Breakfast with Santa

Christmas is all abut the little kids. Since Ken and i don't have any of our own, we enjoy it through our nieces and nephews. This year, we invited Nate, Katie, and their three girls up to spend the weekend with us. We were able to find a place that does Breakfast with Santa. We got up early Saturday morning and headed over.

As we walked in the door, they asked if the girls wanted reindeer antlers or Santa hats. They both wanted antlers. Later, they got to get their faces painted. Ellie decided to stay with the reindeer theme and became Rudolph. Sophie wanted to get a Christmas tree on her cheek.

We also got to sing Christmas carols with Santa and had balloon animals!! Both of the girls got unicorns. They just love unicorns.

Little Ivy just chilled out most of the time. She was content sitting with Daddy in her bear outfit.

Shortly before Santa arrived, Katie asked Sophie if she was ready to see him. Sophie looked at her with her big brown eyes and said "I thought you were Santa." Poor girl has it all figured out at the age of 3

After Santa got their we wrote him a letter. Santa would even mail it back to us if we wrote our address at the bottom. Amazingly, Santa knew where Tremonton was. He was impressed that they would come this far to see him.

Thanks Nate and Katie for letting us share this moment with you guys. We are thankful you would come up and spend the weekend with us. Oh yeah, you ROCK!!

super graphics

Ken's Parents have been doing a remodel at their home. It was a pretty big undertaking for them. It took most of October and November to complete but it looks great. new windows, new carpet, new paint, new lighting, new tile. It looks Great!! Way to go Chris and Kirb!

Kirby is an architect and an artist. He has done some really interesting stuff over the years. I just love to point out his buildings and say "my Father in law designed that". His artistry carries into their home. Their artwork is awesome and each one has a story behind it. They also do super graphics on their walls. What is a super graphic?? It is an accent paint color that is a stripe or an oval or...the possibilities are endless. Theirs goes across the ceiling and a down a wall or two.

Before the remodel, they had one super graphic in the front room. It was light grey. It started in one corner of the room, went up the wall, across the ceiling the the diagonal corner and down that wall. it was pretty cool.

The new super graphic is much more detailed. They chose three different colors, Red (their favorite color), medium grey, and light grey. here they are intersecting in the middle of the ceiling.

You can see that they don't actually tough each other. They stop just inches away from the other stripe. Each super graphic highlights a painting or piece of art they have on the way. here they all are.

There are three more in the entry way. these are smaller but they continue the colors and tie it all together.

This last one has been dubbed the mike and ike. It is roughly 4 fee tall with a giant can opener inside in it. It is right over the stairs so it took some serious balancing to get just right.

I think it all looks great! Way to go Chris and Kirby!!

Christmas tree tradition - part two

This year we decided to build again. WOO HOO!! We decided we were going to get corrugated steel roofing panels, fold them into triangles then place them one on top of each other with lights cascading down them.

The Friday after Thanksgiving we headed to Home Depot. We purchased all the necessary items including three corrugated roofing panels. Hint, measure your car before you go. Take tie downs if yo need to place items on your roof rack or borrow a truck. We got the panels to the FJ only to realize they would not fit. Idea! let's just fold them now and then they will fit for sure. WRONG!! Corrugated panels are designed NOT to bend. OOPS. So, we returned two and kept the "dented" one.

Saturday we were in Tremonton with my Brother and Sister in law. We plotted the way there and back on a new tree. We decided to get three 2 x 4's and make a triangle. Then we covered them with metal roofing panels on a roll that are 14" wide. We didn't want the lights to show so we taped them to the back of the metal. All you can see is metal and light bulbs. It is pretty cool if you ask me. Here it is with all the lights off.

Here is the tree with all the lights in the room off and only the lights from the tree on.

Here it is with the lights in the room on and the lights on the tree.

There is one main item that is the same with all our trees. They are all made of stainless/aluminum products or made to look like it. Maybe we will go out of our norm next time. Who knows what 2011 will bring!

Christmas tree tradition - part one

Every family has their own traditions during the holiday season. My side of the Family gets together every Christmas Eve to eat chili and play bump (our version of the white elephant game). It has been this way ever since I can remember. Dad and Bet make Chili and oyster stew. Dad is the only one that eats the oyster stew but it is tradition. We have to make a batch or it isn't Christmas Eve.

Ken's family would have a traditional Christmas tree one year, the following year they would build a tree. It is a sculpture and somewhat resembles a tree but isn't necessarily a tree. When ken and I got married, i fell in love with the idea. Ken and I have continued the tradition. Below is Chris and Kirby's tree in 2003. It is kind of hard to see. Basically it is a bunch of styrophone spears covered in tinfoil. They then wrapped the center with purple tinsle and placed purple glowing orbs at the bottom.

Our first tree in 2002 was...OK. We tried our best but it is was not our favorite. I think my sister Daphne was the only one that saw it and I am OK with that. I don't even think we have pictures of it. We did a lot better in 2004. We had just moved into our home in West Jordan earlier that year. We had 30 foot ceilings in the front room and used it to our advantage. What do you think?? Kenny is standing about 6 fee way from it. He isn't too happy about being in the picture.

2007 Was our next tree adventure. We had just moved back from Maryland and were living in a small town house. We didn't have a lot of room so we made a small one that would fit on a table. This one doesn't look like a tree at all but that is OK. We had fun putting it together.

To some, this may seem silly but to me it is yet another fun tradition that sets us apart. We wrap gifts in tinfoil too. It is a kirkman thing. man, I am glad I married into a quirky family. It sure makes the holiday's fun!