My Christmas in Review

I decided to do a little Christmas review. Next year, I'll be able to look them up on my blog archives and remember what I wanted to do again and what I wanted to change. Thes are the answers to my own questions. If you want to answer them too, see my post below or here.

1. When do you normally decorate? Thanksgiving Day or Christmas Eve or somewhere in between?
I normally decorate the weekend after Thanksgiving. I like getting it up early for two reasons: so I don't have the added stress closer to Christmas and because I want to get Christmas decorations put away before my son's birthday on New Year's Eve (so the two can be separate occasions). So far my son has requested that Christmas decorations be left up for his birthday.

2. Do you like all your decorations? Are there any you wish to get rid of? Are there any new ones you wish to purchase?
I like almost all of my decorations. I have a wreath that I made myself for the door and a matching one for my table. I hope they survive a long time because I just love them. I do NOT like our star for the top of our Christmas tree. It tends to slowly fall over because it is too heavy for our tree. Hopefully, we can find a better tree topper for next year. I'd also like to find some kind of garland or ribbon to go around our tree.

3. Which traditions were your favorites that you want to make sure you keep for next year?
I have several that I want to keep for a long time. We try to go to some sort of show as a family every year. This year we went to a holiday concert at the symphony. We buy a new special ornament for our tree to commenorate something that happened that year. This year it was a baby's first Christmas ornament. We also get the kids a new ornament that they'll take with them when they move out. We always give the kids new jammies on Christmas Eve. I also don't put the presents out under the tree until after the kids go to bed on Christmas Eve. It's more magical for them to wake up Christmas morning that way. The kids and I usually go to The Coats Christmas concert with a friend every year but didn't this year. We were all sad every time we thought about missing it. We'll be sure to go next year!

4. Is there a new tradition you tried or saw on another blog that you would like to see next year?
I'd like to figure out a Christmas menu to make into a tradition. I'd also like to find an Advent countdown that works for us.

5. Is there a tradition that you wish to give up next year for some reason? Maybe it took too much time or energy. Maybe no one really enjoyed it.
I'd like to work towards making Christmas more about family togetherness and less about the gifts. I'd like to reduce the amount of gifts and the amount of money spent. I've wanted this for a couple of years but I'm always afraid that the kids would be disappointed. My husband and I have reduced the gifts for ourselves. We generally do not buy for each other. Instead, we help each child buy something small for us so they can feel the joy of giving.

6. What was your favorite Christmas recipe or meal that you like to make every year? Did you try anything new this year? Did you see any new recipes you want to try next year?
We do not have a traditional Christmas meal. I'd like to find one...but not a huge feast because it usually is only our immediate family. Usually I make certain treats that I don't make during the rest of the year: chocolate peanut butter bars and fudge are two of them.

7. What was your favorite gift given?
I put a certain pair of boxers in my husband's stocking. They were spiderman boxers; spidey blue on the back, spidey red on the front with black web and spider on the red part. His look, once he realized that they were for him (and not accidently put into his stocking by mistake), was classic.

8. What was your favorite gift received?
I'm thrilled with the gifts my kids got me!

9. How do you spend Christmas day? Do you want to change this next year?
Usually we unwrap presents, detangle toys from their hundreds of twisties holding them in, and then be bored the rest of the day. This year we bought the kids very few toys; they mostly wanted electrics stuff. We had no twisties to untwist this year! We spent the day playin gamecube games together which was more fun than the usual Christmas. I want to find a new tradition to fill in the post unwrapping part of the day.

10. When do you put away decorations? Right away or do you wait awhile?
My goal is to have it all pulled down, packed up, and put away by December 29th or 30th so my son can have a non-Christmas birthday. So far, he has asked for the Christmas stuff to be left out for his birthday so I oblige him and work on getting it put away before my daughter's birthday (January 15th). If he ever changes his mind and wants his birthday totally separate from Christmas, I'll be ready to have Christmas put away in time for his birthday. I like this plan.

Christmas Video Greeting

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Merry Christmas Eve

I'm done! I'm done!

Well at least as done as I am going to be. In an ideal world, my house would be total clean and I'd have a special breakfast for tomorrow (homemade cinnamon rolls perhaps) ready and waiting to be baked. But I don't live in an ideal world nor anything close to it.

Earlier we all changed into Christmas jammies (we give the kids new pjs every Christmas Eve and got mom and dad involved this year) and settled down to watch a Christmas movie while the kids kept track of Santa on Norad. Before putting the kids to bed, we gave Josh his medicine which he promptly threw up. He no longer has Christmas pjs on. Mom is only wearing the bottom half of hers with a sub top half. Poor kid! His tummy doesn't like this medicine.

