Christmas 2012

Our intrepid blogger continues to play catch-up with pictures from the past year...

What a difference a year makes! Last Christmas, Grace played in her little infant gym on the floor while we decorated the tree. This year, she thought the tree decorating was the best day ever.

"Ball! Ball!"

Each year, I give the kids an ornament that reminds us of the past year. For Grace's ornament, I chose a pinwheel, as she had a polka-dot and pinwheel first birthday party (the pinwheel is actually a present embellishment I found at Hallmark).

Grace was deeply touched by my thoughtful present of bubble wrap.

As I remarked on Facebook, my kids seem to take turns looking good for pictures. Finding one that has both kids looking at the camera is a challenge.

This was the best I could get of the kids on Christmas Eve. We tried again on Christmas Day with even poorer results.

Here, you can see the toll getting two kids ready for Christmas has taken on poor DH...

...and just to prove I was there at Christmas, one of the kids and me.

What awaited the kids come Christmas morning. Grace's present this year was my old doll furniture that DH fixed up and painted white. In one of the big boxes are the chairs that go with the furniture. The little box out in front is the first present that we open Christmas Day - the baby Jesus that goes with the nativity set on the mantle.

Christmas Day breakfast, snowman pancakes. Frosty's scarf was a little burnt this year, but what's Christmas without the smoke detector going off?

Grace was still asleep when BB got up Christmas Day, so he opened his presents and we got breakfast ready. When she woke up, DH took a picture of her before he got her up. She was not amused.

I had placed one of Grace's dolls in the doll bed. She seemed more thrilled about seeing her doll than she was about the new presents.

Christmas Day outfit, minus the bow. She will ask to wear bows, but they only stay in 5 seconds. Don't you just love the socks that look like shoes?

Christmas Day night. These were the pajamas I wore for my second Christmas. I was 22 months when I wore them. Grace just barely fit into the pj's at 15 months. I have tall kids!

 

The Gingerbread house of 2012. Not pictured is the Godzilla DH made out of green fondant to go with the house...

Weeks in Review, Part I

I apologize in advance for the pictorial onslaught. As one of my reasons for blogging is to document my kids, I have serious catching up to do...
Something that I saw online and decided to emulate with Grace was the idea of a weekly picture. I am so glad that I did this. Seeing Grace grow and change in these 52 pictures is just amazing. Rounding up 52 different pieces of cloth, blankets, etc. was a challenge, but worth it.

 In this picture, Grace is on one of my baby blankets. I only have a few pieces from my babyhood, and just a couple of pictures, so this was really special to me.

The quilt in the back is a quilt that my incredibly talented friend Saige made for Grace. I love, love, love this quilt. I will have to do a future post just on this quilt so you can see all of the extra-special detail she included. I am so blessed to have the friends that I have, even if our kids do keep us from seeing each other very often.

 

 This picture brings tears to my eyes. This is a picture of hope. The fabric in this picture is actually a sheet that I bought years ago, before I was even pregnant with BB. I bought it because I hoped to one day have a daughter and be able to use it in her room. After 6 years, I was finally able to use it. This sheet will pop up again in Grace's birthday pics ;)

This is just some random fabric I picked up at Hobby Lobby. There are several pieces of fabric that coordinate with this that I might, one day, turn into a quilt - if I ever get over my love/hate relationship with sewing machines!

This is a throw that my birth mother gave me when I got my first apartment.

 

Yet another Hobby Lobby fabric.

This quilt was made by a group of women in Appalachian Kentucky who make quilts to raise funds for their community. My mother's side of the family comes from this area. If you've ever read the book "Christy," you know the type of people who live there.

 My great-grandmother made this quilt for me when I was a little girl. It was the next to last quilt she ever made. 

 This quilt was also made by my great-grandmother, for my mom. This is my favorite of her quilts.

This is another Appalachian quilt.

More Hobby Lobby fabric.

Just a pretty Christmas-colored throw. I wanted the background fabrics to give an occasional clue about what time of year it was when the picture was taken.

 This is the fabric I use for the kid's Christmas tree skirt. I love the original "Charlie Brown Christmas" and watching it together is a family tradition.

Random Christmas throw - the look she has in this picture just cracks me up.

