Never Ending Traditions

Last week I finally put all of the Christmas decorations away. I had the boys help me round everything up and get it in the boxes. I searched high and low. I was bound and determined to not continue one tradition I hate. That is Forgetting To Put One Thing Away. It seems every year I find something I forgot even after scouring everywhere and double checking the whole house. I even checked the tree this year and it looked ornament free!

I was beginning the think I had done it this year! I was pretty happy. Until from across the room I spied it.

It was something that didn't belong this time of year. It was red and green. I had cleaned the top of the shelf off, I had taken down the stuffed Grinch that was sitting next to this item. But somehow

I had missed the Merry Christmas pillow. It seems some traditions can't be broken no matter how hard I try.

More Awesome Christmas Presents

Did you get anything fun for Christmas? The boys got a few good gifts. Including these shirts.

Red Army

Zombies are were People too

Zombie Repellant

It was a Zombie Christmas after all.

Awesome Christmas Presents

Christmas Eve Olaf ran to the store to get one more gift for the little ones. I had no idea what he was getting them until they opened the Christmas morning.

These were the first presents they opened.

It was practicality at it's best.

Olaf had cleaned bathrooms on Christmas Eve and decided the boys needed new toilet seats.

As soon as all the unwrapping was done he taught those boys a new skill. How to install toilet seats.

It was just what they wanted to do on Christmas Day.

They didn't mind not playing their video games.

Or reading their stack of books.

They were happy to learn a new skill. And now their bathrooms don't scare me quite as much.

The Invasion has Begun

Since it's getting close to Christmas a few presents have appeared under the tree. There's the usual.

From Mom & Dad.

None from Santa yet. But he doesn't come for a few more days.

But apparently we have someone besides the parents and kids giving presents! Baby got a little worried about who was bringing him presents.

All Olaf could say was "I hope whatever they put in there doesn't smell on Christmas!" Apparently the Zombie Invasion has begun. Don't forget to Double Tap.

Updated at 8:30pm: Baby brought me the package from the Zombies and asked who it was really from. I told him the Zombies must have dropped it off while we were out. He got a little whine in his voice and said "Don't say that! I won't be able to sleep tonight!"

Christmas Decorating

Every year we decorate the house. We get the tree up and adorned. We sweep away all the regular decorations and replace them with Christmas themed things; mangers, angels, santa's, and smurfs. It is just fun to celebrate all the wonderful things about Christmas.

But this year we added a new thing. We decided to put something down by the side of the road where our car accident happened and Calvin died. We got a tree and decorated it. Then we got a plaque made to hang on the fence long term. Sunday we went down that way and took care of those things. We were lucky and got a warm day, all the snow was melted so we didn't have to traipse through feet of snow. Our fingers didn't freeze off as we arranged things. And the best part, no rattlesnakes crept up on us.

We thought it was a nice little tribute to help remember him. So if you're traveling south on I-15 and pass mile marker 204, look down. It's right next to the mile marker but down on the fence. We figured it was safe that far off the road. We miss him and hope he's enjoying Christmas with Jesus this year and getting to know Tank.

Christmas Shopping

There has been an item on sale at Target this week that I have been trying to secure for the boys for Christmas. I've already been to the store three times and they've been out of stock every time. This morning I got smart. I called them as soon as I got to work.

"Do you have any of Item Z in stock today?" I asked.

"Yes, we do have those."

"Do you have at least two?" I asked.

"Yes, we have at least two." I love that he didn't volunteer that they had 20 or 50 or 3.

"How long do you think you'll have those in stock today?"

"I don't know. I would come. Right. Now." He said it just like that. I felt like someone was reading me a blog with all that fancy-dancy punctuation that's so trendy.

Needless to say I hightailed it out of there and got two Item Z's for Christmas morning.

Christmas Craziness

This week I got all the Christmas decorations out and decorated the house. I made the boys bring all the boxes out of the basement for me. And since they were rifling around the storage room they found a train. Sometime, a long time ago, I don't remember when, someone gave us the toy train to run around our Christmas tree. So we got it out.

While I was busy decorating the house, Baby and Olaf were busy putting up the tree and the train. Baby has been playing with the train all week. And he brought out his army men.

