A Few of My Favorite Things...

At last I am finally posting some pictures from Christmas. 

I guess better late than never! 

It was kind of a strange Christmas for us. It never really "felt" like Christmas this year. I didn't even get my Christmas cards out this year. I'm not sure if it was because I was too scared to spend money (because of the economy) or if it was because I was trying to convince myself that I really was over my "morning" sickness when I wasn't. What ever it was, it was strange. I do still enjoy looking at  all the pictures that we took.

Here are a few of my favorite things about Christmas.

I love to decorate for Christmas! This is my favorite time of the year! As a little girl I remember pulling out all the Christmas decorations and getting to work. I loved, loved, loved to do this. Now that I have my own home I love this even more.

We have two Christmas trees. I hope to have a Christmas tree in each of the kids rooms someday. Shane is sure that I'm certifiably crazy when it comes to Christmas.

I'm a sucker for sentimental things as well. Ornaments always get me in the sentimental category. There were always certain ornaments as a child that we loved hanging on the tree. Two that come to mind are 1- a little porcelain dog that hung in a real knitted stocking and 2- Santa standing on a scale. We buy an ornament each year for Alexi and one for Shane and I. Here are just a FEW of my favorites from our tree.

Lexi made this one last year.

A Lady Bug just for Lexi

Homemade by Aunt Brandy

An ornament that I was given while in Primary as a little girl

A homemade, hand painted ornament that Shane's Mom made him as a child

This one may not look like much, but it has a recording of Alexi "singing" to us in her sleep on her 2nd Christmas Eve.

The Nativity. 

As a little girl the nativity was kept in a barrel with peanuts and wrapped in old towels. We all knew that they must be handled with care as they were handmade by my mother. I was the lucky one to get it once my mom was ready to pass it on. (There are other pieces to this nativity but I don't have room to set them all out)

Other things that I remember from my childhood Christmases are:

- We always had a stack of books just for Christmas. One in particular was a popup book of sorts. I loved building the little barn where baby Jesus laid in the manger. 

- There were these three little bottles of perfume (I think from Avon) that we always put in the bathroom on the back of the toilet. They each had a different shape, a Christmas Tree, a set of bells and a white mouse.

- There was also this little puzzle of Santa Clause. Each year I would sit at the coffee table and carefully put it together. You had to be real careful because the pieces don't "lock" into place and it could easily be bumped and loose it's shape.

- My mom also had this glass Christmas tree that she would fill with red and green gum drops. M&M's taste a lot better so we go with them instead.

- Hanging the stockings was always a fun thing to do. We each had a handmade one and they hung by little green elves with candy canes. I love to put ours up on the mantle each year, I get excited just thinking about all the wonderful little treasures that will be tucked deep inside. As a kid we always had an orange in the toe of each stocking. Now we put a "chocolate" orange in the toe. I really look forward to putting up one more stocking next year for our new baby.

I love the smell of pine trees. So we buy a real wreath to put on the kitchen table. The smell fills the house.

I love my bells...

And I have always wanted to hang garland from the banister.

It snowed a little this Christmas. I love how it brings a smile to my face.

Baking is always something that we did during the holidays. Chocolate covered pretzels, apple cake, peanut butter blossoms and I have added pumpkin roll, chex mix and pumpkin cookies.

Okay, now onto a little of the festivities. Here is our fancy Christmas Eve dinner. It was delicious! The best part was that neither of us had to cook or clean up.

Lexi opening up her traditional Christmas Eve present...PJ's.

Christmas morning: Lexi and all her stocking stuffers

So much for not spending money... Our computer had a melt down two days before Christmas. A real melt down, the whole house smelled of burnt plastic. I guess that it was a good thing that Shane and I hadn't shopped for each other yet. Here is Shane setting up our pretty new computer that we gave each other for Christmas.

Lexi watching her new "Tinkerbell" movie. She loves this movie!!

Shane rocking it out with his new Guitar Hero that Lexi bought him for the Wii. This game is so addicting! Shane moves the Wii to the bedroom and lays in bed and plays for hours.

Daddy's Girl

Shane talking to the "fam". He's trying to hide that he's talking on my PINK bluetooth.

The "After math"

My Pretty Girl

I couldn't believe it when we could open the windows the weekend after Christmas as the "Clean up" began.
I love my new totes that we got on sale at Lowes after Thanksgiving. They were great for all our decorations! I love to organize, organize, organize.

I was ready to pack everything and everyone away for the year!

We hope that you all had a great Christmas!