The tree is up!

I love my house at Christmastime. I remember as a little kid, I loved getting down the boxes of Christmas decorations and rediscovering them all. I would dig through the boxes, pulling things out and yelling "I remember this!" and "Look at this mom - remember this one?" I was quite good at emptying the boxes. I wasn't quite so good at actually putting the decorations where they belonged. In other words, I made a big mess. A huge mess actually. And of course, I would end up asleep long before the mess was cleaned up. And I know that I'm going to get so busted for confessing this, but the truth is that I did it on purpose. (I'm sorry Mom!) I just LOVED waking up to the beautiful Christmas tree and decorations the next day! I secretly derived great pleasure in going to bed with it a mess and then waking up to a completely transformed house. I know - I'm so incredibly selfish to let the magic little elves (mom) stay up all night cleaning up the horrific mess I left for them, and then I get to wake up to the end result. Selfish selfish selfish.

I don't get to go to bed in the middle of decorating anymore (Will's not as nice as my mom), but I still love the feeling I get when it's all cleaned up and the whole house is Christmasized. We put the tree up the day after Thanksgiving, and Jacey helped us string popcorn and hang the ornaments. This picture is of my favorite ornament. Somebody gave it to us in Relief Society one year, with a cutsey little poem that I have long since forgotten. But I remember the sentiment. This ornament hangs in the heart of our tree. I love that it is so simple and humble and yet it is such a powerful reminder to me of what we are truely celebrating.

I love this time of year. We had such a nice relaxing Thanksgiving, despite having a horrific head cold. We had dinner at Grandma Margaret's house and then Will played football while I "watched" the girls. I use that term loosely because what I really watched was the back of my eyelids while I held a napping Londyn. I woke up and had no idea where Jacey was. (Heather bailed me out and took her outside to watch the football game.) We decorated the tree on Friday and then we had a sleepover at Grandma & Grandpa's house on Friday night. We watched High School Musical 2. (I hadn't seen it yet - I know I'm a dork but I really liked the first one. Second one. . . it was okay.) We bummed around on Saturday morning - I worked on my lesson and Will played with the girls. We watched the BYU v. Utah game, which is always fun. We decided to stick around and watch the basketball game that night too, so we filled in the time in between with more football games. We pretty much didn't leave the living room all day. I know, we are pathetic. But we both love college football, and the end is near so we have to soak it up while we can.

Londyn had a break through on Sunday. She made it all the way through both priesthood AND Sunday School without having to be taken out in the hall!!! Miracles happen! She is at such a cute age (when she's not in church). She's started saying "tickle tickle" and she'll tickle my chin or my feet. It's more of a tongue-clicking sound, but it does actually sound like "tickle". I love that she's starting to run. When I hold out my arms and smile at her, she grins and runs into my arms. Makes me melt.

I would leave you with more pictures from our weekend, but I didn't take any. Zero. What's happening to me?