::tree::

And we got it in and we got it all lit! It was intimidating to light, but not so hard once I got started.
What do you think? We think it's really fun.

And my favorite way to show a lighted tree!

And the little tree is hanging out in the pool table room. I have plans for it. I'll tell you about them later.

See the chile lights up on the window? Kris is excited about those, he's wanted some for a long time.
More later, as always!

::festive part 2::

Here are some more festive scenes from around here--mostly from yesterday (Christmas Eve!)
Festive sunsets!
From monday:

From yesterday on the way to the methodist Christmas Eve service we attended (which was fun, by the way.)

The color of the sky was so amazing, and the clouds were really low and cool looking.


I showed Max the Santa tracker at lunch and he tracked the big man for the rest of the day. He loved it. I loved how it kept him occupied. I love how the mobile version of google maps got in on it this year--if you searched "santa" the phone would show you where he was. We saw him in Uzbekistan, Saudia Arabia, the Seychelles and Cape Verde. It led to some pretty interesting conversations about geography.

Here are the ornaments I made this year. I try to always make a Max ornament every year for the Grandmothers--and this year we got to add Sandy which made me very happy. I think it turned out cute--not anything too special, but cute!




We read this book together every Christmas Eve. It's a lovely pop-up book and kids love it. It's a tradition that I carried from my home growing up. I found this copy of the book for us at a second hand book store before amazon.com really existed--it was a triumph then! And wow, I just searched it on amazon just for fun, and they're selling used starting at $50. Crazy!
Anyway, we love it and it's fun to remember how I felt reading that same book when I was Max's age.

Boys in Santa hats are quite festive.

This one was usurped from work--the staff each had one and Max was really coveting them. One of the sweet ladies donated hers to his cause and wore it for two days straight.

Boys in Christmas sweaters are even more festive!

I waited all day to try and get a picture of them together where Sandy was awake, but he just had too sleepy of a day.
Max's sweater came from my mom and Sandy's came from Kris's mom. Thanks moms!! The boys looked so cute.

The nativity scene:

This is festive, but I'm just not sure what to say about it. Hmmmmmmm.

Luminarios/farolitos:
Lots of people have these on their houses out here--and especially businesses and big buildings. They're so fun looking and very different. This is a picture of a house on our street. I wish I would've been able to snag a picture of one of the big multi level places downtown for you. Next year.


And last, but certainly not least, my favorite festive activity for the day was Kris getting pooped on. We were trying to hurry and get ready to go to the church service and Sandy just couldn't seem to finish pooping before he got changed. Kris actually went through a couple of diapers and then finally just got a bad angle and was really in the line of fire. He shrieked (in a manly way of course) and had to go and completely change his clothes. Sandy was totally nonplussed, which cracked me up. And of course I took a picture or two even though the light was totally awful.


HAH!!

We've had a great Christmas Eve and a lovely Christmas day. The best part is spending time together as a little family as well as talking to all our loved ones. I hope everybody else had a great couple of days too.
Merry Christmas!!

::the tree::

We love our fabulous tree from the forest. It's huge.
Luckily we have a large front room with a high ceiling, otherwise there's no way it would've fit and we would have all cried.
But happily it fits, though we did have to trim the back branches a touch and take part of the very top off. I think it's about 10 feet tall now, and the bottom branches probably stretch about six feet. It's definitely the biggest tree we've ever had.
You know what's weird about it though? Unless your nose is basically stuck inside the branches, it just doesn't smell that piney. I've hardly smelled it in the house at all. But oh well, that's what Christmassy smelling candles are for, right?

Last sunday I put the lights on, once Kris's mom was in town to visit and could hold the baby. The poor tree had sat bare in the living room for four or five days, just begging for lights. But I could only do so much. It was great to have two free hands for a bit, though the hands missed the snuggly baby.
Here the tree is, all lit up.

I wish I could give you an idea of the scale, but you'll just have to imagine it. Well maybe this will help. Kris had to do the top lights for me, and he had to get a ladder to do it!

And of course he had to reenact putting the star on top so we could document it for posterity.

He's pretty cute!

So sunday afternoon we got out the ornaments and decorated the tree. First thing Max did was get out a glass ball and hang it on the tree. It directly slipped right off and shattered on the bricks. I decided at that point we'd go 95% non-breakable as far as ornaments. So we're missing some of our favorites this year, but that's ok. It gives some of the others a chance to shine.

Max likes to hang things in big clumps. I'd give him a few to hang, then look up and see them all bunched up on one branch. So after he hung stuff I had to go back through and redistribute. But he was very insistent that the Mama Fish ornament hang as close as possible to the trombone ornament, so she could play it whenever she wanted.

And the best part? Now we get to hang out by the light of the tree whenever we want. I love Christmas trees, especially busy ones with colored lights like ours. They're just so fun to look at, there's always something new to see. Sandy loves to stare at it too.

When he's not sleeping that is.

::today::

Today we've got some nasty weather. Slick snow fell all morning, and at some point here it's supposed to be turning to rain--lots of rain.
Kris called me after he made it to work and he said the roads were so slippery. It took him over an hour to get to work when it normally takes about twenty minutes. I'm hoping not to leave anytime soon, though of course school isn't canceled, which is a bummer. I think snow should equal closed school all the time.

I do have lights on my tree, as you can see in the picture. Which means that we did get the tree down from the attic (I don't think it really counts as an attic, but that's ok. It's mostly exposed insulation), and it also means that we moved furniture out of the living room to make room for the tree. We still have to put the ornaments on though. I just got the lights done last night after an emergency trip to target because at least four of my light strings were totally dead. Argh. And then they were out of the cheap lights so I had to settle for less of the expensive lights. Oh well, it's got lights. That's what matters. Hopefull we'll be putting ornaments on today.

And lastly, I thought I was sparing in the addition of bubble bath this morning, but:

To the little man's delight, I guess I wasn't sparing enough. The jets take the bubble bath over the top. (literally) (keep in mind this is a big deep tub--really the only thing in our house that isn't tiny--and the bubbles are spilling over the top and sides, YIKES).
He's been enjoying a long winter's bath. I'm scared to see how the bathroom is doing. Wish me luck.

::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.