Matching Christmas Pajamas and Other Random Things

NOTE:  Here are  the pajamas we are eyeing this year.  

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We have a long-standing Christmas tradition in our family (dating back to when Glen was a child) that on Christmas Eve we each open a new pair of pajamas.  Up until a few years ago we've just bought random pajamas for everyone....

Then, I'm not sure what got my brain going in that direction, but one year I decided it would be fun if all of our pajamas matched. 

These were our first matching pajamas, which I must say were quite "rocking"...

Then in 2010 there were these awesome footie pajamas that were comfy cozy as can be...unless you had to use the potty in the middle of the night.

Then last year brought us these festive jammies, which I must say are the softest, most comfortable pajamas I've ever worn.  Even after a year of heavy usage, they look and feel brand new...

My sister took this photo of us on our back deck on Christmas Day 2011--- just a couple of weeks before Spencer's diagnosis.  I love that even our dog jumped into the picture (unnoticed until later).  When I look at Spence I am struck with how thin and pale he looks and while he'd already been to the doctor once at that point, we were all still clueless to the monster that was ravaging his body.    This picture now has become a very poignant memory to me as one of the last moments captured of the carefree family life we enjoyed before that fateful day in early January rolled around. 

 Shortly after the photo was taken,  I  posted it to my blogs as a Christmas greeting to my cyber friends.    I got a several comments pretty quickly about how cute they thought the jammies were,  but little did I know that 11 months later it would become the closest thing to a viral blogpost as I've ever had.  It has been my most popular post by a long shot ever since mid-October and people were constantly contacting me to find out where we'd bought the pj's.  I since have added the link to the store and the words to the post, but it strikes me as ironic that after four years of food blogging that my most popular post has nothing to do with my cooking.  :)

Here was our 2012 version...

On a totally different note, I just wanted to show off my new entry way decorations.  Anyone who knows me well, knows that I am not big into home decorating.  In fact you could call me the anti-decorator.   I've had the same Christmas decorations for well over a decade and haven't ever thought twice about it.    Then the other day, I caught a bug.  A bug that many women have year round, but for me it was a new feeling.  I had the strongest urge to put up something new and different in our entry way.  

It took a few days and a trip to JoAnn's to figure out what I was going to do, but here is my very first totally original Lara-inspired Christmas entry way creation...

Ellie found the stick in the backyard for me and I added clip-on birds and berries to it...

I put it with floral foam into this very cute basket and SEWED MY OWN TABLE RUNNER (without a pattern I might add) to go underneath. 

It's pretty much the randomest, craftiest thing I've ever done for our home in my entire life, so please feel free to shower your adoring accolades on me.  Or at least refrain from mocking me for the unpainted wood trim in the background of the picture that may or may not have been there for almost an entire year.   

Thanksgiving Blessing Box

As a parent, I feel like I am always struggling to help the kids understand how blessed they are.  How just because their mom makes them clean their room, doesn't mean they live tortuous lives.  And how having a healthy well-rounded, but never-before-tried meal is not a punishment from on high. 

It seems like every November I come up with some grandiose idea of helping us to be more grateful in our daily lives and usually it lasts a week or so (if I'm really on top of things) then it fades back to business as usual. 

This year we decided to try a Blessing Box.  On November 1st I set it out in the living room, with some slips of paper and told the kids we were going to daily write down something we were grateful for and add it to the box.

As I mentioned, usually this type of thing doesn't last long at our house, but this year it caught fire  and we each added a slip daily to the box.  A couple of times that we skipped a day, we would make up for it the next day with adding an extra slip. 

In the end we ended up with a full box and now we've spent the last week, going through the box and reading them aloud.  Some of them are cliche.  Some are silly.  But some are also really touching. 

After we read each slip, the rest of the family will yell out, "Yay for taking a walk with a friend" (or whatever the slip happened to say).  It added a little humor as well as some family involvement. 
I decided that it's kind of cool when you stick with something for a while and I hope that we can find similar traditions for other holidays that will add meaning, like this one did. 

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Here is a random sampling of some of the slips (written exactly as they are on the slips):

I am grateful for hair dye.
I'm thankful for chess.
Vacation.
My boots.
I am grateful for sunny skies and awesome 5-mile run.
Im gtfl tat i got to play. (sic)
The gorgeous weather.
Strong youth program. 
I'm grateful to eat a dinner I didn't cook myself.  Thanks Daddy!
Squirrels
Math test
I Im gtfl tat I had fun. 
I'm grateful for wonderful and inspiring talks at Stake Conference.
I'm thankful for the visitor center.
Taking a nap in homeroom.
I Im gtfl tat I got to rll dan the hll (roll down the hill).
My bed
Homework (?!) 

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What about you?  Are you good at sticking with long-term "projects" like this?  Or do you prefer things that can started and finished on the same day?

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