And the joy continued...

All three cuties in front of the tree in their new Christmas pjs.

Jeep was surprised with his new blanket and squirrel!

Baby Girl received zhu zhu pets... she'd been wanting them for a long time and big-brother gave them to her!

Pepe was excited about his huge lego set (which he has already put together and loves).

Phinneous admiring his new silly bandz... he really liked his new glove and ball (that measures how fast he throws).

It was a wonderful time together as a family... not too much stuff, but enough to make everyone feel special!

Twas the Night Before Christmas...

Twas the night before Christmas and all through the house...

We spent Christmas eve with very good friends and their family... friends that we have had since Joe and I began dating... in fact Joe goes back even farther with them. It is a friendship in which you help each other out, compliment each other, appreciate each other... it's incredible.

I lost count at how many people we celebrated with... kids opening presents... my kids opened their Christmas eve pjs... loved watching the excitement and the embarrassment (I guess when you're a 5th grader it's weird to open pjs in front of people.)




And then we headed home...

And what to our wondering eyes had appeared... I do believe Santa had been to our house while we were gone...


They were excited, surprised... they opened half of their gifts and then chose to save the rest for morning... it was pleasant and nice and exciting and a joy to watch my children so happy.

To be continued...

Tradition

I have not sent out a traditional card in a couple of years. That whole Masters "thing" really sent me for a loop... I did create a slide show that I sent via email during that time. While I LOVED the slide show (so many pictures to include and songs, etc) it wasn't the simplicity of a card. So, this year I've purchased cards. I used the picture above... went with the theme of the year... "how many sports can we play at this house"... and had some fun.

Now to address the envelopes... ha, who am I kidding... I need to find the address book!

Merry Christmas

We wish you a Merry CHRISTmas and a Happy New Year!

The Party

For 8 years I've thrown Joe's work Christmas party in our home. I'm ALWAYS amazed that I can get it all pulled together. Here is it looking pretty...


The disaster before... does this happen to you? I was stunned by the mess as I pulled out all of the boxes. The kids had so much fun put everything out. I rearranged a little bit, but they did a great job, so I really didn't have to do much.


Beginning to decorate the tree.



As I was wrapping the stairs with the garland and very frustrated, I decided to wrap the bottom of the spindles instead of the top. What a brilliant moment... so much easier and now we can still hang on to the railing as we come down the stairs.

One of my favorite wreaths that I had to "steal" last year during our annual gift exchange... it was so worth it!



My little artificial group of trees... sometimes I add small ornaments, but this year they are adorned with ribbon.



The green room set up for the party. We had a smaller group this year, so I was able to leave the couch in the room for the first time ever.



The tables were set very simply with white table cloths with an overlay of gold toole... just to give it interest. Usually, I bunch up the toole down the tables, but Joe always feels like he has fabric in his food... so we went with simple. My awesome teaching partner wrapped all of the brown boxes for me and tied all of the ribbons. I had them scattered on the tables and around the room... the PERFECT touch!

Merry Christmas
Our self portrait near the end of the evening!

More crafting... with Baby Girl

At last count we had 13" of snow... which is unheard of here! So, we are continuing with our crafts. Baby Girl got this puppet kit awhile back, it was the perfect day to sew and sew and sew. She had a great time... she sewed the big pieces together and glued on the small pieces. We decided, that since we had time, we'd keep sewing... so I sewed on the little pieces for her. I think she may be addicted to it!






Oh, and look what she got for Christmas...


a sewing kit! It's filled with embroidery floss, fabric and a hoop. She's very excited.

Merry Christmas to All

Merry Christmas Everyone!

Another Snowed in Day

We didn't break out the sewing machine and we didn't make Christmas tags (yet). We did clean 2 of 3 bathrooms, vacuum the entire upstairs and downstairs, cleaned out, baked cookies and went caroling.

Pepe decided that he was done with many toys. Exciting as well as bitter sweet... my baby is growing up. Gone are the transformers, GI Joe's, many stuffed animals (although he held on to a few), coloring books, and a few (baby) games as he calls them. I have four brown sacks full from him. I still need to peek in them to make sure he didn't get rid of things from Baby Girl or Phinneous.

