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: