For the last week, as I've been editing our home videos to turn into our annual dvd, Rori has had a lot of fun looking at the video we have.  EVERY TIME, she wants to go out and do whatever she is watching us do on the movie.  So, she has been wanting to play in the snow, go to the beach, have a birthday party, etc. lol

Now that we have our Christmas decorations up, Rori has been asking repeatedly if we can "go to Christmas."  I'm not sure what she means.  lol 

Yeah, remember when I said that I was done stressing because I think I had everything under control?  Uh... well that was before my computer REFUSED to burn the dvd I made!  I've tried several times today, all were big, fat, FAILS. 

But I'm trying again and I have one more trick up my sleeve if it doesn't work this time, so I'm not completely devoid of hope quite yet.  Just nervous. 

Is it silly to pray for a software program?  Cause I just did. ;)

And my halls are all decked.  Yay! 

Okay, I think I can finally stop stressing.  I'm pretty much done with my presents (just have to wrap them), done with our annual dvd (just have to burn them), my house is decorated, it's even almost clean.  Tomorrow I will take care of the last of the church stuff I need to do before I leave.  And then all that will be left is to see New Moon with about 17 of my friends, host an ice cream party after it, then pack our suitcases over the weekend.

These two weeks (last week and this week) are by far my most stressful of the year but it is so worth it when I'm at the end of it and have it all done.  Now I can fully enjoy my holidays, stress-free.  :)

Mama’s Holiday Wish List Meme
TodaysMama and Provo Craft are giving away a sleighful of gifts this holiday season and to enter I’m sharing this meme with you.

1. What 5 items are on your holiday wish list this year?
* LOTR Leatherbound copy
* Sienna Ricchi handbag
* Amethyst ring
* Psych Season DVDs (any or all)
* New Nativities

2. What is your favorite handmade gift you have received?
Probably the nativity that Acadia made me last year.

3. What handmade gift have you always wanted to tackle?
Before last year, it was making a cd of piano music but now that Cadi and I have done that... I wish I could sew so I could make quilts.

4. What was the best Christmas gift you received as a child?
One of my favorites was my Cabbage Patch kid.

5. What items are on your kid’s wish list this year?
For Cadi - Littlest Pet Shops, gift cards, books
For Rori - Littlest Pet Shops, My Little Ponies, anything Princess

6. What is your favorite holiday food?
Pie!  Oooh, and Ryan's homemade Cheesecakes. :)

7. What will you be hand-crafting for the holidays?
I cannot tell you yet! lol  But I will say that I'm done with most of what I'm making and will be completely done by the end of this week. :)

Oh, and I can tell you the *non-surprise* gift (because I do it every year so they already know it's coming)... I'm compiling our home video from the past year onto a dvd to give to family members.  (We don't live near them so they miss a lot of the fun things we do, including many holidays and birthdays.)

8. What is your favorite holiday movie?
White Christmas

9. Favorite holiday song?
It is too hard to choose one favorite!

10. Favorite holiday pastime?
All of it!  I love visiting family, I love having our quiet Christmas Eve at home, I love giving gifts, I love decorating, I love the first snowfall, I love all the nativities, I love the Christmas music... I just LOVE the holiday entirely! :)

I'm pretty peeved right now.  So frustrated I can hardly talk.  That was one of THE WORST calls I have ever seen.  LAME!!!  And those refs are gonna feel like crud when they see the replay and realize that they totally blew the game. 

GGGGGAAAAAHHHH!!!!  

I need some Lord of the Rings.

We tried something a little different this year.  It's kinda embarrassing, but we have decided that we just don't care.  We all LOVE this song, it makes us all want to jump around and dance!

I come from a big family, and we're all growing up, and some of us now have families of our own, so recently we've started doing a couple of gift exchanges for Christmas instead of getting a present for every single person.  We have two exchanges: store bought and homemade.  Acadia even participates in the homemade exchange because she is old enough to be able to create a meaningful gift.

We use a great website Elfster.com to organize our exchange.  Since we don't all live in one place, this makes it easy to "draw" a name without anyone else knowing who has who.  Elfster assigns it to us and e-mails us privately.  We can put our wishlists on Elfster, ask each other questions annonymously and even shop for gift ideas. 

Recently, someone annonymously asked me to post pictures of Acadia's room on my blog.  Sadly, this is what her room looks like right now, AFTER she "cleaned" it.  lol  I'm sorry the first pic is a little blurry.  The last couple of pics are just a couple of things she has in her room, probably not even necessary for what you're doing. 

She used to have a horse poster over her bed but you can see that it has come down. 

I've known for several months that we would be using "Headstrong" for Rori's montage song.  I'm pretty sure the reason is obvious. lol  She can be a real sweetie sometimes, but usually she chooses to be HEADSTRONG!  lol

YouTube isn't letting me upload the audio for this one, for copyright reasons, so I'm using Photobucket this time:

It's no secret that I make a collection of home videos for our family each year for Christmas, and they also know that at the end of the home movies, I add a montage for each of the girls and also one for our family. 

Thanksgiving is in two weeks!  (They have to be done before we leave for California for Thanksgiving week.)  And that means, it's montage time!

Today I made Cadi's.

One of the biggest things to decide is what song to use.  This year, Cadi and I went back and forth a few times, but finally agreed on this one.  It does fit her personality quite well.  She has, and is, and shines "the light"...

Stay tuned for Rori's, I should be able to make it tomorrow. :)

We just got back from a really fun visit to my friend, Aimee's place just north of Seattle.  We stayed up late, late, late talking and were woken bright and early by kids.  Fun times.  But they really were; we had a lot of fun!

Acadia spent almost the entire time loving on Baby Jason.  She was so great with him and he LOVED her!

This was the only pic I could get of Rori and Jilly, they were just too busy and never sat still!

We're hoping Aimee and her family can come down and visit us soon, maybe next month!  Maybe we'll get better pics of the girls next time.  And maybe we'll actually get some sleep next time.  Yeah right, who are we kidding?!?! lol