Our Christmas card photo's

Now that our Christmas cards have been delivered it is time to post the pictures we used.  A hugh thanks to my friend Kyla for taking all these awesome photo's of my family.  It was not an easy task they gave her a hard time :)

We used this first photo for the adoption presentations at our church in the month of December

A different Christmas

I mentioned before that the kids did not believe in Santa Claus this year so that made for a very different Christmas for us this year.   There was no putting out the cookies and mike, not wrapping presents in different paper and gift tags, no having to make sure I wrote from SANTA in capital letters because Banana though Santas handwriting was so much like mine a few years ago, and no wait up for them to fall asleep to get all the presents out.  In some ways all of this was a nice change but there is this part of me inside that is sad it all ended.  They are growing up so fast and this small change makes you recognize it so much.  I am feeling very thankful that we will be able to experience this once more when our new one comes.

One thing that was so special this year and I want to remember forever is that Carrot most definitely was in the spirit of giving this year.   I am sure there were at least an additional 20 or more presents under the tree all wrapped from Carrot.  It started early before Thanksgiving.  I even had to end up getting her wrapping paper of her own because she used to much of it.  I bought gift wrap tape this year and made sure I bought the four pack knowing she was going to go through so much and I still ran out.   I had to dig into her stocking and unwrap the package of tape I put in there that was just for her to use to finish off my presents.  There were times when I had just finished vacuuming the dinning room and I went in and there were small pieces of wrapping all over the floor.  At first I would look at the mess and sign and then I counted my blessings.  I have my kids here with me they are healthy and I am so blessed.

This is a picture of just some of the drawings we got from Carrot

Even sweeter than the drawings were the "gifts" we got.  Many were prizes she was abel to choose at school for bing good all week and she would choose things she thought we would like and bring them home and wrap them up.  I got some bubbles in a ring which she thought I could use for my daycare and daddy got mostly pencils because he has to write a lot (notice one was event used LOL)

This next gift that I got she must have started back in October because there is a clear halloween theme running throughout the book.

I love how she still spells phonetically

There were tons of more that I didn't even post from more coloring pictures down to little torn pieces of paper with sweet little messages on them.   This sweet memory you want to hold onto as much as Santa Clause.

To believe or not to believe

Last year Carrot had a lot of question about Santa and Jesus together.  Did Jesus make Santa?  Did Jesus give Santa his magic?  So J told her the truth.  She seemed ok with it, in fact she promptly came down stairs and said to Banana "you know Santa is not real....Dad told me"  Banana who of course was in 5th grade looked at her and was of course I know that...but the look in his eye told me he was disappointed and maybe still not quite sure.

Well it has been a few months now and we were headed into a small local town to buy our traditional Jim Shore Santa Claus and she wanted to go to the Santa House.  The Santa House is this adorable little building and you wait outside and get to go into this homey little room just your family and Santa - no noisy crowds or crying babyies.  There is a bench for Mom and Dad and the kiddos go over and sit on Santa's lap and you can take a picture and tell him you wish list....adorable.  I'm glad she wanted to do it even if she doesn't believe...or does she?

Seven years

My little girl is 7 already.  I have no idea when she got so big.  

Carrot is so creative and enjoys life so much.  Right now I am looking at about 20 "presents" that she made so far and put under the tree that range from drawings to gifts she made at school and each and every one is individually wrapped with name tags.  She even has a list of who how many more she wants to make and add to the collection.   

I am a very organized person and her creativity can create such a mess but  I am learning to overlook it much better than I used to.  I know one day when my house is empty I will wish I had scraps of paper and beads and tape to clean up.

Along with the organized, clean/neat fetish I have a little streak of perfectionism in me but I am working on that too.  This year I let her icing her own cake.  She  kept asking for a double layer cake and making a big deal about how her cake was going to be double layer.  I didn't want to burst her bubble by telling her all round cakes make a double layer instead I decided to go the extra step and make her a triple layer cake so it was more special and then she was telling everyone that she was having a triple layer cake.  I love that about her.  

Carrot and her friend putting on the icing.  Years past I would have not been able to stand watching all the crumbs mix with the icing but she was loving it and I really didn't care so much.

All finished and ready to put on the decorations

All done.  I think she did a great job 

After her special dinner of eggs, sausage, and pancakes we all piled into the car and went to see the Christmas light display at a local factory

I even let Carrot and Banana take the pictures 

Carrot and her puppy

 Happy birthday Carrot I love you so much!