We got the kids to bed. As soon as they were asleep, I got busy being Santa. I was going to clean up a bit more but I'm not feeling too well tummy-wise myself and I have a headache. Figures. I'm off to bed. Hope ya'll have a wonderful Christmas morning! I can't wait to see the kids' reactions in the morning...especially Sammy's initial one since we traded out his stocking for a new Spiderman 3 one. He's gonna love it! (See Scott's blog for a photo.)

Salvation Army Giving Tree

Visiting our local Salvation Army Giving Tree is becoming a family tradition for us. We've done it for several years; now we take the kids and let them each choose a tag. Being children, they prefer to find a child of similar age and gender as themselves. Then we go shopping for the item wished for and return it to the volunteer manning the tree to give to the child on our behalf. We are thankful that we can give a five year old boy a play dough center and nine year old girl a vanity set for Christmas. Fortunately, the kids' tags are nearly all gone.

Our local tree needs people to pick up senior tags. There were many still left on the table. These men and women usually ask for something simple: some gloves, a hat, bed sheets, or a book. There is still time; the trees are up until Christmas Eve.

If you can, would you consider venturing out into the crowds to bless someone in need this Christmas?

Merry Christmas

Above you'll find a fun Christmas greeting from my family to yours. Enjoy!

13 Years of Memories

It was Christmas 1995. I was feeling pretty down. I was 21 years old and feeling alone in the world. I was not speaking to my family, I had lost my apartment, and I was living in the basement bedroom of a friend/co-worker. One day the Mountain Man candy lady came into my workplace like she did periodically and saw this cute Frosy ornament. I bought it, deciding right then and there to start my own Christmas tradition of buying myself a special ornament every year. And I have... This was my first ornament. Frosty. Because he is cute and I like snowmen. 1995.

The year 1996 was the year I met my husband. We broke up for a few weeks right before Christmas (we got back together on Christmas day) so I wasn't in the mood to buy an ornament. Luckily, a friend gave me this cute little doll. She's now missing a black button foot.

My husband bought me this cute Precious Moments ornament for our first Christmas together in 1997. We had a Precious Moments cake topper on our wedding cake too.

We spent Christmas 1998 surrounded by boxes as we waited for our first house to close. It finally closed two weeks late in 1999 but we thought that this house ornament was still appropriate for 1998 since we were up to our ears in closing stress and boxes.

I was pregnant with our first child in 1999. That summer we went to a big, outdoor boating event in a nearby city. Not only could you look at tons of cool, wooden boats but they had tons of vendors and food. I saw this salt dough pregnant woman and had to have her for Christmas that year. She lost her foot a few years ago. Last year, she lost her head...it falls off so she can't hang on the tree. I want to either find the lady who made her and get a new one or try to remake her myself.

Our first child celebrated her first Christmas in 2000. I just love these teeny Precious Moments shoes. They have her name and birthday written on the bottoms.

In 2001 we chose to commentorate September 11, 2001 with this ornament. I was going to say something about praying the families affected have peace this year but there are just no words...

The year 2002 was our second child's first christmas. We chose this cute ornament for his first Christmas.

In 2003, the wife of a former coworker of my dad sent us this hand made ornament. This spider is so pretty and came with a story about how the spider covered a tree with its webbing and how Santa turned her web into tinsel. Cute story. We have no tinsel on our tree though.

A family friend gave each person in our family an ornament for 2004. Here's mine: a cute fabric bag with a snowman. Its begging to be filled but I don't know what to put in it.

This little puppy ornament reminds us of the year my husband's boxer suddenly became ill and had to be put down because she had advanced cancer in her liver and gall bladder. She never showed any signs until it was too late.

In 2006, my husband's boss took everyone to Disneyland. The kids loved it, I found this ornament in a shop on Main Street because I knew a Disney ornmaent would be perfect for our tree.
One month after Disneyland, I became pregnant. The kids had been wanting another sibling so everyone was very excited making a second ornament for 2006 necesssary.

Our third child is celebrating his first Christmas this year so my daughter picked out this ornament for him.

One year I realized that I wasn't going to give up my yearly ornaments as long as I live. My kids would have to come home for Christmas if they ever wanted to see them again after they move out. This led me to decide to start them a collection as well. I start each child's collection when they are about 4 or 5 so we can tailor them to their activities or likes. This year my daugher has a gymnastics bear and my son has a black Spiderman.

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