Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas

Wishes for a blessed Christmas season for you and your family, 

From our family...

And the angelic children at 1:20 AM....

Plus the crazy couple who raises these beauties...

I'll be back with more once the celebrating and eating is all wrapped up. 

Merry Christmas....A Little Late

From Our Home To Yours....

May you have a very blessed Christmas Season.

The Christmas Morning Pj's Shot:

The After Christmas Morning Mass Shot:

Yup, this is as good as we get people. But for this year, it's just perfect and just right.

Now we're off school for Christmas break and I'm looking forward to just a little less routine for a few days. 

Lily is busy playing with her new American Girl doll (score!!) and Jonah is busy building, building, building with his Lego sets (another score!!).

The little girls will keep mildly entertained with playing with their picnic set inside their new pop-up tent.

Aaahhhhh......

Today I'm taking it easy and catching up on laundry. 

I'm still recovering from hubby home for four fun-filled days, Christmas Eve midnight Mass by.myself., waking up at 5:30am Christmas morning to get the troops ready for Mass, celebrating with hubby's family and then coming home and tidying up around the house. 

Needless to say, I was zonked out last night by 7:30.

But it was all good. Very good. A wonderful weekend and holiday.

How We Spent Our Christmas Vacation

While we were off on Christmas vacation all last week, I found that time can fly equally as fast whether schoolwork is part of our day or not. There were plenty of little things to be done, in addition to try and take it easy to some degree. I mentioned on facebook last week that I have officially hit the third trimester brick wall...tired, achy, miserable and generally just ready to be done. But I shouldn't complain, because it could be worse. (God bless you ladies whom He imparts with bigger/rounder bellies at this point in pregnancy--I don't know how you do it!)

Any way, most of the week was a blur but I did manage to catch some of it digitally.

Gianna had a really big week and seemed to grow up almost overnight. *sigh*

Sometimes it was just a little much for our little BooBoo...



Other times she was just content and we'd find her peacefully in the oddest of places (seen here under the island chair, chewing on my cell phone)...



She also decided to take off on her own and begin her journey walking *deep sigh* and these skidders helped her do just that...



As if the walking didn't keep her busy enough, the Christmas tree seemed to fill in the gaps and provided for endless entertainment (holding favorite ornament that she had pulled off the tree for the 1,358th time)...



The big kids enjoyed their Christmas treasures, but were mostly seen in these positions playing their new Wii games (this was allowed more than usual since a)they had no school b)their mother was exhausted c)their mother was too busy pulling the baby out of the Christmas tree)...





Friday brought a couple inches of snow after a brown Christmas. Although not huge winter weather fans, it did provide for a distraction and some outdoor fun...



We have a Snow Baby on our hands! Gianna gets absolutely giddy out in the snow in the sled. It's nice at least one of us likes that white stuff...



And, she eats it too...



I managed to squeeze in most of the lesson planning that will finish out the school year (BTW-I'm still loving the Homeschool Tracker program I'm using this year)...



This week we'll be back in the saddle with school work, chores and routine. I'll be glad for that....I think. We also have our niece's wedding to look forward to on Saturday, of which we are all excitedly anticipating!

Happy New Year Everyone!!

Captured Christmas Memories & Traditions

What do you get when you try your hardest to photograph a million and one precious Christmas moments, a busy 10 month old who doesn't sit still and a tired seven and a half month pregnant mama?

Very few photos that aren't blurry/caught just in time or that adequately share the story of Baby's First Christmas.

She'll forgive me one day, right?

At any rate, I'm going to share the tidbits I did manage to snap despite there being a huge gap in pictures sharing all of the time we spent with our families.Darn it.

Our family tradition: Gingerbread house/scene creating as a family on Christmas Eve afternoon.





Gianna preferred to stay under the table awaiting any crumbs that fell.



Finished product: Santa's Village (aka: our best one to date!!)



Opening gifts on Christmas Eve, before late evening Mass. Lily and Jonah all ready to open and Jonah's holding his special gift for Mommy: a short 'book' he made and wrote with only a little assistance from Daddy. A tear-jerker moment for me since it was one of the most heartfelt gifts my boy has ever created for me.



Gianna's new ride: she looks like she's totally into it, right?



All of the kids stayed awake during Mass and we all were chipper enough for this quick family photo afterward:



Baby's first Christmas morning:



We enjoyed yummy Christmas brunch with some of Reed's siblings/their spouses and his parents, at their house. Afterward, we stopped at home to pack up the van and head to my parents where we celebrated with my parents, my brother's family and my grandma.

