11/28/08

In keeping with my thankful week.... here is another thing for which I am thankful. :)

I am thankful that we are now celebrating the birth of Christ our Savior. We have begun the Christmas spirit at our house!!!

We went for our tree this morning. In the past few years we have been getting it from Home Depot or Lowe's, but this year Steve wanted to get one from a Christmas tree lot like we used to do. (Maybe one of these days we'll go cut down a real one in the mountains.) We found the one we wanted and, boy, is she big! Thankfully, I have ten million ornaments to put on a tree so it was definitely filled. The only thing I hate is that the back of the tree never gets seen because it is "shoved" into a corner.


As I began unpacking everything today I had a flood of memories. I lingered over the pictures of Wesley and Mikayla I have taken every Christmas. How can it be that they have changed so much. Again, I am so thankful they are healthy and growing... it is just sometimes as a mother (and a father, as Steve would say..) that we wish time would stop a bit. I couldn't keep from staring at those pictures as I put them up on the refrigerator or around the house. Maybe I'll scan a few in and let you all see what they used to look like...


What wonderful memories I also felt when opening our Christmas ornament boxes. We always start with the Hallmark collection... the ever-growing collection.

I bought 10 more the other day.

I can't resist... tradition.

I have photographed most of them and a few others and will share them as the season progresses. There are ornaments that the kids have made, ones students have given to me over the years, ones from my childhood, ones from when Steve and I got married and went to Eckerd Drug and bought ornaments because we had none. That was probably the tackiest Christmas tree we have ever had, but one of my favorites. I can still see the Moravian Star on top....

We watched "The Grinch that Stole Christmas" after supper while we were still decorating the tree. Everyone sing with me... "You're a mean one, Mr. Grinch..." hee hee... we love that movie.

The finished tree and mantle area. Closeups will come later.



The kittens are quite curious... they haven't tried to climb the tree yet, though. lol We have tortured them with the mini Santa hat. Oh, the things we do to them....



My sweet husband shocked me tonight. I came in to the computer to check email really quickly before starting on the next set of ornaments. He had sent me an e-card. Now, for Steve this was special simply because computers are not his area of comfort.... let alone that he sent me an e-card! Well, as I opened it up, I began reading at the bottom where he typed his message. It seems that my sweet man has planned a trip for us.... leaving December 19 right after school is out and coming back late Dec. 21. He has given me no details and will not until the 19th. I was speechless... it made me love him even more to know that he planned this for us. We haven't been away like this in an extremely long time. I am beyond excited but know a lot has to be done before this trip.... which is only three weeks away. I have no clue as to where we are going and I am LOVING that!!! :) I can't believe he pulled one over on me, but I love that he did. Just had to share....

Steve is still putting up the window lights and the kids are working on their Christmas tree/train area. I love this time of year. Lots of memories... and now that the kids are getting older the memories are becoming theirs. I am excited simply because they are excited.

More memories to come....