There is no such thing as a free lunch!

Maybe this is true for some people, but man, we have hit the jackpot this month. Not for free lunches, but for free dinners which are even better! One of the best things about this time of year is the food, and free food tastes best.
We have had quite a few parties to go to where dinner has been served. Between ward parties, work parties, firefighter parties, caroling parties, tasting parties and relief society parties, as well as family get togethers, we have been very spoiled this month. Thank you to everyone for your hospitality and wonderful cooking skills! (And especially my favorite meal of the year at Benihana!) Yummy! You all must know that the way to our hearts is definitely through our stomachs!
I have finally had a moment to take some pictures of our Christmas decorations. (Another reason this is such a fun time of year.) So here they are. I usually have a white full sized Christmas tree that I put up every year. But this year, I borrowed this silver christmas tree from my mom. The neat thing about this tree is how old it is, probably close to 100 years old. It is a metal christmas tree that once belonged to the woman I was named after, Abby Smith Riddle, who was my mothers grandmother. I love it because I think it is so pretty and unique but also because of the many christmas seasons I'm sure it has seen. It has seen many years, good times and bad. World wars, Great Depressions... Wouldn't it be interesting to be a fly on the wall (or in this case, a bird on the tree) to witness the world events and history this little tree has been through?

I put up a Christmas garland on the front of our house too. The funny part is that it got so windy that it blew down and would have a new home if David hadn't rescued it. David meant to put up some longer screws so it would stay up but he forgot, so I put it back up. The best part is that I put it up backwards so the part that is supposed to be facing the street is facing the house. By the time I realized this I had said so many swear words trying to get it to stay up, that I'm already going to be doing plenty of time in hell. So that's how it is going to stay until we take it down. I know, it looks pretty sad, and I am in desperate need of a wreath, but we will have to worry about that next year. My domestic housekeeping ship has sailed. (and sunk)

This is Davids tree. Another funny story: Mckinley has been watching Sleeping Beauty and has been carrying around a knitting needle, pointing at things and saying "make it Pink" or "make it blue". She tried to use these magic powers to "make David's tree pink" and he said "it's a man tree, you're not going to make it pink." So here is the "Man Tree." My favorite thing about it is that it has two strings of lights on it. (it's really like two feet tall.) I'm sad that the lights don't show up very well in the picture.

This is my gingerbread village. It gets a little bit better every year because I have been slowly adding things to it. Looks good enough to eat huh?