Christmas Ships Come Sailing In

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas season! One of my favorite activities was going down to the river to watch the Christmas Ships with my nieces and nephew. I really missed the Christmas Ships last year. Going to see them has been a tradition ever since I can remember, and somehow, the Christmas season just doesn't seem complete without them.

(L-R Pixie, Myself, Bookworm, Noodle and Roadrunner in front)

It was a cold, cold, cold night- especially down at the river. We bundled up and played school-yard games to stay warm. Among the games, we played Follow the Leader and Red Light, Green Light. According to my nieces and nephew, I learned the wrong way to play Red Light, Green Light! For all they know, they could be playing the game wrong!

After what seemed like a frozen forever, the ships finally came downriver. They were so beautiful and were definitely worth the wait. Here are the few pictures that turned out not too blurry. Combine night with moving lights and you just have a picture nightmare! I never can seem to use the correct setting on my camera! Does anyone else have this problem?

That last one is a fire engine complete with a loud siren! It was so fun to shout "Merry Christmas" to the ships and wave as they went by. Some of the ships even had Christmas songs playing for us to enjoy!

I absolutely love Christmas!

Blog Parties

Man, it sure has been a while since my last post. I blame it on... um, life. Yes, life is the culprit! I've been trucking along on my quilt project despite a misbehaving sewing machine. Hopefully, I will have all the blocks finished this week. I also successfully made gifts for my nieces and a friend at my ward Super Saturday.

Since I can't post pictures of my quilt till after Christmas, I will share one of my favorite hobbies: reading blogs! It is amazing what a person can find in all the blogs out there! There are a lot of food blogs, quilting blogs, sewing blogs, crafting blogs... The list can go on forever!! I just love, love, love this wonderful resource at my fingertips. I'll share a few of my favorite blogs!

My favorite food blog is Our Best Bites! The two ladies have a ton of creative recipes like fudge cupcakes and personal pies in a jar! How cool is that? Spend some time on their site, and you will be hooked just like me! I love the detailed tutorials and directions for their recipes. I plan on making a sugar scrub for my visiting teaching ladies that I found from this site!

A craft blog that I am amazed by is A Little of This... A Little of That. This blog has some great DIY projects like a Christmas Countdown that I love! She also made some really neat Halloween place mats.

If those aren't enough for you, I discovered this blog today that what I will call the encyclopedia of free print-ables! Basically, you can find cute and crafty ideas such as a Christmas advent calendar and gift tags made by the blog's creator or you can find links to other projects on different blogs. It's amazing what she has collected!

These are just the tip of the iceberg to what you can find on these blogs and others. Technology is so amazing!

Happy Holidays!