Merry Christmas Part 2

We had a wonderful Christmas with the kids. It was very low key and we just got them a few things each. We had a nice dinner the five of us on Christmas eve. After the girls went to bed, me, hubs, and dude read twas the night before Christmas and the story of Jesus' birth together snuggled in his bed.
Then I got to wrap presents and put together toys. I only had two this year, a plasmacar and a doll house. The doll house took me a good hour to put together.
The kids got up Christmas morning and we opened presents before breakfast and then headed off to my in-laws. We spent the afternoon with my MIL, FIL, and my sister-in-law's family. The kids got more presents of course and got to ride their bikes and play outside.
We then headed to friends' house for a few hours for Christmas dinner. The kids had such a great time and it was nice and low key.

Here are a few pictures from the day. 

With Grandma and Grandpa: 

Christmas Girls: 

With cousin: 

Merry Christmas

Tree

Growing up, our tree was always a mish mash of homemade ornaments and special ornaments. Think Styrofoam bells with glitter. My mom has since graduated from that and has a fully coordinated tree with silvers and blues. Very, very pretty. I think those trees look great and so Martha Stewart.

But, my tree is a lot like the one we had growing up. Hubs always has to try and pick the biggest tree he can find. This was great when we had a two-story living room. One year our tree was 10 feet tall. This was also the year I realized that tree stands are rated for tree heights. Our tree came tumbling down the night after Christmas. I think it was in a tree stand rated 7-8 feet. We now have one rated 8-10 feet, but we have ten feet ceilings now so we need to limit our tree to 9 feet and below. This year I had to cut the top off to get the angel on.

Some of our special ornaments are a lighthouse that says NC 2001 the year we moved here and bought our house, one that says First Year as husband and wife 2002 from our old neighbors, a Baby’s First Christmas 2003, assorted ones C made, and now one that Miss M made. I also love the ones that have their pictures in them. This year my favorite ones are a Little Sister and a Big Brother, I saw them and had to get them for the kids. I just love that I have the two little kids this year and feel so complete. Christopher asked me “Mom, are you happy this year that we have M?” I said of course I am, so he asked “Would you still be happy if it was just me?” I explained to him that yes he is special and I am and always have been happy that I am his mommy, but part of me would have been sad if he didn’t have a little brother or sister to share his time with. He said he is happy that he has M.

We even have a few ornaments for Calvin, we are just missing one for Cuppy.

So here are some of our special ornaments:

And sitting atop our tree is our new angel this year. Beautiful.

What does your tree look like? What are your favorite ornaments?

Christmas in Apex 2010

So once again I procrastinated with scheduling Christmas pictures (happened last year, too) and the photographers we wanted to use were booked. So I was left with few options when I had an “Aha” moment last night and remembered that Downtown Apex does Christmas pictures (a little 5 minute photo shoot) with Santa in front of an old fashioned fire truck and they take them high resolution and then give you the disc for $10. I stumbled on it last year. They also do a pancake breakfast.

Well, this year the line was 2 hours long so we missed the pancake breakfast. Bummer, but we got the pictures so I will be able to create Christmas cards. The pictures turned out really nice. The kids were amazingly good considering it was freezing cold and we stood outside in line for 45 minutes before we made it into the warm building. M cried as soon as I tried to put her on his lap and has qquite the expressions in the dozen images we got.

Since we missed the breakfast we decided to go to lunch and we hit Tyler’s Taproom. The server was awesome, the food was good and they give Wiki Sticks to the kids to play with during the meal. C was so happy and entertained. I definitely think we will go back. They customized his kid meal to noodles and grilled chicken and he was so happy.

Here are some of my favorite pictures.

M is not so sure of Santa, but C is smiling big for the camera:

Santa made her laugh:

A Family shot:

C telling Santa that he wanted a digital camera for Xmas:

Tis the Season......for Christmas Cards

It is that time of year for Christmas cards again. I love creating our family cards and we usually get really into making sure we get a family picture for the card.
I have ordered from Shutterfly in the past and will be ordering from them again. It is super easy. You upload a picture (or two or three or more) and pick a design, then choose the layout, add a greeting and then preview. Once you decide it is super easy to order.
Here is a sample from a card from a previous year that we ordered from Shutterfly (all your projects can be saved and shared on their site). This one is from 2008. It remains one of my favorites because I love the picture with Santa reaching out his hand to C. Although, he told us and everyone who mentioned that picture that it was “Arvey’s hand” the assistant that was helping take the picture.

Christmas 2008:

Winter Snowmen Winter

Unique party invitations and announcements by Shutterfly.

View the entire collection of cards.

So far these are my choices for this year:

Love Hope Faith Religious

Unique party invitations and announcements by Shutterfly.

View the entire collection of cards.

Joy Sky Story Christmas 5x7 folded card

Shop Shutterfly for elegant custom Christmas photo cards.

View the entire collection of cards.

I really like the “faith hope love” card because it seems so appropriate this year. This year has been so big for us with getting M placed with us in January, then adopted in August. I saw this card and thought it was “perfect” for our Christmas cards this year. I love the “joy and magic” one, too because it also sums up how the year was for us, joyous and magical.
I will probably end up doing a combination of the two so that our Jewish recipients get a holiday season one vs. more Christmas-y and we usually try to stick with a more “holiday” or “happy new year”.
All the grandmas are requesting calendars again this year, they love seeing the pictures of the grandchildren throughout the year. And I need a new mug for my desk because mine is a family picture from 2006, pretty outdated. I have gotten the grandmas mugs, also, in the past but I think they will just get calendars this year.

p.s. I got 50 free cards for writing about Shutterfly, but I would have ordered from Shutterfly without the promotion and the card preview from 2008 was the actual Shutterfly card we sent out two years ago. They have a very good product.

Christmas in Apex

I took C and his buddy to see Santa in Apex and have a pancake breakfast. The food was so yummy and the boys got some great pictures with Santa. The boys outdid themselves with pancakes, C had 4 and his buddy had 6. They also had sausage and juice.

The pictures are super cute!

C and his buddy:

Me and C:

C telling Santa everything he wanted for Xmas: