Since I last updated, we've been busy with lots of Christmas stuff and some not-so-Christmasy stuff.We made a bunch of treats, including what I think is now my most favorite cookie ever. This Date Spice Loaf was pretty awesome, as well.There was some crafting, although not as much as I would have liked. Noah made ornaments this year for the first time and I think we was pretty pleased with himself.For her ornaments this year, Emma devised an elaborate plan for embroidered Christmas trees with ornaments but once she (finally) finished one of those, she decided to wait and make those when she's nine instead. At the last minute, we went to Michael's and bought a kit that included everything needed to make twelve beaded tree ornaments. They ended up being really cute and all of them took her about an hour total. Perfect.We had a visit from Santa, which I think makes this the first year since we've been married that Santa has actually been organized enough to come before we leave for the holidays. Way to go, Santa!Pretty much everything Noah got this year (from everyone) had to do with trains. He is obsessed with Thomas these days and I thought he might get a little tired of the train gifts, but nope. We got him these train slippers and he has hardly taken them off since he opened them.We spent a couple great days at my parents' house, where it was non-stop fun except for one small part involving Emma puking all over herself at my grandma's house. Minus that, it was the perfect Christmas. I hope you had a wonderful holiday as well!

Tomorrow morning is when I have to turn in all the paperwork for the cookie sales for Emma's entire Daisy Scout troop. The girls turned in their orders to me almost a month ago so I've had quite awhile to complete this ridiculous amount of paperwork, but so far I've done exactly nothing. That is, of course, why I decided to update my blog right now - I just love a little procrastination!I've sort of been dreading putting up our tree this year because (if this year is anything like last year) I don't want to deal with rehanging a bunch of ornaments every time it gets knocked down, but also because it takes up a lot of space, and space here is pretty limited to begin with. Our train table, which is in the exact spot where we always put our tree, gets a lot of use every day so I was reluctant to move that as well. When I was complaining about all this to my mom, she suggested a perfectly wonderful plan - get a smaller tree! The kiddos and I picked one out this week and it's itty bitty but I am totally thrilled with it. I went through all our ornaments and picked out the ones that weren't breakable, didn't have much or any sentimental value, and didn't have any chokable parts. I packed those away and gave all the rest to the kids to decorate the tree however they wanted. It still looks plenty festive, it doesn't take up much room, and so far it's only fallen once. What more could a person want?St. Nicholas came to our house over the weekend and, in addition to some fun stuff for the kids, he also brought me this necklace. My, but he has good taste! I can't say for sure, but I'm betting he got the necklace here.
Oh yeah, and we're still into "fancy" around here.

Good golly, how can this week already be over? I've been meaning to blog about Thanksgiving, but now it's already been over a week so I'll try not to bore you with details.We spent a few days at my parents' house, which was great as always. The weather was amazing so we were able to enjoy some time outside before it got really cold.
We baked cookies, and one thing is for certain: Emma is still a huge fan of sprinkles.Steve was out of town for three days this week. This is the first time he's traveled in over a year, so I really can't complain, but I don't know how I did it when he used to travel all the time. Overall, everything went pretty smoothly while he was gone (even bedtimes!), so the biggest problem was just that I missed having him around.Emma had a little friend over today and they dragged all the old, forgotten fancy dress-up clothes up from the basement. It made me sad when Emma stopped wearing fancy dresses everywhere she went, but it looks like maybe Noah is trying to bring it back. Here he is traipsing around Cactus Grill tonight in his new "favorite dress".Now I'm off to go drink some wine and watch Love Actually with the husband. Have a great weekend, everybody!