Family Pictures

On top of all the Christmas stuff going on, we made some time to brave the cold and go out to take some pictures, now you HAVE to understand that I'm EXTREMELY far away from calling myself a photographer. I'm TERRIBLE at it and even when I like photography, photography DOES NOT like me back. I'll try to learn more next year but I honestly have no hopes for it. I still had to give it a shot this year since I'm cheap and didn't want to pay an expert to do it (maybe next year when I have lost some weight ;) ). Anyway, we went out and we had some fun taking pictures that will be good enough for our Christmas cards. I'll share them here but please DO NOT JUDGE, because that would not make you a nice person :P

Bahaha Darren looks SO uncomfortable!

Poor Darren, his hands were freezing :(

See? I told you I STINK, but my family is BEAUTIFUL and that's what matters in my book :D

Elf on the Shelf and Christmas stuff

Wow! I can't believe my last post was in September!! I'm hoping to catch up before the year is over, but for right now I'll just go right into the Christmas stuff.
Lately I've been busy trying to figure out how to decorate sugar cookies using royal icing and I've spent a little too much time at universityofcookie.com and other wonderful websites. I've experimented with some cookies and I've been pleased with the results so far.

                               

Darren kept asking over and over if he they were ready to eat. Patience child! 

Work in progress

Yes, you have to deal with a messy kitchen

I'll be making more of these cookies and other yummy treats for friends during this Holiday season, maybe I'll post some pictures of that :)

I have also had a little too much fun with the credit card going around Christmas shopping, especially during "Black Friday", I usually go by myself and I don't mind it because I can stay as late as I want and go around as many times as I feel like it. No pressure from anybody ;)

At school, Darren's teacher introduced the kids (at least to Darren) to the popular "Elf of the Shelf". I had seen it before but never knew what it was about and I LOVE IT! At first Darren had a lot of concerns about adopting an naughty elf that would destroy the house and of course go into his "holy, untouchable bathroom". After a few days of having experienced "Santa's little helper" and "Ginger" at school Darren was really excited about adopting an elf and we did!
We voted on names and we picked "Nicholas Mistletoe" we call him "Nick" for short and now that he got his magic he's been up to some fun things. Here's some pictures :)

Before "Nick" got his "magic".

On his first night at home, Darren placed him near Santa :)

 Looks like Nick was busy making snowflakes with the sheep.

Darren figured Nick might be hungry so he shared a fruit roll up with him, Nick decided to have a baking party with my Lalaloopsy, he even found my cookie cutters and the Capri Suns! Darren couldn't stand the mess for long so he cleaned it up after school.

AHOY MATEY!! This morning 12-07, we found him playing pirates with "Honey", looks like he made himself a pirate costume and brought some "pirate booty" from the North Pole.

On the downside, Darren has been waking up around 6- 6:30 AM everyday to go find Nick! I don't know we can do this until Christmas! :(


This post was made by the chronically tired

Falalalala....Christmas Highlights

Better late than never. Here's some photos from Christmas. Darren loved everything he got! I have never seen him so happy... Oh Santa, you are the best!

The Spirit of CHRISTmas

Every year we try to make Christmas a little more meaningful, centered on the Savior. The Friends magazine had a little story called "A different kind of Christmas tree" on the December issue (click here to go to the article) and we decided to do something similar. We made a Christmas tree out of construction paper and each one of us made 4 ornaments. Every morning, for twelve days (until Christmas day) we would take turns and find a scripture that talked about Jesus Christ ( baptism, atonement, love, etc. you get the idea), then we would write it on the ornament and tape it to our tree. This gave us the opportunity to think about what we had read throughout the day and apply those same principles. I loved how Darren really looked forward to do this every day and "decorate" our paper tree. This is something we will definitely do next Christmas.

So This Was Christmas!

Christmas has come and gone and we are experiencing what seems like one of the snowiest winters ever (starting a week before Christmas), and Darren really being aware and excited about Christmas and Santa Clause. So as we walk through the snow (a lot of snow) and frost covered days of January there is a chance of us feeling a little blue (have I mentioned that it has snowed a lot?). At these times I like to think of a James Barrie quote that is a favorite of President Thomas S. Monson, "God gave us memories that we might have June roses in the December of our lives." So this entry is dedicated to the memories we made this Christmas that will be the June roses for the Decembers of our lives for years to come.

For pictures of the below Christmas events please see the pictures to the right labeled Christmas 07.

