Category: Christmas Time

Merry Christmas to you

Merry Christmas from our house to yours.

Things shifted slightly this year. The older adults were the ones doing the tequila shots while the young adults prepared their children for Santa’s early morning arrival.

Change is always in the air but family remains in our hearts with memories of Christmases past and looking forward to adventures of Christmases to come.

Tucker’s first Christmas with us!

Oh no, we were so busy in the merriment that we forgot to take a group photo. I feel terrible I didn’t arrange it, but I guess being and enjoying the moments will remain in my mind. It all went flying by too quickly.

Looking forward to a great dinner today by my daughter’s and being with my Ava and Liv and all the rest of the family. Can’t wait for the girls to say “play with me”

Looking forward to the new year.

Christmas Eve

Some of the girls of Christmas Eve last

Every year my husband and I host the Christmas Eve open house for our family and friends. Some years some guests may be people we don’t know, but someone else in our group knew would have no where else to go. We look forward to these unexpected guests.  One new addition this year is Tucker.

Since it is an open house, family and friends come and go throughout the night.  Some stay the night and celebrate Christmas morning with us. .

The kids are tempted by all the gifts under the tree.  They must ask a zillion times when they can open the gifts. I cannot wait for the girls to get here.  Come on already.  I am as excited as they are.

We celebrate with the feast of seven fishes. We want to cover all bases so sushi is included as an appetizer to ensure this. It might as well be called the feast of seventy fishes.

For the past, who knows how many years, we celebrate with  family and friends,  lotsa delish food,  Christmas party crackers (we pick up the confetti and little toys for months to follow) and, of course, drinks.  We end the night with tequila shots.  It is usually a very fun, festive time.

Although we have different friends and family come and go over the years, they will forever remain in our hearts on this special night  We do have a jolly ole time,  but we never forget the reason for the season.

Love & hugs to all.  Enjoy your night.

Annual Cookie Making

Tonight was our annual cookie making get together.  It is wonderful to have my nephews, their children and my daughter, her husband, Michael, my grandchildren all together for the holidays for a small gathering for the kids..  My cousins were also here for the festivities. 

Although it is a night for the children, the adults have come to love the chill time with family. 

This year I  made life simple.  I purchased sugar cookies.  The children enjoyed placing them on the cookie trays and claiming which ones would be theirs after baking.  After baking and cooling, they “iced” the cookies again with purchased canned vanilla icing.  

Then the fun part…the decorating.  They used various colored sprinkles, sugars and coated candies.  From previous years I learned this could get quite messy, so I used shirt boxes to place the cookies in for decorating.  Worked wonderfully.  Only very few sprinkles escaped.

Then the best part, eating the cookies before having pizza and some play time

This year one cookie Baker was missed. He was feeling under the weather.  No worries, there is always next year.

Another tradition for years to come.

Tucker all nestled in

Tucker waiting for Santa

Santa will be here soon Tucker.  Here is his list.

  • Lol Dolls (he steals these from the girls)
  • Paci (he steals this too)
  • Treats
  • Treats and more
  • Treats
  • AND a month in the Bahamas with me

Has he been naughty or nice.  Merry our elf on the shelf will know. I’m saying nice.

Christmas Tree A Hunting We Will Go

Last weekend we went on our annual Christmas tree hunt. It was a beautiful first day of December.

We begin the hunt

Although, we loved last year’s farm which had a cute little playhouse, swing, small hot chocolate and goody stand, sleigh for pictures  and an outdoor fireplace, we had hard time finding the perfect tree.  I am extremely particular in choosing a tree (they all end up looking the same…I guess I have a type). 

We decided to try a new tree farm this year.   Unfortunately, the new tree farm did not live up to our expectation and we ended up purchasing our trees from a roadside tree stand. They’re beautiful.   

Liv & Mike    ….   Ava’s perfect sized tree

Although we didn’t cut down our trees we still experienced the fun of searching for the perfect tree, keeping with the tradition.

We went to lunch and later to Mike & Ashley’s to decorate their tree.  My tree is still not decorated.  Soon!

Mike hanging his ugly ornament on the front of tree

I’m not kidding when I say I have peculiarities when finding and decorating a Christmas tree. Ask anyone who has done this with me.   I tend to hang all my UGLY ornaments in the back of my tree. The first year Mike decorated our  Christmas tree with us he found that very funny.  As a Christmas gift to me that year, my not yet SIL(yes I still welcomed him with open arms)  gifted me with an “Ugly” ornament which he makes me hang on the front of the tree each year since.  Another tradition and t.he jokes on him because I actually  like the wreath encircled shark.

Ava & Liv taking a break to get their groove on!  click on photo

  • Admiring from a distance
Finishing Touches

Ava adding the finishing touches the next day.  O Christmas Tree!  Hope you enjoyed.  I’ll post a pic of my tree, hopefully, soon.

Not just a Nativity

Today Ava and I  set up our nativity scene.  She loved all the figurines and explanation for each.  For me it brought up memories of Christmases past.  Times of putting up our nativity in my childhood home with my mother and grandmother.  I loved to play with all my grandmother’s nativity pieces, some of which I still have today. The little wax lamb on the right is from my grandmother’s scene.  The pieces in the picture are from my mother’s nativity. 

It also brings up memories of my MIL’s house on Christmas Eve.  We all  stayed until midnight so one of the grandchildren could put baby Jesus in the cradle.  It was not an easy feat with a total of eight small children, gifts still to be put together and placed under the Christmas trees and eight very hyper kids waiting for Santa.  We did it out of our love for a very caring woman, grandma Marra.

These are some of the memories I hope to pass on to my grandchildren so on Christmas they will experience the meaning of giving, sharing and loving.  Although it may be bittersweet, it will be forever in their heart.  Your holiday may not include a Nativity scene, but memories made during time spent with family is tradition in itself.

Placing Baby Jesus

She decided to draw a glitter picture for the Baby Jesus.

Liv slept through all of this, but she will be in on it next year.  What will we be doing tomorrow?

Stay tuned for our Christmas tree hunting this weekend….weather permitting

Gia I Want..Toys, Toys & Toys

This is the best time of year for the girls. They are both old enough to appreciate the season, not only the receiving but the giving.  It creates such excitement for both them and me.  I love to see their eyes light up pointing out t.v. ads or even print ads.  I especially like the print ad because they go through all the pictures and circle exactly what they want (which happens to be just about everything).

  • Their Favorite.. Any type of LOL doll

These dolls, if you don’t know, come in tons of packaging. The girls love to unwrap each individual package and uncover what may contain a small doll, lil sister doll and pets and  many other items such as accessories.  I would say the price range would be $11 to $80 plus depending on type, number of items in a container, type of container etc.  Here are a few examples. 

L.O.L. Surprise! Glam Glitter Series Doll with 7 Surprises

Glam Glitter L.O.L.

And the more expensive set with extra plat pieces

L.O.L. Surprise! Bigger Surprise with 60+ Surprises

  • Poopsie Slime Surprise Unicorns

This is new to us this year and seems to be a big hit.  Anything slime!  This is even coming from a granddaughter who does not like to have her hands wet or “yucky” in any way.   

Or 

There are tons of other options out there and don’t want to take up too much of your time.  So hope you enjoyed some of our favorites.  The girls are two and five.  Liv, the two year old loves Peppa Pig.  The list goes on and on… Oh, and Tucker is hoping for the girls to get some new toys for him to steal.

Reminder the joy is in the giving.