My family's tradition: we sing Happy Birthday to Jesus after our Christmas meal together. This year I went simple, since we are always so stuffed after all the eating, and made poke-cake cupcakes with whipped topping and holiday marshmallow toppers.



Another tradition: a photo of Papa with baby who is celebrating their first Christmas, along with their Christmas stocking. We started this with Lily, the first grandchild, and now Gianna is baby #6 to carry it on. We'll do it again next year with Baby Gem too!



We truly had a wonderful and blessed Christmas! Now we are enjoying Christmas break from school and a slower pace. Unfortunately, this is a busy time for Reed at work so he is unable to stay home and be cozy with us. We sure do miss him. We'll make up for it this weekend again though when we are all together for three days!

How are your Christmas days going? Hopefully peaceful and relaxed, as they should be.

From All Of Us Here...

Waiting On A Child

It's the week before Christmas and while I'm thinking about that infant child, the King, I've got my mind on another baby too.

Our baby.

Yesterday I had the chance to catch another glimpse at Baby Gem. At my regular OB check up last week I was measuring a few weeks smaller than what I should've been, so my doctor ordered an ultrasound.

This morning I heard back from my doctor and he said Baby Gem is roughly 4 lbs. 12 oz. and ultrasound and growth were both normal. While waiting on little one it's always comforting to see their growth and changes. How can we not fall in love all over again when we get to watch him/her move and wiggle, swallow and move their hand up by their face? Precious. The tech even pointed out some hair too. So cute. It also confirmed that I again am currently carrying a 'low rider' and this baby is low in my pelvis and in position for delivery. This would explain the pressure I've been feeling over the last two weeks.

These new shots of baby will hopefully inspire us and move us in a direction of decision to get baby names narrowed down. We talked about it over the weekend, but then when we tried the names out on the kids they were less than enthused with them. Not that we decide on baby name solely based on the kids' likes or dislikes, but let's say that we're currently 'in negotiations.' It will come, I'm sure. Until then, don't ask us the names because we won't be sharing any more during the remainder of the pregnancy. We'll fall in love with the names on our own and then fall in love all over again when we put it with the face of our lovely little one.

Waiting and watching, are tough to do. We know arrivals, big and small, come all in good time. As we wait, we prepare and make ready...our bodies, our minds, our hearts. These last days of Advent our precious days, even though they are filled to overflowing with things to do, school to wrap up, piano recital and daily duties that call. Hopefully we can still capture in our home the wonder and awe of waiting, preparing and making ready.

O Come, O Come, Emmanuel!

When Christmas Comes

It's the most wonderful time of the year....

I love that the house is decorated, there are plenty of cookies and treats to eat and family time abounds. A couple extra days when hubby can be home with us and we can relax and just 'be'. This year it seemed especially significant that while we awaited the Christ child, we were also embracing our last Christmas as a family of four and eagerly celebrating the upcoming birth of our newest addition. While still several weeks away, it has not been lost on us that baby will be our most precious gift yet.

I thought I'd toss in photos of ways we've been enjoying our Christmas days.


Gingerbread (pre-baked, pre-packaged) House on Christmas Eve

One of my favorite things, celebrating Christmas at church, amidst the poinsettias

Birthday cake for Baby Jesus

Christmas smiles and sibling love

Christmas morning gift opening

All sorts of goodies for me

Full hearts and a happy, healthy family

Any wonder that this is my favorite time of year?

Hopefully your household is still enjoying the days of Christmas and is happy and healthy too!

White Christmas Greetings

From Our Front Door...

And our Winter Chalet...

Where another seven inches of snow fell yesterday evening and last night......

To Yours, whether it be white, green or brown out your window....


Many Wishes for a Merry Christmas!!

Christmas Card Ready?

With the passing of Thanksgiving comes the thoughts and plans for Advent and Christmas. Although we've varied our Christmas card throughout the years between regular greeting cards and photo cards, I'm planning on going with a photo card this year.

My go-to place will be Shutterfly again. I love the ease of using their site and I enjoy the deals especially this time of year. Several years ago I began the tradition of making a photo calendar for hubby to hang up at work. I now do it every year and I think it's always his favorite gift! I've found so much versatility with doing my calendar at Shutterfly and I can find lots of ways to add my TONS of photos each year too. So much more fun to put his calendar together when I don't have to limit my photo number on each page. That calendar is jam-packed each year! Last year was the first time I tried a photo book for my parents as a gift. I compiled photos from throughout the year of time we had spent together and the places we had gone. What a great way to remember the highlights from the year and treasure them. The photo book was a big hit and I'll be creating another one this year again too. Photo books are perfect gifts and so much fun to create!

