Just give me my kids so we can eat fudge and watch movies.

This is a pie I made from a youtuber that sounds like Winnie the Pooh.  See the cute tree shape I cut? It calls for lard and yes I have lard. Instead of beef steak I used a jar of elk. You heard me.

Elk as in from Sarah's elk. I failed to share this big news last month. Sorry if you don't like bloody dead animal photos but it is how meat is made.

I wasn't there for the week long hunt but I hear she was a diligent hunter and such a trooper even when it was hard. There is so much more to this story but you'll have to ask Sarah all about it. She's been loving all the attention from all the hunters in the ward and family.

They got home Friday and we spent all day Saturday processing the meat. Our freezer and jars are full. That brings us back to the elk pie I made with a jar of meat. The head is at the taxidermist and we'll hang it when it's done.

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Anyways, back to Christmas. We went to the Festival of Lights. I wondered if the kids wanted to do this again since we do it every year and it's always the same. I got an emphatic yes from all of them. I told them that as long as one child wanted to go, we would go.

This was a new feature.

I wanted to wait for it to snow since it's prettier with all the white glowy snow but there's no snow in the forecast. We actually had some days in the 50s. What is going on? When I woke up James for school the first thing out of his mouth was "Did it snow?"

If James didn't love his teacher before, the blanket she gave him and all the kids in the class sealed the deal. He's been carrying this blanket from his room to the couch and then back to his room every day since. 

Kids were in school all the way until the 22nd. Who does that? We have had such a busy month of basketball and church and orchestra that we haven't even had time to watch all the movies and do all the things. Sigh. The second to last day I helped in Erica's class during their Christmas party. This rotation they were to make marshmallow snowmen. See the example on the table.

This is how they turned out. 

Delaney gave Erica matching snuggies. She has been wearing hers almost nonstop since.

Here she is wearing it while delivering treats to the neighbors. She got mad at me for taking a photo of her in it. Then don't wear it out and about, dear.

My nephew that recently returned home from a mission spent a few days cleaning out my parents storage room, bless his heart. He uncovered this box. This box is so old. It has something else in it now but when I was a kid it held the Christmas wrapping paper and curling ribbon. So many questions now. How did my mom come to have a beer box? Okay, just that one question.

School got out at noon Friday and it was like a starting shot to cram in all the pre-holiday fun. That night we made red and green enchiladas and watched Home Alone. Saturday morning we cut out sugar cookies.

Saturday lunch the grownups in Justin's family went out for Thai food in Orem (no photos of the group) then we came home and prepped out Christmas Eve Eve dinner.

We had short ribs, risotto, vegetables and pretzel jello.

Then the kids opened their Christmas pajamas and a new Christmas book.

We watched Charlie Brown Christmas and went to bed.

Let's make it festive

At our town's annual tree lighting, the 1st graders get to sing carols and countdown to lights on. James is a first grader this year! His class is so cute. They were to meet at the gazebo and every time a kid arrived the class would shout "Hi (insert name)!" It was so cute

He was having a great time and actually knew the songs and sang so well.

After the lights were officially on, we walked around the park. We have lost a child the previous two years so we were discussing which of our children we would lose this time. Henry didn't come because he was sick so it was Sarah's turn. But she's 15 and has a phone so we didn't lose her.

We did help Erica's friend who was lost find her mom so I think that maintains the tradition. It's a crowded park and even with all the lights it's pretty dark.

Friday night was our ward party and then Saturday we went tree hunting. This is always an adventure. We drove to our super secret tree forest spot. There was a lot of snow and that makes it more challenging but fun. First up is bundling up and snow angels.

Corey brought doughnuts. There's something about eating chilled doughnuts in the snow that is extra delicious. We also brought hot chocolate.

Carrying down the tree!

It's a tad tall.

After we lined up our finds, we roasted hotdogs over the fire and they were delicious too. Food tastes better when it's eaten in the snow.

It took me 2 hours and 10 strings of lights.

Our designated hook hander-outer.

We worked on the tree Saturday and Sunday evenings. I waited until they went to school to spread out the gold section.

Justin won a 10 foot blanket at his work party and the kids can still manage to fight over it. It begs the question if there is a blanket big enough they won't fight over.

Sunday Henry got to speak to the incoming deacons in our ward and he wrote the sweetest talk. He was such a stinker before church and wrote this during sacrament meeting. I swear he knows when he's about to be sent to Timbuctoo and pulls something like this. 

My sister in NC sent a box of treasures she's found and thought we'd get a kick out of. I scored a couple of awesome t-shirts and the kids loved these stamp sets. She also sent me a gigantic bag of buttons just begging to be made into something awesome.

Erica had her choir concert. She got really tired of rehearsals twice a week before school but she stuck with it. I didn't make her but I did ask her what it meant if she quit choir and piano.

They did such a great job. They sang some difficult songs and I was impressed.

My nephew Kyle came home from his mission in Tennessee. This is a horse hat he brought home.Pretty sure we need to get this hat and my moose hat together for an epic photo.

Sarah and James had their orchestra concerts this week. I took mostly videos but here's a photo to mark the occasion.

Tonight is our Relief Society Christmas dinner and then I think we are done with all the events. I love the concerts and parties and stuff but my favorite part of the season is when we get to the point all we have to do is make candy and watch movies. Yes, let's stay home.