Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!!! part 1

We had a wonderful Christmas and a very quiet New Year's Eve. Dad arrived the Saturday before Christmas so we had a couple days to visit before the mad rush of Christmas hit. It was great! Have I mentioned that I love my dad?

I was proud that I finished all my shopping and wrapping on the 23rd! Yes, I'm one of THOSE. I don't care - I love the hustle and bustle. I seem to do better under pressure. My mom and I hit the mall and finished our shopping just in the Nick (get it? St. Nick?) of time....

We had a house full Christmas Eve. Great food, great company, a great time. Until I burned my thumb on a stupid votive. I didn't realize that the wick was right next to the glass and I picked it up burning the crap out of my thumb. I can usually tolerate pain pretty good - until I get burned or am nauseous. THEN, I'm a huge and I mean HUGE baby. I spent the rest of the night soaking my finger in water and holding a cold pack to it. I even cried. I told you I was a big fat baby! A blister soon appeared. So gross.

I tried not to let that damper my spirits but sadly it did. It's hard to be a great hostess while soaking your thumb. I think the pain finally stopped well after midnight while we were *ahem* Santa was wrapping stocking stuffers. This has always been our traditions (one of a thousand) to stay up and wrap stocking stuffers. This year I posed the idea to Sister to maybe wrap them the night before Christmas Eve. "But that's our tradition" she whined... so we planned to stay up and do them again as we have every year. But this year we had 5 extra stockings to stuff and I had a flippin' burned thumb (try wrapping one handed) and my poor sister got a bad migraine. She has to take medication every day to keep them under control but every once in a while one will sneak up on her and take her out. My poor sister was wrapping presents in between running to the bathroom and laying down. Needless to say - we have both decided that we will now change our tradition to wrapping on Christmas Eve Eve.

We finally finished around .....3:00AM!!!!!!! And was back up at 6:30 to see what Santa had brought. We always make quite a production out of this. While grandparents, aunts, and uncles wait at the end of the hall the kids (daughter is not really into this at 16 - but she is a trooper for her brother's sake) come in to see what Santa has brought.

We all had a wonderful time opening presents. J was thrilled with his electric drill and other tools. And me... well, it was love at first sight! (please excuse the scary, no makeup, only had 3 hours of sleep picture) I got my wonderful Kitchen Aid mixer. I love her - she's so pretty and helpful. I adore her.

I was blessed to get another wonderful gift.... I have decided that will get a post of it's own.

Partial Christmas Post

I have so much catching up to do - but most of my pictures are at home so I'll have to wait and post those later.


Christmas was awesome - I was so happy to have my dad in town. I'm like a little girl when it comes to my dad. He's so great.


Every year we try to come up with fun and exciting and different Christmas presents for him. He's got every gadget known to man but doesn't want to use them for fear they will be stolen or get broke. We buy him clothes but I know he's got a closet full with tags because he doesn't want to ruin them.... So this year we decided to go down to the beach and take pictures of us. He loved them.
My sister, brother and I
Sister
Me
Buddy
And a beautiful sunset to end the day.

Merry Christmas!!!

I probably won't have a lot of time to write this week. We will be very busy finishing shopping, wrapping, eating, eating and visiting... My dad arrives today!!!! So Happy!!!

Merry Christmas!!!!!!

In Just 2 Days....

My dad will be here!!!!

I'm a HUGE Daddy's girl and can not wait for my dad to arrive on Saturday. He lives in Oklahoma and flies out every year for Christmas. I'm so fortunate to have such wonderful parents. Even though they divorced when I was 8, they have become really good friends over the years. He even stays at my moms when he visits - in separate rooms of course! But how lucky am I that I don't have to split up my holidays between my mom and dad?

My Dad, Brother and "Buddy"

My Brother arrived yesterday from Austin, Texas. He's actually my step brother from my dad but chooses to spend Christmas out here with us. He also stays at my mom's house.

