Christmas at our House

Christmas at our house - it was our first Christmas with the boys. It was our first chance to let Santa into our house. I told you about going out and selecting our tree. That was a lot of fun and something that we will do every year. We had to buy some new ornaments because we had thrown most of the stuff out a few years back. We did have some homemade ornaments that we used. I love those. We also made some new ornaments. They turned out wonderful and we had a lot of fun making them. The cards that we made with the boys pictures inside were a big hit. Actually, everything that we made was a big hit.

Nana loves here canvas bag the boys made.

Christmas Eve:

Granny K stayed over. That was nice. It gave Superman and I a chance to do what we had to do. Superman read "Twas the Night Before Christmas". The boys were so ready to go to bed when it came bedtime. They were sound asleep almost when their heads hit the pillow. I baked several dozen cookies during the day. Sometimes the boys would help with the cookies but they really just wanted to eat them. Go figure!

Superman had been holding on to the 4 wheeler secret for so long. Just one more day and he can let the cat out of the bag.

Oh yeah - I almost forgot. We made a Santa Clause Landing Zone. We used milk cartons with tea light candles in them. The Santa Clause LZ looked so much better than it does here.

Our tree before Santa had arrived.

Christmas Day:

Our tree after Santa had arrived.

No this is not the Taliban! Talk about pulling the wool over their eyes!

The face of a very surprised and happy child.

Instructions, directions, do and don'ts!

Even do and don'ts from Grandpa.

Of course we have to try them on. They fit well...I know they belong to the boys. Now get off of them.

Oh yeah! Somebodies just gotta get brave!

And Mindy says it all...I've had enough!

I know there no helmets on anyone of us. Superman turned the 4 wheelers down, so they would go really fast. One the boys learn a little more about them and really get the feel of them and learn to respect them, then they will be turned up a little at a time.

Helmets are coming this month. We will not ride them anymore until protective gear can be worn.

It's Almost Here

Christmas is almost here! We are counting the days down. I'm not sure who is more anxious about Tuesday more...Superman, the boys or me. Me - I'm not really anxious, I'm just thinking in my head of how the boys are going to be, how they are going to act and how their little faces will look when they see everything under the tree. Superman - well this is his time of year. All he can do is call me into any room that there isn't a child in and whisper to me about this gift or that gift and what we should do and blah-blah-blah. LOL

The boys - well that is a different story altogether. They stare with complete bliss on their faces as we tote in packages wrapped in beautiful paper. It's almost like they become zombies. I know that Christmas morning is going to be extremely eventful around here.

Now I just have to wonder...What time will they wake me up on Christmas day?

Christmas Sharing

Here are some delicious Holiday Recipes for you to enjoy.

Be sure to check out all of the Christmas Stories. There are stories to read alone or to share with your family and friends.

Homemade Christmas Crafts

I horde things...Imagine that! I don't mean that I am a pack rat. I just mean that I keep some scraps of material, frozen juice lids, yarn, and, well you know. You're a crafter so you do the same thing. Today these little treasures paid off.

Here are a couple of things that the boys and I did for the holidays.

Card stock paper folded in half. I drew little stockings on the wrong side of some jeans material that I had left over. I wrote the boy's names on each stocking. I cut a tiny rectangle for the tap or stocking holder. I glued all of the material (stocking) pieces onto one half of the paper. I used an Elegant Writer pen (from Michaels craft store) and wrote "Merry Christmas", Twas The Night Before Christmas" and "Jesus is the reason" on the cards.

I cut little triangles out of left over jeans material and glued it to the inside of each card. I used the little triangles to hold the pictures inside the cards. It gives the card a little photo album or scrapbook look to the cards.

On the frozen juice lids I glued the stockings on one side of the lids. On the back side of the frozen juice lids, I glued a long scrap of jeans material. The loop on the back is made to hang these little ornaments on our tree.

