Christmas memories

It's hard to believe another Christmas has come and gone. The years seem to be really flying by as I get older. Christmas Eve marked 4 years since my mom passed away. I'm so thankful to know I will see her again someday. She left me with some very sweet memories until then.

We had a wonderful Christmas. Good food, great family, wonderful memories, I couldn't ask for more. Here are some pictures from Christmas Eve and Christmas Day.

Santa stopped by to visit. Blake is on to the fact that it wasn't the real Santa. He said "Mom, I know that was just one of Santa's helpers" "Santa is busy delivering presents tonight" I think it's the beginning of the end of the magic of Santa. I hope we get a couple more years out of it.


My niece and nephew.

Blake's haul from Santa. This year we didn't buy presents for each other. We adopted a family instead. It was fun to shop for them together and then imagine their faces as they opened the presents yesterday. We don't know who they were and vise verse. We were hoping to teach Blake that it's more about giving then receiving.

His grandma got Blake a digital camera. He's ready to take some pictures. Well, once we get some AAA batteries.

The cousins.

Blake was in lego heaven. He has spent hours building his new sets. This is my favorite toy for him and I'm glad he likes them so much. It's much better than sitting in front of the TV playing a video game.

Blake in the aftermath. The slinky never goes out of style.

Life is good!

Oh Christmas Tree

We have lived in Oregon for 16 1/2 years and we have never gone and cut down our Christmas tree. We've gone to the same lot all these years. But this week we changed that. We decided to find a tree farm and go for it. I'm so glad that we did. We had so much fun. We drove out past the golf course and just kept going until we found one that looked like it was open.

The property was beautiful. It was up high and had a fantastic view. The ground was frozen solid so no mud. It was freezing cold but that just added to the trip. We found the right one right away.

Here is it is......

Our friends came with us.

Erik, Blake and Laura. Can you hear Laura's teeth chattering.

Looks like we have a new tradition.

Better late than never

Finally.....the tree.

Some of my Favorite Ornaments The first year Tim and I were together. The date is 1991.

Looks kinda of like Lexie.

Announcing the arrival of the our Lord.

Our 9/11 ornament.

Each year we buy one or two ornaments that will represent things that from that year. This year it was the doggie ornament and Blake's transformer ornament which I didn't take a picture of. Then each year as we are decorating it brings to mind so many memories. It's my favorite part of decorating.

Christmas Bells are ringing.....

Hear what they say to you.....Jesus is born...in Bethlehem...in Bethlehem.

Merry Christmas to all of my friends out here in bloggie land. I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas and that happiness surrounds you. My love to all of you.

Holiday Hoopla

I'm not very good at doing these things but since I like Mo Mommy so much, I thought I would give it a try.


The Rules
1. List 12 random things about yourself that have to do with Christmas
2. Please refer to it as a 'hoopla' and not the dreaded 'm'-word
3. You have to specifically tag people when you're done. None of this "if you're reading this, consider yourself tagged" stuff is allowed...then nobody ends up actually doing it. The number of people who you tag is really up to you -- but the more, the merrier to get this 'hoopla' circulating through the blogosphere.
4. Please try and do it as quickly as possible. The Christmas season will be over before we know it and I'd like to get as many people involved as possible.

1) I tend to get stressed during the Christmas holiday.
2) I always worry that I will forget to give something to someone.
3) I feel bad if someone gets me something and I didn't get them anything.
4) Seeing Christmas through my sons eyes has made Christmas so much sweeter for me
5) I used to get so many more Christmas cards than I do now. I think it's a dying art and it makes me sad
6) I still send out as many cards as I always have because I have hope
7)Joining the church gave me a whole new outlook on Christmas
8) I'm trying to make sure that my son knows the meaning of Christmas and understands that it's not all about the presents.
9)I really miss the singing Christmas Cards that my mom used to send me
10) I'm thankful to have my hubbys family that have adopted me as one of theirs over the years. We live close to them and get to spend a lot of time with them over the holidays.
11) 2 years ago today my mother passed away which forever changed Christmas for me.
12) As a child we always got to open one present on Christmas Eve and it was always a new pair of jammies.

I know these are lame but at least I did it right?? So now, I am going to tag Yvette (because she's sweet and I know she'll do it :o) No pressure right..LOL

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas

Tis the season to be busy..LOL Well, another busy weekend but we got quite a bit done and had some fun in the process.



















Blake made his requests to the big man in red.

The Tree is up and ready to go. It actually went up without much drama. We went with a real one again this year. I don't know if we'll ever follow through with our threat to get a fake one.

The cards are going out in the mail today and I am going to start wrapping the presents tonight. I can't believe it's only 15 days until Christmas. This time of year goes by so fast. I'm trying hard not to get stressed and try to enjoy it all. We're trying to focus on what the season is really all about.

How's everyone else doing? Do you feel like it's hard to keep up with all that needs to get done and still keep the spirit of Christmas? What do you do to keep the focus on Christ and not Santa? Can you tell I need ideas? :o)

More Christmas fun

This is a fun little MeMe that I have seen on a few blogs but I snagged this one from Melissa. It looked like fun so I decided to play along.

1. Wrapping paper or gift bags? Wrapping paper, I only use gift bags for Birthdays

2. Real tree or artificial? Since we moved to Oregon 13 years ago, we have had a real tree. I have threatened many times to get a fake one because of the mess etc but I never follow through.

3. When do you put up the tree? First or second weekend in December.

4. When do you take the tree down? First thing January 1st....ish :o)

5. Which do you prefer: eggnog, spiced cider, or hot cocoa? Hot cocoa for sure

6. Favorite gift received as a child? Easy bake oven (which is odd since I really don't like to cook)

7. Do you have a nativity scene? Yes

8. Hardest person to buy for? Hubs parents

9. Easiest person to buy for? My son, he likes everything except what he calls "girl toys".

10. Worst Christmas gift ever received? I can't think of anything

11. Mail or email Christmas card? Mail, it's a dying tradition but I still love it.

12. Favorite Christmas Movie? White Christmas

13. When do you start shopping for Christmas? Depends on how organized I am that year but I usually kick it off when we go to the beach in late October.

14. Have you ever recycled a Christmas present? Don't think so

15. Favorite thing to eat at Christmas? Chocolate covered cherries

16. Clear lights or colored on the tree? The more color and blinking going on, the better.

17. Favorite Christmas song? O Holy Night

18. Travel at Christmas or stay home? Home is where the heart is plus all of our family is around here

19. Can you name Santa's reindeer? Yep - Dasher, Dancer, Prancer, Vixen, Comet, Cupid, Donder (even though I don't get the extra D in there) and Rudolph

20. Do you have an Angel on top or a star? A pretty white angel

I'm not going to tag anyone but feel free to play along if you want to.