Tree of memories

I love to see Christmas trees that are all decorated in a theme with matching ribbons and Christmas balls.  Sometimes I think of how my tree would look if I were to trim it that way but there is something so much for special about having ornaments with a story.  This post is a glimpse into the story of my tree.  

This ornament is intended to look like a gingerbread cookie.  It is of a waxy nature and has a gingerbread sent.....or at least did when it was new.   I think I have hung this on our Christmas tree for as long as I can remember and it is so special because when I was a little girl I would always scratch a little wax off the back of it to bring back the gingerbread smell.  So now I have this old ornament with no smell at all and lots of scratches on the back.  I love to pull it out every year and tell the kids why it has so many scratches on the back of it.  I tell they know I tell them every year but I will continue to tell them and I know it will be just as special for one of them to grab it out of the box one day and tell their kids.

These pictures are clearly in no order.  This is a an ornament of a stork we bought the year we were expecting Banana.  Our first family ornament.

Our first Christmas ornament

This ornament was made for me by one of the sweetest people I know who was a co-worker of mine at the time J and I go engaged and she made this for our first Christmas together which also was the day J ask me to marry him

This is old and faded but this ornament is of my Mom and Dad when they were young.  I don't know how I snagged it but am so glad I did.  I love how my kids always say how HiHi almost looks the same and is MomMom wearing a wig? (which I think she probably was)

This is really dating me but my special first Christmas ornament that I will always cherish

Banana's first ornament

Carrot's first ornament

The next two ornaments are two of my childhood favorites.  I have no idea we had various mice ornaments but we they were always fun.  We had others but these are the only two I have.

The tree is full of them and they are all special.  The kids have each gotten their own ornaments almost every year since and it makes our tree so special.

For some reason I was super excited about decorating for Christmas this year.  I wish the picture quality was a little better it is much prettier than it looks.

Carrot loves to put the star on the tree.  I hope her dad is always going to be able to lift her to put it on but it will be a sad day when she is too big for it.

 

  hardly able to wait to begin

Having pinned stuff from pinterest all year it was hard not to add some new decorations to the house.  Carrot and I were at Lowes one day and found some pretty red,sliver and gold Christmas balls in various sizes and then went to town with some old garland I haven't used int years that i was thinking of throwing out.  It turned out way prettier than expected.

A lot of my decorations were my mom's so they are even more special.  The candle holder below was my moms and the crystal globes were a gift from my old boss.

When I was small this gold Angel used to really scare me LOL  I am quite fond of it now.

Some of the first Christmas decoration I bought to decorate our house the first few years we were married.

I saw a variation of this on pinterest and made due with some bows of garland I had in my Christmas box.  I have used them in the past outside on rocking chairs or on my mantle but like on the banister like this.

Every year we go to a local small town and pick out a Jim Shore santa.  This year the store is no longer selling them but we have been told there is another shop that sells them in another small town close by so I am hoping we can get there before Christmas.  It was be sad not to have one marked 2012.

I can remember ever year as a girl opening the box with this nativity scene and helping my mom set it us.  I used to sort of think they were boring completely white but love the simplicity in this set now.

I took the same christmas balls and ribbon from the door and wrapped them around the light fixture in the dinning room and love the way that turned out as well.

New decorations are fun the it is the old decorations that have the memories

I found these stockings one year and bought then for our little family of four.  I am hoping I can find another one that looks similar for when we become five.

The nutcrackers are one of Carrots favorites.  She was digging and digging through the ornament box this year trying to find the nutcracker ornament that her daddy bought her last year the night we went to see the nutcracker ballet.  

Last but not least is this little stuffed Christmas tree wall hanging.  This was also made by my mother.  

The Performance

Carrot is famous for "the performance"  

I think her love of the performance is mostly in the preparations for the performance.  She will start a few hours before and color pictures and wrap them as present, set up a tea set, etc. This is defiantly something we want to remember although we have attending enough I am doubtful we would forget.

This particular performance she started preparations around 2:00 with making presents and wrapping them up.  She loves to wrap things so we finally ended up getting her her own role of paper.  She dug out the ballet clothes that MomMom brought that were her cousins was ready for us.  

She served chocolates and ice-cream and then pushed the play button on her little pink computer and was dancing away to the nutcracker sweet.

Time to chance songs

Daddy got the best present a foam picture frame

Although my sweet notes were just as nice

The highlight for us was there was a sign in sheet this time :)  As you can see her  brother missed the performance since he was in the shower and she made sure she noted that