Lather Up

I am shocked! shocked I tell you...that Christmas is 9 days away. I'm still in the middle of my learning curve of being the mom with the magic at Christmas-time, and every year it creeps up on me earlier and earlier. But fortunately for my sake, I married into the family whose mother made Christmas a science. She teaches classes for crying out loud! And so we're still sponging off of her traditions for now, plus adding a few of our own. Here's how we're getting lathered up for the holidays around here.

Dear Mom, I would be sponging off of you if we lived in the same town. I miss you. Love, me.


Aunties and Grandma took the mutts to the Nutcracker Ballet! Complete with a preliminary tea party to kick off the event. Check out the little waiter dude on the left. Is he for real? He's like a mini-adult, which is why they hired him to be a waiter. And plus, baby in a bonnet! I'm salivating just looking at her...



Santa visited the ward sugar-fest. I missed Vanilla Wafer, but was able to catch my youngest butting in line to get to Santa. No Santa fear in that kid. And in the other kid (on the right)? No Santa doubt. I wonder if I'm doing her any favors at this point.

She's convinced she has a specific elf assigned to her and keeps writing Santa to ask if she can know who her elf is. Adorable right?



Here's our new favorite holiday tradition, the Live Nativity. This was started the year we moved out to the semi-country by our neighbor. He takes care of his horses and chickens and other animals from a golf cart because he's paralyzed and in a wheelchair! He does more manual labor than I do and I have working, running, legs. Amazing!

There's something essential about being in a barn, smelling the hay, hearing the animals pawing the ground, and thinking about a Heavenly King coming into the world all humble and sweet. I heart it.



Here's Grandma Cozy again at her finest. This tradition stems all the way to The Mister's childhood. Gingerbread houses made from graham crackers. She boils down raw sugar till it's hot and sticky and we glue the sides together, then use frosting and candy to do the rest. They are sturdy little suckers and my kids had a blast!



Here's a fun Christmas tradition I learned at my Mother-in-Law's Christmas Class years ago. The Christmas Quilt! For years I have been meaning to start this tradition, thinking "After Christmas I'll buy some fabric on sale, and make a simple block quilt, and have that be the Christmas Quilt".

This year I said: "Get real Mrs. Olsen. You'll never get around to making that quilt before THIS Christmas". So instead I pulled out an old tartan fleece picnic blanket, christened it, and let it do it's magic.

Magic what? Every night the quilt rotates to a different bed where we all gather. Whoever got the quilt picks a Christmas story to read from our basket of Christmas related stories.

So much fun!

Hope your holidays are going great!

Love,
Mrs. Olsen