One last Christmas celebration!

We enjoyed one last family gathering to celebrate the holiday season, where my family spoiled my kids rotten!
Charlie and Sophie had a great time hanging out with Gramma Laura, Grandpa Phil, Grandpa Scott, their aunts and little cousin Nora!
We love you guys, thanks for such a great dinner/get together, you all mean so much to us! xoxoxox

My girl...My shadow!

 

Wherever I go, she goes..whenever I leave, she leaves...whatever I put on,(ie:makeup, jewerly..etc..), she puts on...
This precious girl, daughter of mine, created for me, she has lived in my heart forever, she has lived in my home for over 16mo's, she will forever be mine...daughter of mine...oh how I love her, oh how I cherish her...oh how I thank God for her, EVERY SINGLE DAY...

Charlie's first ice skating adventure!

Charlie did so super good ice skating for the very first time....
Not that I didnt have a little faith..BUT...I really wasnt sure he'd get it on his first time..but boy was I wrong...by the end of the 2 hrs there, he was whizzin around that rink with no help from anyone!
Way to go my Charlie boy, you rock!

Gratitude...Happy New 2011!

Happy New Year to all!
We stayed up with our good friends and neighbors and watched the famous ball drop, C too, S tucked away in bed...and rang in the new year old school style(at least for me) by running out in the 60 degree(yes, I said 60degree) weather onto our deck banging pots and pans, lighting sparklers and passing out hugs and kisses to all around us!
As we stood there at 12am, happy for this new year, full of new adventures and surprises ahead I was overwhelmed with how grateful I felt...

Gratitude ~Websters Dic says, "thankful appreciation for favors received"
To me, all my favors received are directly from Him above!

I'd like to think I've always been a grateful human being most of my life, cause I've had a good one, but I'm not sure I've ever felt such strong graditude for my life as I do now...and that's how I felt ringing in the new year..I've never been happier, more peaceful or more grateful than I do today....
Life's not perfect by any means, we all know that, but at the end of the day, I feel blessed to have received all these favors from Him....my little favors that live with me here that I tuck in each night, my favors that surround me each day throughout the city, and beyond....
Thankyou Lord Jesus for all these "little favors" you have bestowed upon me ;)
Happy, happy new year 2011...heres to receiving all the more favors I can handle this new year!

Christmas Eve 2010

This Christmas Eve was extra special for us this year...our Charlie boy was chosen to play Joesph in the Christmas Eve program at our church! He did such a great job, we were all so proud of him as he stood up there on stage playing the role of such an important figure! And most importantly, we are proud b/c he really does understand that this is what we are celebrating...not Santa coming this night..but the night before Christ was born...Charlie truly embraces the Chrismas story, and I am humbled by him ;)
My parents and my little brother and his fiance came to stay with us too and joined us on this special night at church! Then we followed that up by having our traditional Chinese dinner afterwards(a family tradition thats been goin on since I was a little girl)...and this year, we got it to go and took it over to a good friends house to finish celebrating the evening with her and her family! Thanks Jen, we all had so much fun!
Merry Christmas to all, love from our family to yours! xoxo

Our lil holiday traditions....

Christmas traditions...everybody has them and does them, and to me, it's one of the most special parts of Christmas in our house...
The things we do each and every year, some old from when I was a child, and some new that J and I have started with our own family, all special and dear to me, as mundane as some of them may be...
Getting our tree EVERY year the Sunday of Thanksgiving is the kickoff to the countdown to Christmas in our house...we get it every year, same place, same kind, same size...and boy do my boys know not to mess with me on changin any of that...;)...C and I decorate straight away after J spends 30mins getting it to stand staight in that d*mn stand...then I spend 30 to 60min's with the lights...you dont even want to be in the room with me when I do the lights....'nough said.....
Then C and I do the best part together..unwrapping each individual ornament and rediscovering each and everyone of them as if we'd never seen them before....my oldest ones date back to the 70s when I began my first Christmas's....
Then we always do the zoo lights around the wk before....some yrs its not too cold..this year it was FREEZING....I thought I was going to die of frost bite....but we did it...and not only sipped our hot cocoa..but one of the kids dumped it all over the stroller, which reminded me I never cleaned off the back of the stroller from last year when it was dumped...;)
And cookie making...Ahhhhh..Christmas cookies...I wish I had some sentimental story to tell of how wonderful it is to bake cookies in my kitchen with my two little sweeties, baking lots of Chrismas goodness into all those batches...but NOT.....sorry, must admitt...I totally am too controlling to fully enjoy this part of our traditions....and now with two helping me...OMG...can you say, control freaks worst nightmere....;)J.K...
But seriously...I try to enjoy and do for about 20mins..then I'm done....but C and S so enjoyed it and that's the point, right?
Elf on the Shelf.....he's still kickin it here at our house....some times I'm running down the stairs literally at 6am, to beat C out of bed and "help" Elf hide yet again....J is not too good at remembering either! But our Elf has continued to get into all sorts of trouble this year....
Advent wreath and calendar....I had a calendar growing up, which my mom sewed a new one for my kids, and it's the first thing they wake to do,after finding Elf,each morning...but the wreath is something new J and I wanted to introduce to our children and do....b/c really, that's what this is all a/b...remembering, and honoring why it is we do all these traditions each yr and what it is we are celebrating....
I made my own wreath with the help of the craft lady at Michaels some yrs back...I changed it up a bit, cause I'm not havin pink and purple candles in mine....C and I argue every Sunday when we are lighting a new one, that they are the wrong colors..lol;)..I tell him Jesus doesnt mind..he knows Im too Type A to have my wreath sportin candles that dont match my dining room...
So anyway...C has learned so far that Advent means, "coming" and we are all waiting for Jesus to come back..and the circle of the wreath means God's love never fails...no beginning and no end...with each candle that we light each Sunday nt in December, we know we are getting closer to Jesus' coming, Christmas Day, not just the day Santa happens to show up as well;)
So anyway..these are some of the things we do each year...and each year I love doing each and everyone, and I count my blessings as I go...each year there are more to count, and for that I am forever grateful!
xoxoxo