Some school friends called and invited us to go caroling.

We looked kind of like this...

We then decorated sugar cookies and enjoyed beverages...

We returned home to see that Packers in overtime as they lost :(

I wonder what today will bring?

3 days and counting

It's been snowing since Friday... I've lived here for 33.5 years and NEVER seen this much snow. It is amazing. I finished the scarf for my sister... I will post a picture of it on her. I've cleaned out old papers and such. Next up we will make Christmas tags*, and take the sewing machine out.

* Christmas tags -- saw a cute idea in an old magazine. Trace cookie cutters onto pretty paper (scrapbook paper), cute out and embellish. Place them on your Christmas packages, in wreaths, on the tree, etc.We went for a family "night walk". It was beautiful... yes, I was in my pjs. I got dressed yesterday in them... my kids thought that I was crazy... I was so cozy. This may become a habit.

Waaaaaah... no school, but at least it's snowing!

I'm not sure why we didn't have school Wednesday or Thursday but at least today it makes sense. There is snow on the ground and there is ice on it... makes perfect sense to me. We've been out to play... Pepe is still out with the dogs.

Here is old Molly very excited to be in the snow.

Baby girl and Phinneous headed down the driveway.

A fun day! Except I have shopping to do... and another storm is headed in this weekend.

Look who showed up at Family Christmas Night ...

Pretty cool, especially if you are a preschool kid! If you don't tell, I'll let you in on a secret. They aren't the real Mr. & Mrs. Clause, however, they are a set of grandparents from my class. They volunteered to come to the Christmas Family night as a surprise to all of the families. They did a great job!

Traditions of Ornaments

I saw on this blog an explanation about their ornaments. I loved it. We all get to enjoy our ornaments and remember the stories behind each one. I remember which ornament "Spencer" gave me as his third grade teacher, and "Kacy" as a friend as well as the oldies from mom. Here is a small assortment of our ornaments.

From my childhood. As many of you have shared, my mom gave me an ornament each year with the thought that when I moved away from home I would have a small collection to get me started. I have many angels.


My mom also, for many years, painted each of us an ornament.

We are big Packer fans at this house (as well as Favre fans). I need a new ornament with a Jets jersey.

For the last couple of years we have made these simple clear ball ornaments. The kids choose paint and drip it inside the ornament to cover the entire surface. They turn out great every time!

An ornament representing Joe and I as a couple... again from Mom.

Do your ornaments have meaning behind them?

Christmas Meme 2008

Joanne and Sarah did this meme and I decided to join in the reindeer games. No tagging, just join if you wish.

1. Egg Nog or Hot Chocolate? Hot Chocolate

2.Does Santa wrap presents or just sit them under the tree? Wrapped

3. Colored lights on house/tree or white? both

4. Do you hang mistletoe? No

5.When do you put your decorations up? The day after Thanksgiving

6. What is your favorite holiday dish (excluding dessert)? chopped salad (it's just a salad, but my kids help to make it and then they eat everything in it... :() )

7. Favorite holiday memory as a child? Visiting family

8.When and how did you learn the truth about Santa? Probably 4th grade

9. Do you open a gift on Christmas Eve? It varies... it's our way of keeping our kids on their toes.

10. How do you decorate your Christmas tree? With kids help.

11. Snow. Love it or dread it?Love it!!!

12. Can you ice skate? No... and you don't want to see.

13. Do you remember your favorite gift? A doll that wet.

14. What is the most important thing about the holidays to you? Love

15. What is your favorite holiday dessert? Anything and EVERYTHING...cholcolate

16. What is your favorite holiday tradition? Driving around looking at lights... it's a great time to talk and relax

17. What tops your Christmas tree? A beautiful angel

18. Which do you prefer giving or receiving? Giving.

19. What is your favorite Christmas song? Silent Night

20. Candy Canes. Yum or Yuck? I'm good for one

21. What do you want for Christmas? I just got my new kitchen... I'm good.

22. Do you attend an annual Christmas party? Yes, I host it

23. Do you dress up for Christmas Eve or wear PJ's? PJ's

24. Do you own a Santa hat? No

.25. Who do you normally spend Christmas with? Family.

