a few Christmas pictures

I'll have to find one of me but here are the rest of us from this weekend at my mom's.

My baby Jackson, age 9, I can never get a picture of him smiling right into the camera - how did she do that!

Teddy - age 11. Look at those eyes. They really are that green in real life, though it's not always quite this obvious.

What a wonderfully sweet picture of Teddy and Brad! I love this.

Christmas 2009

Last night Jackson said he was going to set his alarm to 5:10 am. I think we convinced him not too, knowing his internal alarm clock would wake him before 6 anyway. We told the boys they couldn't wake us until 7:15 am. Brad and I went to bed somewhere around 1:30, though I don't think I feel asleep until nearly two. Not too long after 4am I hear kids running around the house (curse these mommy ears of mine!!!). I go to get them back into bed only to run into bleary eyed Jackson in the hall.

Me: Baby it's way too early to be up
Jack: Teddy woke me, he's downstairs
I'm shocked as Teddy is a sleep-a-holic though he is very excited about Santa visiting. I head downstairs.
M: Teddy honey, it's waaaay too early to be up.
Ted: YOU SAID 4:10 am.
M: There is no universe in which I would ever say 4:10 am is an okay time to get up.
T: BUT THAT'S WHAT YOU SAID!!!
M: Sweetie, it's really not. You need to go back to bed.

I got back to bed though I could clearly hear the kids moving around. I just didn't have the energy to get back out of bed. I rolled over to get Brad to tell them to get back into bed. I gently rubbed his arm (the safest way to wake him). That didn't work. I pulled the covers down and rubbed a little harder. Nada. I pulled the covers back more (he HATES to be cold and often sleeps with his electric blanket on 10) and rubbed harder still. Nope. Finally I just shook him. "Brad." Not a thing. I gave up, rolled over and tried to go back to sleep. I saw it hit five but that was it.

Until..... At about 6:15 when Jackson came in.

Jack: Mom. Mom. (They know it's much safer to wake me) what time can we wake you up?
Me: You've got to be kidding me Jackson. You just woke me to ask when you can wake me?
J: Yeah, what time?
M: 7:15 now go away (I was not feeling very Christmasy)

And that was it.... until 7:13 when our door burst open as did my eyes. but they didn't come in. After about 10 seconds little feet run away and then back again.
Jack: It's still 7:13 we can't go in (they need to work a bit on their whispering skills)
Ted: Let's go wake them
J: We can't. Not until 7:15.
silence for about 15 seconds or so before feet go running away then back again
J: Ted! It's 7:14, only one more minute.
Mom: OMG I can hear you. I'm right here. We'll get up if you go away right now.

Merry Christmas everyone,
Camela

Decorating progress pictures

One of the fake trees; it's in the living room. I found a note in each of the two boxes of Christmas tree ornaments that I had written to myself last year. (I crack myself up) It says: CHRISTMAS TREE PLANS (1) Real tree in fam rm - Red & Gold ornaments w/a few others special ones (2) Fake Tree in Piano Rm - red, white, silver ornaments (3) Tree up high above door Tie securely left over gold OR silver shiny snowflake ornaments. We put the tree up high before I read the note so I didn't put the ornaments on it. I'll have to put them on when we take it down... oh well.

The newest tree. It's in the kitchen and perfectly sized because it's so narrow. It is where I'm putting up all the ornaments the kids have made over the years. I've been wanting to do this for a few years and thrilled I finally got around to getting it done.

The garland on the stairs that you see right as you walk in the front door.

The only real hallway on the first floor. The tree and garland can be seen from the street as you drive up to the house.

The snowflakes that are opposite the front door. A few years ago they were lighted stars which is really what I wanted. But then they died because we sort of ended up using them as a night light on the first floor until they burned out somewhere in the spring (oops). So the next year we went to get a replacement (cuz we couldn't get them lit again to save our lives), but they only had snowflakes. Then the same thing happened again last year and now this is the third string of odd lights we hang there. (and each year I like the strand less). But it's part of my grand plan to be able to turn off all the normal lights and only light the house with Christmas lights and candles for the party. Hopefully this will be the year. No lights - woo hoo!

A few things

Teddy and Brad are in VA. Teddy called me from a Japanese restaurant where he is clearly feeling very grown up; away with his dad. They went for a swim, watched a bit of TV and then headed out to eat. Tomorrow they're going to the comic book convention and I'm sure they're both very excited about it.

Jackson and I started our weekend at the book fair where he chose a few a few books and a really cool, very large, pen (nearly 2 feet long) that has a rubber replica of a foam finger - I really like it. Then we went to Uno's and had a lovely time as he quizzed me with the Wimpy Kid Do it Yourself book. He humored me by going into Target that was right next to Uno's. I'm on the lookout for a few more snowmen for a little collection I'm putting together on top of a cabinet and have been wanting to buy a small tree for the kitchen to hang all the kids hand made ornaments in one place, so I knew they might have something that I liked for that too.

