Christmas Day 2016

Christmas morning started later than we anticipated. Emmrey insisted the night before that asking her to wait until 6:30 before waking anyone was unreasonable but then when she came to get us it was 7:15

 The obligatory on the stairs/hallway photo. On a side note ... I was super excited about the fresh cedar garland I got for the staircase and mantel this year in place of the fake stuff I have had.  It was so pretty, but by Christmas it was so dry and potentially a fire hazard. Not sure what I will do next year!

 Checking out the Stocking goods.

 Santa brought the girls a few things, but most of the gift exchanging was between the girls. Everyone got new feather pillows. Bay was excited to get some car stuff for Wanda, and new earrings along with "sister quotes" from Emm. Kars was over the moon to get her coveted sheepskin blanket and new socks with Body Stuff from Bay. Emm was thrilled with her new Sarah Plain and Tall book series and a 36 pack of Gel Pens from Kars.  Mark's favorites were a new photo calendar for his office, house slippers (so he can walk on the floors with shoes;), a water bottle and Mocha Truffles from Bailee and Emmrey and a fish mug from Karsyn that she designed. Oh ... and she also gave him a roll of toilet paper that she got for a white elephant at her Mutual activity (In case he gets CRAP for Christmas). I got all sorts of goodies for my feet {some for getting outdoors and some for a good foot rub}, Karsyn gave me some new candles I can't wait to burn and Bailee & Emmrey joined together to give me some Ulta lip creams and bath bombs which will be used in no time! 

I am especially excited about the book my dad sent me as a gift. It is written about my great great Grandma Jody Wood. I can't wait to learn more about her.

 

Our family got a super gift this year. We will be taking off for California in January to visit Universal Studios. Just as exciting for the girls is that we are going via plane. Bay and Kars have flown once when they were going on 6 and 3 so they really can't remember much. Emm has never flown so this is a real treat for them! 

 We spent the day relaxing, watching A Christmas Story, playing the new board games the girls got and finishing that puzzle.

 We had a nice Christmas dinner later in the day complete with Turkey and the fixings 

and of course Orange Ice.

 It's always fun to stay in our home for Christmas but it makes the day feel a little bit more lonely without all the family gatherings. Either way it was another memorable Christmas in the books!

Firehouse Santa

The desire to visit Santa has never been very strong at our house. The girls are just not that crazy about it. As expected, Emmrey is the only one that showed any interest this year and even that was pretty noncommittal. I think she likes the idea of it and feels like it is something she is supposed to do, but really would rather not. After tormenting herself over whether she did or didn't want to, we opted for a local visit to see Santa at the Firehouse as opposed to driving to Fort Collins and making it a big production.

We figured it would be a pretty small informal event and that would be less pressure on everyone. We were right about small and informal. Santa didn't even ask her what was on her wish list. Just a photo and a candy cane and that was it. 

 We got to spend some time looking at the engines which was fun and the firemen were super friendly.

Bailee was still at the club and preferred we not wait for her, but Kars came along for moral support;)

 We enjoyed some cookies and cocoa and we were done in a half hour ...easy peasy!

Christmas with Cougar Choir

Emmrey is part of the 4-5th grade choir at school this year. On Monday we attended her Christmas concert. They put on a great show and entertained us with some classics as well as some unexpected tunes like Shake the Papaya.

 The kids did a great job and Emmrey was just singing her heart out! Our music teacher is new this year and we are happy she brought choir back to Eyestone after several years of not having it.

 Emmrey is pretty fond of Mrs. Beese and is sad that second semester Honor choir will only be for 5th graders. It has been a great experience for her!

 

Christmas Goodies

We spent last Saturday afternoon making goodies to share. 

We did our usual Belly Buttons, Cool Whip Balls and Toffee.

Mark gave Bailee a lesson on the fine art of toffee making. We did have a failed batch {not because of her} but now Mark thinks he has it mastered;)

These two were a big help with the delivery. Now if we could just eat less than we give away!