I'm Back

What a week it turned out to be. My hope to document my 7 days to Party soon faded (as you can see) with the business of the week. By Wednesday, I was in full speed ahead. I managed to get everything done including:
basketball practice x3
swim team practice x2
homework
set the 5 tables
clean off every surface
field trip
doctor's appt.
wrote 3 short papers
speech assessment
Christmas luncheon
2 school conferences
3 days of early release
oh, and Joe was out of town for 3 days...

I did miss my last Simply Living book class; which completely bummed me out as well as a couple of other things.

We had a very successful party. I forgot to take pictures... next year.

Saturday morning we had breakfast on the Polar Express. Not the real Polar Express, but our version at the church... very fun... a ton of work... but fun! With all of my other commitments for the week, I was not able to help as much as I had originally planned. For that, I felt guilty. The guys and gals did a great job.

And now... we clean and tidy and prepare for Christmas!

The Poinsettias have arrived!

We get poinsettias each year for everyone at the party. For the last two years I've ordered them from the preschool and they are fabulous! I have 18 this year... so pretty.

Decorating Continues

My view this morning... lit trees always look distorted, but it is beautiful. The top of the tree is hidden by the doorway and the picture isn't composed well, but it is my memory. The other memory of the tree that I want to keep this year is of my children decorating it. They worked and worked and worked. Especially my oldest. He was reminding the other two to 'spread out the ornaments... they can't just be in one spot'. He stopped many times throughout the day to add more ornaments... I loved it when I heard him singing Christmas songs as he worked.

The Countdown... I have three advent calendars this year as I have three children. I'm all for taking turns, but this only happens once a year. Below is the Santa. Someone moves the star each day and places it in the pocket. No candy or treats just the joy of moving the star.

Not pictured is a basket of wrapped books. The kids can tell that they are books as they are really smart and well, they look like wrapped books. The books are all about some aspect of Christmas and all but three of them are from their book box. Someone will unwrap a book each day.

Third... I'm not sure what to call this... maybe the word jar?... it is inspired from the Simple Wife. It is also inspired from this book. Someone will pull a tag out of the tin (not pictured) and clip it into the "fancy" clip below (an awesome, simple craft from out Simply Living book club). I'll post another picture after the kids wake up and put a tag in it.

Suddenly, I've acquired many nativity scenes; which I love. We've been married for 11 years, so I guess this just happens over time. The bigger one on the left is from one of my students 3 years ago... we all love it. I should take close-up pictures of them... I wonder if anyone has a nativity "parade" on the internet?

The advent wreath, hanging from the dining room chandelier... oops, I forgot the candles.

The stairs wrapped with garland, lights and ribbons... always a daunting task, except this year... I found these great hooks... I used to use wire... what a pain. These hooks are totally worth it! I forgot to take a picture of them... I will take a photo and post later.

An almost empty green room to make way for the tables.

My couch and bar stools in the garage. Just for the week... the suburban has been left out in the cold.

7 days to PARTY!

Friday morning began and so did Christmas transformation! This is the 7th year that we will host Joe's work Christmas party. Because I've done this before I think... no big deal. And then I get out my lists and look at all of the decorating to be done and I think AAAAAAAGH! How will I ever accomplish all of this?!?!?!?!?!

Boxes to be unpacked.
Joe brings home the tree.
2 trips to Fred Meyer and 6 strands of lights later the tree is lit.
Baby girl helps.
Phinneous helps.
Pepe helps.
It's finished... well, almost. I ran out of ornament hooks and my skinny red garland isn't quite long enough... back to Fred's.
Ah... it really is 9 1/2' tall... Joe is 6'5"... it's a tall tree (and it was a steal... $35)