Early Christmas
We didn’t want to take all the presents to Florida with us and surprised the girls with an early Christmas on the morning of December 21st. (Shh! We’ll be taking a few small presents with us to surprise them again on Christmas! Maybe even Christmas Eve 😉 )
I Wasn’t Going To…
We’re not going to be “home for the holidays” this year, and I wasn’t going to put up our tree…too much work. I’m not one of those people who dig out the Christmas decorations as soon as the Thanksgiving dishes are cleared off the table, and always wait until the week-end before Christmas to set up and decorate the tree. But we’ll be gone almost all of Christmas week and it just didn’t seem worth it. But…as you can see…. I changed my mind. Although I kept the decorating to a minimum and only hung the glass ball ornaments and some jingle bells. Good enough 😉
2012/341: It’s Beginning…
…to look a lot like Christmas.
Today’s the day the decorations come out. The tree won’t go up until a week or so before Christmas, though.
2011/359: Merry Christmas
Wishing you and your family a very Merry Christmas, and a beautiful Sunday to all of you who don’t celebrate Christmas.
We are off to see family in Oklahoma, and see a Christmas Light Display on our way to the hotel.
2010/359: Merry Christmas
Wishing you all a beautiful day!
We are off to Oklahoma today, to visit with Greg’s family.
2010/357: Bonus
To my friends, family, and blog fans:
May this Christmas…
be filled with love…
and happy memories.
2010/351: O Snowflake Tree
It’s not a Christmas tree if it’s not decorated, right?
Had some fun with our un-decorated pre-lit tree, with a home made snowflake filter. Next step: decorating!
Christmas Day Bonus: Crazy Tree
Can’t have a Christmas tree without taking some crazy tree pictures!
Camera mounted on tripod, and slow shutter speed both times. For the first one I zoomed in while the shutter was open. For the second one I had the camera in a horizontal position and then flipped it to a vertical position while the shutter was open.
Christmas Eve
Wishing everyone who celebrates today a very Merry Christmas.
I want to thank my Honey for letting me keep the Christmas Eve tradition. Opening presents with just the light of the tree is so much more special to me than opening them on Christmas morning, when it’s already getting light out (I’m the only one up when it’s still dark!)
Christmas was always my favorite day of the year, and I remember visiting my grandparents in Austria one year, looking out of their window into the snowy night, waiting for the Christkind (Christ child).
At home, my parents would always decorate the tree on Christmas Eve during the day, closing off the living/dining room and all day long my sister and I weren’t allowed to go in there. They would sneak the presents under the tree while we were playing in our room, or get all dressed up for dinner. The dining table would always be moved into the bedroom or mine & my sister’s room, so we wouldn’t see the tree before it was time.
After dinner, one of my parents would light the candles on the tree (yes, REAL candles!) and we had sparklers, too. That was my most favorite part.. not the presents, but walking into the living room and seeing the tree for the first time. We also had candy/chocolate ornaments and my sister and I could pick one or two to eat every day. And, we would always sing a few Christmas carols before we opened our gifts.
Our plans for tonight are to go out to dinner, and as we are leaving, I’m going to find an excuse to go back into the house so I can put all the presents under the tree. The kids are always so excited when we come back, because at dinner all they will have talked about is whether or not Santa came already.
I found this picture from my childhood. I think this was the Christmas before I turned 3 years old. That’s me in red .
Behind the blinds is not a window, it’s the pass-through between the kitchen and dining room.
Of course Christmas wouldn’t be the same without my FAVORITE Christmas song! Even though it is in German, I’m sure you will recognize it.
Stille Nacht by Nana Mouskouri
I ♥ Christmas
Another handmade ornament. This one is from two years ago, when I bought the plain glass ornaments at Michaels and painted them. This particular one was painted with sparkly paint first, and then I painted the Christmas tree. You can use regular acrylic paint, just be sure to let it dry completely.
“Weisser Winterwald” by Peter Alexander
Caught In A Blizzard
A blizzard of icing, that is!
The girls got to build wooden gingerbread houses at Lowes Saturday morning and kept insisting that gingerbread houses are supposed to be made out of gingerbread… so on Sunday, we looked for a gingerbread house kit for the girls, but all we could find were the trees. I mixed the icing and put it on the pieces while they stacked them up, and then let them do the rest.
Well, this is what it ended up looking like…. if you look really close, you can see that there is gingerbread under all that icing. There is supposed to be a little candy star on top of the tree, but they said it kept falling over so they left it laying down….. and drowned it in icing!
As soon as they were done, Sara came running and asked “can we eat it now?…. Oh wait, pictures!…. Mommy, can you take some pictures?”
They did get to eat some of it after dinner.
Hello….. Good-Bye
Hello 2008… Good-bye Christmas tree. It was time to take it down today, but not before taking one last picture of it. Kind of sad to see it go, because it was so pretty. The kids are happy (kind of anyway) because now they get to eat the chocolate ornaments that were on the tree.
Wishing you all peace and happiness for 2008
The Daily Click 