The Drummer from Def Lepard on my Solstice Tree -OR- 5th Day of Christmas

Since Little Bits loves to get into things, I figured this would be a good year to 'make' some of the decorations for our tree. I tried Gingerbread Men this year (that way, if Holden decides to eat the ornaments it's organic sugar and molasses.)

I think they turned out pretty good....
But there was a casualty:
A bigger spatula could've saved this one...

Rest in peace little man. You died as a martyr -- a very delicious martyr.

This is not a craft blog, but...

I decided that in the spirit of trying to have a more GREEN Christmas, I would re-purpose old magazines (most of which Holden has already ravage through) to wrap gifts.

Holden digs Elmo... or basically anything red. He doesn't watch Sesame Street, but he picked out that Elmo toilet seat AND the Earth's Best crackers with the red Muppet on the box.

So I figured he'd dig this:


Here's a sample of the library books we wrapped. We started a new Mangum Christmas tradition this year: 25 Christmas books in 25 days -- unwrap one each night (or two in one day if we miss a night for some reason or another.) I guess it's our advent calendar of sorts; but the 'gift a night' bit has been kind of like Hanukkah for Mormons. And since we don't have 25 Christmas books, we just borrowed a few from the grandparents and checked some out from the (government run, socialist neighborhood) Library. It's been fun. I even picked up 'The White Nights of Ramadan" to make sure we are appreciating other cultures. Now I just need to add one about Kwanzaa, Winter Solstice, and of course: Hanukkah.

Tis the Season.

Third Day of Christmas - madness ensues

So our family has this tradition that all the babies get put in a wig from my late Grandma Beth. (Cicely, I want the link the Faye's picture...)

We tried it on Holden.. he was not amused.


Along with Grandma Beth's wig, in Saint George I also discovered my BLUE HAIR from my past life when I wanted to live out an alternate reality in SG as an Indie Riot Grrrrrl. Ahhh, Bikini Kill, Sleater-Kinney and the female revolution... too bad I was working for the man at the time.

But as far as the blue hair goes, I think it looks great on Holden too:



Yeah, he actually didn't enjoy that one either.
So I just put on my punk rocker hair for Danny and let him fantasize he wasn't married to a domesticated Mormon mom that cans applesauce, makes organic baby food and bakes apple pie....

Oi to the World!

12 Days of Christmas - Day Deux

For your Holiday enjoyment (drum roll please.....) More Christmas Sweater Pics!!!!

Would you ever guess that this:

Came after this?

Or this?
Or this?!?!

Poor Danny... Holden decided he wanted to be down crawling (or somewhere else) every other time we tried to get pictures of the two of them together.

Favorite Holden moment of today:
Watching him rock-out to Sissel and the MoTab's Christmas Album.

Favorite Danny moment of the day:
Coming home from a church Messiah performance/fireside finding my husband had already parented Holden down for the night AND was making chocolate chip cookies with our nephew.


Life is Beautiful. . .

And to all a good night.

12 Days of Christmas (Christmas Card Letter #1)

On the first day of Christmas...
And so it begins again (remember last year's 12 Days of Christmas.)

Well, I started working on our Christmas cards today -- Danny helped. He's such a saint. And since I am behind deadline on writing the "suite family Christmas letter" (been my job since I was 12), I opted to leave out an official update on our mangum-family cards and give the blog address instead. Which means THIS is where I am going to post OUR MANGUM FAMILY CHRISTMAS LETTER!!!!

But I haven't actually decided what type of letter to write. I tend to be quite loquacious, as you all know, but I love it when I get ones (cards that is) from friends that highlight their families with three to five bullet points for each family member...

So I figured that would be a good start, eh?

So here we go:

danny

• working at zions bank as a SENIOR credit analyst
  
• fun & super helpful daddy
• looks great in argyle (sweater & socks)
  
• studying for the GMAT
• took his awesome wife to Boston for her birthday because that's the kind of guy he is

holden

• 10 months old - though and old soul (it's in his eyes)
  
• Six teeth, more on the way - but still hardly ever cries
• Loves his big boy bed (twin mattress on the floor) and will crawl into it for nap and bed time!
• Rocking the Baby Bjorn potty (we hardly ever clean poopy diapers - huzzah!)
  
• Saying goodbye to the bottle - only uses it with water at nighttime
  

sabrena

• trying to be all domestic and stuff
• trying to be a good mommy
• trying to be a good wife
• trying, trying, trying...
• And HALLELUJAH -- Ditching 'the pump' in less than two months!!!!!
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