A BBQ Card and Recent Holiday Photos

How have your holidays been?  I hope just perfect!   Ours couldn't have been more perfect. It was so great having EVERYONE home for Christmas!  I'll share some photos (warning: this post is FULL of photos), but before I do, I have another card to share that I made with the December Stamp of the Month.  If you haven't been following me all month, be sure to scroll back through my December posts to see lots more cards made with this awesome set.

Also, there are 3 (yep! 1,2,3!) specials in December and there are still a few days to be able to take advantage of all 3. Yesterday's post spells them all out for you. I hope you'll read it if you haven't yet.  Hint:  Spend $65 and get $112.90 in products! You can take advantage of all 3 on my website. December is drawing to a close so be sure to take advantage of them soon!

 

Now, on to some of my favorite Christmas memories from this year. Most of these photos are from Christmas Eve. I think I love it more than Christmas day.  Our family has some fun Christmas Eve traditions. We made sugar cookies and frost them. We have a dinner of homemade chicken-noodle soup and breadsticks, we do a spiritual family night and the we open one gift (pajamas, of course).  This year, we spent Christmas Eve at my parents' home with my sisters and their families. It was even more fun with all of these people!

Daci and I baking the cookies at my house

Sour cream sugar cookies: our family favorite.

You can find my sour cream sugar cookie and frosting recipe here. 

My mom, Nedra and sister, Andrea

My dad, LeRoy..stirring the soup (and a bit surprised by my photo)

Daci and Daysha being their silly selves

Easton, Kori and Dawson frosting their cookies

Dan-the-Man...eating the cookies. I think he slapped some frosting on and didn't even bother to decorate that one! :)

Frosting cookies with cousins (in Santa hats)

Daci frosting her cookies

Tannon getting serious about his cookie

Some of our finished masterpieces. 

We even had a cookie contest this year. Everyone made a cookie for the contest and Grandpa and Grandma Overstreet (my parents) judged. Here is Kori with her cookie for the contest.

Kori and Rick enjoying some alone time on the couch while they had plenty of babysitters for Daci and the twins

Daci concentrating very hard on the cookie she is decorating

Daci and I during cookie decorating time

Christmas Eve dinner after cookie decorating

Tannon and Dawson just chillin'

Street found some toys

After dinner, getting ready for our spiritual family night

Time for Christmas Eve presents!

We go youngest to oldest for this tradition. Street went first (since he is the youngest by 9 minutes)

Livvi was next.  The little ones got books with their pj's.

Then Daci

Dawson opening his

Tannon laughing at someone. Hmmmm. This year we got our boys sweat pants and t-shirts for their Christmas Eve pj's.  They are just not pj wearers so much anymore. They loved that!

Daysha with her jammies.  Kori and I love silky jammies so we got Daysha some this year. When she opened them she exclaimed, "My first pair of silky jammies!" Welcome to the silky jammie club, Daysh!

Easton with his pj's

Rick with his

Rick and Street celebrating in their new pj's

Here are a couple photos from Christmas morning. I am so bad at remembering to take Christmas morning photos. It just gets so busy and I find myself in the moment and forget to pick up the camera. I took quite a few this year though.  Even with all of that I forgot to take photos of our traditional Christmas morning breakfast. Ugh!  We have German Pancakes, fruit and yogurt, sausage and bacon, and Pedersen slush (recipe here).  Next time I make German Pancakes, I'll try to remember to take a photo and share the recipe with you.  One year I might just remember to take photos of everything. Odds are probably not.

Christmas morning: Tannon really was much more excited than it appears with his new Beats by Dr. Dre

Dan-the-Man and his brand, new hunting shirt

Yes, Dawson has a thing for Transformers.  Thanks to Tannon for helping me get this shirt made for Dawson.

My sister, Andrea gave me a penguin blanket.  I have collected penguins since 5th grade. I was pretty excited about this!

I hope your holidays were merry and bright!

More Stamp of the Month Cards, December Specials, and Merry Christmas Eve

This week has been filled with family, fun, food and festivities for the Pedersens. It has been a wonderful week having all of our family here.  We have already had several family parties, and have another one this afternoon.  Maybe it's good our whole family doesn't live close by. I might never get anything done!  I would much rather hang out with all of them than anything else.

