Category: holidays

Christmas Stockings…finally finished…

 

Well….it only took about a year, but I finally finished everyone’s Christmas stockings….with the help of my mom.  Tuesday, Quinn and River all had stockings that my mom made.  Then, two years ago, Tuesday lost hers.  I don’t know how it happened…but I guess, somehow it got thrown away with all the Christmas wrapping paper.  I was convinced that it was lost somewhere in Tuesday’s room.  But, when we switched her room with River’s we took everything out and there was no stocking.  I was so sad that she wouldn’t have a stocking that my mom had made for her.  Then, Escher and Gray came along and they needed stockings.  I rummaged through my parents Christmas decorations and I found two stockings my mom had made for decorations…so they became Escher and Greys.  Then, I found something else she had cross stitched.  I was nervous to try to make it into a stocking….because if I messed up….there was nothing else to use.  But, after some thought and a lot of waiting, I finally did it.  It turned out pretty well.  What didn’t turn out well was my cross stitching with the names.  Oh well…I’m just not a cross stitcher!!

Halloween…sort of….

Well..it is Halloween…well, sort of….but there are no costumes, no school, no trick or treating…..everything has been postponed until Friday.  Hurricane Sandy has come and gone.  We were lucky….we had no damage in our area.  We never lost our electricity and we barely had any branches fall down.  A lot of New Jersey wasn’t so lucky.  So much flooding and devastation around the state….really scary stuff.  Half of our town is still without electricity..so they had to close the schools for another day.

It is very strange….being Halloween…yet…not Halloween.

Embrace the Camera….Christmas Tree Shots

Every year we do our Christmas tree shots…as always…I forget about it til the last minute.  By the time we took them this year..the tree was so dry and droopy.  Right after the photos..I ripped the tree down and dragged it outside…..all the decorations are finally put away!!

December Recap…..

Okay..I can’t believe it is already 2012 and I haven’t posted anything yet.  I feel like time is getting away from me!!  I need an extra week to catch up with everything.  December was a whirlwind and thankfully no one gotten eaten by the Yule Cat…for which I am always thankful!!  Every photo I took in December was blurry..I think our camera or the battery or my photography skills are slowly dying….

Tuesday’s birthday came and went.  She turned 14….oh my..I can’t believe I have a 14 year old child!!  It really seems incredible.  She is such a great person and I love her so much.  She is more than I could ever ask for….she helps me out so much with the babies and around the house….I don’t know if it is due to my great parenting skills or what..but she is turning out to be a fantastic human being!!

Christmas was here and then not here and now I am still cleaning up from it all…Christopher got me a super fancy serger for Christmas.  I have never used a serger so I am going a bit crazy trying to learn all about it.  I am determined to learn everything I can about all its wonderful capabilities and then use those skills to make many many wonderful things…or at least a bib or two.  So, hopefully next week I’ll get back into the blog swing of things and be posting on a daily basis!!  Until then….happy new years……

Embrace the Camera….Thanksgiving…..

Over Thanksgiving, we went on a little trip to Atlantic City.  It was the perfect little getaway.  It was only an hour by train..so there was no traffic to worry about.  Who doesn’t love a train ride. We got a great hotel room…..the pool was under construction..which was a bummer.  But we had so much fun.  It was nice and relaxing!  Just perfect for the holiday! We ate, slept..(okay, I didn’t sleep much), shop, saw the ocean and walked all around.  Oh, and I was crowned Miss America while I was down there!  Go Embrace the Camera…..

Mother’s Day….

It was such a wonderful Mother’s Day.  The weather was perfect, along with everything else!

I got breakfast in bed..and then we all got into bed and watched some bad tv.  Then, we did some yard work….some..not a lot!  Then we went off to my favorite Ethiopian restaurant in Philadelphia!  Yum!

After we got back from dinner, I tried to take some family photos….

That didn’t go too well……they sort of got sillier and sillier…..It was a great day!

Eating Rabbits…….

Well…eating chocolate rabbits, that is.  This year, the Easter bunny brought solid chocolate bunnies..not hollow.  Everyone decided the solid bunnies are much harder to eat!!

But they did agree that the solid bunnies are just as delicious as the hollow bunnies……

After taking the photos and going through the pictures..I couldn’t believe how many times River and Tuesday had almost the same expression……it was really funny.  I don’t remember that ever happening before.

Easter weekend….

We had a lovely Easter weekend…we dyed eggs..and had the worst batch of egg dye….waiting for the eggs to turn into any type of color…took a LONG time……

But it was still fun…..though some of the eggs looked like they hadn’t even been dyed.

We got out the Easter baskets and set out carrots and water for the Easter bunny……

And then Easter morning….everyone searched for their basket and eggs!

Making Christmas cards…another tradition….

So, another Christmas tradition, in our family, is making our own cards.  We love to think and think about what we will do for that year.  The card usually involves some type of photo of the children…..though one year we had them draw the card.

It doesn’t always go as planned or as smoothly as I had hoped…..but in the end, we always love them.  I usually work with the photo in Photoshop and print them out using Publisher.  Sometimes we get them printed at a print shop, but most times I print them out at home using cardstock.

After doing the upside down chin photos earlier this month for my blog, my daughter Tuesday, decided those would be perfect for our Christmas card.

For quite a few years now, we wanted to do a twist on the family Christmas letter….. and then finally we thought of MadLibs.  So, this year, we decided to combine the two ideas…and we made up a Christmas family letter in MadLib form.  It was  a lot of fun coming up with the letter…but it was hard to put it into the right format, so it looked just like the real MadLibs.

In the end, I think our Christmas cards reflected who we are as a family…..pretty goofy!

Yule Lads….

The Yule Lads have started coming to our house.  Another tradition.  Every year, starting on December 12th, the Yule Lads begin to arrive.  We love the little guys.

Each night, we read about the Yule Lad who is coming that night…we get out the little statue….and then the children leave a shoe in their window.

So far, we’ve been visited by Stekkjarstaur, who likes sheep, Giljagaur, who steals milk, and Stufur…who is the little short guy.

In our house, they are all very friendly, and they leave little gifts for good children.  (If you are bad, they leave you a rotten potato!)  Sometimes the Yule Lads do slightly mischievous things, like drink our milk and leave the empty container on the floor!

We haven’t talked too much about Gryla, the Yule Lads mother, or the Yule Cat, because they are a bit too scary.   If you are interested in learning more about the Yule Lads, there are a few good websites..but I love the book that we have entitled The Yule Lads by Brian Pilkington….the illustrations are wonderful!