Playing Hookie

Last Friday Mark had a potluck social for the fish division at work. When Emmrey heard there was going to be a "party" she got fixated on the idea that she would tag along. Because it was Friday and a week before the break, we figured what the heck! We let her miss school and spend the day at the office with Dad. She took a couple of her friends to help entertain her for the hours before the party.

 She didn't mind that she was the only kid among grown ups who talk fish. 

She was in party and sugar heaven!

she appears to be leading a round of Deck the Halls ... fa-la-la-la-la

 The high school gals also had an "optional" day. With finals week approaching most of their classes were holding a review. District policy is that if you have an A you are exempt from the final. We can be happy that they are doing so well in school! 

The three of us had a Gilmore Girls Day and did a little binge watching.

why am I always looking in a slightly different direction?

These days don't come around very often so it's good to take them once in a while;)

Another year with Puck

Puck returned for another year with us! I have mix feelings about the little guy, but he sure brings some extra fun to the holiday. Over the years, Puck has become pretty low maintenance which I appreciate. This year he arrived in the pocket of our new advent calendar. And each morning we find him in a new place around the house. Emm often wakes up early to make sure she finds  him before school. There have been a few mornings she nearly missed the bus because she hadn't found him.

Perfectly Imperfect Christmas Tree

When I was a kid we had what you might consider a "perfect tree". What started out as a perfectly symmetrical white flocked tree from the lot, eventually gave way to a equally impressive artificial(s). The decorations fell within a theme that coordinated colors with the room it was in.  I loved the predictability of those trees. I loved that they had order. Those perfect trees set in my mind what a Christmas tree looked like. It never occurred to me that there was another option. When we set out to celebrate our first Christmas as a married couple, we were faced with the dilemma .... real or artificial?  Mark loved real trees, but I was advocating for an artificial that we could put up whenever we wanted and not have to worry about keeping it alive. We compromised with a tree from a lot that looked artificial and was adorned with all coordinating decorations. This is how it was for our first five years together.

 Then we moved to Laramie for Grad School. With the Snowys in our backyard and the ability to buy a permit to cut a Christmas Tree, a new tradition was born. It took some real getting used to on my part. Remember that idyllic tree image solidified in my mind? There were many years where I was grumpy about the unevenness of the tree or the big gaping hole or the entirely missing backside which somehow wasn't as obvious until it came home;) Mark reminded me that it was about the tradition and not so much the tree and over time I began to appreciate it for what it was. It is something we all looked forward to each year.

From the time Bailee was old enough, we have gone to the woods to cut our own tree. Some years we find a better looking tree than others, but somehow once we get it all lit up the flaws seem to disappear. 

 

 The decorations are far from coordinated. As we adorn it with all the handmade ornaments from the girls and the ones we collect from the different places we visit, I smile at the imperfectness of it all.

Don't get me wrong, I still like the look of the beautifully shaped and decorated tree of my youth, but our imperfect tree is pretty perfect for us. It is filled with sweet memories that make my heart happy and sometimes a little sad.  It is a reminder to me that like our tree, life is flawed and messy and unpredictable and yes, even imperfect. But at the same time pretty magnificent! 

Tree Tromp 2016

Our schedule has been nuts lately between swimming and basketball. Our options for a day to go to the mountains to get our tree seemed to be slipping away. We decided Sunday it was do or die! Because of church obligations we couldn't leave until after noon. 

We headed for the Snowy Range in hopes of finding "the one" before  nightfall.

 We narrowed it down to a few and finally decided this Douglas Fir was going home with us

 Our hunt took us further down the canyon so rather than trek back through the rough terrain with a tree in tow, we cut out to the road and hauled it back to the van.

 You didn't think we left Gorden out of this did you?

 We did a little sledding while we still had some daylight. 

I saw this tree stump that looked like it had fossils in it. 

