White Christmas

According to the internet, the last real White Christmas in the Dallas area was in 1926! What a wonderful blessing for us to have one, especially as we have been missing snow.

You can see our footprints all over the front lawn where we played in the snow the night before!

We had a wonderful quiet, and peaceful day. The snow was beautiful, the kids were pretty well behaved, and outside was cold! We opened stockings, ate breakfast, did presents, then relaxed and played in the snow (Esther built her first snowman!), and then cooked up a storm for dinner. Nathan was so thrilled with his dump truck!
Esther is our horse and pony lover and was so excited to add more to her collection.


I decided to go really simple and natural with our table decor this year. And I found mini Martinelli's for our guests to take home. After bowls of Italian Wedding Soup, we had a big salad with hard salami, sharp provlone, and tomatoes.
Roasted rosemary fingerling potatoes and steamed carrots with butter and dill.
Simply the best Italian Wedding Soup I've ever made. Pretty, huh?
Stuffed turkey breast - stuffed with green olives, sausage, proscuitto, and chestnuts.

And for dessert - spumoni filled cannoli shells, biscotti, and Italian nougat candy. What a tasty feast!

Christmas Eve

First off - it's snowing!!! We are honestly having a white Christmas - in Dallas!! As Roark's family was getting ready to leave, the kids were all running in the 2 inches of snow on the ground. Esther got knocked down on accident by two big cousins who were wrestling and she got her first taste of snow down the shirt and all over the face. Laura, a true Texas child, screamed out in awe, "This is the deepest snow I've ever seen!"

We made five pizzas, but I only remembered to take pictures of three of them. We made mozzarella, tomato, and basil; ham and pineapple, meat lovers, chicken zucchini alfredo, and veggie.



Then came our Nativity pageant!






Have a very Merry Christmas!!

Hallelujah!

Who says Mormons can't have fun? Check this out!

Peanut Butter

Nathan discovered a new use for peanut butter - shampoo and face wash! He was "eating" a bagel with peanut butter and had already made a huge mess on his plate. Then he proceeded to rub the plate all over his face and hair. You have to wonder why in the world that seemed like something fun to do, but hey - at least I got a couple of adorable pictures out of it.

The Christmas Spirit

Enjoy this video my church put out recently reminding us of the true meaning of the holiday.

Cute Craft

I made this for Esther's room yesterday. I made a bigger one for our bathroom that is similar but the letter is a "J" and is made of metal. If you'd like to learn how to do this, let me know! It's very cheap and very easy.

Christmas Decor

Here are pictures of our Christmas Decor. I've been loving the simple elegant Christmas theme - it really helps keep my mind focused on the beauty of the season and the true meaning of Christmas. I have a Nativity set that I just purchased off of Ebay that has a place of honor waiting for it. I'm really excited to put it up and listen to Esther tell the Christmas story to me.