Holiday Memory #7

Holiday Memory #7 - Holiday Parties

Are there any particular parties that you go to every year? What are they and why do you go? Do you yourself throw a party or have a gathering at your home some time during the holiday season? Try describing what preparations you go through.

For the second year in a row we have had holiday parties for Ian at school that we have gone to but other than that we don't go to any parties. I guess you could say we are party poopers.

Holiday Memory #6

Holiday Memory #6 - Outdoor Decorations

Make a list of what outdoor decorations you have. Again, you might want to expand this to how you chose the decorations or what certain decorations mean to you.

Can we say Scrooge or is it Blackhole on the Face of the Earth?

The only decorations that I have outside of my house are the artifical wreath on my front door and a snowman sign that when you walk in front of it it sings Frosty the Snowman.
In our new neighborhood EVERYONE decorates outside their house. In fact I haven't seen a lot of Christmas trees in the front window but those huge inflateable things (which I think are ugly) are on almost every front yard around here. Even our neighbors put lights on all the bushes and lights on the roofline.

Hubby and I talked about it before he left on business and we might try to do something but it might have to wait until next year, Darren told me to start working on a plan. LOL!!

Holiday Memory #5

Holiday Memory #5 - Indoor Decorations

Make a list of what indoor decorations you have. Expand this to how you chose the decorations or what certain decorations mean to you.

I don't have a lot of indoor decorations. I don't like a lot of clutter in my house so basically my decorations are in the living room near the tree and that is it.

The Tree & The Nativity Scene (which you have seen before).
The Stockings

Bells in my Candle Holder

The Cards.

My Santa's that I painted the first year we were married.

A stuffed Santa given to my oldest son by my mom who collects Santa's. A snowman cardholder that my mom got me because I love snowmen.

A couple of tiny Santa's that were my dad's mom. After she died I was given the box of them and these 2 have lost their little hangers so they can't go on the tree anymore.

I used to have a really cool snowman made out of bowling pin but in our last move the movers broke him. :( Who would have thought you could break a bowling pin. I saved him and he is still in the box, waiting patiently for me to learn how to knit so I can make him a new hat to cover the broken spot.

The Christmas Program

Ian's kindergarten Christmas program was tonight. Here is a little snipet of them singing, it was super cute. **Ian is the one in the reindeer antlers in the back row.**

Holiday Memory #4

Holiday Memory #4 = Decorating the Tree

Describe how your tree is decorated. Do you have a certain color scheme or a certain theme? Do you have colored versus clear lights? What types of ornaments do you hang on your tree? You might want to expand this to describing what certain ornaments mean to you or what type of ornaments you like to buy.

I love to have colorful things on my tree and I have to say none of them match and that is what I like. I have ornaments on my tree from all around the world and I like to pick up new ones when we go some place special to remember it. Or from family like this one from my Grandma Kotz that she gave me the Christmas before she passed away. It is very special to me.

There are ornaments on the tree from when Darren and I were little kids that our parents have kept for us, ornaments that people and we have given to our kids now too.
And my absolute favorites are homemade ones that the kids make for the tree!!! I buy ornaments because they mean something to me like this year I bought 2 glass balls for the boys, one was a Star Wars one and one a Cars one. They loved getting to hang them on the tree all by themselves.

I am on a roll!!

Second layout done in 2 days. Doesn't hurt that these are pictures I printed out and took with me to the b&b retreat back in October so I already had them all printed out but that was it.

Because I am being lazy and not going upstairs to scan these since they are just going on my blog, I also took some pictures of some of the details so you could see them better.

I finally scrapped.

I know it has been a really long time since I have done a layout but I really was feeling it yesterday so I just embraced it and ran with it. Rosalie in my Ames Area Croppers Yahoo group was issuing some challenges and the first one was to create a round layout and I am finally getting done with this first challenge.

I took a picture of it because I wasn't sure how to scan a round layout so sorry if the quality isn't up to par. I am really happy with how it turned out and I used up a lot of things that I have had laying around for a while.

The journaling says...
Bath done.
Teeth brushed.
Jammies on.
Bear, blankie, and a sippy cup of milk
on the couch because it's
ALMOST
BED
TIME
but first one cartoon with mommy &
dadddy before it is time to get tucked in.
Ian at 3 years old.
Ames Iowa.

**you can click on the image to make it bigger so you can see it better**

Holiday Memory #3

Holiday Memory #3 = Putting Up the Tree

Do you have a live or an artificial tree? Why do you have one versus the other type? You might want to expand this into talking about why you’ve chosen a live versus an artificial tree.

