Christmas blogs

We went to Station Park in Farmington and found that Santa had no line...and since we have yet to take her, it was done.  The Santa was pretty legit too. He also knew how to handle kids (really.)  He told the husband to face #ohniceandchubbybaby towards himself and then back her up and place her into Santa's lap.  It worked fine, until a few minutes later and she gazed upon him.  Then we got this action shot.  I think the photographer was a little irritated because he thought there were other shots that were better.  We disagreed.

This kid might enjoy lights as much as I do.  She has this adorable little "oooooooo" sound you ever did here.  Every time she saw the tree lit up she "oooooo-ed" at it some more.  Probably just to please her mama. 

The Husband and I have been discussing what traditions to keep and what new ones to start.  His family always opened new PJs on Christmas Eve, while mine did the sibling gift exchange, so we are keeping those.  But on Christmas Day, I really only want to give our kids 3 gifts.  1 from Santa, one from us and some other reason I haven't quite put together yet.  Of course, Aiko doesn't even notice yet how many she has, but we got her Vintage Little People set, the farming one...and she LOVES them.  She talks to the Little People in this high squeaky voice. (Which apparently, she knows that we baby talk to her and then have normal voices as well.)  Derek's family has Baby New Year that comes to leave candy in your shoes.  We're going to switch it up and have Baby New Year bring a new book every year instead.

Ugly Sweater Christmas Party!

Merry Christmas!

christmas memories

thinking back to this post...

made me think that i should take some photos of some of my favorite ornaments.

just in case that day of smashing them comes sooner.

and because i feel that ornaments are blog worthy.

we have one from mount rushmore

aiko's first christmas ornament

(grandma says that his eyes remind her of my baby...she kind of does have beady little eyes)

i'm a sucker for the blown glass, so pretty!

(which is all that much easier to smash)

this one i got in columbus ohio with annie.

it's suppose to ward of witches

so

yeah

these have the high honor of being on the garland this year.

last year, they were under my bed.

these are just a few ornaments on my ugly christmas tree.

so excited to see what the next 10 years bring that are ornament worthy!

kolob canyon

(one of our favorite hikes)

nativity scene background brought to you by the husband

he's painted three paintings in his life.

this is one of them

and probably the last three he'll ever paint. 

other posts about kolob and hiking southern utah here and here.

such a happy boy

i basically traded my soul...

but it's worth it to see him smile like this. 

"ugly" christmas tree

i was just reading my friend erin's post about her "crappy christmas decorations"

she has four kids and is in despair about her christmas tree. 

she let her kids decorate it

usually, i would just laugh about these kind of things

(no offense erin)

but life has changed (obviously)

i had no idea how drastically though. 

i believe there are two kinds of trees in the world...well maybe three.

1 - pretty trees - you know, the trees that look like they were purchased right from the fancy stores or found on pinterest

2 - charlie brown trees. if you don't know what this is. . . 

shame on you.

3 - ugly trees.  yes, my kind of tree. i have a short poem i wrote last year about it.  i'm not normally the poetic type, but this is the real deal.  plus i made a treasury on etsy about it as well. 

i have what some might call an ugly Christmas tree.

my tree has hundreds of memories.

each ornament has a story you see.

so come, join the challenge of the 

ugly Christmas tree.

the other day i went to my first "play date"

one of the mom's was lamenting about all her smashed ornaments.

(gasp)

smashed ornaments?!?!

apparently, i didn't realize how passionate i was about my ornaments. i don't really care about the placement or anything on the actual tree

but smashing them!?!

if you had read my poem (and deeply contemplated the meaning) you'll understand that each ornament contains a memory.  instead of buying souvenirs, i purchase an ornament on every trip.

i actually stopped and just stared at this mom.

i had never considered that my little raptor would become a godzilla a destroy my memories.

goodness, now i feel the need to run upstairs and take photos of all my favorite ornaments!  now i'm going to have to post about it too.  luckily, i still have one more year before she unleashes terror on my ugly christmas tree.