2009 in Review

JANUARY We actually had a little snow here in SC! The boys loved it!
FEBRUARY My Superman, my love- he gave me roses for Valentine's!
MARCH The Godfather & Godmama came to town. Superman and The Godfather were like kids again. The Wii was a hit!
APRIL
Grammy came to town for our annual trip to Disney on Ice.Two new kitties came to live with us!

MAY

We picked strawberries and made strawberry jam.

JUNESuperman turned 40! The littlest joy turned 9!
JULY Cameron and I baked Meg's rainbow cake.Wyatt broke a tooth on the side of the pool!
AUGUST
We spent a day at the water park.My first born turned 11!We said farewell to Daddy Robert, and he joined Nana Mae in Beulah Land.

A crafty, girls' weekend soothed my heart!

SEPTEMBERCameron and Superman went on their annual Father/Son trip to the NHRA race. Cameron was on TV with this poster he made. Games were played.
OCTOBERI spent my birthday weekend with my paternal cousins... ALL of them! The kitties had surgery.
NOVEMBERCameron earned his orange belt.Wyatt earned his red belt. Miss Priss turned 2.
DECEMBER Wyatt entered his first karate tournament. He won 2 trophies!We saw Santa.I made Christmas goodies, including Nana Mae's mounds and strawberries and Doris' holly treats.

The littlest joy was in our church play.

Toy Soldier

My baby boy was in our church's Christmas play this year. They performed Christmas Hang-Ups. He was a toy soldier. I made his costume, so I may be a little partial when I say that I think it turned out well!

My whole family made the 150 mile trek, just to see the play! Talk about making you feel special! Anyone who'll drive 2 1/2 hours twice in one day for you must truly love you! It was dark, and I tried to use my telephoto lens without a tripod, so most of the performance pictures are blurry.Oh, well! He's still a cutie, even if he's blurry!

Ornament Wreath

Now that this present has been given, I can finally post it!

I love the little jingle bells...Of course the inspiration was from Eddie Ross, here.I tried the bows two different ways. But, still couldn't figure out how to make a really pretty one. Guess it's a good thing I have boys and not girls! Bows just aren't my thing!

Merry Christmas to all!

Early Morning View

I couldn't get to sleep on the early morning of 'Adam's Eve' (12/23). I had finished making the last of the presents. Finished the wrapping. I was pooped! But, I just couldn't sleep. So I snapped a few pictures of the tree and presents. No matter how I tried to rearrange the presents, I still couldn't hide the boys' Transformers wrapping paper. Oh well, I guess I should just be thankful that they wanted to help me wrap!
I love our little Santa! When I bought him, he stood taller than the boys! Oh, how times have changed!

My Boy's Menorrah

We're not Jewish, but...

We sure love to celebrate the holidays.

Especially the littlest joy!

He also loves to help me decorate for Christmas.

A couple of years ago we were at our local Cracker Barrel in December. And when at Cracker Barrel, you MUST shop a little. As I perused the ornaments, candles, and stockings, I found myself being tugged by little hands to see a decoration that we needed, or so he proclaimed.

And this is the decoration that he spied with his little eyes.

How could I tell this little face no?

Obviously, I didn't!

Christmas Tour of Homes

This will be our last Christmas spent in this home. We're not going far, just to the house across the street. The house across the street is currently our rental property, but soon it will be our new home. There's a little more room there. The layout is better for our family. But, now that I'm trying to make sure we enjoy each and every last moment in the home in which we've lived since we were married 12 years ago, I'm finding it a little bitter sweet.

But enough of that! That's not what this post is all about!

I've enjoyed setting up Christmas a lot this year! The best part has been doing our family tree. I didn't take out my blown glass ornaments this year. It was too stressful last year, worrying about how many more of the ornaments were going to get broken. This year, we used all of the boys ornaments and family ornaments. My only rule was that the ornaments couldn't be easily breakable!We turned on Christmas music as I unpacked the Christmas boxes. The boys put on each and every ornament themselves! Even when they put 6 ornaments on 1 branch, I didn't say a word. And, I didn't go back and rearrange them. At the end, the littlest joys told me that, "This is the best Christmas ever!" I think we just may have a new tradition at our house!

I'm spending lots of time in the kitchen right now! Lots of Christmas goodies to be baked and shared! Here are two recipes I'm working on this week that you might like to try cheese straws and Holly Treats.This is the first year I've had a little tree in the kitchen. Don't know why I waited so long to indulge myself? It's such a cheerful little tree!And it's dressed with lots of mini kitchen items.I bought a set of 12 mini cookie cutters at Target for $5.00. And just tied them on the tree with little bits of ribbon.Also with that tree, I have the boys' What God Wants for Christmas nativity set.Do you have one for your children? You can find them here. (And they are on sale right now!)Last year, after Christmas, we picked up several nutcrackers for the boys' tree. Since we put all of their old ornaments on our family tree, I'm so glad we picked up new ones for the boys last year! I had to sneak in while they were sleeping to get these pictures:*Christmas storybooks are wrapped under their tree. We open one a night, and read it together as a family.

Their tree normally has white lights, but the pre-lit ones died this year. I cut them all out, and they requested colored lights. Their white light star looked a little out of place, so they opted for a Santa hat on top.
But this is what it looked like when I found it tonight...Obviously they feel free to take decorating control this year!

I love this versatile little apothecary jar. Want to see what it looked like at Halloween? If so, go here.

Speaking of my children feeling like they have decorative liberties these days, come back tomorrow and I'll share the story of this decoration. It begins with, "Well, we're not Jewish but..." See you back tomorrow for the rest of the story!