In the tree section I found this small lighted tree that is already in a pot and I thought 2 of them would look great on the front porch so I looked closer and discovered they were on sale and came in a package of 2 for $40 - can you say sold. Then I looked for the tree for my kitchen and I narrowed it down to a short fat little tree that was really cute and a tall thin tree that was also wonderful. I had originally been looking for a short tree, but decided on the taller one (it's only 7.5 feet which is a normal size, but in the 11' high kitchen it'll look pretty small so that's still good). I picked it because of how narrow it is. Its overall footprint is just not that big and I think that'll be perfect for where I want to put it.

Brad will probably find out that I bought three more trees by reading this blog post while he's away (Hi honey) - and he'll shake his head and think what am I going to do with her (or at least that's what I hope he thinks). I'm hoping to have them put together and roughly in place, if not decorated before Brad gets home. (My family coming for Thanksgiving are going to think I'm confused about which holiday is happening since I believe we'll have 6 trees up in the house - though the two little ones will eventually go outside and the big, live one won't be bought until after thanksgiving).

Tomorrow Jack and I are heading to the aquarium and maybe a movie too, though he doesn't know about that possibility at the moment.

Camela

A few Christmas decorating pictures

Brad pulled down all the Christmas stuff when he pulled down all the Halloween stuff a couple of weeks ago and our garage is filled with lots of green and red boxes - most of which are actually in the front yard or in the kitchen.

It's 70 degrees and outrageously beautiful today. A perfect day to put up Christmas lights. I thought this juxtaposition of Christmas lights around the window, the remaining color of the burning bush, and the blue sky was fun.

Can you see that the window is open to let the beautiful day in. I looks like we had the lights up in the middle of summer - I swear we didn't.

I started pulling stuff out of the boxes inside the house but for the moment I was just gathering everything on the high counter in the kitchen and a table in the sun room. It's always so fun at this stage because I always buy some new things at the end of the season that just get packed up and put in the boxes so each year I find some new things that I had totally forgotten I'd bought the previous year.

Camela

Stinkin' pilgrims

My favorite time of year.... sort of

Today we undecorated from Halloween. It's sad for me because I love Halloween so much but.... if we don't pull them down now... well.. I might lose my mind. Thanksgiving is only 19 days away and we're hosting for my father's side of the family (we haven't actually invited anyone yet, but it's on the list for tomorrow) - that's roughly 20-25 people depending on who comes. We love hosting big family holiday dinners but of course it's a lot of work. And then right on the heels of Thanksgiving dinner, our annual Christmas party is always the first Saturday in December (the very next weekend) which is.... oh holy Hell... 28 days from today.

A few years ago we also hosted Thanksgiving and we didn't start decorating for Christmas until the next day because we didn't want to have the house all decked out for Christmas when it should be crawling with pilgrims - but alas that mad rush in the following eight days while we were both working full time nearly caused a divorce..... so...

From that point forward we decided to skip right over the pilgrims. Who likes pilgrims anyway. Stinkin' pilgrims. (okay I'll admit to a little guilt about this. My paternal grandma who was an amazing woman and an amazing cook held Thanksgiving and Christmas dinner each year and her house was totally decked out in pilgrims and cornucopias and all other appropriate type Thanksgiving stuff for Thanksgiving and tons of Christmas stuff for Christmas (she even hung different pictures on the walls for each event) but... I just can't live up to her example and I've decided I just have to get over it.)

So we skip the pilgrims and move straight from skeletons and graves to trees and wreaths and lights. The family will have to adjust to a Christmasy Thanksgiving dinner. I promise I won't play a single Christmas carol during dinner. So today Brad took down our graveyard and eyeball lights and started to put up our house lights for Christmas, while I did similar things inside. The Christmas decorating process in this house takes a very, very long time because frankly I'm a little insane about it.... but I do love how my house looks all decked out for Christmas.

Camela

The Christmas party...

Was a rousing success! Brad's sister even came down from New York to join us which couldn't have been more wonderful. We managed to even arrange for a bit of snow to add to the ambiance. Doesn't the snow make the house look just so, I don't know, poetic.
It was COLD; probably hovering around 20ish. But on the up side of that, our garage was a very convenient walk in freezer. We did lose a few people who were going to come up from DC because of the weather, so it wasn't all good.

We set up the bar in the dining room which again proved to be the key to getting people to actually mingle throughout the house. Though here in the early part of the evening, there weren't many people hanging out in the bar... that changed quite a bit as the night wore on.
This shot was taken right after the previous shot. As is typical everyone started in the kitchen and it's such an open room that it wants people to congregate in there. I don't know why it is always so important for me to get everyone out of the kitchen, but it is.

I thought this was going to be a funnier picture than it is, but the picture just doesn't do it justice. That's a king size bed under all those coats and it was nearly invisible and about 2 feet higher than normal. In person it was really a funny sight, so it might be that this will only be amusing to me, but that's okay, that's true of a lot of things.

This is Georgia grilling Alice's new 'friend' and as soon as I snapped the picture Georgia complained that they'd needed advanced warning - candid shots just won't do for her LOL.
So here is the approved picture of the three of them. They are all looking at and pointing to the blank TV screen. - geesh. Do you think it defeats Georgia's intentions that I posted both pictures?

