Tonight was definitely one of the highlights of my December. Our extended Flowers, family party was canceled this year. My boys were bummed. My nephews & nieces were bummed. To be totally honest, I was a little bummed. I decided to host a Davis family Christmas party, here in our home. My parents, siblings & their children came to our home for some holiday fun. We enjoyed a family dinner, building gingerbread tents, a Family Home Evening lesson together & a visit from Santa. The children were so exited to see Santa walk through the door. They all had a chance to sit on his lap & tell him one last time, that they had been very good this year. Santa even brought presents for everyone. It was so great to have my family here. I hope this is something that will be added to the yearly tradtion list.

the first of many...

a mom can hope, right? Today was Tanner's first piano recital.




























He started taking piano lessons from Ms. Patti in September, of this year. He has learned so much in the 3 short months that he has been taking lessons. Tanner played three pieces this morning at his recital. He played Jolly Old Saint Nick, Jingle Bells, and T-Rex. He did a wonderful job. We are so proud of him. I can't wait for him to play his pieces for the family on Christmas Eve.

Ms. Patti & all of her piano students.

tis the season...

for parties galore! I have had the opportunity to be the room Mom, aka party planner for Tanner's class this year. This years Christmas party was a ton of fun. His teacher had thrown this party the year before, so we repeated it. The children built gingerbread tents,














enjoyed a lively book exchange, played the Driedel game, enjoyed cookies & juice & many of them tried Latkes for the first time. It was a fun, sugar filled afternoon.

oh, the anticipation nearly sent him over the edge. Garrett went with me to pick up our mail. That is a story in of itself. Our mailbox, the cluster box was broken into during the
2nd week of December. If you know me, you know that I love snail mail. I especially love it during the month of December. I love all of the Christmas cards & photos from friends & family.I race to the mailbox each day. So...having to go down to our local post office has been a royal drag. On this particular day, Garrett had come with me. When the clerk handed our mail to us, Garrett was so excited to see the four green envelopes with the North Pole return address labels. He knew that his letter from Santa was in that pile. I made him wait to open his letter. I wanted all of the boys to open their letters together. It was a long afternoon for Garrett. It is another yearly tradition that we all look forward to. I am glad we could enjoy it together. Each of them were able to read their letter to the entire family. It was fun to hear how busy Santa & his elves are, the week before Santa. It was neat to hear Santa compliment each of the boys on their individual efforts for this year.The boys LOVED hearing that Santa was working hard to fulfill their wish lists. We can't wait to see what he leaves for each one of them on Christmas Eve.

fa la la la la la la la la

Oh, how I love holiday music! It is even better when it is coming out of the mouths of cute kindergartners. Garrett had his winter performance tonight with all of his favorite friends.





























They looked so cute, all decked out in their Frosty the snowman hats. They sang their little hearts out & really added a bit of happiness to my December. I was so proud of Garrett for singing loud & "knocking our socks off". His teacher told the children that she had a treat for them if they could "knock our socks off" with their singing ability. Garrett kept coming home from school, prior to the performance, saying "I am going to knock your socks off". I love my 5 year old & am glad I finally figured out what he was talking about.

we have a winner

okay, so sorry for the delay in drawing a winner for the ornament. Thank you for sharing your fun family traditions. I will be adding a few more to our, already existing ones.

Can you believe Christmas is ONLY 4 days away. Our boys are over the top excited. They can't stand it & neither can we. Our home has been so super busy with the hustle & bustle of the holidays. We are loving every minute of it. I have lots of blog posts to catch up on. Stay tuned. Until then, the 9th poster is my winner.
YAY, LAURIE H.. I will hand deliver your new ornament to your door. The pinata tradtion sounds like a smashing good time :-).
Merry Christmas! may the spirit of this season fill your hearts & home.

keeping up with traditions

this super fun tradition was started years ago by my Mom. My Grandma Shore even joined in on the fun. Each year, my Mom (and Grandma) would buy each of us a new ornament. We loved seeing what that years ornament was. Each year it was a fun surprise. I loved pulling out my "Raimi" box each December. When John & I were newlyweds, my Mom handed that "Raimi" box over to me. That was the idea behind the yearly tradition. Someday... when we left home, we would have a few ornaments to decorate our first tree with. I loved this yearly tradition so much that I have kept up with the yearly ornaments for my boys. They look forward to their "Tanner", "Carter","Garrett", & "Brody" boxes when the holiday decorations come out of the garage.

The boys with this years ornaments. I was able to find Garrett & Brody an ornament that matched their Christmas jammies. See the cute reindeer's! How fun is that?














What are some of your favorite traditions?
p.s. there just might be a cute ornament give away for your comments :-). If you know me, you know that I LOVE Christmas ornaments & am always on the hunt for the cute ones :-).