Merry Christmas to ALL!!!

At the beginning of December, we all got up early and headed to the local tree farm (and I'm not talking about the one right next door, although Margaret did suggest it... "Mom, there's MILLIOMS and MILLIOMS of trees RIGHT THERE! How come we have to get in the truck and go get a tree???") to harvest our Christms tree. Then we all loaded back into the truck to take Andrew to the airport so that he could spend two weeks in Arizona working with the Gila Valley Temple. While he was gone, the girls and I decorated the tree. What you see is the side they decorated. I kept telling them the tree had more than one side, but they wanted to save that side for something else. I'm still waiting to find out what that something else is...

And here they are. The proud decorators. I'm sparing you the photo where Margaret is rapidly moving away from Savannah and she looks cranky. It doesn't seem to fit the Christmas spirit...

And to all... a slowdown of the Christmas season so that you have time to get the things done that you want to get done, and still enjoy each other... (o.k. the slowdown's not really going to happen, so...)

May you all find that Christmas brings Christ more into your homes and your lives this coming year.

All About Savannah...

November and the beginning of December were big for Savannah.

It all started with a birthday. A BIG birthday. In our house, 8 is a big deal. It's the age that you start being REALLY accountable for EVERYTHING you ever do (Savannah's still learning about accountability...). It's the age when you get to decide if you want to be baptized (which, Savannah did...), and it's the age when you get to invite a lot of people to your house on a Sunday night to celebrate your turning 8!

In the middle of November, Savannah invited 75 of her nearest and dearest to witness her baptism into the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. It was reported to be the largest baptism that our ward has had. Ever. I guess when you start advertising in JUNE, people tend to remember to come. (If truth be told, she invited closer to 150 people, or maybe even more... but only 75 were able to come). After the baptism, we were joined by 50 of those people for Cupcakes (filled with raspberry filling and frosted in white) and grape punch. It was truly an exciting day for Savannah.

Grandpa Pierce and Grandpa Stahr gave talks, Grandma Stahr led the music, Grandma Pierce said a prayer, and Savannah had her favorite babysitter, Taylor, say the other prayer. It was, as Savannah said, "A VERY EXCITING DAY!!!!!"

December brought yet another exciting day for Savannah... Her first Piano Recital. She claims that she was nervous, but I'm not sure HOW that could have happened. She plays the piano for anyone and everyone who will listen.

We invited Rudolph and about 20 of his friends to come... the cupcakes were made with chocolate cake mix, frosted with coconut pecan frosting, and decorated with home-made chocolate antlers and whole marischino cherries. Eyes are dabs of black frosting. Rudolph is filled with Bavarian Cream filling. We didn't bring any home. Thank goodness. I'm almost sweeted out!!!

It has been a fun filled few weeks... and now that Christmas is nearly upon us, we'll have another fun filled few weeks! I never realized how busy I actually was until I stopped to look at all the things we've done - and even more at all the things I STILL have to do!!!

(There is dinner to make, desserts to bake, gifts to purchase and wrap, gifts to put zippers into (my LEAST favorite sewing chore), and about 1000 other things to do. And how many more hours??? At least Savannah's major events are finished for the month. We'll see what the new year brings for her!)

Long Overdue Update

Well... It looks like November got away from me, and December is rapidly coming to a close as well. Anyone who can tell me where the last year has gone???? It's flown WAY too fast for me!

Here are a few of the photos and fun things that we've done since Halloween...

Mouths. Savannah made these with green apples and almond slivers.

Spiders... the non-biting kind. The brown bumps are the bodies - we couldn't get the licorice legs to work right, so they all have funny sticky-up pretzel legs. We made 40 something of these, took them to a halloween party, and brought 30 something home... People must have something against eating creepy crawlies.

And it looks like we'll have to do Savannah's Birthday and Baptism on another post... the pictures aren't wanting to upload.

Coming up.... All about Savannah, including a Piano Recital, Reindeer, and the already mentioned big days!