Christmas Season 2013 -- Gifts, Decor, and Card

This post is about the rest of the Christmas season stuff that's not already been covered.
Here is an example of the mini facials I gave out as gifts.

Putting together gifts for the boys' teachers...

My Grandma LaPean always sends a cheese box and it was amazing as usual!

This is my favorite gift from Kim and David--I was able to sell my Kitchen Aid mixer and had this to replace it.

I'm also super excited about these bowls!

My parents sent the boys gifts and we opened them one morning a few days after Christmas. They weren't wrapped, but it's still a big ordeal of getting them out of the box. I LOVE that we have a Case tractor now. It's not the pedal tractor I've been asking for, but still Case.

True to form, he sat on the box.

Austin's gift was a farm set, complete with cows and hay bales and big truck he's named Mac.

He loves climbing aboard and scooting around.

And then there are the decorations... We added a few things this year and also purged a few things. I'm glad we've simplified a little, but it's still several tubs of things to put up into the attic!

This is our house at night. The lights on the pillars are new this year.

Anyone see anything wrong with the tree? (I look forward to the year we buy a really nice tree.)

Stockings... 5 because Georgia gets one.

An addition this year was these pictures of the boys on their first Christmases. Sheala gave me the idea of framing a picture and bringing it out each year as a decoration. So excited for this!

Love the new wreath! I bought a string of lights and stuck in it because I love the wreath lit.

The only time of year I actually like this thing is when we can make good use out of it. New this year was hanging ribbon across and using clothespins to hold up the cards.

After the tree was fixed and all the presents were wrapped.

I use lots of Christmas-themed books on the built-in.

Seth was playing around with the settings and I love this one! This is coming in from the front door.

What's your favorite Christmas decoration idea? What's the gift you got that surprised or pleased you most?

Christmas Season 2013 -- Events & Activities

I'm trying something new this year, and breaking up all the Christmas photos into several different posts. For those that subscribe to my emails (always the best option because I don't post everything to Facebook!), that will be mean more emails, but I sought counsel on the decision and it was decided that a few large posts are better than one humongous post.

This is about all the different activities or happenings or events or traditions we participated in. Enjoy!

Austin actually helped hang his ornaments on the tree this year! (We did end up moving them, but only because they're fragile and we wanted fragile ones higher. Not because we didn't like how it looked.) It's a TowMater and McQueen in case there was any doubt.

Seth always decorates cookies at his mom's house. I think it's usually just Seth, his parents and the Grandkids, but Spencer was there this year. (Cheryl and I never go.) I hear Austin was great and that Graham had fun participating in the fun, though not the decorating. I spent my House Quiet time writing my Christmas cards and it was fabulous. It's one of my favorite activities of the season! ;-)

Caught red-handed!

They each got to add something to the frosting and then each got to make a color. Delaney was apparently super great with helping Austin. I don't doubt it because she's always amazing with both of our boys.

Austin actually has the attention span to watch movies now, so we watched several of the classics. This was us watching Rudolph. We watched Charlie Brown and since then, Austin can identify the music from the movie whenever he hears it. LOVE that!

We went around to look at Christmas light several times, but since the camera was off and on working, I only got meager pictures with my phone. Farmer's Branch has a park of lights you can drive through. It's very short, but gorgeous and the boys' school had a fundraiser one night, so we went that specific night.

It's not a great photo, but I need to record that Austin calls them Fowsnakes.

I love a tunnel of lights. My favorite!

There's a park near us that is filled with these trees, all different colors. You can't drive through it, but just passed it. It was super cold that night so we didn't get out, and the camera was broken so I couldn't get any super great shots, but I intend to try again next year. The first one below, I had Seth turn the headlights off so I could better capture how completely amazing these trees are. And the picture doesn't do it near enough justice!

Austin had a party at school. I'm not sure I'll go to one of those again. It's the adults standing around the edges of the room eating nothing while the kids eat their special food. Am I the only one that find that weird? There wasn't singing or a presentation of any kind. Just watching them eat. ?

What sorts of things does your family do in December?

2013's Books

You know what adding a second kid to the family does to your reading? Chops it, people, simply chops it. I used to have a goal of reading one more book per year than the previous year, but that's pretty much impossible now. I've been keeping track of my books since about 2010 when I began using Goodreads (If you like to read, you have to use this site! It's SO helpful for tracking things!), and my reading has gone down, not up. Boo. But I just keep reminding myself that it's a season. All of life is a season.