I don't think the others found it nearly as neat as I did:)

 We ended the day with Grilled Cheese and Hot Chocolate right there in the snow covered forest. The sun was nowhere to be found all afternoon so it was COLD. We drove home in the dark with our fresh tree strapped on top and Christmas radio cranked up. I love this tradition!

Christmas Parade

Emmrey gets pretty dang excited about any "event". So when she heard the Christmas Parade was happening we were reminded daily that it was coming up. Saturday night we bundled up and headed out to sit on the cold sidewalks of downtown Wellington. We were short one. Kars was at her friend Eliana's birthday party. Pretty sure she missed it last year for the same reason.

 The parade was what you can expect from a small town. Nothing too mind blowing but charming in it's own way.

 They did have Llamas in the parade and this girl loved that! She has a bit of a love affair with the Llama Llama books.

 Bailee was there for a Yearbook assignment. She was charged with getting some photos of Poudre FFA although she didn't bring her yearbook camera home over the weekend so she was doing her best with my little digital.

It was short and sweet ... which was good since my fingers were frozen!

Cougar Choir and Tree Lighting

Emmrey is part of the 4-5th grade choir at Eyestone. On Friday, they were invited to sing at the Community Tree Lighting Ceremony. This was a first for us so we didn't really know what to expect. We were pleasantly surprised to see such a huge turnout ... by our little town standards.  The bad part was that they (town of Wellington) hadn't really planned very well for the event. This is outside when they lit the tree. The choir was against the Library building there and unless you were right up front you were out of luck. This was as much as we saw of O Christmas Tree

 After the tree lighting they moved everyone inside of the Senior Center for the rest of the concert. This was even worse. No way could this little building accommodate all the people that were there. They also hadn't thought out the placement of the kids. This was our view ... one of those blondies behind Santa's back was Emm.

 Enough complaining ... the kids sounded awesome! It was strange to be without two-fifths of our gang. Bailee was at work and then swimming and Kars had basketball that didn't get over until after this started. We are pretty proud of this little singer!

These are a few of our Favorite Things .....

While we were in Utah, I hosted a Favorite Things luncheon with my mom and sisters. I selected Gardner Village because I love it there and it seemed like the perfect atmosphere for this occasion.

Since our luncheon would be after Thanksgiving it felt like a bit of a kick off to the Holiday season.

  These parties have been around a while. The idea is that you choose one of your favorite things, set a budget and number of gifts and you bring that many of the same item.

 This was our table of Favorite Things. I was so enjoying the time with my sisters and mom that we had already gone through two gift rounds when I remembered to take this. The missing items were a Maurices gift card (Leslie) and Sephora face mask (Ashlee). We also had hand warmers and gloves (Mom), Lindt Chocolate & Fresh Balsam candle (me), Diet Coke & Cafe Rio (Jami), Method dish soap (Shana), Batiste Dry Shampoo (Kris), Victorias Secret perfume & Starbucks (Lori), Gingerbread Sugar Scrub (Jenn and Olivia), and Chocolate Grapes (Jill). Shana was so thoughtful to bring Olivia the Candy Cane treat so she wouldn't feel left out with the gift exchange:)

 I made up a little questionnaire to decide the order of exchange. Everyone filled it out anonymously and then one person read it and we guessed who it was. Then that person told us about what they brought drew the 5 names and read the next sheet. I think I know my sisters well, but it was so fun to hear about some of their favorites that don't necessarily come up in every conversation.

The exchange went pretty smooth with only a couple of minor hiccups like duplicate names and someone getting their own name. My little assistant (Olivia) helped my get that straightened out;)

These are the 5 things I was lucky enough to get drawn for. 

I also got Chocolate Grapes but those never made it home:)

 It was such a fun afternoon and really relaxing. There is something about the atmosphere at Gardner Village that just puts me in a good mood. It's like you're stepping back into a simpler time. If Kristin could have joined us from Texas we would have had all the sisters accounted for. One of my very Favorite Things is getting to spend time with these girls!