 This is actually my Christmas tablecloth. I ended up using several different tablecloths during the course of the year.

 Yet another Christmas tablecloth. I bought this the first year DH and I were married.

And, once again, a tablecloth. I really liked this tablecloth, as it was PVC. Tacky, I know, but when you have kids, easy clean is the way to go. Unfortunately, I set a hot cookie sheet on it this year. We now have a Christmas drop cloth for our next painting project.

Christmas Card Pic 2010

Based on last year's successful picture, we decided to do the same again this year. Only we got the bright idea to just have a picture of BB and his tree. The idea seemed so easy, so simple. Throw a nice shirt on BB, decorate a 3-foot tree and snap a quick pic. Parents everywhere know where this is headed...

This is good, but it could be better. Maybe if I zoom in a bit and snap a few more...

No, BB, put your tongue back in your mouth and smile nicely!

Put your hands down! Smile nicely with your hands in your lap!

Okay, perhaps I spoke too harshly. You can relax a little bit.

Um, not that much...

So what if it's not centered and the star is blurry? Good enough!

Christmas Tour 2010

Unlike the last 2 years, I decided to not participate in the blog world Christmas tours. So for my loyal readers (all 5 of you!), here is a brief tour. Most of my Christmas decorating is similar to last year's, so if you want a more in-depth view, you can catch last year's tour here.

This is our tree for the year. I did the ribbon garland last year, and I could never decide if I liked how it looked or not. I think our star tree topper might be celebrating it's last Christmas on our tree :( My parents bought the topper way back in the 70's as a young married couple, and I took it with me to college and beyond. I have so many memories of sitting in a darkened room watching the lights twinkle on and off.

For a change this year, most of our presents are wrapped similarly to the two variations seen below:

the red ribbon going across reads, "Jesus is the Gift"

I really like the color-coordinated look of our presents this year. Since the ribbon is easy to save, I might do this again next year...

DH and I have differing opinions on how many ornaments can go onto a tree. I prefer to have an overloaded tree that fairly creaks under the weight of ornaments. DH prefers to showcase special ornaments. So he decorates the tree to his liking, and I push him to add "just a few more" ;)
The ornaments seen above are some of my wooden ornaments that I collect that didn't make it onto the tree this year. I know it's not a great way to display them, but it is interesting to dig through the bowl and see what you find. I've determined that next year I am having a tree in the kitchen for my wooden ornaments.

Our mantle. I decided to keep things simple on the mantle this year. I love how other people fill apothecary jars with seasonal items, but I never feel as though I pull it off successfully myself.
On a (somewhat) related note, a great invention would be lighted garland that runs off of batteries. I HATE having visible cords!

Our entertainment unit. The "Jesus is the Gift" sign is a bit small for the space, but I wanted it to have a key focal point. So above the TV it went ;)

I made the signs that flank the entertainment unit one morning after deciding that the audio piers needed more height. To see how I made the signs, you can read about it here.

Some day, I would love to have some "real" signs from Red Letter Words.

This year, we are using Ann Voskamp's Jesse Tree devotional. Her free book comes with printable ornaments, which is great for someone who can't draw :D If you are looking for a Jesse Tree devotional that has weight for child and adult alike, I highly recommend the book.

Unlike years past, I didn't get out my Christmas village this year. BB is not too happy about that. I must admit that the village made decorating the table in our front hallway easier.

But the village's absence does allow me to highlight some of my favorite ornaments.

I bought this mini village (and the buildings you will see on the piano) on clearance from Target last year.

The doorway between the hallway and the schoolroom.

This is BB's Peanuts (as in Charlie Brown) tree. You will see some better pictures of this tree in an upcoming post. Prior to this year, BB had his tree in his room. But after super-gluing 5 ornaments last year, we got smart and moved the tree this year :D

These are the other buildings that I bought at Target last year. In between the buildings is a snow family figurine that DH bought me a few years ago, and a nativity set that I had in my room as a child.

I just love lighted buildings.

We kept the decor the same outside this year with the exception of a wooden nativity. We bought this set a few months ago at a local craft fair. One of the things that I look forward to at Christmastime is driving around to see the lights, but for us, I wanted things simple.

After all, this is what Christmas is all about.