Anyways, I read 28 books in 2011, and 26 books in 2012 and just 23 books in 2013!

Here is my list of 2013 books:
*Carry On, Warrior: Thoughts on Life Unarmed; Glennon Melton
The Year of Living Biblically: One Man's Humble Quest to Follow the Bible as Literally as Possible; A. J. Jacobs
MWF Seeking BFF: My yearlong Search for a New Best Friend; Rachel Bertsche
Live, Love, Laugh, and Laundry?; Terri Bonin
Beyond Ordinary: When a Good Marriage Just Isn't Good Enough; Justin Davis
*The Secret Keeper; Kate Morton
Out of the Spin Cycle: Devotions to Lighten Your Mother Load; Jen Hatmaker
*Anna Karenina; Leo Tolstoy
Farewell, Rob Bell: A Biblical Response to Love Wins; Larry Dixon
Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking; Susan Cain
*Shepherding a Child's Heart; Tedd Tripp
Raising Godly Tomatoes; Elizabeth Krueger
Read the Bible for Life: Your Guide to Understanding and Living God's Word; George Guthrie
*Pollyanna; Eleanore Porter
The Pollyanna Plan; Talli Roland
Pollyanna Grows Up; Eleanore Porter
*SuperFreakonomics: Global Cooling, Patriotic Prostitutes And Why Suicide Bobers Should Buy Life Insurance; Steven Levitt
*Under the Banner of Heaven: A Story of Violent Faith; Jon Krakauer
The Well-Lived Laugh: Designing a Life That Keeps You Smiling; Rachel St. John-Gilbert
Sh*t My Dad Says; Justin Halpern
*Life of Pi; Yann Martel
Bebe By Day; Pamela Druckerman
*Sparkly Green Earrings; Melanie Shankle

My favorites (of various categories or reasons) are MWF Seeking BFF, The Secret Keeper (you were right, Ashley!), Quiet, Raising Godly Tomatoes (you were right, Lisa!), and Sparkly Green Earrings.

What did you read this year that you loved?

*= Books I read with Chapters, my book club of over 4 years.

To compare this list with 2012, click HERE.
To compare this list with 2011, click HERE.

The Great Purge of December 2013

I didn't take a Before Photo, but needless to say, when one sorts and purges to the extreme, the green room can get to looking pretty. darn. nice. The boys play with each thing longer than before when there were more things and since there are fewer things, everything has a home and cleanup is easier. LOVING it!

 All of this was either boxed for the attic, sold, donated, or trashed.

It's like I can literally breathe easier --take deeper breaths--with fewer things in the room. So refreshing!

Christmas Season 2013 -- Christmas Eve. and Christmas Day

I'm not sure if it's because I've gotten older or what, but Christmas just isn't as big of a deal anymore. It comes and goes and I'm not as thrilled by it. I mean, I enjoy the entire month of fun things to do, but Seth only has Christmas Day off of work, so it's like a break in the middle of a week and then it's right back to the same old grind. Doesn't feel much of a holiday or something. Anyone know what I mean?

Anyways, Seth worked Christmas Eve., but it was an early release day, so he was home about 4pm which was perfect enough time to get us all dressed and ready for church. I was insistent about trying to get some pictures in front of the tree before church because it would be too dark when we got back and it's so hard to get a good picture of people plus the tree when it's dark outside. It's the first year we've taken a family picture in front of the tree, but I love the idea and I'm hoping we can make time to do it in future years. And it turns out that a self-timer photo can actually work pretty well with two kiddos. (And given all the camera issues we were having this fall/winter, I'm SO grateful it decided to cooperate for Christmas! At least partly.)

Kim and David met us at church for Christmas Eve service. It was probably the strangest Christmas Eve service I've ever been to and it was a harsh reminder that we're without a church home right now. Kept comparing it to our old church... Anyways, after church, we came back to our house to eat dinner and dessert with Seth's parents. Once we're done with that, the boys go to bed and we play games and hang out. It's nice to have them to ourselves for a bit and we always love a chance to play games! We played Yahtzee this year and Kim won. Probably because she got TWO YAHTZEES. Sheesh!

