Parker Family Movie Night

What exactly is a

"Parker Family Movie Night"?

Yummy Mona Lisa Pizza...........

A pile of blankets and kids.........

and a Redbox movie rental.

One of our Favorite Family Traditions!

Christmas Morning

Coming down the stairs youngest to oldest, to see if Santa Clause came last night. We were able to hold the kids off until 8:30 a.m. hoping that Ava would wake up and join in our festivities. After an hour and a half of playing upstairs, we just couldn't ask them to wait any longer so we got started without the baby.

Lauren modeling her beautiful princess dress. I wish I could get away with wearing beautiful, sparkly dresses too.

Ava finally woke up around 9 a.m. and ran straight for the pony. This was a record morning of sleep for her by the way.

Miss Ava was more excited by the candy than anything else! She's not letting go of these goodies for anything. The blissful joy that pure sugar can bring to a toddler.

Grandpa Parker sneaking more chocolate to Ava. We caught you in the act Grandpa!

Ava loved her new bike. You can practically see the smile behind the paci. It's all in her eyes. Notice, she is still holding onto the candy though....

Kade and his fancy missionary tie from mom. We've graduated from the clip to the zipper! Very suave.

Kaden loves chameleons and named this little beauty "Rainbow".

Lauren trying out her new horsie, which she named "Syrup". She wanted to ask Santa for a real horse, but gratefully we compromised on asking for a rocking horse.

Sir Kaden wearing his knight tunic and Princess Lauren holding the soft, pink pony that Kaden and Ava gave her for Christmas. Notice a horse theme this Christmas? Grammie Sue and Grandpa Ric sent her a beautiful princess stick horse, which Lauren named "Sticky".

My friend Sami made this beautiful photo collage for Kevin. Click here for her Etsy shop and info. I love that the mat features photos from our family over the last seven years (since Kaden was a baby). The mat frames, The Proclamation on the Family, which is a statement put out by the First Presidency and Twelve Apostles of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. It contains our beliefs on the importance of marriage and the family unit. Click here to read more from The Proclamation.

Kevin's Christmas present that was delivered on Christmas Day. Can you believe the USPS had people out making deliveries on Christmas? Kevin has spent the last several months researching watches and determining every detail and feature that his dream watch should include. We finally found it! An Accutron VX-200 Chronograph fit the bill, and even better, it was a screaming deal off ebay! He tells me "this is the last watch I'll ever own". We'll see about that (he owns two other Seikos). I think he is a collector. I love you sweetheart!

We had a lovely day of eating delicious food, playing games, enjoying Grandma and Grandpa and lounging in our pj's all day. Most of all, we are grateful to celebrate the birth of our Savior this season. We will be eternally grateful for his life, his ministry, and his saving grace.

Merry Christmas to All and to All a Good Night!

Christmas Traditions

I love the musical Fiddler on the Roof. The story centers on Tevye, the father of five daughters, and his attempts to maintain his family and religious traditions while outside influences encroach upon their lives. He must cope with both the strong-willed actions of his three older daughters—each daughter's choice of husband moves progressively further away from established customs—and with the edict of the Tsar that evicts the Jews from their village.

At one point in the musical, Tevye proclaims, "Traditions, traditions. Without our traditions our lives would be as shaky as, as... as a fiddler on the roof! "

I love Christmas traditions. I feel our traditions be it religious or family or a combination of both, mold us into the people that we are today. When Kevin and I were married, I was excited to blend our previous family customs from each side into the traditions that we would enjoy for years to come in the future.

Marnie's Christmas Traditions:
*Helping a family in need
*Christmas carols
*Homemade wassil and cinnamon rolls Christmas morning *Theatrical rendition and reading of Nativity Story Christmas Eve
*Candle lite dinner Christmas Eve
*Decorating sugar cookies
*Kids slumber party Christmas Eve
*Torture of waiting for dad to shave and shower Christmas morning before opening gifts
*Homemade Egg Nogg (Is that even safe?)
*Christmas Advent Calendar


Kevin's Christmas Traditions:
*Helping a family in need *Spending Christmas Day with Grandma and Grandpa
*Eating Take Out on Christmas Eve *Traditional ham, rolls, and potato salad for Christmas Day dinner

Our Family Christmas

Traditions:

*Christmas Advent Calendar
*Christmas carols
*Helping a family in need
*Gingerbread houses
*Homemade gifts
*Homemade ornaments
*Christmas crafts
*Looking at Christmas lights
*Christmas music the day after Thanksgiving
*Christmas cards
*Fondue Christmas Eve (waiting for kids to be a little bit older for this one)
*Fancy breakfast Christmas Day
*Lounging in pjs' all day Christmas Day
*Traditional ham, rolls, and potato salad for dinner on Christmas Day

*Theatrical rendition and reading of Nativity Story on Christmas Eve. This photo was taken Dec. 24, 2007. Isn't Ava a sweet baby Jesus? This was always one of my most favorite traditions growing up.

*Decorating sugar cookies for Santa

*New Christmas pj's- that are opened on Christmas Eve and worn to bed.

*Christmas Books- A few years ago we started this great tradition. I have been collecting Christmas books for years. The beginning of December we gather up all of our books and wrap them and place them under the tree. Kaden and Lauren love to help me do this. The kids take turns choosing and opening one book each night in December and that is our nightly story. Some of our very favorites include:

The Tale of Three Trees by: Angela Elwell Hunt
The Crippled Lamb by: Max Lucado
How the Grinch Stole Christmas by: Dr. Suess
The Twelve Days of Christmas by: Jan Brett
Snowflake Bentley by: Jacqueline Briggs Martin
The Polar Express by: Chris Van Allsburg
The Christmas Miracle of Jonathan Toomey by: Susan Wojciechowski
The Christmas Pea Coat by: Richard H. Schneider
The Nutcracker by: Susan Jeffers
Away in a Manger by: Thomas Kinkade
Merry Christmas Little Mouse by: Don and Audrey Woods

*Homemade Wassil- my Grammie Stokes Recipe:
2 1/2 cups of sugar
4 cups water
2-4 cinnamon sticks
10-15 whole cloves
4 cups orange juice
1 cup lemon juice
2 quarts apple juice

Combine sugar and water and bring to a boil. Turn off the heat and add spices. Let sit for a few hours or overnight. Drain spices and add the rest of the ingredients. Heat to serve.

*Gifts for Jesus- This is something that I want to start next year. Especially since Christmas had come and gone and I am playing catch up with all of my posts. I have heard of a couple of different ways of doing this.

The first idea is to have a beautifully wrapped shoe box with a slit cut out in the top. All month long, family members write acts of love and service that are preformed on slips of paper and put them in the box. On Christmas morning, before any other gifts are opened, the "Gifts to Jesus" are read. This suggestion came from my friend Heather.

Another idea came from my sister Amy. It is similar in theory to the first, and probably better for young children who are not writing by themselves yet. You find a small basket which will represent Baby Jesus's manger. When acts of love or service are rendered, you give your child a piece of straw to add to the manger. On Christmas morning, you place baby Jesus (a doll) in the manger and sing "Happy Birthday" to him.

I am excited to add one of these, or maybe both, to our list of traditions for next Christmas.

White Chocolate Dipped Pretzels

One of my favorite family traditions growing up was making dipped pretzels with my mom. She always used a double broiler to melt her chocolate, but as a 21st century homemaker, I turned to my trusty friend the microwave, and it worked beautifully!

Where was our little Ava monkey while I was in the kitchen with my oldest two?

Dumping an entire canister of chocolate milk powder on the carpet of course! Which brings me to mention another dear friend that I just couldn't live without.....Mr. Oreck!