I was so excited to wake up this morning to SNOW! This photo is the view from my bedroom back window when I woke up this morning, and the snow is still coming down!  There is nothing quite like a white Christmas!  It makes me want to go whip up a batch of hot chocolate and snuggle up in a blanket by the fire.

I wish you and your family a wonderful holiday. May it be filled with all of the people you love. Don't forget to take great pictures so that you can scrap your memories later and leave that legacy for your family to look back on over the years as they re-live the memories of this week.

Today I am sharing two more cards I made with the irresistible December Stamp of the Month.  I made one card for each of the stamps in the set to share this month and I am running out of days! Where does the time go? Anyway, for that reason, I'm sharing 2 today...cards for May and June; Mother's Day and Father's Day. The December Stamp of the Month is available only during December and can be yours for only $5 with a $50 order (see details of this special and 2 more December Specials after the photos).

4" x 4" card made with the December Stamp of the Month

Detail shot of card

4" x 4" card made with the December Stamp of the Month

Detail shot of card

December Stamp of the Month:  Carrier sheet actual size is 6" x 6"

I wanted to remind you of the wonderful specials that you can take advantage of this month:
1.  Whooo's Your Valentine
2.  December Stamp of the Month
3.  FREE gift!
-----------------

1.  Whooo's Your Valentine:   You may or may not know that January is National Papercrafting Month.  Since we at Close To My Heart love to party, we are celebrating a bit early. Our National Papercrafting Month Special ("Whooo's Your Valentine") began on December 13 (yesterday) and runs through January 31.  Yippee! 

Spend $35 (either on my website or by contacting me: 801.360.9896, pedermom@aol.com) and get the exclusive "Whoo's Your Valentine" treat tube kit for only $10 (valued at $40)!

The kit includes:

• 12 die-cut boxes

• 3 cardstock sheets

• 1 sheet of silver glitter paper (so pretty!)

• 12 treat tubes

• An exclusive D-size stamp set created specifically for the kit!  (see below)
  
  

  

  Whooo's Your Valentine Exclusive Stamp Set (carrier sheet actual size is 6" x 6")

   

These little goodies are perfect for gifts and classroom projects. The "Whooo’s Your Valentine" kit will make Valentine’s Day a cinch! If ordering on my website, you will get a prompt at the end of your order to add it. Easy Peasy!

2.  December Stamp of the Month:  I know I have already shared a few things about this special, but the coolest part of all is that if you spend $50, you qualify for the December Stamp of the Month at $5 ($17.95 value) AND it will also qualify you for the "Whooo's Your Valentine" kit for only $10. That means you would spend $65 ($50 order + $5 Stamp of the Month + $10 "Whooo's Your Valentine" kit + a FREE gift (see #3 below) if you order on my website) and have $112.90 in merchandise. That's about a 58% savings.  Nifty!  The December Stamp of the Month is a great set! 

December Stamp of the Month: carrier sheet actual size is 6" x 6"

3.  FREE Gift:  As a reminder, if you spend $50 or more on my website this month, you get this awesome glue pen absolutely FREE ($4.95 value)!  So, my advice to you is to take advantage of all 3 of these specials on my website and you get the advantages of all of them.  Using my website is the key because this FREE glue pen only comes with website orders. 

Christmas Eve Traditions

Merry Christmas Eve!


I love family traditions. Christmas Eve is one of my favorite times for traditions.

Here are some of ours:

• We frost our homemade sugar cookies together as a family. By the end of the night, Dan has mixed all of the frosting colors together and has made at least one grey cookie.
• We have homemade chicken noodle soup and breadsticks for dinner
• We open one present each...which is always pajamas and a book
• Dan reads the story of the birth of Jesus Christ from Luke
  
• We have a family testimony meeting. We each share our feelings about our Heavenly Father, our Savior, Jesus Christ, and their gospel.
• All of the kids sleep in the basement together.

I shared some of our photos from last Christmas Eve. The tree is this year's tree though.

What are some of your favorite Christmas Eve traditions? I'd love to hear about them. Feel free to leave them in your comments.