Random Christmas Things

Time for the Christmas Blog (yes I know it is a little late) :

First of all - Belated Merry Christmas, Belated Happy Hanukkah, Belated Happy Kwanza, Belated Happy Boxing Day - I am beginning to see a theme with the "belated" here - I do love a theme, but I hate being belated on anything - especially the holidays, but there are only 24 hours in a day and I can easily waste at least 2-3 of them surfing blogs, playing on Webkinz, and working to better my Nintendo Brain Age (I am down to 41!!).  

Christmas cards - they are on the way to friends and family - late. Sorry - I ordered them from Apple, chose standard shipping, and they were to arrive December 19.  Then the storms hit, the cards travelled slowly across the US and landed in Portland December 18.  I being the optimist was excited that I would be able to get them out in a timely manner - since Portland is less than 200 miles from here, they should be delivered Dec 19 or 22.  I readied my labels and address list and was ready to go. Well the cards decided to spend the holiday in Portland.  They were in Portland until December 26 when they arrived in Auburn.  Auburn is about 10 miles from our house. They stayed in Auburn waiting for a "Business Day Delivery" and were finally delivered on December 29 to my office.  What was so fun is that due to the electronic age and FED EX's efficient tracking system we could see they were in our hemisphere and just out of our reach!!!

With this blog, I can proudly say HAPPY NEW YEAR without the belated and hope that in the New Year the belated's will be at a minimum.

This year, deciding to be a minimalist (or more truthfully - lazy), I only put out a few favorite decorations - here are a few of them:

Santa - this was always on a little table at the door to my parents house.  This is a family "heirloom" - Mom has sent it to me (I think because she likes me best) and then I am supposed to share it with my 2 sisters who live 800 miles away. I am not sure on the rules or logistics of this, but when they see this, they will let me know what I am supposed to do. Rumor has it that one of my nephews thinks it is scary and freaky - so I might only have to share it with one sister. Now that you mention it - it is a little freaky - but this is part of the charm.

The final "upstairs" tree. This is the tree that we bought from the homeless lot (see previous post) and is for T's and my ornaments. Hard to believe but this is only about a third of the ornaments we have!!!

Christmas Card Angel Basket- she happily holds the holiday cards we receive. Note the plastic flowers - each year these little buggers fall off and disperse about the house. No amount of hot glue seems to hold them on. Duct tap is the next step. She used to hang in my mom's hall and I loved going through the cards over and over.  Now that she holds our cards, I still enjoy looking at the cards through out the season.  At the end of the season, I save all the pictures in  a box and then the next year I go back through all the years of pictures before I put the basket out for the season. It is so fun to see how families have grown and changed. Kids I used to babysit have now graduated college, and have children of their own!

More stuff from my mom- the snowmen were given to my mom by my aunt - they are actually tin cans decorated with batting material. "How clever" you say!! There were actually 2 versions of this - one was a set someone tried to recreate - this was the "fancier" set with the embellishments. I of course get the fancier version - remember I am the favorite. My sisters get to share the less fancy version. Mr. Snowman is missing an eye and every year I swear I am going to make a new felt eye - I do ponder - does he really need to see?  The little elfs in front of the snowmen are actually 2 sets -one from my mom and one from my grandma. I can remember playing with the set at my grandmas like they were little dolls. They were displayed on her big console tv (remember those - hers even had a remote control - wow!). I would rearrange them so that they all faced each other in 2 rows. Again - I think Mom and grandma gave them to me because they like me best!! I don't think I have to share these with my sisters - again I will wait for guidance from my sisters that are 800 miles away? I really like these little guys and this year I found out they are collectors items.  Okay - they were featured in Hallmark Magazine as collectors items, but still, collector's items nonetheless!! And it means there are others out there like me who enjoy little odd decorations such as these!!

The chime angels - I love this - it belonged to T's Memere.  My parent's had one and I was enamored with it.  I had purchased one for us, but it was quite flimsy and small and definitely not as nice.  This one is so special because it came from T's Memere. The girls love it and are mesmerized by it.  Angel our cat - is also mesmerized by it and unfortunately tries to chase the light from it as it dances on the ceiling and walls.  Therefore we have to light it only when Angel is napping (fortunately, being a cat, she naps alot).

This is the final version of the gingerbread house - turned out pretty nice and has stayed together now for at least 3 weeks.  

Check out the sled I made with a graham cracker and candy canes. This little sled is actually harder to put together and keep together than it looks.

Here is Ms. Mistletoe - she always hung on my mom and dad's dining room light and she now hangs on our dining room light. My mom always called her Ms. Mistletoe - but she is actually not mistletoe, but holly - she should be renamed Ms. Holly -but old habits die hard...  K made the snow flake - foam craft - she felt that it too should hang from the dining room light!!

The reason for the season.  

I am ashamed to say this is our only representation of the nativity in our Christmas decorations this year. There should be more of this and less of the other since the birth of our saviour is the reason for the season. 

