::the tree--a retrospective::

Because of the wonderful new piano, we had to take down the tree earlier than usual. I normally like to leave it out until at least new years, so I can get really depressed putting it away by myself when Kris is back at work. But we wanted to move a bookshelf and the tiny TV to where the tree was so that the piano could take a place of honor in the living room. So two days after christmas the tree came down. And it was kind of sad, since we really didn't get to enjoy it as long as usual because of being gone so much of December for our vacation. But it was kind of nice to get it put away and not have to worry about it. And Kris was home, so I got some help.

A few words about the tree. It is fake. And when I was younger I swore I would never have a fake tree. Then my mom got me one after Kris and I got married. We've used it every year since we left UT. Seems like since that time we've always spent some of december out of town. It's pointless to get a live tree and then leave town and let it die. It's also probably a fire hazard I'm guessing. So my mom did the right thing. It's been nice to have the tree. And although I hope we can get a real tree next year, this good old guy will probably be coming up from the basement again.

So.  Anyway.  If I had to define a theme for my tree it would be hard. But I'd say the main theme would be Kristen ornaments (as in my mom). Most of the ornaments, and most of my favorites have been made by her at some time during my life.
The sub theme would be animals, and below that would be birds, then fish. We have lots of birds and fish on the tree.

Such as this bird. Not made by mom this time, but a great deal at an after christmas sale last year, yay.

Here's our number 1 fish. She's the queen. It's the mama fish. Remember Max's best friend Mama Fish? (you can see her in a photo in this post if you need a refresher)
My mom made this mama fish for Max a few years ago, and somehow I've been able to keep him from kissing her to death. She's adorable and it's been fun to hang her on our tree every year.


Here's a sheepy that my mom made for me so long ago. I can't even come close to remembering what year. So cute.
(I love the way the christmas lights look back there behind it!)

And a more recent sheep by mom. Gorgeous, wearing a quilt as some sort of saddle blanket. These are the kind of ornaments I don't always get out when living in a house with hardwood floors, a small boy and a big dog. But this guy got to come out this year, and somehow survived!
Behind him you can see one of my Russian basilicas.

I got two of these little guys when I travelled to Russia and Siberia in college. I don't think they were meant to be christmas ornaments, but I thought they were perfect for the tree. And they're fun to hang up because I remember my trip.


My mom made this teeny tiny adorable tree for me when I was little. You can tell how small it is when you look at the lights compared to it. I always loved the miniscule ornaments she made out of clay.  Amazing.  I think this one may have been in 1989? Correct me if I'm wrong.


This was somehow not made by my mom, but by one of her friends. It came from the famed christmas party. I love it.

So that's just a little taste. I just grabbed my camera really quickly while cleaning up and took a few fun pictures before I packed all the ornaments away. But there are many more, and they're all special. I guess it's good to leave stuff to put up here next christmas. What if I ran out of things to talk about?!?

But I forgot to write about my christmas miracle. It had to do with the tree.
When we came back from Florida I plugged in the tree and realized that one of the strings of lights had gone out--at least half of it was out. So there was a big black spot on the tree. Kris didn't notice it and claimed to hardly be able to see it when I pointed it out. I really wanted to fix it, but things got a little crazy. I got new lights, but wasn't able to pin down enough time to take off a bunch of the ornaments, untangle the lights and then put them all back on. In fact, it was starting to sound really hard and stressful.
So I took Kris's advice and just ignored it (to the best of my ability.) It was hard because every time I saw the tree in the dark it kind of bummed me out. You girls know what I mean, right?
BUT here's the great part. When we came out on christmas morning all the lights were on. It did feel a little like a miracle, although I'm sure that miracle energy should be spent on much more important things. But it made me feel happy and good and blessed. And that's a good way to feel on christmas morning.

And this is officially my last christmas post of the 2008 holiday season.

::santa is awesome::

Why is Santa so awesome? Because he brought us this:

No, not the cute yet belligerent little boy, the digital piano!
And although it's a bottom of the line version we are only slightly (read extremely) worried that Max turning the power button off and on ten thousand times will cause it to short out and quit working.

But despite that we are so excited to have it. It's fun to have music in the house. It's fun to practice even though neither Kris nor I are very good. There's a lot of need in church for people to fill in playing hymns and such though, so hopefully we can get our hymn and primary song skills up to speed. And hopefully Kris will be able to get some accompaniments learned so we can do some instrumental stuff in sacrament meeting. And hopefully Max will learn to play something besides hot cross buns!
Whew. Lots of hopes. We'll have to also do some work to go along with the hope I guess. We'll keep you posted.