---

The Lights at Willard Bay
Every year the the camping area at Willard Bay is transformed. We tried to go last year but our attempt was on Christmas eve and when we saw the line of 40 waiting cars stretching towards the freeway we decided against it. Looking to avoid a repeat of that joy we decided to go early in the Christmas season. Thankfully the crowd was very small and we were able to get right in. We had much fun that we went around three times. We especially enjoyed the Disney characters, the dinosaurs and the telling of The Night Before Christmas. We hope to have some hot chocolate and go on a sled ride next year.

---

Temple Square
No Christmas is complete without a Trip to temple square. With all the hustle and excitement of the the holidays any place that can slow things down and remind you what is really important is a special place. Temple Square is one of those places. The cold air nipping at your ears is not enough distract away from the peace you feel as you walk around the House of the Lord looking at the beautiful lights, and meditating upon the simple beauty of the Christus.

---

Sledding
The waves of snow allowed us to go sledding various times. Including two or three times at the Burnett's house. Darren was much braver that I expected. Even demanding to go off the jumps. The biggest adventure was when we went to Syracuse High School. This new high school about 15 minutes away has a Football field behind it and the hill going up to the bleachers was perfect. Darren again demanded to go off the jumps. Carmen even got into the game. It was all fun and games until we hit some deep snow and Darren got a nasty white wash. He had enough after that but he showed how sweet he is when after Carmen or I would slide down the hill he would come and brush the snow off of us and ask us, "hey Dada [or Mama] are you OK?"
We still got some good sledding in and had a great time.

---

Christmas Gift Delivery
Christmas time is most enjoyable when we share time and presents with friends and family. Over several nights we piled ourselves into the great white Explorer adventured out to play Santa Clause.It truly is better to give than to receive (I can't believe I am saying that).

---

Building the Snowman
Yet another benefit of the sudden arrival of heavy snow was building our first snow man with Darren and our cute neighbor girl,Maguire Burnett. Carmen, Darren and Maguire provided the muscle to shape the incredibly awesome snowman and Kelly Burnett provided an fantastic snow man kit to finish it off.Maguire and Darren finished their fun in the snow by sliding down a hill that Carmen BUILT. Yes you read right, Carmen built a small hill for the kids to slide down. Is she not amazing? They also got their boots off to jump on the trampoline. What a great day for Carmen and the kids.

---

Christmas Eve Dinner
We are constantly trying to include more traditions from Carmen's culture. One tradition that we have had since the inception of our family is the importance of the Christmas Eve dinner orNoche Buena. The night starts with a dinner we prepare together. This year we had a delicious Pollo en Salsa Verde (chicken with Green Sauce), with carrots, rolls and dessert. After that we all chose something that we are willing to give to Jesus for his birthday. We choose things like a bad habits to give up, or Darren says he would share his toys with Jesus. Finally we set out Milk and cookies for Santa and some carrots and magic feed for the Reindeer. After that we had to get to bed so Santa would come.

---

Christmas MorningWe must have been good boys and girl this year because we were very blessed on Christmas day. Darren was so excited with all his presents but especially with his kitchen, his chefs tools, and his pirate ship. Carmen was way to good to me and I was spoiled as always. Carmen also had a wonderful adventure. I setup up a scavenger hunt so she had to follow 9 clues until she finally found her present hidden in the shed in the back yard. It was so funny to watch her jump through the foot deep snow in her pajamas to the shed, open it up and see the present in a blue bag. If you are interested she got an IPOD Nano with various accessories. She would say that I spoiled her but as we all know she deserves it.

---

Christmas Lunch
My Mom and Dad decided to spend Christmas with my sister Teresa's house so this year instead of going to my parent's house Maren and David invited us over for a simple lunch. We were happy that my Mom and Dad were able to make Teresa's Christmas more special by being there and we felt blessed that even with my Parent's away we were able to enjoy the blessing of family. Thanks to Maren and David and their wonderful children for having us over. Darren always has a blast at their house and the food was great.


Thank you to everyone for your love and Friendship and thanks for sharing and enhancing our lives. We love you all. HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

The Polar Express

Our Trip to the North Pole!!

Oh Christmas Tree!!

The day after Thanksgiving officially kicked off the Christmas season at the Skidmore house. We continued our tradition of decorating for Christmas the Saturday after Thanksgiving. Darren was into it for a few minutes this year....

but as usual the Great Carmen had to do the bulk of the work.....

What was my contribution well I was the designated motivator and Historical Documentor. Sounds important and trust me it was. After nearly half a day of hanging and taping, and sticking our house was definitly in the festive spirit.

The train is a new addition this year

of course the crowning achievement is the TREE!!

In the end we were feeling the Christmas spirit not only in our house but in our hearts as well. Aaaaah, that was poetry.