Christmas Eve

We got to host the annual Lytle Christmas Eve dinner this year. 

(Well, technically last year...)

Here's what it looked like before everyone showed up.

We borrowed some extra tables for the occasion. 

The one on the right decided to collapse during dinner. =)  Don't worry, it was okay. 

Thanks to everyone's swift reflexes, there were no overturned folks or food. 

And suddenly the house was filled with people.

What a merry event!

Jane and cousin Cassie

After dinner there were games, one being Christmas Pictionary.

I thought about not making cookies this year, but then I got a request from Ryan's sister's family. 

They like my cookies. A lot. =)

 Not wanting to ruin anyone's Christmas, 

 I opted to bake some traditional, chewy holiday cheer.

I saw some little trees at a craft store made of cardboard cones and cupcake wrappers. 

So I had to make some. I used them as table centerpieces at the Relief Society dinner, 

then arranged some of them on our mantel. 

I liked how they looked, but I never could tell if it was all too "busy".

I also covered some in crepe paper, yarn, and strips of curled scrapbook paper. 

And I finally found a use for those 3 white plastic frames I bought at Ikea a long time ago. I got some cute wooden letters, painted them white, 

then taped them to the fronts of the frames after I'd inserted some festive papers. And isn't the garland adorable?! I broke down and bought it at Kmart last year. I didn't even mean for it to coordinate so well with the trees and such.

By the way, I'm now sharing some pictures of our holiday decor. My apologies if they weren't actually captured on Christmas Eve...

How could I resist bringing this cute, rosy-faced bird home?

I have collected enough sweets-related decor over the last few years to create quite a sugary display.

I loooove the nutcrackers! And the pictures above the piano just did not work as a backdrop for my cute stuff, so I encased them in matching wrapping paper. =)  I was sad to tear it off after Christmas was done. I'd love to have a year-round candy room, wouldn't you?

Only 10 more months until Christmas.

I'll just let the next pictures speak for themselves. I'm too tired to type anymore. I just knew if I didn't finish this post tonight it would be at least a week or three before I got back to it. 

It was definitely a merry Christmas Eve. I love having people over, and I'm glad we were volunteered
this (I mean, last) year.

I hope your family holiday time was just about as warm and lovely as ours was.
Or however much you wanted it to be.

Christmassy

I've been slacking on my blogging duties. It's hard to find the time and motivation to do it, especially when it requires me to remember details about stuff that happened a while ago. 

I have three seasonal posts in the works that will hopefully succeed in summarizing the holiday called Christmas. 

Naturally, we couldn't usher in that special time of year without attending the festival of trees. 

One of these times the rest of the family will learn to appreciate it as much as I do.

Why do they not understand how festive it is?!  It's an important part of a complete Christmas season.

I'm only sharing a few pictures since most of them turned out blurry. Phooey.

We brought along Jane's BFF, Cristina, to pacify Jane. They are pretty much inseparable.

I liked this treats-inspired tree the best. Predictable, I know. But equally as irresistible.

It may look like Cora took some garland off a tree, but this is just part of one of the kids' activities they had there.

Here's another blobby-looking tree (courtesy of our camera's eye). 

It was covered in cute peppermint "candies".

The main reason we chose to attend the fest on that particular night was to support some ward friends (Richard and Emma Beck) in their fiddling performance. Emma and their young kids play the violin and Richard plays the guitar. They started this group a couple of years ago with some of their friends. They are very good! Definitely the best performers of the evening. =)

That's all I have to say about the festival of trees, but while I'm on the topic of performing, I'll share some pictures from Jane's December orchestra concert.

This was before the show started. Once again, Cristina and Jane are together. 

 This year marks their first stab at orchestra. They both chose to play the viola. 

Also note their matching outfits.

They are pretty cute, aren't they?

And that's as Christmassy as I'll get for now.

Just you wait until the Christmas Eve and Christmas Day posts.