But it's really true. Santa is awesome. And as we said to Max on the morning of the 26th, yes, it's really too bad he doesn't come every night.

::some christmas::

We had a great Christmas. It was very quiet--just the three of us--and very fun. We were more than spoiled by our families.
Here's Max on Christmas eve. He's wearing his new sock monkey PJs and putting out the santa cookies. We all got new PJs which is so fun. When my mom was in town she bought me some and wrapped them up. It was perfect.




I could hardly sleep all night. I had a cold and my nose was all stuffed so I could hardly breathe. I felt like a little kid though, waking up every half hour, looking at the clock and just wishing it was time to get up!
We told Max that he couldn't leave his room until 7AM. We gave him a little travel alarm clock so he'd know exactly what time it was. When I got up at 6:30 to shower (after lying in bed awake since at least 5:30) he was totally conked out in bed. As I was drying my hair at the stroke of 7 he popped into the bathroom "It's SEVEN!!" and proved it when I asked him to show me on his clock. It was pretty funny.

Santa brought something pretty cool. A Buzz Lightyear telescoping robot arm. At least it doesn't make noise.



He was really excited even though what he really wanted from santa was an EVE robot from the WallE movie. Unfortunately Santa couldn't find her anywhere. But come on, like a robot arm isn't cooler?

We had a great morning, taking a break from the gift giving fun for some german pancakes. Mmmmm.

This picture sure does make them look delectable. And they are, by the way.

Max helped Kris wrap the presents that were for me--and he labeled them all. They turned out very very cute, naturally, and he only ruined one shirt in the process (as a result of using a permanent marker). I had to take a picture of all of them of course. But I won't post them all here.

I think this held my favorite present from him.
Sock monkey slippers. I love them.

Cute AND warm. And so Max.


We got to have several video chats with both of our families which was definitely fun. It's hard to feel too far away when you can see everybody's faces and talk to them.
We also got to do a big computer conference call with Murphy on his mission in Argentina. That was really fun, and so amazing that it actually worked. It was really fun to hear his voice. He seems to be doing great and we're so proud of him.


I didn't get pictures of all the presents of course (I missed some of the more big exciting presents), and don't want to make a big list of all of them here, but just want to say thanks to our families for all the love. Here are a few additional fun pictures of the day.














And now we've put away all the christmas stuff for next year. And we look forward to it. Especially Max who's been trying hard to understand how long a year actually is. He was confused enough when he woke up on Dec 26th, came in and asked us permission to go into the living room and see what Santa had brought. Wishful thinking. It would be fun though.

::tie::

Here's Max in the cool hip tie Aunt Kari gave him for christmas. He wore it to church today and looked great while singing his Away in a Manger. He did a great job on it. We're very proud. And I didn't even mess up the guitar stuff too bad.

I've been a bit too busy hanging out, cleaning up, resting and having fun to post in the last couple of days. But don't worry, there're plenty of posts on the way. Soon enough.
Good night!

::christmas eve::

I love christmas eve! I think in some ways it's more of a fun day than christmas is. It's magical and fun, and as an adult usually there isn't too much work to be done--at least hopefully there's not a lot of shopping or whatever left on christmas eve!
Today Max and I have been taking it easy. Kris had to work, which was unfortunate--and he had a very full day. But luckily he finally got done, and we were able to finish the day off right, with a dinner out and new pajamas.

Anyway, today Max and I enjoyed some seriously good smells. I love my christmas candles.

We made some last minute goodies.

Mmmm, these are so good. It's lucky they're only allowed around at christmas time!

We enjoyed the fruits of our cookie labors the other day. So yummy.

We love christmas cookies.


Max really enjoyed jumping on the big bubble wrap that came in the package Kari sent us. It's lucky we live on the first floor.

I have to admit I enjoyed jumping on it myself.

Max got to enjoy the last treat from the advents calendar his Grandma Kathy made for him. He's really enjoyed that calendar, and it's so cute.

I like for him to be able to keep track of the days, and the calendar really helps.

He's so cute.


Finally I want to leave you tonight with Max's song--Away in a Manger. He was supposed to sing it in sacrament meeting on sunday with me on the guitar, but we had a snow day. We're supposed to do it this coming sunday. We'll see. He refuses to do it for friends and family, but swears he'll be able to do it in sacrament meeting. We'll see I guess.
But this video is cute. Ignore my bad guitar though, it's very shaky!
And don't let all Max's spinning and constant motion make you seasick--OH, and ignore my bum which fills the whole screen at one point.


