Making of the card

Each year, the most dreaded thing about the holiday season for me is the card. When Abbey was a baby, I was so excited to send out Christmas cards and have done so every year since. There have been years when I haven't felt like it, but somehow always manage to do it anyway. Sometimes we do professional photographs but the last couple of years that has been overwhelming as well. My goal for next year is to have family pictures taken in the summer. We haven't done them since Asher was 18 months old. Definitely time for an update. 

I am usually pleased with how my cards turn out(or I wouldn't send them) and this year I was shocked that I actually pulled it off. We went to California for Thanksgiving which cut into my Christmas prep time and then we were slammed with a winter wonderland, so I thought I missed the window for outdoor pictures, but lo and behold, we hit a warm spell which melted everything and so at 4 pm after church on a warm Sunday I had everyone throw on their sweaters and meet me outside before I had an appoinment at 4:30.  I seriously only had about 10-15 minutes. I was hoping for a single group shot that I could upload to Costco and wham, bam, be done. Didn't work out that way.

Eli was more interested in climbing the rocks.

After a few of these, I realized the group shot was not going to happen.

Easy fix, I'll split it up into boys and girls.

Easier said than done.

I thought surely I could get some good individuals.

Again, not as easy as it sounds.

Asher loves to do sweet closed mouth smiles but for some reason his "teeth" smiles are either action shots or just plain awkward.

A closed mouth smile with braces isn't as attractive as it may sound.

And for this sweet child, bless her heart, it will only be closed mouth smiles until she gets her braces.

Claire pretty much never takes a bad picture if her eyes are at least open and she is looking at the camera. Her smile will also be benefiting from braces in the next few years.

 The final project turned out pretty decent given what I had to work with. The coloring is a bit off because I had to scan it in. You get the idea. Also, Costco didn't have a card with enough picture slots on it so I went with Shutterfly and I'm fairly certain I can never go back to Costco now.

Happy Holidays 2010

The day after the day after...

I went to Tai Pan to get a pencil thin 12' green tree with white lights. While we have loved our current Christmas tree and we still think it is a beautiful, realistic looking tree, it's 7' are just not tall enough for the vaulted ceilings in our family room. I decided to hit the after Christmas sales to find our perfect new tree. I knew exactly what I wanted and was going to go right in and then right back out. Instead, 1 hour later I headed home with this...

10' of not so thin, flocked, colorful Christmas cheer. I promptly set it up to show the professor(who sets UP a Christmas tree two days after)? I am so excited!!! It's nothing I thought I would ever have chosen and yet I'm already counting down to next year.

Close up

Pre-lit with white lights and a few of the bigger, more colorful lights in place-I didn't want to put all of them on. I just wanted to get the general idea.

Flocked so no matter the weather outside, it will always be a white Christmas inside.

No, I don't want to hear your comments on how messy a flocked tree is. I already figured that out while putting it up and then taking it down. I don't care, it's still magical!

A Candlelight Christmas

 We went to the Candlelight Christmas at the This is the Place Monument on the 23rd. Bad choice. It was the last night it was open before Christmas and it was crowded. Last year, it was freezing. I think next year we'll do the zoo lights. The kids did have fun though.

Asher with the reindeer

The girls with the reindeer

Everyone with "Father Christmas" 

Blending in with the carolers

Eli and the professor waiting for the train after warming up with hot chocolate.

Our train made it about 3/4 the way around before the engine gave out and we had to walk to rest of the way. It must have been all that extra hot chocolate. Or maybe my extra baby weight.

Awkward moment of the night...I ran into an ex boyfriend who took a few moments to recognize me. I realize five kids have done a number on me, but really, unrecognizable? Needless to say,  I have a few resolutions to work on this year. Also, the girls asked me later who I was talking to and I told them, and they replied, "well, that's weird." Is it? Is it so weird that I had a life before them. Interests, hobbies and *gasp* boyfriends? Maybe I should incorporate that into more of our conversations...maybe not. The professor is still a tad touchy about one bf in particular. Good thing it wasn't the one we ran into. Oh, on a side note, if you ever tell the professor you ran into someone, he will ask you if it hurt. I guess that's what his students mean by "he has a weird sense of humor" on their class reviews. And don't ever mention that you are flying anywhere or that you're going to run to the store.

Keep all snide remarks to oneself please

At the end of November I purchased these matching jammies for the boys at Costco. Yes, matching boys is almost as much fun as matching girls. When I got to the checkout, the cashier turned to her "helper" and asked, "Would you actually make your boys wear these?" Seriously? I'm right here! 

Well, wear them they did. And I rolled them up in balls and squeezed the ever lovin' daylights right out of them. Not really, but man, they were sure cuddly!

Christmas Poltergeists or The Ghosts of Christmas Present

I watched Poltergeist at my neighbor's house when I was 5 or 6 and had nightmares for three months and I still get chills when I think about a young boy who "sees dead people." So you can imagine my concern when our Christmas tree(it is on a timer that I set to go on at 5pm and off at 11pm) starting going on and off at random times during the day.

Then I caught little naughty pants in the act. He's sneaky and quick, this one, and apparently didn't think he'd get caught.

He has learned from the best.

My makeshift barrier did nothing other than provide a set up for jungle jim type antics for this small monkey.

Don't turn you back for a minute...

or one little kiss will turn into lots of fun messes to clean up.

Little boys

Christmas is so much more exciting with little ones around and the last few years we have shifted gears a bit from all the girly toys to boy toys. There is evidence of boys everywhere I turn.

This one cracked me up. Who's to say Indi didn't travel back in time and join up with the wise men on his adventures?