I couldn't believe all of the card designs on the Shutterfly site! It's hard to pick and choose, but I did single out a few favorites.

A few of my fav Christmas card designs:
Family Wall Red

Nativity Blessing

Diamond Flurries

But with so many to choose from, I don't know how I'll decide!

Of course, finding the perfect photo may be difficult, especially when you have ones like these for options:

Check out Shutterfly's great deals and more of their Christmas cards here. If you are looking for Holiday cards, you can check out this link to find your favorite. Give the perfect gift of a photo calendar like I do and get started with this link.

Are you a Blogger? There's even a 50 FREE card deal for you over here!

Happy Shopping!!

Pardon The Interruption

Sometimes things happen at the least opportune times. And sometimes they happen in order to slow you down and teach you a lesson. I'm still trying to figure what this last week has been.

I do know that when my laptop mysteriously locked up last Sunday, that my heart sunk. I did, after all have blog posts to write. I had photos to share. I had things to say. All of that needed to be put aside.

So, instead, I have kept tabs on the outside world via my Google Reader and my beloved Facebook. This, all thanks to the great gift Reed gave me for Christmas, an iPod Touch. And the splurge we made last year of wireless internet in our home. Oh how grateful I am!!

Please excuse my absence. Trust me, I've missed you here. Please also excuse my posts in the coming week or two if they are less than perfect. Getting the hang of the little screen and typepad is a challenge. I sincerely hope that my computer will be back in working order soon, but it needs to get sent back to the manufacturer since it's problem needs to be taken care of by them and the warranty has been extended due to this issue.

I am sincerely praying that all will return to normal soon and that all of my precious data will be intact when the laptop is operational again.

In the meantime, I do have good news from this week: We were able to celebrate my family Christmas over New Year's and we had so.much.fun together. We've also had plenty of time to spend with Reed's family and the kids and I enjoyed lunch out with friends on Wednesday. I also became Great-Auntie for the third time to yet another precious baby girl. Hazel Marie was born on New Year's day. Congrats new daddy and mommy, Ryan and Angie!

The bad news from the week: We are currently hunkered down at home, all four of us, due to the flu. We're getting through it, but hope it passes quickly and things are back to normal soon.

Well, there you have it. If you have been wondering where I have been, now you know.

Happy New Year Everyone!

It Doesn't Always Go As Planned

This Christmas I was taught a lesson in just living in the moment and surrendering my preciously laid-out, perfected plans. Lest you forget, I'm a planner by trade and by choice and I hang on plans that I have laid out weeks before an event. That is just how I operate.

But when a winter storm is predicted and it's threatening to ruin your Christmas, well, at some point you have to make a decision. You either go for it and stuff everything into the van in order to travel on over to your parents or you wait it out with the understanding that you just may be foregoing the beautiful family Christmas you have been anticipating for months.

We chose to wait. And at some point I had to be okay with the fact that this would be my very first Christmas in 31 years that I would not spend Christmas day with my parents. I will admit, I cried and was emotional as I flip-flopped back and forth between staying and leaving. Afterall, the rest of my family who were to also be in attendance at my parents' home, would not be able to arrive due to the storm. Although I dearly wanted to spend the time with my parents, we would also be missing those who could not join us. Our family enjoys extending the Christmas Season for as long as we can, so who's to say that it has to be done ON December 25th? My parents assured me that they would be fine and we didn't need to venture out with the kids on the snow-covered roads.

In the end, it did all work out and we spent four days mostly hunkered down at home. Doing nothing in particular, but spending time together just the four of us. We played outside in the snow and went for walks. Visited the family who is near (just down the driveway and next door), played with our new gadgets and we ate to our hearts content.

Even though it wasn't the Christmas I had envisioned, it was a memorable one filled with many treasured moments as a family. That's what was most important, afer all.








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Winter Wonderland

Christmas Eve:
It's snowing!

Today:
It's still snowing!

Snow, snow, snow....shovel, plow, shovel, plow. And repeat.

I'm hoping for a lull in the weather after the 15 inches (roughly) of snow we have received over the last few days. Staying hunkered down around home, which led to a different kind of Christmas for us. I'll save that for another post though.

Enjoy your Christmas Weekend!