::we still did frycakes::

A long time Halling family tradition is to make frycakes every December 23rd at Matt's grandparent's house. I kinda wasn't sure if we'd do it this year with the loss of Matt's grandpa.

We ran into Jennie (Matt's sister) at the store on Tuesday (the 22nd) and she says "you guys comin' up to do frycakes tomorrow?" I was glad to hear that.

I learned something new this year about this tradition. Matt's Grandma took this recipe to an extraction meeting where there was a man who had had this in his native country. He cried because he hadn't had them since coming to America. They've made these every year on Christmas Eve eve. These two sisters made sure they called their other sisters to see if they were making fry cakes too.

I helped roll the dough and flip them through. Amberlee cooked them. Matt's Aunt Deanne and his mom talked and reminisced. Deanne seemed particularly nostalgic this year. She shared lots of memories, talked a lot about how much she missed her mom and dad, and asked Susan about what she remembered about Christmas growing up. It was precious to listen to.

Grandpa was missed, but we
decided he and Grandma were still there.

::party time::

We're done with school for the rest of the year!! It's about a 10 day vacation, and we're (I'm) SO glad for it! I'm so ready to sleep in, not have to get up for anything, stay in my jammies til noon if I want to and just be on vacation--plus Matt's done with work too!!! ahhhhhh!!

Portie got done last Thursday and Chloe got done today :)

Port had 2 parties last week. The parent/child activity day was Tuesday. Cooper and I got to go watch him sing and do some fun activities with him.

they got a chime to ring during "jingle bells"


the picture's pretty blurry, but I had to get in it 'cause of that tongue!

They had 3 tables set up with little Christmassy projects for them to do.

He made a tree. He had to cut it out

(so frustrating to watch! He was concentrating so much on the motions of cutting and not paying attention to the lines of the triangles, so he cut them in half, and the tree ended up looking a little raggedy, but his motions were good!)

He's pretty proud of it

and some dang cute reindeer antlers

His second party was a PJ party. He got to wear jammies, take a pillow and blanket (and of course his "mahmah")

he was SO excited to wear his Buzz jammies!

they watched Frosty and ate popcorn in their jammies :)

Chloe had a "teeny tiny elf party" on Friday. I got to go for a bit (since I volunteer on Fridays). She also had a PJs party Monday and a PTA party today.

The elves in her classroom. They work the same way as ours.

The kids all had to bring a teeny tiny treat to share.

Chloe brought Nerds.

I (and the other "help mom") helped pack the bags full of the teeny tiny treats for all the kids.

Her bag (which she shared with Port when we got home and Dadduh when he got home)

Chloe's teacher read the kids a story (Grinch)

So now we're just waiting for Christmas! We're so excited! I have to admit though, that it makes me a little sad too. I was looking at the tree tonight all lit up and Chloe said in her squeaky little excited voice "Mom, only 2 more days 'til Christmas." I said "yeah" and that I was excited, and then it made me think of how it was all going to be over in one day. All the prep we do for Christmas (shopping, decorating, cooking, planning, etc) done in one day. Sad. I love Christmas. We've had fun with it this year. The kids understand the fun of it and also the true meaning of it, and we (most of us) can't wait 'til friday.

I'm so glad I got to go to their parties! I'm thankful everyday that I'm able to be with my kids. I appreciate Matt so much for his hard work so that I can stay home with them and be able to do these things. My mom wasn't able to when I was little, and I always wished she could. I want to express my love and appreciation for Matt's mom. Without her I couldn't go to their school to volunteer, or get done some of the little things I need to. She's always able to help when I need her. We gave her a little decoration/sign thing a while back that says "when I count my blessings, I count you twice". I hope she knows how true that is.

::a jeppsen christmas party::

We've been super busy this last week. We've been trying to finish up our Christmas shopping (Almost got it all done. We've only got a handful of things left now-hopefully I'll get that done on Monday), I got the boxes out to all my grandparents (always a fun experience-me and the three amigos at the busy post office), school parties, etc.

Saturday was the Jeppsen Family Christmas Party (on Matt's dad's side).

We get together for dinner...

I made lots of these...

Matt & J played bejeweled (a lot!!) on Amberlee & George's iphones...

Santa (or one of his helpers) always comes to the Jeppsen parties. He always brings the kids something little (a gift the parents send ahead for him to put in his bag).

The kids were way excited to see him...

Chloe waiting for Santa

Each of the kids got a little present and sat with

Santa for a minute while he gave them their gifts.

Chloe was just fine with Santa...

She got a princess Color Wonder coloring book...

Portie tried to just grab his gift and go...

His was a Toy Story Color Wonder book (no Buzz in it though, what the ???)

And Coopie...

...poor boy!! And he has mean parents who just take pictures of him crying instead of saving him from the big hairy guy.

...anyway, Santa brought him a little car; and he liked it. He makes little engine noises when he plays with it.

::a bright fhe::

We decided to have our family home evening

in the car.

We went to see the lights @ WB. They were fun. The kids get so excited about lights, and they loved these.

They hung out the window the whole time while I held on to Bubba's legs and the heater blew full blast.

After that we drove past a few houses in town with some pretty amazing lights.

And then we came home to our sad little lights display...

...but that's what happens when you've got the 5'3" in charge of the lights.

::and since we've no place to go...::

let it snow! let it snow! let it snow!

Any time it ever snows anything significant at our house, we have to go to Grandma & Papa's house (they live at a much higher elevation that we do) to see how much they got...and boy did they get some snow on Sunday!!

only anout 2 feet!!

Matt keeps his 4 wheeler up there for that reason. One of his all-time favorite things to do is plow snow with that thing (he's weird). He goes out and plows anything and everything he can. The kids like to ride with him too (until they get too cold). So Matt took the big kids out and plowed for a bit with them.

They shoveled with Papa for a minute and then went in with

Grandma & Jennie and Bubb-Nubb :)

the tongue's gotta be out to get the shoveling done right

And that...

...is "doo-doo" snow.

You can probably guess who named it that :)