::festive part 2--decor::

So this isn't quite as festive as it once was meant to be--now that it's after Christmas. But sick babies will slow people down and put things off. Some things are just more important than blogging I guess.
Anyway, we did some fun decorating this year and I wanted to show you guys.

Kris worked hard and put up a bunch of outside lights, and they make me happy every time I see them.

This is just part of them, I couldn't get them all in the picture, and it was too cold to keep trying.

Kris specially wanted to get us some chile lights. He's wanted them for a while I guess. I think they're a tad cheesy, but as long as they're not on the tree I think they're fun.


In the corner of the pool table room, right by the chile lights is a little tree--it's the small one we cut down when tree hunting.
It's very goofy looking--a classic charlie brown type tree. But it's fun and it serves it's purpose. I went through and picked out a bunch of fun family pictures--mostly from Dec, but not all--and laminated them. Then I cut them out and put them on hangers and of course, hung them on the tree.

It turned out pretty darn fun, and I love seeing my little boys' faces dangling there when I walk by.


What do you think? Fun idea? I stole the germ of the idea from a good friend of mine who does something similar.

And now for more trees. I was excited to finally have some space to put up a little silver tree I bought several years ago in Kansas City. And that tree needed some friends. So we gained a few more trees as Dec went on.
So there are a few cute ones on the way into the living room.

Then on top of our built in TV cabinet (that we will eventually be changing and remodeling a bit, hopefully) is a little forest.


There are little birds and butterflies all hanging out up there in the trees. I love how the little forest turned out. It's so cheery and fun.
Then I put sparkly mylar star things along the shelves up high too--not until after Sandy swallowed at least one star though.
Then on Christmas Eve Kris was putting together our luminarios that didn't get put outside, and we decided to put them up on the shelf also.
They look SO festive. In fact I'm tempted to keep them up year round for mood lighting!

So there are my fun things I did this year. There's other fun stuff here and there, but these were the major ones.
And then of course, our awesome lovely tree that we will all be sad to see go. It's been a a good one.

It's so fun to actually have Christmas day, but isn't it always so sad when it's over--in so many ways?

::a little perspective::

So just in case somebody out there couldn't tell just how huge this tree is from the last few photos.

Isn't it a cool and unusual little (oh whoops I mean big) tree?

::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!

::tree hunting::

We've only done it once before, but we want it to be a serious family tradition. Every year we go up in our mountains and find ourselves a special Christmas tree.
There was a big snow storm predicted for friday into saturday, and we were really hoping that it wouldn't stop our tree hunt. It was the only possible day to do it in weeks.
So, though it snowed a bit--much less than predicted--we didn't let it stop us!!

It's interesting searching for trees, especially out here in the desert. It's not like there are just a billion perfect ones sitting there for the picking. Especially when one has a car full of little 'uns and has to stay close to the road and the car.

And it's tough because a tree that looks good from the car can look completely different up close.
This is a cute little one, isn't it?

Well, not so little now that we see it in perspective, right?

It wasn't quite what we were looking for, so we pressed onward.

Finally, after some more bumpy snowy driving we spied a good looking one. And when we got out to study it, turned out that there was one behind it a little ways that was perfect! So we went for it.

It's like a puzzle trying to see the tree in all the snowy branches.
It was a little ways down a snowy bank. It was also super tall, and we only needed about the top 10 feet, so we cut it a little higher than usual.
Sandy was so good and patient.

He just hung out in the car and ate pretzels. Then when he ran out he squeaked and screamed until somebody filled his little fists again.

Here are the boys cutting the tree.

Max had the hold the saw for a bit while Kris moved the car--there was other traffic up in the snowy mountains, surprisingly.

Then he got tired and put the saw down, and when he thought nobody was looking he had a little snack.

Hah.
And here's the tree! Huge!!



And then we all hung out while Kris did the tough work of tying the tree up top.

We really like this picture. It gives a good feel for the whole experience.



Then on the way out we searched out a cute little tree for our other room. I got greedy and just couldn't leave without more than one.

When we got this one home it turns out it's a truly lopsided little guy. But fun nonetheless.

And afterwards we got to eat Dairy Queen, since that's really the only place to eat within miles. I guess that's part of the tradition!
And here are a couple of bonus pictures of our Sand, since he was stuck in the car the whole time. He was looking very festive and deserves some attention too!


And today I got the lights on, so more tree reports to follow!

**And I forgot to mention the poor Land Rover. It's truly our adventure car, but the Infiniti had to stand in for it this year since it's totally non-functional. Kris has plans to trade some dental work for repairs in the next year though, so we'll see if the poor thing can be revived. We're thinking of you Land Grover!

::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.