Christmas Catch-Up: Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve is always pretty laid back when we are at my parent's house, which is, quite frankly, just how I like it.  I feel like Christmas Day is kind of chaotic, between opening presents, and cooking a big meal, and the weeks leading up to Christmas are so crazy that it is kind of nice to unwind on Christmas Eve.

We still manage to run around, buying last minute things, but for the most part, we just hang out.  My sister's family spend Christmas Eve with her in-laws, so they are usually only around for a couple hours in the morning.  We made the most of it this year though, and let the kids decorate gingerbread houses.  I am pretty sure Miley ate more candy than she actually put on the house, though.

That evening, we just had some soup, salad, and rolls for dinner.  Afterwards, we let Miley and Landon open up some presents.  We were waiting for my dad to come before they opened, and as we were waiting guess who decided to pay us a visit?

The kids were a little freaked out.  Miley wouldn't even get close, and Landon let him hold him for a minute before he started to freak out as well.  Too funny.

The kids opened their presents (some new pajamas and Christmas books) and then we went on our traditional light tour around town.  There are always a few really great houses, but the hit this year was the courthouse.  They have an amazing display of lights, and when you tune to a specific radio station, they have Christmas music playing and the lights are coordinated with the music.  Pretty cool stuff.  I didn't get any pictures, but the kids loved it.

Afterwards, we went home, and put out some cookies for Santa, and then the kids were off to bed so Santa could come and leave presents....

Next up...Christmas Day!

Christmas Catch-Up: Pre-Christmas Shenanigans

We have been up in the air for the past year about whether or not to stay here in our new home for Christmas this year, or to make the trip home to Wyoming for one more year.  I thought it would be fun to be home, and to have Landon get to have at least one Christmas in Wyoming, so we got to make the trip.

Usually we fly, but with havng an extra kid this year, we decided to drive.  I am not normally a fan of long car trips (and the one to Wyoming is about 13-14 hours), but I was actually excited to be doing it this way this year, because it meant we could bring everything we needed, plus we could bring any presents we wanted to.  In the past I have had to plan my presents around what would fit in our suitcases, so I had a little fun this year buying some BIGGER things.  :)

Now, I was also a little apprehensive, because driving through Minnesota, Iowa, Nebraska, and Wyoming could very potentially be horrible this time of year.  We have been lucky though, and have had a freakishly warm and snow-free winter, so the whole drive home was perfect.  We left at midnight on Friday, the 16th, so as to let the kids sleep for part of the time, and got into Laramie at around 1:00 pm that day.  It was a great drive, so we were thrilled.

We didn't waste any time having fun while we were there (I feel bad, because a lot of these pictures don't have Landon in them...a lot of this stuff was done while he was napping, and we were trying to do stuff to keep the older kids entertained!).  We got to go to one University of Wyoming men's basketball game while we were there, and two women's games.  I stayed home from one of the women's games to let Landon get to bed at a normal time, but Cameron and my mom took Miley.  They had seats on the floor, and while they were there, Miley got to go out on the floor and do a cheer with the cheerleaders at one of the time-outs.  She was so excited, and is still talking about it. 

We also got to go over to campus to check out the new College of Business that was built literally RIGHT after Cameron and I graduated.  The building is soooo nice.  We are a little peeved that they didn't have it while we were there.  :)  It was fun getting to check that out, and running into some of our old professors.

Of course we kept ourselves busy with Christmas preparations.  We were able to do some decorating of the Christmas tree, bake Christmas cookies, and listen to lots of Christmas music.  And there may have been just a few shopping runs throughout the week. 

We *attempted* to do some sledding with the measley amount of snow that we recieved one day, but there was hardly enough to do more than a few snow angels and a little pulling by the dads on the street.  Oh well.  What can you do, right?

In between all of that, we got to just enjoy visiting and catching up with my mom and dad, and my sister, Gelsey, her husband, Kipp, and their boys, Bode and Cruze.  The cousins loved being together and realized they had much in common - Miley and Bode with their love of cell phones, and Landon and Cruze with their style and getting picked on by their older siblings!

