Christmas Morning

You know that feeling of being displaced?

My computer is in the shop.
It's been there for a bit.
Hopefully it will be ready soon.

They had to wipe it. Yup, wipe the hard drive. Had some serious virus problems. Anyway, all my pictures and editing software is on my computer.. hence the lack of blogging, and my feelings of being displaced.

Can't deal with it any longer... I'm posting some Christmas Morning pictures.. completely raw, unedited, uncropped, red eye... the works.

Jennica is hanging onto a cup cake decorating set. She got it from Aaron for Christmas. She picked it out herself... She has been waiting to open it for WEEKS, which is something like 100 years in kid time.

Can't remember what DVD the kids were excited about in this picture. What I'd like to point out is the pants Santa brought for Aaron still draped neatly over the couch in the background. Why can't the non-toy presents get a little love?? hmmmm?? HMMMMM?


(Yes, my boys love to wear mom and dad's t-shirts to bed. I can't blame them.. after one grows out of footie pajamas kid PJ's look so uncomfortable.


Yes, Santa brought Jennica some press on nails.

As far as Jennica is concerned, Santa rocks.

Clearly, Jennica rocks too.

And for my scrapbooking friends...

You've got to check this out. My GENIOUS pal Melody Ross is taking creative to a whole new level and has designed chipboard stamping sets that are SOOOO amazing. The finished product looks like hand-tooled leather. I've been able to demo the tools at Mel's house and they are awesome. There is nothing like it on the market. You are going to love them!

Mall Santa, Atrocity in lights, Christmas stuff, and the TREE.

Mall Santa

I took Jennica and Aaron out to do some Christmas shopping with me. First stop. The mall.

We have never taken out kids to see Santa... Isn't that sad? The loved it. The line was short, and Santa was fat and happy.

And the kids got elf ears..

After Santa I told them we could go get hot chocolate and a warm treat, and they insisted on ice cream.


THAT'S a lot of lights..

After shopping my kids have been begging to see where I work. Since I work out of a home office, that's a little difficult cause I'm all weirded out that my boss will see me driving around his house on my day off and then I'd weird them out...

Anyway, in the same neighborhood lives a very eccentric and over the top Christmaser. A "Christmaser" is anyone who is known year round and introduced by their Christmas decorating reputation. As a general rule, and at the risk of offending a few people...I'm not that big a fan of Christmasers. I'm more into tasteful moderation.

But the kids LOVED it.
Making Christmas Goodies

One Sunday afternoon we made Christmas goodies for some of our neighbors.

Carmel cranberry almond popcorn... Chocolate dipped shortbread cookies... Cinnamon raisin cookies.

Yum.


Decorating the House

After the cookies we put up Christmas decorations, with the exception of the Christmas tree. We do not own a plastic Christmas tree. I mean I'm glad they make them for my friends who have severe allergies and such, but I enjoy the real thing. No pine smell in an aerosol can for me.


The Fourth Grade Idaho History "Christmas" Music Concert:

Nuff said.

(Noah was great. He's a basque dancer...)

Cutting the Tree:

Yesterday, despite winter weather advisory warnings of up to 8 inches snow in the mountains we drove up to Idaho City to cut our Christmas tree.

So glad we did. The snowfall was light while we were up there and the snow in the mountains was not at all deep. Just a couple inches.


Unfortunately, the area we decided to stop at had been ground cleared by the forest service. We hikes forever before finding any small trees at all. That was fine, but I was a little antsy knowing all this snow was expected and wanting to make sure we didn't get snowed in.





We finally found this beauty. It's a little bit tall but has a nice shape and lots of branches... for a non tree farm tree anyway..

We cut it, and then started on the long trek to try and find where we parked. Not easy since we had hiked so far.. Eventually we found the road, which eventually lead to the truck..

And luckily, Andy didn't kill us all on the drive home. The roads were BAD.


Fight, Fight, BSU..

Finally, My friend Teresa Collins, who has an amazing line of scrapbook products, sent me some of her papers to play around with, and I've been working on this project for my boys room.

I think it turned out okay. JUST okay.

Have you ever had a creative block?

I was having serious creative block. Trying not to be negative so that's all I'll say.







My boys are HUGE Boise State Football fans... and seeing how the BRONCOS freaking rock, I had to make a time stamp to their excellence.



This poster and dresser are covered with newspaper headlines from the 2009 Boise State football season. In 50 years maybe some sports fanatic will think it's worth something and it can pay for my kids college.. Wait a minute.. in 50 years my kids had dang well better be finished with college... Maybe my great grand kids..

My boys love it. That's all that matters.

Fiesta Bowl is next. GO BRONCOS!

That's it for now!

I'm going to eat dinner, then we're decorating the tree. I wouldn't trade cutting our tree for a "lot" tree, but it does take a little magic to make them beautiful. Wish us luck..

xoxo