It looks like a World War II Train to me. He loves it. I think I'm going deaf though. The train whistle doesn't turn off. I don't know if I can make it til Christmas.

Bling Bling

Middle Child has always loved Sparkly and Bold Things. When he was younger, somewhere around six or seven, everyone was buying me jewelry for Christmas. Calvin had picked out some nice earrings for me. Middle Child wanted in on the action. He looked through all the jewelry cases at the store. He pondered. I had left to wander the store while the boys took care of things. When I came back Olaf pulled me aside with a little snicker.

"You may want to talk to Middle Child about going on a special date to help him pick some jewelry for you for Christmas. He's been looking tonight and he wants to get you the biggest, gaudiest, class ring available."

I was not surprised. He's like a crow in that regards. The sparklier and brighter the better. When we walk by leopard print bags, shoes, or shirts he's always suggesting I get that for myself. It's all I can do to not laugh at his suggestion. I politely tell him I would never be caught dead in that outfit. (I better make sure I don't let him pick out my funeral clothing.)

So a few days later we went to another store. Middle Child had a certain amount of money to spend. I looked at some of the jewelry. There was a necklace I liked, but when we looked at the price it was a little too much. So then we looked at earrings. I picked out a few I liked. Then I turned around to look at some other things while he wheeled and dealed with the cashier and purchased me something for Christmas. He was so pleased with himself.

We went home and he instantly dragged Olaf into our room to help him wrap the present. Later that night I told Olaf how I picked out a few earrings and let him choose the final pair. he looked at me a little funny.

"Earrings?"

"Well, yeah. The necklace I liked was a little too much so we decided on earrings."

"Huh. Well he picked a good one. You'll like it."

Christmas morning came and Middle Child was so excited for me to open his present. I opened it up and found the necklace we had looked at sitting in a pretty box. With his big blue eyes, blond hair, and adorable smile he had finagled his way into purchasing the necklace for much less than marked!

It's a Blue Christmas

I had some wonderful visitors this year. They are wonderful! They are Christmassy! They are Blue! They are Small! I already have some of their relatives that come for Halloween.

They came through the snow to visit our house. No smurfing their duties!

Not to make a Mountain out of a Molehill, but this guy had no choice. They had to climb over snow pebbles/mountains just to get here.

They smurfed hard and got here just in time to make everyone happy.

See those big smurfballs they had to trudge through on that little red sleigh?

They were so happy to get in the house and warm up.

Smurfs compliments of Sister-in-Law Nurse, who must really love me to bring me this wonderful present!

Some of the More Awesome Gifts Received Christmas Morning

Skullcandy Headphones for the ipod. Love how Big is back in style!

My own Poker Chips! Half the neighbors think Face Cards are of the Devil
and the other half thinks Poker is a great Family Night Game!

Nerf Wars!!!!!

Karate Punching Bag

Marine shirts from the kids' Marine Uncle. They loved them!

His own rifle.

My own 3 C's Necklace. (You know: Calvin, Clayton, Cole)

A Flesh-Eating-Zombie Play Figurine set. Now on display in his office.

And of course, a Gillie suit for Baby!

And we couldn't forget Calvin.
We decorated the grave for the holidays.
It looked really nice.

My neighbor took this picture on Christmas Eve.
I thought it was really beautiful.

New Christmas Stockings

This year as I was putting out the Christmas stockings I decided I needed to make new ones. I love my stocking and I made one for Olaf and the kids, but I never really liked them. So at the beginning of December I went in search of cool Christmas fabric. Not to be found. Anywhere.

So late at night I got online and searched for some fun fabric. And found it. And ordered it. And waited. And waited. And waited. Only about three days, maybe five if you include the weekend, cuz I had to order it on a Thursday night, just in time for the weekend.

When it came I washed it up and dried it. I love folding freshly laundered fabric. It makes me happy. I know I'm weird. Then I cut it all up and pinned everything. Sister-in-Law Nurse was over laughing at my disorder of pins. I have these pins with pretty, metallic, pastel, round heads and I can't pin the same color right by each other. There's no particular order other than that. She laughed and threatened to send her two-year-old into my linen closet because it's so orderly (one day I'll take a picture and show you). I might have to change the locks. He's a Holy Terror but you can't get mad cuz he's so stinking cute.

