Let the holiday season begin!

I would have actually said that last week, seeing as Thanksgiving week usually marks the beginning of the holidays for me, but it was a busy week and I was too pooped to blog about my, er....interesting day at work on Thanksgiving, the divine french silk chocolate ribbon pies that I made the day after Thanksgiving, and the Christmas gifts that I have started to create.  But now that Christmas music is playing on Pandora 24/7, now that our Christmas cards are ready to be addressed and sent out in the mail, and now that I have eaten yummy turkey in half a dozen different ways the past few days, the holiday season finally feels like it is in full force!

And here's how I've been kickin' off the season.......

Look at this beaut:

 In a few weeks it is going to be a stinkin'-cute play kitchen for Kenners.  Can't wait to see the finished product!

And look at this pie:

I spent 40 minutes beating eggs into the pie filling and used a half pound of unsweetened chocolate bricks to make sure that it was the silkiest, chocolat-iest pie ever.   All that effort was definitely worth the results, but thank heavens that pie is finally all eaten and I can move on with my life after experiencing the world's biggest chocolate coma.  I hope I didn't knock too many years off my life for doing that to myself....

Garrett says I will certainly knock a few years of health of my life for doing things like this:

I don't think I multitask to this extent on a regular basis, but sometimes the floors must be swept, the baby must be held when I'm home, and how often do I get to speak on the phone to my sister in Minnesota these days?! (hardly ever!),  So what's a mom to do!?

Well I'll tell you what: finish that piece of multitasking so I can work on my french-braiding skills:

I'm seeing a little improvement.  And Kenners is seeing far too much of the "Astro Boy" movie in order to sit still so I can do her hair, bless her.

After those completely random tangents.....another way we've welcomed the holiday season this year is with the arrival of my brother Bret's new baby boy, Dallin Harvey Willardson!  Congrats to Bret and especially to Jenny for birthing a nearly 10 pound bundle of love.  No pictures of the little papoose yet, but from the looks of pictures that others have received on their i-phones, he is a cutie-patootie.  Can't wait to meet him in a few short weeks!

Next on the holiday agenda: make Christmas jemmies for the girls and go out in the woods to cut down our Charlie Brown Christmas tree. :)