So this year we will have a full house - combining my family with J's family (mom, brother and sister-in-law) for our usual Christmas morning. All together we should have 12 of us in our Christmas Eve pajamas enjoying our time together. I'm really looking forward to it.

Pictures from Christmas 2006

Christmas morning last year at my house

My sister and brother



It only takes a minute to create memories that last a lifetime.

"Meaningful family traditions provide parents with an invaluable tool for carrying out their divine responsibility to rear children in love and righteousness. As families establish and follow traditions, each family member is strengthened and the family as a whole grows in unity and love."

Christmas Traditions

We have so many wonderful Christmas traditions. Our tree ornaments, Christmas Star, Christmas Eve mouse gifts, Stocking Stuffers, Santa's gifts and Christmas morning breakfast all are a huge part of our Christmas celebration.

When we were little (I can't remember when this started) my mom would let us open a present on Christmas Eve and it was signed Christmas Eve Mouse. It was always new pajamas. So on Christmas morning we were always sporting our new p.j.s. That tradition has continued on through the years. We buy our own Christmas Eve Mouse gifts but it is still fun to have new p.j.s for Christmas morning. My kids look forward to their Mouse gifts. I love my mom for all her fun little traditions.

Stocking Stuffers are a huge part of our Christmas morning. My mom, sister and I always go way overboard on the stockings but they are a highlight of the morning. Each of us will pick up little things here and there that will make it into the stockings - by the time Christmas rolls around we have HUGE stockings. It takes us all easily an hour to go through our stockings. We put in fun stuff, necessary stuff and totally off the wall stuff. Always saying "Santa knew....." as we open gift after gift.

When daughter was little she'd spend the morning with us and then have to go to her dads house by 10 or 11. This made it difficult to get everything done unless we woke up really early. So we still do the same. My family will come over to the house usually by 6:00am (yes, we are crazy) and the adults will wake up the kids. My mom will usually go outside the windows with sleigh bells and wake them. And then they come down the hall to find all the goodies Santa has left for them. Quite the production - quite the memories!

A newer tradition that we have started is carrying over from J's family. His late father used to make a huge Christmas morning breakfast (chorizo, eggs, potatoes, the works). Last Christmas J treated us all to a wonderful breakfast just like his dad used to cook. We will keep this tradition as it is so special to him and so good to eat!!!

Another tradition carried over from J is the Christmas tree topper. His late father's birthday is December 11th. His family used to wait to decorate the tree on his birthday because everyone was usually around on that day. We use this day as the day we put the tree topper - a star on the top of our tree. It's a great way to remember his dad.

I know we have other little things we do every year but those are the big ones that we are sure to do every year. I'm so blessed with my family and our traditions and blessed with the addition of J's family and their traditions.

O Christmas Tree, O Christmas Tree...

I love, love, LOVE decorating our Christmas tree. Every year it's a walk down memory lane for me. My mom started a wonderful tradition for my sister and me when we were very little. Every year she would buy us an ornament, one that signified the events of that year. When I moved out my mom had all my ornaments nicely boxed and ready for me to put on my tree. Keeping with this tradition I've started a box of ornaments for Daughter and Buddy. Both have quite a set accumulating. Every ornament on our tree means something to us.

Daughter's "Baby's First Christmas"


Buddy's "Baby's First Christmas"

This weekend was time to decorate the tree. We put on a Christmas movie - this year was the Elf. Daughter has never seen it so we enjoyed watching the movie and decorating the tree together. Well, she sat there while I reminisced about every ornament... "awww I remember this one"... "oh, I got this when I was pregnant with you"... "Baby's First Christmas... oh how cute!". I've been collecting the Hallmark's Mary's Angels before she was born.

Her collection

This is the first one I bought back in 1990.

The tree turned out very pretty - it looks much better at night all lit up.


It's more than a Christmas tree - it's more like a memory tree.