Christmas Carols - my 2 favorites are Feliz Navidad and Angels We Have Heard on High.  The reason these are my favorites are - remember how sometimes you get the lyrics to songs wrong - well our precious kids have been singing the following:

For Feliz Navidad - "My knees la di da"

and for the part in Angels we have heard on high that is "Gloria, In Excelsius Deo" - they sing "Alexis has a fun DAY OH"

I struggled with whether to correct them or let the innocence shine and let them continue to sing "their" words.  They have since found out the "real" words and we now sing "their" versions laughing!

As I write this I realize how truly fortunate we are and I am thankful for the Christmas memories and the wonderful family and friends we have.

God Bless Everyone 

and 

Best Wishes for a Happy New Year.

SNOW DAZE

School and work were cancelled on Thursday and then again on Friday due to the snow storm. It has been fun.  

Luckily we knew that school was cancelled for Friday before going to bed on Thursday night - this meant that we could sleep in.  There is something so fun about an extra, unexpected day of getting to sleep in!!

There has been enough snow that we can sled down the driveway.  The first problem we had to tackle on Thursday was that we could not locate the sleds.  Calls to dad revealed they must be in the attic in the garage.  I tried to climb on the car to get to the attic, but then the car hood began to give way, and I began to slip and almost fell.  Deciding this was not a safe choice I found another solution:

 

K & A with sleds! 

What's that you say those are garbage bags? 

They are actually redneck sleds and I am quite proud of my ingenuity!!! 

The girls had a blast.

We did venture off the hill at about 3:00 to get to Fed Ex - I had stayed up until 1:00AM and had all the packages ready to ship so I was going to be damn sure they went out on Thursday.  The packages should be to everyone by Tuesday evening.  On the way home we stopped at K-Mart - I hate K-Mart but it was the only store that we pass coming home from Fed Ex. We bought a sled and the very last snow saucer. There was a run on sleds - there was only about 5-6 more sleds and a very rude lady was hogging all the sleds to look them over to be sure she had the best sled.  She was also having trouble deciding on purple or orange - so overwhelming!! The minute she put down a purple sled - I grabbed it!!

The girls had fun on the new sled and saucer.  On Friday the girls were using the new sleds, then A came to me and said - where is my sled from yesterday?  She wanted to use the plastic bag again.  What a nut!!!

We are now baking cookies for dad - he gets home tonight at 7PM.  We are making the peanut butter with chocolate kiss cookies - using a new recipe so we will see how it turns out.

More snow predicted for Saturday so T won't miss out on the sledding and can supervise the drive way and street sledding course that drives our neighbor nuts!!!

Birthday, Santa, Tree, Recital

Sooooo much happening I can't keep up.

Birthday -

A turns 8 - we celebrate for a solid week.

I think we can move on to Christmas now!

Santa - we waited 3 hours in line at Nordstrom - some people think this is crazy. I think it is kind of fun! Free cookies and cider as well as watching all the families - some have been doing this for 30 years, some have just started. There was a baby 1 week old getting his first picture with Santa. Brought us back to the days of A's first Christmas -she was so small back then - and so quiet!!

A wants a calico kitten (real one). Santa says he does not do real animals as it is too dangerous. (Whew - Santa even says no to a kitten - poor kid)

K wants world peace and a flat screen TV for her room. Santa said, "Big order, I will see what I can do". I reiterate - flat screen TV for the family is a good idea!

3 hours is a long time!

Tree TIME

(T really isn't stoned - just overwhelmed with Christmas decorations!)

3 trees - I gave in - K and A each get their own "pencil" pre-lit tree for their ornaments. They each decorated their tree with their ornaments, just how they wanted. Both trees are a bit heavy with ornaments on the bottom. (Agreement that the trees and ornaments go with them when they move out!!)

T and I stuck with a traditional "real" tree for the upstairs and our ornaments.

We decided to stay in Kent to buy one and stumbled upon a lot selling trees. The proceeds from the tree sales will go to help fix up an old abandoned building to become a shower and laundromat facility for the homeless.

And now for the RECITAL!

and the movie version-

Thanksgiving day traditions

A little late - but wanted to share our Thanksgiving memory for this year.

I think we officially have a Thanksgiving tradition - on Thanksgiving Day for the last 4 years we have slept late and then stayed in our pajamas all day.  I have officially declared this a pajama day for the the last 2 years. The 2 years before it was an accident that we neglected to get dressed. So now that it is 4 years - I am going to call it a tradition.

 

This year when I said dinner will be ready in 20 minutes - A comes to me and says "Do I have to wear my pajamas still?"  I am disappointed, but I tell her this is America and she can get dressed if she wants to, she does not have to stay in her pajamas. She says, "I am sick of my pajamas" - this from the child that I have to nag to get dressed and to constantly explain that we must wear clothes when we go out.  A proceeds to go in her room, dress in her velour skirt, knit shirt, and fancy new shoes - yes that is the driving force - new fancy shoes - it makes sense now.  Or perhaps she is a rebel and non-conformist. In reality probably a bit of both.

 

For our feast, we take the best from both sides of the family. We get out the china, the good silverware, and the crystal - and enjoy dinner in our pajamas. We start with grace, then fruit cocktail with rainbow sherbert, followed by turkey, cracker stuffing, fresh cranberries, green beans, heat and serve rolls, gravy and mashed potatoes.  We then take a rest and follow it with chocolate pudding cake - yum.

And now - we are ready for the holiday frenzy to begin.