Decking the Halls and Trimming the Tree: ROUND 3

Sunday we topped off the Christmas decorations with gingerbread-house-making at the Watts's.  Here are our finished products and Jared's.  Mine ...

Jared and Sam's ...

Sam wouldn't leave Jared alone. Two goofy boys!

Those weren't the only products ...

The gingerbread house making was lots of fun for the adults but the kids apprently needed some other things to keep them occupied.  So lucky me, I got Cooper and Jared had Sam (Estee's two boys).

 

 

Guess we will keep doing the gingerbread houses even if the kids weren't too interested.  We sure had fun!

Decking the Halls and Trimming the Tree: ROUND 2

Okay, so we really didn't wait really this long to finish the tree, but we were gone this weekend, which was really fun, and I will get to that later.  First off, we went to Joann's in the nick of time before closing and snagged two more set's of lights with their sweet 60% off sale (I know, I know it will be way cheaper by January, but we are celebrating Christmas with a tree this year - so I had to feel pretty good about the "deal") and headed home determined to finish up.  Jared skillfully finished the tree off . . .

And we finally had our finished product!  I have been getting home really late this past week.  Due to Christmas present projects and the serious "night owl bug" I got this week.   Here it is:

We are sure happy to have a tree and presents to put under it.  This year, I was a bit sad not to be in Oregon with my family, but starting out own traditions and being home together without any stress has been absolutely wonderful!  I feel so grateful and blessed.  Plus, it is just so much fun to start these things together! 

This weekend we had a fly-by trip to Draper then Provo, down to Mapleton, Manti, back up to Salt Lake City, and home to Logan.  It was ALOT of driving (my least favorite part)!  But smooth in our new car, which I am so grateful for and got to see lot's of family and friends.

Draper was good news.  I just finished my 15 weeks of going once a week and have just started going once a month.  December was my first time waiting three weeks and good news, I am still progressing without weekly treatment.  I can't believe we did all that driving without any pain! Yippee!!!  That evening we got to spend with Leah and Geoff, Isaac and Lucy.  It was so much fun to see them and their new house the next morning.  GORGEOUS and SUPER exciting!  We had the blessing of seeing Manti in the winter and going through the Manti Temple for one of my mission companion's wedding.  The temple is absoluetly exquisit and unique.  The ceremony was so sweet.  We were so pleased to be apart of it.   Then we raced back up to SLC for a wonderful dinner with so many sibilings (Matt,Jessica, Emi, Geoff, Leah), neices and nephews (Isaac, Lucy, Sophia, and Sage) who were so funny playing together, and my wonderful hosting grandparents (Virginia and Rudy).  We loved every  moment of it.  Thank you to everyone who made that trip so much fun and possible for us.

Have a very merry Christmas!

Decking the Halls and Trimming the Tree: ROUND 1

So, Jared and I have yet to decorate for the holidays, or any holiday for that matter.  We even have had trouble decorating our house period.  Somewhere between school, work, and well .... life, it just hasn't been on the top priority list for a while.  Don't get me wrong, I do want to decorate our house, but I don't know sometimes I feel guilty I guess putting money into our little apartment when I know we won't be there to long.  Besides, it sure has a lot of character on it's own.  For those of you have been there, not only is it older than Jared's 84 year old grandpa, who put the wood flooring in, but it has since then been covered in kermet the frog swamp green carpet.  Anyhow, we love our little tree house, and slowly but surely the decorating has taken stage.  It started this summer by finally putting up some picture from our wedding, in frames I had been collecting with weekly Micheal's coupons was further embelished with a wonderful gift from Jared for my birthday, when he refinished six beautiful sturdy old frames, cutting glass for them, and printing pictures, all of which we have placed around the house.  Decorating was topped off when we finally got one of my most exciting wedding gifts this summer from the Ditto's.  It's a long story, but on my mission I had this vision of a wall covered in favorite scriptures (instead of pictures of Christ only) and must have told Sara about it, because she had four of the scriptures printed and we got it up on our wall in the living room.  I will have to do a house tour later, but for now here is a picture of the wall.  Just pretend it's straight - these are way harder to do than you think.

Okay, but here is the kicker.  We finally decided that, being here for Christmas, we really wanted to start our own traditions and do some Christmas decorating to get in the Spirit.  So we got a fresh tree from our forest here in Logan Canyon and then proceeded to buy and apply the trimmings.  After way to much searching we found a metal tree stand (everywhere was either sold out or $50 bucks!  Who in their right mind?...) an angel (from Global Village made of orange rinds - so cute! - our new tradition of one ornament a year together), and lights.  Lights.  One question: How do you know how many lights to buy?  Answer: Do not use my strategy of imagining wrapping the strand loosely like a candy-cane-stripe around your tree.  It will not be enough! 
So yep, that is what we did.  Bought one strand of 105 lights, 5 yards (seemed like plenty) and headed home gitty to decorate.  Well, after sawing the tree in our living room to make it not hit the roof, barely getting it's excuse for a trunk tightened into the stand, and wrapping the lights on, Jared proudly plugged in the string of lights, to illuminate ....

 

 

Yes, two feet of the tree a lite.  Oh well, we'll get this down.