We loved getting to be there for a full week before Christmas.  I love that time, and love that I was able to spend it with my family again!  Next up....Christmas Eve and Christmas Day!

A Few Recent Projects

One would think that with building a brand new house, there wouldn't be too much that would have to be done to it.  So not the case (as originally evidenced in the landscaping post here). 

We have definitely had some things we wanted / needed to do to our house, but it is going to be a slow and steady kind of thing.  We managed to have some fun over the Thanksgiving break though. 

The first major improvement is the blinds!  Yes, we did not get any window treatments included with our house.  So after a few months of having nothing covering the windows at night (which gives me the serious heebie-jeebies, by the way) we decided to finally order some.  I never thought I could be so excited to have blinds.  It is so nice to have blinds to close when it is dark outside, have it be a little darker in the kids rooms for naps / bedtime, and to be able to close the blinds when the sun is so bright that you can't see anything.  Cameron and I ordered them from Blinds.com, and installed them ourselves, which took a full afternoon.  But hey, I learned something new, right?  :)

Next, we finally got some "real" furniture.  We have been sticking with the college furniture for the last few years, due to the fact that we have been moving so much and have been in such small spaces.  We bought a new kitchen table that I L-O-V-E.  Our table before could fit (barely) four, and now we have room to spread out.  Plus it just looks better in our kitchen, than our previous natural colored table.

Here's a shot of the table with our new blinds...the table really needs some decorating.  I am thinking a table runner and a centerpiece of some sort, but some of those accessories may have to wait a while...  :)

Our foyer has also needed a little something, but it doesn't have a ton of wall space, so I have had trouble finding just the right thing for it.  When we were buying our table, I happened to spot this little gem, and it was exactly what I had been looking for!  Just big enough to hold a lamp, or a picture, or a little decoration (like now), but small enough to fit in the space.

Now for one of our bigger projects...Cameron decided over Thanksgiving that he would tackle builidng lockers for our mudroom.  We just found a picture online that we liked, and he sort of just made it up as he went along.

In the process of building it...

...and the finished product (although I just realized this isn't the COMPLETELY finished product...I will have to take a picture with the trim back up and the touch up paint done)!

We are loving having these to have specific places to put the kids things.  It needs some baskets in the top for hats and mittens and those kinds of things, and maybe something in the bottom for shoes, but I can't quite figure out what yet!  I was very impressed that Cameron was able to whip this out in such a short amount of time.  And I absolutely love them!

So what was I working on while Cameron was spending every spare minute working on the lockers?  I was sewing away on this...

...and I just finished it!  Phew.  Nothing like the pressure of Christmas coming up to make me get this done. 

Well, we had some fun, but now I think it is time our bank account we took a little break!

Wordless Wednesday

Our Newest Family Member

I just thought I would introduce you to the newest member of our family...Freddie. 

I am sure many of you have seen, or do the Elf on the Shelf tradition for yourselves, but this is the first year we decided to pick up on this trend.  "Santa" delivered Freddie to us on Thanksgiving night, along with a book explaining all about Freddie and how he watches the kids to see if they are being naughty or nice.  Each night he returns to Santa to give him a report, and then comes back and hides in a new spot for the kids to find each day. 

We have been having a lot of fun with this and certainly pull out the "Miley, you better be good because Freddie is watching..." card a lot!  Miley loves waking up in the morning, and the first thing she asks to do is to find Freddie.  So far we have found Freddie on a couple windows, in the playroom, on the mantle, on a lamp, on the TV, etc.  I have to admit, we Freddie has a little bit of a hard time finding a new spot every night, and there have been a few close calls in the morning when Miley asks to look for him and we have not moved him he has not moved yet!

It has been fun to start one of the first of our own Christmas traditions in our little family.  I look forward to pulling Freddie out each year from now on, and having him be a part of our family during the Christmas season!