Then after I got them cut and pinned they sat at for almost a week. I hate to get the sewing machine out unless I have a good chunk of time to sew, which doesn't always happen.

It finally happened and I got these stocking whipped up in no time at all. And with minimal seam ripping. For some reason it doesn't matter how small the project I always have to rip out at least one seam.

This fabric is my favorite. Candy Colored Christmas by Alexander Henry. So fun and whimsical. The other two with Christmas Trees are Michael Miller Fabrics, another one of my favorite designers. And the Santa Making a Snow Angel is another Alexander Henry stocking. That one's for Tank. I thought they turned out pretty cute with the Red Corduroy Cuff. I thought about velvet but decided in a family of boys corduroy was more appropriate. Hope you had an awesome Christmas! Olaf decided he wanted to keep his stocking that I made him. I told him that was okay, I'd give the dog the stocking meant for him. I guess he likes Tank enough that he was fine with that. At least he didn't want two stockings full of presents!

My Heirloom Stocking

My Grandma was an amazingly crafty woman. She could sew professionally and decorate wedding cakes professionally. I remember coming out for her youngest daughter's wedding. I was a candle-lighter. She had made me a special dress for my role. She had actually made all the dresses, including the bride's dress. They were beautiful. I loved that dress and wore it as often as I could. I also remember her coming to visit and sewing. She'd bring fabric, I assume, lay it out on the kitchen table and just start cutting all of us girls dresses. Then she'd whip them up into dresses. I don't remember her using a pattern and that may be wrong, but it adds to my Grandma's incredibleness.

She also made Christmas stockings for my parents, me and my younger sister. They are so beautiful. I just pulled mine out and hung it by the fireplace. My Mom is crafty enough that she also made the rest of the family matching stockings. I just think my stocking is so beautiful that I had to share it with you all. You can all drool and lust after one yourself.

She somehow thought I was an angel. She even gave the angel blue eyes just like me. See how the blues are different shades? For a few years I was a one-eyed angel until my Mom fixed it. I guess it was a premonition of things to come, a Pirate Angel.

See how cute it is hanging by the fireplace? I know you want one too. Unfortunately she's not taking orders anymore unless you can get to Heaven and back.

Notice the incredible detail on the letters? I have no patience compared to that!

To any of you who have thought I was crafty, now you know where I got it from. And I only got 1/16th of it, maybe less. Now you know why I laugh when someone calls me Crafty, I'm nowhere near where my Grandma was in the craft world. Where I wade in the shallows she dove in and swam with the big fishes.

Trimming the Tree, Boy Style

It was that time of year. That time when you start getting the the Christmas decorations out of storage and spreading them around the house. I had bought a new tree last year and was anxious to put it up for the first time. It's a cute tree with red berries and pinecones attached to the branches. And it went up really smoothly. The branches have "Memory." That's fancy talk for saying all the branches and twigs spring out on their own and I don't have to spend half a day unflattening all the branches.

The I got the decorations out and let the kids go. I had them put on all the ornaments this year. I've always let them help but this year I had them do everything. They were pretty excited.

I had gotten most of the ornaments out but hadn't gotten to the ones that I still store in the original box. The kids took care of that. They pulled the ornament and all it's packing out and threw everything on the floor except for the ornament. That went on the tree.

The kids were pretty dang proud of how well they did decorating the tree. I don't know if it was decorating so much as quickly hanging the ornament on whatever branch they happened to be closest to at the time. It's not so noticeable in this picture, but notice the overabundance of ornaments on the bottom of the tree and the lack at the top.

I came in later and removed the 3+ ornaments on each bottom branch and spread them out over the whole tree. In case you were wondering, the box of ornaments was on the floor near this side of the tree.

Notice how the tree becomes exponentially less decorated the farther up you look. It's really quite fascinating. If I was a mathematician I may have been able to figure a formula for the amount of ornaments on each level of branches. I can't help but think of weird things like that. Aren't you glad I don't talk a whole lot?