Preparation

First, I must make mention (mostly for myself & since I forgot to take pictures) that I had my first [maybe annual] 'healthy' dessert party! Thanks to the help of some friends being willing to try some of my favorite recipes, we had quite the array of choices on the menu: Almond Joy's (Jaydon!), Ginger Bites (Michelle), Chocolate Raspberry Truffles (Lisa), Pumpkin Roll (Ginny), dehydrated almond cookies w/chocolate agave sauce (Jyson!), homemade Grahams (Michelle) with cream cheese dip (me),  chocolate pudding dip (me) & fruit. Not one speck of sugar & most of them were raw! So yum. Next up is our [health] movie night with even healthier snack-type options as a few of us are going to get together and share our favorite health secrets!! I feel so lucky/blessed to have friends who have the interests as me!

After sadly telling my family we wouldn't be able to go home to Idaho for Christmas (it was 'our' family's year to all be together) due to finances, Tony & I were SHOCKED to find out they all decided (at grreeaat sacrifice) to come to US!! Ah-mazing. I was in awe that they would do this in order for us all to be together. We decided it would be a great secret. I mean, how awesome would it be if they all just showed up on our doorstep, unbeknowst at all to the boys?! And so the planning & preparation began (poor boys, they just thought I wanted the house to be EXTRA clean)...

For starters, of course I wanted the house bedecked in Christmasness, but one day I was bemoaning the fact that my only nativity is this one:

I love it, truly. My Mom got it for me when I was in college & it's a beautiful center for my ever-expanding village (she has continued the tradition of giving me pieces to add to it most years)

However, they're only, like, an inch and a half tall and I so badly wanted something for my shelf that is seen right as you walk in the door. Something that would be instantly recognizable as "the true reason for the season," as the focal point of our home. I wasn't picky, really...I just wanted the nativity to be of medium height...and to be the full nativity scene...and to be white. Oh, and under $10.  A cinch! As the time got closer for everyone to come I became desperate enough I started thinking of all these ways I could justify/fanagle more resources from some other fund, but still, I couldn't even find a white nativity I really loved (& no way even close to $10 :). So, I mini-prayed in my heart, knowing it was a trivial thing in the grand scheme, but no kidding, soon thereafter I had a little nudge to go to the local Goodwill (we have like 5 of them in the area). I opened the door & immediately saw these little guys on the front display counter just waiting for me to scoop them up & give them a place of honor in our home :) 

I couldn't stop gaping. I almost started crying. Then I became afraid to pick them up to see the prices for each one (Goodwill can be very unpredictable after all). $0.50 each. $4.50 total?! I looked again. And at the other pieces to make sure there wasn't a missing zero or something...nope. I asked the lady if she would hold them for me up front and watched closely to see where she put them. I lingered. I asked her if she wanted my name to put on them & I'm sure she started to wonder at this point because I still wasn't really walking away...I was too afraid to leave them for fear my little treasure would be sold to someone who didn't appreciate them like I did! I found a few other things quickly & when I went to check out I found out it was all 50% off (!!) So, I was able to also get the 2 frames to go behind as the 'stable' as well. Later I realized I was able to do the whole shelf for under $10!! Tender mercy right there. He cares, even about those little things. Had to share.   

True story. 

The welcoming committee, Dashleen (Dasher's wife--see the bows?), thanks to the 'get rid of, free sale' at Tony's work

A little more cheer ($2, also from the 50% off at Goodwill on all-your-dreams-come-true day)

Here's my last little project I wanted to have done before they came...I painted the chairs :) White, then a bit of stain to get a bit more weathered look and then the black stripe (I had slipcovers that I made, but they were always slipping off & getting sooo...dirty). It's AWESOME for kids...a spill? No prob, it wipes right off!

And here we have the other kind of prep. With 15 people coming to our lil' 3 bedroom, there were some extra 'goods' that had to be acquired, made, and/or prepped for!

Here we have the extra crock-pot (oh, how my family can eat...seriously, I won't tell you how many times I used my huge canner pot as the 'dinner' dish), another baby bed & 3 blow up mattresses from fabulous friends. 

 Made 2 batches of bread (still totally ran out in a couple days), EIGHT batches of granola (had to make more of that too), filled up every single water jug we own (we had to fill up every few days!), vacuumed the car, scrubbed until every surface in the house was 'food-grade-safe'...you get the idea...

 No room in the bathroom for 15 so the towels were hung around the corner in the pantry/laundry room with names affixed like so (had to hide those for a few days so the boys wouldn't wonder why pieces of masking tape had their favorite people's names on them...). I also got the fun idea from a blog to have a 'guest needs' basket ready for them as well.