Christmas Eve in Texas 2009

CHRISTMAS EVE AT THE BALDWINS 2009

Christmas Eve was so much fun. We started off the night by having a yummy Christmas Dinner with Ham, potatoes, corn, rolls, Sparkling Cider, salad, shrimp and of course my favorite Christmas dinner dessert...Ribbon Jello. I'll talk more about that later. My good friend Melissa let me borrow some of her Christmas Dinnerware for our fun little family dinner. Which of course made our dinner a lot more festive.

Sophie getting ready to eat our Christmas dinner!

My favorite Christmas Dinner food I had growing up was my Grandma's Ribbon Jello. I remember growing up always looking forward to my family's Christmas Eve dinner when I would get to eat "ribbon jello". I used to look at it when I was little and always wondered how my grandma/mom made it. Well I decided since our little family was going to spend Christmas here in Texas, I would make some "ribbon jello' for dinner. Well wow now I know how my grandma and mom made it...with lots of patience. It takes quite a while to make. Letting the layers set takes hours. However, it was worth it to me! I loved it! Travis...not a fan. Sophie..likes the red and green layer...and well Tanner....loved all of it! So this the picture above is for my siblings and mom....to show them a picture of the famous "ribbon jello"!

The Craft table. Travis was a little nervous we were not going to be able to relax...he thinks I sometimes plan too much. However the crafts were fun, short, and to the point. Each craft lasted maybe 5 minutes....which is about as long as a 2 year old can do one task. Crafts and arts like the ones we did on Christmas Eve make me miss teaching school. I am so blessed though that I get to stay home with Sophie and Tanner and be their teacher while they are so little.

Tanner eating his Christmas dinner! Yummy canned Ham! He loved the Ribbon Jello!

Rolling out the cookie dough to make cookies for Santa.
Sophie doing a dance for our Christmas program.

Reading our scriptures from the advent calendar! After we finished reading we watche "Joy to the World". What a great movie to watch for Christmas. Sophie kept saying, "Where is Baby Jesus?"
Daddy and Sophie looking on the computer to see where Santa was and to see how close he was getting to Texas.

Finished will all the crafts! including Christmas Mice, Decorating cookies for Santa, writing a letter to Santa, and decorating a paper tree with Christmas stamps and stickers.The kids in their Christmas jammies!

Sophie opening up a Christmas Eve present!

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas 2009

We had a wonderful time celebrating this wonderful day with our little family here is Texas. How grateful we are for our Savior Jesus Christ and for the opportunity we get to celebrate his birth. The scripture we read today from our advent calendar was D&C 76: 22-24. These verses reminded us that Jesus lives. Merry Christmas!

Christmas Fun #13- Sea World Santa

On Christmas Eve afternoon we made a quick trip to Sea world (when I say quick we were in and out in less than 30 minutes). Sophie was so excited to see Santa before he left on his big trip around the world to deliver presents. We told her we can't stay long because he has to leave soon to go back up to the North Pole to gather all the presents the elves were wrapping. She was so excited. Tanner and Sophie loved seeing Sea World Santa!

Christmas Fun #12 - Opening Cousin Gifts

Since were not able to be home in Utah for my family Christmas Party, we decided to have our own by letting Tanner and Sophie open their presents from their cousins. Sophie got some Princess Barbies (which she will not put down) and Tanner got some Utah State gear so when we move back this summer he will fit right in at the ballgames. Daddy was excited for the Utah State bib...he is tired of putting pink bibs on Tanner. We are so excited to be closer to family next Christmas!

Christmas Fun #11 - Making Chocolates

We spent most of our Saturday making 90+ chocolate snowmen for my Primary Board. I made snowman goodie bags with M&M's and homemade chocolate snowmen. They turned out really cute. I attached a fun little poem to it that you read to the song "Once there was a snowman" but changed the words to "Once there was a teacher". Sophie, Daddy, and Tanner were great helpers!

Tanner's Teeth

On December 7th Tanner cut his first pair of teeth. He thinks he pretty big now that I brush his teeth like sissy. He is still just the best little guy. He has such a calm personality. His new thing is to clap. When we say "Yeahhhh Tanner" He starts clapping. He is sitting up better and better everyday and still does the army crawl. I just love our lil Tann Tann! He loves giggling at sissy!

