Our Christmas

Better late than never? So I've been super busy and a little overwhelmed so I am just now posting about our Christmas this year.

This was the first year we didn't do any traveling what so ever and I have to admit, it was quite enjoyable. We didn't have to rearrange the kids sleeping schedules or try to keep them out of trouble in a foreign environment and the kids got to go to sleep in their own beds and wake up to Santa's presents the next morning.

Christmas Eve, we went over to grandma and grandpa's house for the present exchange. We take turns with one sibling each year and we had Jared's youngest sister this year. I had a lot of fun shopping for her. I love to cook and I remember having a conversation with her about how she wanted to get into cooking more. I bought her most of my favorite things when it comes to cooking and they were received with great appreciation. I was glad I did it because of the sound of what she had been using (peeled, busted pans). I also gave her the movie Julie and Julia which is a great movie as well.

The next morning, we set our alarm clocks for 5:45 in the morning so we could be up to catch their expressions and excitement. Well, Addison woke up at 6 and had the right idea without knowing anything.

We waited and waited and then at around 7 in the morning, Hadley finally woke up.

We let her check out her stocking and then got her to go wake up Hayden since it was getting later and we were getting antsy.

After Hayden was done checking out his stocking, we did the Christmas story watching a short movie clip of it since I couldn't find my felt figures at the time. Then, we had them open their big presents from Santa. We played with those and then took a break to eat breakfast (I always feel sick on Christmas due to lack of eating habits on that day minus the three times I have been pregnant as it is :0)).

After eating some scrambled eggs and sausage, we continued opening the rest of the presents. The kids enjoyed their new toys. Santa brought Hayden the Lego Star Wars he had asked for

and Hadley got some Littlest Pet Shop animals of her own finally.

Addison got some little people stuff and more things to chew and bite on.

The afternoon was spent with some visits from Jared's family members from out of town. I was so happy this Christmas was so much more peaceful and relaxing. Such a nice change of pace from the usual.

Other traditions from Christmas

I thought these were important to write down as well. Holiday traditions were:

1. Christmas Eve at Nana's house - we would always spend Christmas Eve with my Dad's family about and hour and a half's worth of a drive away. We would eat some good turkey dinner and the kids would play while the women would do dishes and the men would talk, sleep or grab a smoke.

2. Candy Cane chippers - My nana makes the best candy cane chipper (chocolate chip cookies with candy canes in them). We never could duplicate the goodness of those and every year, she had them waiting in her apple cookie jar as a special treat for us. Ours would always come out flat. She finally revealed that you need to use parchment paper to help them not go flat.

3. the red styrofoam threaded ball ornaments on the tree - I love these simple ornaments and how the lights on the tree hit them. It radiates a certain glow that I just love staring at when sitting in the living room with the tree all lit.

4. setting up the Christmas tree to Manheim Steamroller and Kenny G (I love that music!) - it makes it fun to decorate while listening to amazing music like that. Truly means Christmas is coming.

5. Plum Pudding for dessert - this was a family tradition for dessert every year. Nana made really good plum pudding.

6. The infamous pickle ornament - I bought my sisters their own pickle ornaments a couple years back. Every year at nana's, the kids would hunt through the ornaments of the tree to try and find the pickle ornament first. Who ever did, would always get an extra present that night.

7. Santa tracking - My uncle was a volunteer firefighter and every Christmas Eve, we would listen to them broadcast news of where Santa had been spotted and track him throughout the night.

I'll have to add more as I remember them. I've always wanted to record them so I wouldn't forget.

Tradition

Ever since I can remember, the tree topper on our Christmas tree growing up was an Aluminum Star with garland glued around it. My Mom and Dad didn't have a whole lot of money and my mom went and made a star for our Christmas Tree. She took some cardboard, aluminum foil and garland that she had and made a simple star to use that we as kids, loved and adored. It was tradition. Mom had no clue she would ever leave this kind of impact on her own daughters.