Christmas was changed this year given the recent passing of Gran (and the subsequent changed choices in celebration that different family members made), and it made for a much more relaxing day, in my opinion. We started the morning at home with stockings, followed by cinnamon rolls followed by presents. (This is an idea that Seth gave us, based on his experience growing up. I can't remember what I did as a kid, but I liked how well it extended gift opening so I'm hoping we stick to it in future years.)

Stockings are filled with Usable Items. Usable Items are things that we would probably need or want to buy anyways, that they will enjoy, but are needed things like toothpaste. I don't wrap those things and since we don't teach Santa in our home, there isn't any question about who gives those things. Cinnamon rolls are because I LOVE them and it's become something we eat for breakfast on most every holiday--Fourth of July, a special day, Memorial Day, you name it! And then we have three wrapped presents for each person. This is to remind us of the three gifts Jesus received from the three wise men. We're exchanging gifts in remembrance of his birthday, so the number of gifts helps us keep focused on that reason.

Here is our Christmas morning:

The big contraption is a Wheelies ramp/coaster.

Austin went first, but I think we'll probably go in age order in future years. Graham just wasn't into it soon enough.

Carter's Underpants!

Spiderman Bandaids, socks, hat and mittens for the ski trip, etc.

Then Graham was ready to open:

I bought these adorable velcro-on-their-head hat sets for the ski trip.

I love the look of concentration I got here! Such focus!

And determination!

And then it was Georgia's turn. True to form, she was afraid of her stocking, so Austin helped.

And then Seth went. This is Austin's excitement over Seth's scratch off lottery tickets I give him each year. I don't know that he had any idea what it was, but he liked the picture on the front! (Seth won $5!)

And then we took a break for breakfast and then came back to open our presents. Somewhere in there, I got this adorably funny face from Graham. Such. A. Ham.

When we started opening gifts for real, Graham went first.

This was Graham's favorite activity all day--sitting on or in boxes.

He was pretty good at ripping the paper off, too!

The first present they opened was a tote bag with their name on it and some clothes, including matching plaid Grandpa-style jammies and tshirts with capes attached.

The second was of books and a movie.

Austin was THRILLED to get another personalized Cars book. He'd already opened his Cars 2 book from Anne Marie and Mike.

Then Georgia Mae opened her gift. I loved how this stuffed animal reminds me of a Popple. Who had one of those!? (I had the white one.)

You know what happens when I set down the camera for a minute? I'm actually captured in front of it! :-) Love this. Thanks babe!

And last they opened their "big gift." Austin got an iXL which is like a little computer with games on it.

I love the mess. I was actually sort disappointed this was such a small mess!

When we were in Atlanta, Seth bought an Emory shirt for himself. But somehow he bought a small, so I have taken it over and then bought him a Large online as a surprise.

Graham wanted to taste Seth's Dallas coffee mug. Good thing it was empty, because drinking from the wrong side wouldn't have yielded much coffee!

Seth went into the kitchen to find out how much he won on his scratch offs and Graham paraded around in his new shirt sans bottoms. SO cute! He kept walking around with Georgia's "Popple."

I got a pair of pearls as my big gift. I LOVE them.

So great, right!?

While Seth did his scratch offs, I read Austin his new Cars book (with his name inside!) and Seth caught me in front of the camera again. Note to self: put the camera down more often.

Once we were done with our gifts at home, we got ready and headed to Kim and David's house for lunch followed by presents. I had been nursing a headache all morning and decided to be on the safe side and took a migraine pill sometime before we left. It was a good thing, too, because by the time we got to their house (which is only about 30 minutes away), it was a full-on migraine. I took another pill and attempted to eat some lunch so that all that medicine wasn't on an empty stomach. The nausea made it pretty difficult, but several hours later, I was ready to celebrate again, just in time for gifts.

Before we open, we read scripture and Delaney did the honors this year. Love that sweet girl!

And once we're done with the scripture, we start with the youngest and move on up to the oldest.

The camera had stopped working and I handed it to Seth to see if he could get it working again, and low and behold, I'm in front of the camera again! :-)

And Graham was crawling into boxes again.

And again.

And again.

And again!

And on top of them when they weren't yet open.

Cars Legos!

And then the camera was done. Boo.

But Cheryl sent me these of the Happy Birthday Jesus cake that I made. Thanks Cheryl!

We sang Happy Birthday and then LIT the candle, reflecting on how He's the light of the world.