Helping the Wildlife

Have you ever helped the wildlife? We do. We go about out daily chores and we think of the effect we have on wildlife. Today is a good example...

I brought out my bike today. Yeah - you should have seen the boys. They stood in amazement as my bike rolled down the back steps. It was funny to hear their aws and see their faces. Ok - back to what I was saying. On the way home, I spotted a huge green worm. I felt like the boys when they saw my bike rolling down the steps. I was amazed at how large he was and how beautiful green he was. Nope - no pictures, I didn't take the camera with us. I like to travel light.
We watched the worm for about 5 minutes and then we let him continue to his destination. We left him alone to do his thing. That's what wildlife does.

I have a few tips that you may or may not have thought about, that you can do for wildlife.

1. You can sting popcorn, cranberries, grapes, crackers and other things that you can think of on cotton thread. Hang it outside for the critters to enjoy. Make sure your thread is 100% cotton and the popcorn is 100% natural with no salt or butter.

2. Fill net material with any kind of bird seed, tie a ribbon around the top and hang it for the birds to enjoy. You can add crushed egg shells, orange slices, orange peels, crackers and other things that you think of.

3. String raw peanuts on 100% cotton thread and hang them for the critters to enjoy.

4. A pine cone can be a wonderful treat. Mix peanut butter and oatmeal for a think paste, coat the pine cone with the mixture (make sure to get it in the pine cone), roll it in bird seed, hang it and the birds will flock to it.

5. Suet. Melt beef fat or bacon grease and let it cool. Add bird seed, peanut butter, fruit or granola. Hang it in a net bag and the birds will love it.

6. Don't throw away your table scraps, put them in a net bag and hang outside.

Onion mesh bags are great to use for the netting material in most of the ideas.
I'm sure you can come up with a few other ideas too.
Hang some of these on your Christmas tree inside. When the time comes to take down the tree, just remove your ornaments and leave the natural ones on the tree. Set your tree outside and let the critters enjoy all the treats.

Don't just throw your Christmas tree out for the trash collector to take it to the land fill. Let the critters use your tree to protect them, they make great places for bunnies and other critters to hide in.

Our Outting Today

No kids today! I mean it, they stayed with Granny Karen today while Superman and I went and picked up one of their Christmas gifts. We are getting all 3 of the boys 4 wheelers for Christmas. We have told them over and over again that when they turn 15 that we will get them their very own 4 wheeler. Shoot, we had to tell them that or they wouldn't leave us alone about it. They have no clue! It was a long drive to go and pick them up and then to take them to my father in laws house. I was able to catch a little cat nap while Superman drove. I love napping when I am riding. Once we dropped off the 4 wheelers, we stopped by Toys R Us.

I think I may have told you that I am not much of a shopper. Put me in the grocery store or the craft store and I know just what I want and what the price should be. Put me in the mall or the toy store and I start with the panic attacks. Sometimes I really do want to scream. Prices and people - horrible. Darn good thing that Superman is good at this. I just kinda follow along and when he finds something that he thinks the boys will like we discuss it. And that's what we did today.
I am shocked that 8 boxes of toys was $225.

Oh the price increase is because of the increase of fuel. And them more excuses. Regardless of the reason for the price of things, it's horrible.

Cats and Trees

I thought by now that I would have some really funny things to tell you about our cats and our Christmas tree. Unfortunately, I don't have anything about our cats and our tree. I just knew that I would wake up Sunday morning with our tree laid over on it's side. I went to bed all prepared for the catastrophe. We had all talked about the possibility of finding Tigger at the top of the tree or even getting to the top and knocking the Angel off and somehow wearing the Angel. I suppose Tigger and the other cats have decided to leave the tree alone for now. I wonder if any of them will find themselves in the tree before Christmas is over?

Our Christmas Tree

We are in the process of decorating for Christmas. I'm not much in the mood, but that's a long story. Regardless of my mood, Christmas is on it's way. The boys are so excited about the whole Christmas thing. For them to have done without for so long, they deserve every happy moment that they have.

