her third tooth yesterday, 11/5/07. Her teeth are very slow to come out! She’d look so cute for Christmas pictures with a snaggletooth mouth

Sorry it’s so dark. Have I mentioned how much I dislike my camera???

I surprised the girls with Disney On Ice on November 1st… I told them I was taking them somewhere special for a girl’s night out. As soon as I pulled out the Princess sweatshirts, they knew where they were going - they’d seen commercials for it. LOL.

We had a great time!

Halloween was great! The kids had a great time, we trick or treated around our own neighborhood for the first time in several years. It was perfect weather, we didn’t get too cold and most importantly it was DRY! Tanner went as a scary skeleton guy - second year in a row - he won’t be picking that costume again :), Ashlyn went as Wonder Woman, McKenzie went as a Medieval Queen, and Bailey was Sleeping Beauty. Katelyn stayed home and passed out candy. We also had my two nephews Lane and Austin with us. Lane was Buzz Lightyear (didn’t get any pictures of him in his costume and Austin was a soldier. It was the first year none of us used a stroller! The kids all did great.