Letter "P" for Playschool

This past Thursday I had playschool at my house. The letter for this week was "P"! Earlier in the week they went to another house and played with "P"rincess' and dressed up all 'P'retty! At our house I had all of them come in their 'P'ajamas for a 'P'arty! We started off the morning with 'P'ancakes and reading the 'P'olar Express. Then we watched a tiny portion of 'P'olar express and then I gave them each a bell necklace. We had a 'P'illow fight, which I renamed 'P'illow 'P'lay. We decorated some foam 'P'resents. Colored our 'P' mini-book and 'P'oinsettia flower. And ate a yummy lunch will all things that started with the letter 'P'!

Here are the 'P' words we covered that day. Pancakes, Pajamas, Party, Paige, Present, Plates, Pillow Play, Poinsettia, P-Book, Polar Express, Pizza, Peaches, Potato Chips, Pineapple Punch and well they all had to use the Potty at one point of the day too! So, of course I used it as a teaching moment!

Christmas Fun #10- Travis' work Christmas Party

Fun date night without the kids! We had so much at Travis' work party. They had a DJ so of course I can't say no to dancing...I just need to get Travis on board. The food was yummy and we ended up winning a gift card to Trav's fav...The Olive Garden. I love date nights even though they are far and few between.

Christmas Fun #9 - Neighborhood Christmas Breakfast

Our Homeowners Association does a Christmas Breakfast every year with Santa! We had a lot of fun eating breakfast, meeting Santa, coloring pictures, and making crafts.

Christmas Fun # 8 - Ward Christmas Party

This year we had so much fun at our Ward Christmas Party. Great food, Great decorations, and a great program. The highlight of the night was when Santa showed up. Sophie loves to see Santa and talk about him, but isn't a fan of sitting on his lap. She was really concerned that he wouldn't bring her a Mermaid barbie. She wanted to just yell it to him. She is getting better with the whole sitting on Santa's lap thing.

Sophie singing "Silent Night"!

Tanner didn't mind Santa!

Sophie and all her Friends

Sophie loves playing with friends. She is little miss social butterfly and wakes up asking to play with friends. She loves to go to playschool, nursery, and the gym to play with her friends. She is also my little buddy. We love making cookies together and playing games.

Sophie with some of her friends from Nursery!

Playschool at our house. Letter "O"! So we made 'O' is for Orange Chocolates using my chocolate molds. We made Orange Flowers, Orange Snowmen, Orange Dinosaurs, Orange Bears and Orange Seashells.

The girls playing in the bathtub!

Sophie at Elle's Birthday "Tea Party". This was a mother-daughter tea party for Elle's birthday. We had so much fun dressing up all fancy, decorating her hats, purses, wearing pearls, and white gloves. Lunch was so yummy and so perfect for a tea party. Sophie loves playing with her friends and I am so grateful she has such sweet little friends.

Seriously the cutest birthday tea party I've ever been to!

Christmas Fun #7 - Christmas Stories

Christmas Fun Traditions - Learning about Jesus and reading stories

One tradition we are doing is reading a Christmas story every night and then getting a piece of candy. My mom used to read us a story every night and then we would get a piece of that "hard tac" candy. Because of chocking hazards we stick to dum dum suckers and tootsie rolls here at our house. Before we read a Christmas story we have a fun Scripture reading chart that we read certain verses. Every scripture/story each day is about Jesus Christ. Sophie has learned so much about Jesus this Christmas. Although I love giving and getting presents, I never want to loose sight of the real reason we celebrate Christmas. So, we felt it is important to teach Sophie even if she is only 2 that Christmas is when we celebrate Christ's birth. She thinks Christmas is a birthday party for Jesus. Last night when saying her prayers..she said, "thank you for Jesus' birthday party". This night the pictures were taken we had a talk about why we give and recieve presents. We let Tanner and Sophie each open a present to see how happy they were. I explained to her that these presents make us happy, but do you know what makes us even happier??? I told her Jesus' life and example makes us happy and if we try and follow him we will always be happy!

Christmas Fun #6 - Gingerbread Houses

This year we made Gingerbread Houses with the Marelli Family. We had them over for homemade chili and cinnamon rolls after we got home from Sea World. Then we decorated gingerbread houses. We had so much fun. Sophie and Marco are best buddies! Then we watched the end of the Texas game....wow that was a close one! I love Christmas time so much. I love all the fun traditions. That night the Marelli Family was over we were able to share with them the scripture story and picture. Sophie loves to learn about Jesus.