Friday - All 5 of us went out to eat and then off to buy Christmas decorations. I'm not sure who wanted the most decorations, Superman or the Boys. I think it may have been a tie. We didn't go over board at all, but we did get some really nice things. The decorations that we got are mostly for the tree, we did get a few for inside the house. We also bought a few presents, some of them are for the boys to make for their grandparents. The boys and I will be doing a few crafts for school work. We will all color a few pictures that we can hang up and of course the crafts for gifts.

Saturday - Time to get a tree. We went to a Christmas Tree Farm to find the perfect tree for us. Why a tree farm? I am more an artificial tree person myself, but Superman is all for the real thing. Superman likes the smell, he is the one that does most of the work with cutting it and hauling it, so I am ok with that. What really amazed me about our tree is that it only cost $25. A 7 foot Christmas tree for $25. Now I like that. Especially when the places around town are asking $75 and more.

We walked and walked, looking for the perfect tree. You could tell that most people didn't walk very far from the little shed where you picked up a saw and a cart to carry your tree. I guess the walking and smelling the fresh air was just way too much for them. Not for us! We walked some more. Then we turned around and went back to the front of the property. Then we turned around and walked back down the rows of trees. They were all so beautiful and it was a tough decision.

Finally, we decided on which tree to take home. It had an aroma that was so strong, it smelled of the outdoors and of the tree itself. This is it we all said - this is our special tree. So we start the process of cutting it down. Everyone had the chance to saw a little bit. Once it was cut, we loaded it on a cart and took it to the shed. Once we got to the shed, the tree was put on a shaker machine - this shakes all the dead nettles out of it, then it was wrapped with some type of net material - this is to hold it together for the drive home. We loaded it on the car and off down the road we went.

Once we got home we took the tree off of the top of the car, carried it to the front door and then started getting it into the stand. Once it was inside we had to adjust it. We all worked together to make everything come together nicely.

We set up the video camera and that's when the fun began. Shoot, we haven't even watched the video yet, but I can tell you right now, it's gonna be fall-on-the-floor-split-your-sides-laughing-funny. No doubt about it.

Here we all are in front of the tree. What tree? Next year we may all have to sit in front of the tree, just to be able to see it.

Christmas Boxes

About 2 weeks ago we went in search of some of our Christmas boxes. And as luck would have it - we found them. They aren't anything special or so I thought. We put the boxes in our little classroom. The boys wanted to open them then (2 weeks ago). Of course we didn't have time then but tonight was a different story. I gave each one of them a task. MJ had to get some paper and a pen. WW and JD had to fetch the boxes. Oh when I said get the Christmas boxes, I thought there was going to be a train wreck right there in the den. They all scattered as fast as they could to retrieve their task. Within about 5 seconds (or so it seemed) they were back.

Buried treasure! That's exactly how they acted - when the lids were taken off the boxes, they were like little octopuses with arms reaching in the boxes after the Christmas treasures. Teddy bears, handmade ornaments, a camouflage stocking (oh my), a beautiful crystal reindeer with silver glitter antlers, a tree skirt, a stocking cap, reindeer antlers to wear and a few more precious items. The ohhhhsss and awwwsss were something to hear. MJ found the angel for the top of the tree. They would have it no other way but for us to use her for our tree. We were going to buy whatever they wanted for the top of the tree, but I guess now that they have seen her, she will be on the tip top of our tree.

We are going to get a real tree this year. We are planning on taking the boys to a Christmas tree lot, walk through all of the trees and pick the one that is perfect for us. Then we will use a hand saw to cut down the tree, put it on top of the car and bring it home.

Within the next couple of days we will all go shopping for Christmas ornaments and decorations. I am also planning on getting the boys to make some decorations to hang up in the house. Something to get us all in the Christmas mood.