Georgia and me in a 'sorority pose'. Isn't she just beautiful and this picture doesn't do her justice. And yes, I never did get around to putting on any party clothes. I kept my jeans and tee shirt on all night long. But I figured, it's my party and I'll look like a slob if I want to.

Anyway - we had another great party celebrating with our friends and family although my mom and step dad totally dissed us at the last minute. They got a better offer and even though they had RSVP'd to us first, they totally went to the other party. They did come and spend much of the afternoon with us; going to kids' basketball games and helping with last minute prep, so that's something. (and no mom, I'm not remotely mad).

Now more than a week later, Brad and I still haven't sat down to write up what went well and what didn't which will make planning the party next year so much easier, but it's on the list.

Camela

Decorated for Christmas

I'm sure I'll keep tweaking it right through December, but I think we managed to get the house looking just like we wanted to again this year. Brad out did himself on the outside lights - this year's addition was lights around the garage doors. After last year's 'last possible second decorating' issues all I asked of Brad was that he not be hanging lights on the day of the party. So he got all the lights up with a week to spare and they looked great... until half the side window went out.... and a little space on the icicle lights on the garage went out... oops. Well my darling husband was up on the ladder replacing those lights the night before the party.... muttering something about... as long as it's up by midnight.... I don't think that was his favorite part.


Inside we added little fiber optic trees in the boys' rooms which they absolutely love. This brings the ridiculous tree total up to 6 - well 7 if you count the tree we put lights on outside... hmmm. Maybe it's time to admit I've gone a wee bit overboard. I'll have to think about it. Each year, my goal is to be able to use no actual lamps - rely only on Christmas lights, the fireplace, and candles and I think we're almost there. I added these cool really big stars that I hung in the dining room over what was to become the bar for the party and they are designed to have a hanging light bulb in each of them. I think maybe next year I'll try to make that happen, we'll see.

We got our tree this year and we went for one a bit larger than usual. It's not quite double my height, but I swear it didn't seem that big when we bought it.

This is what the tree Brad was putting together in an earlier post finally looked like. The presents reflect the light from the tree and can be seen very nicely from outside.

The front door, right below the high tree. I love how this looks.

This is a needle point my grandmother did after my sister was born and we were the only 2 grandkids. More than 15 years later my cousin Keith was born, so she squeezed his name in there too. Then 3 years after that my cousins Matthew and Michelle were born and she was so mad at herself that she hadn't been able to foresee the future and know just how many grandkids there would be. By the time Kevin and Sarah showed up 10 years later she was past the anger - mostly.

I have never gotten this to where I want it to be. I love the manger and the big angel that watches over it and I even love the people and animals, but I've never finished them. I bought them to paint and glaze a million years ago and for several years I did a bit each year, but I haven't touched them in years other than to bring them down and put them out. They need to be glazed so they will look better in the setting. It's on the list.... I'll get to it one of these days.

One of the many trees. This one sits at the end of the hall in a window that is one of the things seen first when you round the corner to get to our house.

This is one of the little fiber optic trees in the boys' rooms. They totally love them. Please disregard the little road and field painting on the walls of my 10 year old's room.... Okay so I painted that when we moved in and he was 4. The little trucks and tractors were perfect for a preschooler - maybe not so much for an almost middle schooler. I promise, here and now, that I will redo his room in the spring.

These are the cool stars that I mentioned before. Aren't they just the coolest!!!

This is another of the trees. This one is in the front of the house sitting in front of the bay window where it can be seen from the side of the house seen first when rounding the corner, just like the little tree at the end of the hall earlier. I probably should have included a picture of the decorated real tree (the big one) but, well, it's not really decorated yet. There are lights and a few ornaments, but, well, it's on the list.

Merry Christmas,
Camela

Decorating for Christmas - progress report

We're decorating early this year. Our annual Christmas party is the first weekend in December and last year doing all the decorating between Thanksgiving and Christmas nearly killed us (and our marriage). So this year we skipped Thanksgiving in our house. As soon as the Halloween decorations came down, we pulled out the Christmas stuff and we've been working on it ever since. We have decided everything will be done; inside and out by the end of Thanksgiving weekend or else.

Last night we decided to put up the tree that goes above the front door. For the first time ever Brad decided to assemble it up there instead of down on the ground and then having to awkwardly carry it up the ladder and get it up there. This, however meant he had to climb all the way onto the ledge up there. It's a pretty big ledge, but it's also pretty high up. The first picture is of him up there will both pieces ready to assemble and arrange the branches.

More arranging and spinning and arranging and spinning all to my specs. My husband is a very patient man, who is willing to put up with a lot of arranging and spinning.

Now we've gotten the last minute addition of the lighted tree topper installed and all the arranging and spinning is done.... but... well, um... Now to come down. "Boy it sure is a long way down..... Hmmm, I just have to reach around and put my foot on the ladder and I'll be all set..... It's going to be just a minute or two"

"Take your time, I've got the ladder whenever you're ready to come down."

"I'm almost ready."

"I know, just take your time."

"Okay, I'm coming down."

"Alright, whenever you're ready."

"Honey can you just have some food sent up?"

Camela