And merry christmas!

::even more snow::

On our snowday Kris Max and Sultan headed off to the dog park to expend some excess energy. I didn't go. It was much nicer for me that way.

But Kris came back with some awfully good photos on his phone.

The snow was really deep. I had a hard time walking in it, I can't imagine how tough it would be at Max's height.
Luckily Sultan's made for stuff like this.

He's in his element.

They made a ginormous snowman.

The kind of snowman you always dream of making as a kid.



And since they were at the dog park Max requested a special chain link picture. Evidently he liked the effect of the last one.

Hilarious.

Max and I made cookies yesterday, and we thought in honor of the giant man of snow left at the park, we'd make some special dog park snowmen.

Now that's appetizing, right?

::so mysterious::

We keep getting packages. It's so much fun. Whether I've ordered the stuff in the boxes or not it doesn't matter. It's still fun and exciting for me to get them. And since I did almost all of my christmas shopping online we've been getting a lot.

This one is the most tantalizing though. Don't you think?


And here's a fun little shot of our tree. It's the best I've got so far.

I have to take a whole bunch of the ornaments off tomorrow and replace one of the light strands. It died just before we left on vacation and it's driving me crazy. I've got to fix it soon.

We're getting excited for Christmas!!

:: preparing for festivities::

Wow, I feel like I haven't posted in weeks, and it's only really been three days. Well I'm sure everybody missed me, so I'm back. Phew.
Max and I spent this week trying to get ready for Christmas.
Kris and I had brought the tree up from the basement a few days before thanksgiving because we had to rearrange our living room. Our nice big flatscreen TV that we bought back in Kansas City died. Just suddenly conked out when Max was in the middle of an important PBS show. There was still sound but no picture. We took it to a repair place and they wanted $750 to fix it. Hah.
So luckily we had a small TV we were using in our room. We moved that out to the living room and rearranged the rest of the room around the tree.

And the tree sat there as just a naked tree until a couple of days after thanksgiving. That's when I found the star and put it on top. Then it sat there as just a tree with a star for like three more days until I finally got the lights up. And of course the lights were sitting in a box at the foot of the tree all that time. At least I finally did it.

Then lighted and starred the tree was ready for some ornaments. Kris didn't mind that Max and I worked on it while he was at work, so we got started the other day.

It's so fun to open up the ornament boxes.

Sometimes I forget what fun stuff I have until I hang the stuff on top and get down to the next layer of tissue paper and ornaments. It's magical.
And yes, that's a spoon in there. It's not misplaced. It's an antique spoon from Silver City, UT. If you have questions about it just ask Kris's dad. He's the guy that gave it to us!


I have a separate box for some of the more delicate stuff. Some of it didn't come out this year. We're once again on a hard wood floor, and with a 4 yr old and a dog I just don't want anything shattered on the floor.

Last year I did a lot of after christmas shopping. I usually don't like to do that because it's kind of anti-climactic. But I loved it this time. Going through my boxes it was like I had a whole bunch of new stuff I didn't remember. And getting things at 50 or 75% didn't hurt. I'm going to do it again this year.

Max was the most concerned about finding his sock monkey ornament. Remember that guy? Kris's mom bought it for us several years ago (with amazing foresight), before the sock monkey craze at our house started. Then last year when he came out of the box Max almost lost his mind. The sock monkey had a little friend!
So he was really excited to see the baby monkey again.
Sock monkey even got to come out for the occasion, and he hasn't been out much lately.

He doesn't look that excited in this picture, but that's just because I kept telling him to hold still.

This one is much better.

I have so many fun and sentimental and awesome ornaments. I think later this month I may do a post and highlight some of them. Many of them come from my mom and are handmade. They're such treasures.
Here's one of my favorites. It's not from my mom, it's from Kris. It's Kris's valiant effort at an ornament for my parent's annual christmas party/ornament exchange.

I think it's so adorable. And he was so brave. Can you tell what it is? It's Santa orbiting a planet on a sled of course. And poor Santa is looking a little the worse for wear. It's been 8 years he's been orbiting.
Anyway, I love this little guy. It reminds me of good times and how much my husband loves me!

It was fun to decorate with Max. He's actually getting big enough to help with something like this and stick to it for a while, and big enough that I'm not worried he's going to eat or break anything I give him. I did have to do a lot of adjusting though. It seemed like he wanted to hang every single thing I gave him in the same spot. There was a huge clump of stuff down at the bottom when he got done. But we fixed it.


I'll post the a picture of the whole tree later. And maybe some individual ornaments. But how can I choose which ones?