i need a little christmas.

We had a fun weekend.

A Christmasy weekend.

Poor Chris is so busy right now, we were all in need of a little Christmas.

Right this very minute.

~

Friday night we finally got around to decorating our tree.

Carly was a big fan of the ornaments.

{no surprise there}.

 We had to wait until Chris got home on Friday night so it was kind of late.

That's my excuse for my appearance.

And Carly's appearance.

 I do love all our ornaments.

We don't do the fancy, matching ornaments thing.

We collect ornaments along the way.

We buy them when we visit a place or to symbolize something meaningful.

I shared a few last year.

Carly got to hang her baby shoes with daddy this year.

So sweet.

 Despite her face in this picture, she does like me.

And she did have fun.

 The pretty ornaments.

 Our little Cindy Lou Who, who is not even two.

I use the word "pretty" a lot with Carly.

Usually referring to her, her hair, or her dress.

When we were decorating the tree, Carly displayed her understanding of the word,

as she would pull ornaments out and say "preeee".

Enjoy.

De-lish.

~

~

When we lived in Provo, we had a tradition that we would have a "gingerbread" house building party at Christmas time. It was a fun time and always a good way to relax during finals.

We miss those friends, and those Christmas parties.

{me and Chris, circa 2007.}

 We had a friend, Matt, who always made very impressive creations that took hours and hours.

Here he is building an amusement park swing.

It actually rotated.

He also made a helicopter and landing pad one year.

 So Chris and I were pondering upon those fun times, and all the friends we have made here, and we decided to revive the tradition. Between early pregnancy vomiting and newborn haziness, we never did it in Kville. So I'm glad we've revived it here.

The 1st Annual Lansing Gingerbread House Party took place on Saturday.

{the hostess with the mostess}

 I made and/or bought lots of yummy appetizers and desserts. We also sent our guests home with little Christmas buckets filled with fun hot chocolate packets, candy, and a C family Christmas card.

 After food, everyone got down to business.

{Carlos concentrating}

 {Kim and Bobby working on their masterpiece}

 {the whole par-tay}

 Carly and her new BFF Camilla. Poor Camilla is due with her own baby in a month and Carly makes her carry her everywhere.

 The J Family and their cute train.

And their cute kids.

 {Kim and Bobby with their completed masterpiece}

 The T family and their gingerbread Christmas tree.

Very impressive architecture to get those triangles to stay up.

 Cameron and Camilla's creation.

Santa in an outhouse.

Complete with the "stuff" in the bottom.

If we had had a winner, this might have been it.

 Oh, and us.

Chris spent a good deal of the building process up in Carly's room with the kids.

So I was in charge.

And this is never a good thing.

If you can guess what our creation is, I will send you a prize.

For reals.

We had so much fun and we were glad everyone came during this busy time of year.

And I'm glad everyone fit into our home!

Its a tradition we will continue.

Even though I will be eating queso dip and spinach dip and pistachios for the next two weeks.

~

Yay for a little Christmas.