I love the way real trees smell, there isn't an air freshner in the world that really smells the way that a real fir tree smells. But with a dog who thinks the world is her water dish we have to go with an artifical tree because it would be dead so quickly because I would forget to water it as often as it needed to be. Plus the clean up on an artifical tree is so much simplier, vacuum the rug once before it goes up and again after you put it up and you normally just can get by with cleaning as normal.

I remember getting a real tree with my family as a little kid and I kind of remember my dad cursing at the thing trying to cut it so that it would fit in the metal stand. Makes me think of that movie with Ralphie called The Christmas Story. ((I love that movie.))

And my hubby would probably kill me if he knew THIS was the picture of putting up the tree I was using but it is so funny that he is under the tree trying to do something to fix it. ((Now can you see why every year we talk about getting new one?))
**Pictures are from last year because I didn't get any of us putting up the tree this year just decorating it.**

Evan's First Time

He went potty in the potty!!! I am so happy!!!

OK I need to find his baby book now so I can put this milestone into it!!

Holiday Memory #2

Holiday Memory #2 = Picking Your Tree

Describe what you feel is the perfect tree. If you have a live tree, how describe how you choose which one to get? When do you like to go get a tree? Does one person in your family have the final word? If you have an artificial tree, then describe how and why you picked the tree. Is it flocked, or plain? Is it a prelit tree or do you still have to string the lights?

This is a good question for us this year because hubby and I have been talking about getting a new artifical tree. Personally I would love to have more than one but budget and space don't allow that. I would love to have a Charlie Brown Christmas tree for the kids to put their ornaments on. Maybe next year...
We have an artifical tree right now, always have because when you have pets and really don't like to clean up needles everyday it is much more practical. Our tree is tall, actually a little tall for me. I can't reach the top to put ornaments on it and if our ceilings weren't just a little higher than normal ceilings then it would probably be touching. The ones that we have been looking at buying this year are about 7 feet. That to me is a good size because hubby can still stand in front of it and not dwarf it.
Our tree right now is prelit with hundreds of small white lights. We bought it when the prelit trees first came out and they only came with white lights. Silly thing is I LOVE colored lights so we always end up throwing on about 3 strings of colored lights on the prelit tree so we were really thinking that if we bought another one it would not have lights on it already, especially since 2 years ago my mom and I took half of the white lights off to find out where the bad bulb was because none of the lights would work. That is a pain let me tell you because had the tree not had lights on it and we found a bad strand we would have just bought a new one but we ended up getting it fixed.
What I do love about my tree is how full it is. You can barely see through it it has so many branches. On the downside of this, this tree is so full that you can't really put presents under the tree because the branches go down so far.
We ended up keeping the tree we have already and putting it up because shopping for a tree just didn't work for us, their are too many to chose from and every one of them we found something that just wasn't as nice as the one that we already have because once it is all dressed up it really is a nice tree.

Holiday Memory #1

My friend Melanie is hosting a Holdiay Memories Challenge over at ScrapAddict this month and I am going to try to keep up with her and do the challenges because I do think it is a great idea to get those memories down somewhere (even if it is just on my blog) and it really gets me thinking about the holidays and maybe will even help put me in more of a holiday mood.

Holiday Memory Challenge #1 = The Reason for the Season

What special types of holiday worship, if any, do you engage in? Do you do something every week (or every day) or do you just go to church on Christmas Day? Does this have a special meaning for you? This isn’t meant to be a guilt trip for whether or not you do anything at all, but merely an account of what and why you do what you do. Remember to take a photo that symbolizes what this season means for you, too.

I remember growing up that church was a very big part of the Christmas season for us. I remember the advent wreath and lighting the pretty candles each week. Maybe it was just because I went to Catholic school but as I have gotten older and the years have passed I have noticed that the Christmas shopping season seems to get earlier and earlier every year and it makes me not like Christmas a little more. Don't get me wrong, I love getting presents and getting to play Santa Claus but I feel like Christmas is getting shoved down my throat and I don't like that.
We are not an overly religious family, we go to church when we can and this year I finally dug out the nativity set again and put it up. I haven't for the last couple of years because the kids were too little and I was always afraid they would break it but I have decided who cares if they do play with it, it may just get them asking questions and us talking about the nativity set and why we celebrate Christmas. The nativity set is just ceramic dolls that can be replaced if broken, but my kids learning about the birth of Jesus Christ is important to me.

And just like when I was little we will put the baby Jesus out in the nativity set on Christmas Eve and maybe I will learn to like Christmas a little bit this year.