When we were older in our teens and mom had the star from her mom's tree to use, we still insisted on having the aluminum one on the top as well because after all, it was tradition. That star represented so much more than just a tree topper. It showed us simplicity and frugalness. It taught us the important parts of Christmas and what can be made and done with little money. It has been so important that we have made our own aluminum stars to go on our own Christmas Trees to carry on the long and important tradition.

It's the simple things in life that we can old dear to ourselves. It may be some silly looking star to others, but to us, it's our home and our family and our love. An aluminum star that represents struggle and ingenuity in a time that is tough. Never forget the love that a simple star can represent. A good tradition to always remember never to forget.

This is my star.

Cupcakes!

For all those readers in the area that happen to read my blog today, I just wanted to give you a heads up that today you can go to Retro Bakery and get free cupcakes for their 2nd Anniversary of business. It's a fun date or kids outing. Enjoy!

We chose the following cupcakes that were really yummy:

Hayden chose the "Cookies and Cream" since it is his favorite ice cream right now.

(Chocolate cake topped with crushed, chocolate sandwich cookie buttercream)

Hadley kept pointing around the Mint Chocolate Chip one and...

(Chocolate cake topped with green mint buttercream and mini chocolate chips)

this one, so I made the executive decision to get her the "Pink Lemonade" which she enjoyed.

(Lemon cake topped with pink lemonade buttercream and hot pink glitter sugar)

This is "Chocolate Fountain" which was my choice. I decided to save it to split with Jared when we were done dinner. It was rich and good.

(Chocolate cake topped with chocolate buttercream and dipped in chocolate ganache)

Blue Books

I would just like to make a quick shout out to the teachers of my past for having me write in those blue books in school. I have kept them and I enjoy reading them from time to time. I wasn't a great journal keeper growing up. I would start and then stop and then start again so those blue books were the only consistency and record I had of certain memories in my junior high and high school years. So if anyone is a teacher and ask their kids to do blue book journaling, personally, I find them very worthwhile and valuable, so thank you.

P-schetti

Here is an unknown fact. I used to hate eating Spaghetti. Nothing about appealed to me. I can remember one time I was over a friends house when I was younger and really liking how the mom prepared it. Maybe that made a huge difference. I know I was a picky eater as it was, but I now enjoy an occasional spaghetti dinner. I love Stauffer's meatballs and I now have a great recipe courtesy of Jared's grandma for the most addicting and delicious breadsticks that are so ridiculously easy. Anyways, I guess the main purpose of this entry was to announce that my kids actually like spaghetti. I was so proud of that fact that I thought I would share it.

It's Raining Glitter!

I'll get to Christmas eventually but the next couple of posts I thought would be some fun thoughts. For Christmas, Hadley got two Barbie dolls from the Nutcracker and 12 Dancing Princesses. She plays with them a lot and they other day, she was playing at the dining room table and I looked down and saw glitter everywhere! I was trying to figure it out and then looked at the dolls and there was glitter on the skin of the dolls that was falling off. Why would they put glitter on dolls that fall off like that. Don't they realize the mess created by them? Okay, so that was more of a personal rant :0)

Santa!

Late post, but I wanted to tell you about our more successful gig that happened after the holiday ball for work. We were hired to go to the Aliante Library to take pictures of kids visiting with Santa.

Our agreed contract was for $250 which included onsite printing of photos equaling up to 100. Bringing our own lighting and back drop to use for the photos. We showed up and found out that the room we arrived early to set up in was full of kids and parents during a bell performance. We ended up getting things out and ready in the hallway so we could scoot things in quickly to test and be ready.

We successfully got things ready in the hallway and moved it all in and were ready to go after a few adjustments. I found some difficulty working though since the kids were so excited that they were right up against my back trying to see Santa. I kept asking them to scooch just a little bit more backwards. On top of that, the line to sit on his lap moved in between my lighting so every couple pictures, I dealt with parents or kids standing in my way and having to retake pictures.

We finally got the line moved out in the hallway so I had more room taking pictures and no interference of lights. I also took all of the pictures while kneeling on one leg. At one point, I remember my legs shaking uncontrollably due to the pressure.

I had a great time though and got a tip of candy canes to bring home so I can make some chocolate chip candy cane cookies. Mmmm!