Tag Archives: Holidays

To Granddaddy’s House We Go

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Before Christmas, we were able to make a run to Ge and Granddaddy’s house that didn’t include a trip to appointments for Emmie!  Yay!  DSC_4197 We also celebrated our December birthdays with them and enjoyed cake.DSC_4200

This was a couple of days before we officially had a teenager in the house.

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DSC_4205 DSC_4221 Candid moments before the gift opening began.  Ge had a great idea this year that we would watch everyone open their gifts.  It was perfect because usually all any of us see is paper flying everywhere.DSC_4268 This time we were able to get pictures.DSC_4266 DSC_4264 Seriously, most appropriate shirt for our Liam!DSC_4257 DSC_4251 DSC_4243 DSC_4237

My boys are super happy about Lego!

The most anticipated reaction from all of us was when Emmie opened her gift from Ge and Granddaddy.  I have to say that she did not disappoint at all.

Emmie Meets Bitty Baby pt 1 from justabunchofcharacters on Vimeo.

VID_20151219_131528021 from justabunchofcharacters on Vimeo.

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We absolutely love spending time with our family!

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The Perfect Tree

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IMG_20151127_132358283_HDR We’re those crazy people you see with the tree on top of their 12 passenger van.  Oh yes.  We are those people.

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We loved the tree farm we went to for a couple of years but when we saw a different tree farm advertised and the prices they were promoting.  Well, we had to go.  The selection was not wonderful but I almost convinced Mark to get a 12 foot tree for $30.  So, the price was just right.  The people that ran the farm were super nice too.

While we didn’t get a 12 foot tree, we got the next largest.

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It was so big ya’ll!

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We put the tree in our two story entryway so we have room.  Mark, however, had to do some trimming on the bottom and the big tree wound up being a good size but not too large.

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It was full of holes.  Bare on the bottom.  Not perfect by any one’s eyes.  But when we put it up and threw our memories on it…well, it was just perfect for us.

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Our decoration was slow.  I was lagging the whole season as the reality that Y was not going to be home by Christmas sunk in.  And then we were creeping closer and closer to Emmie’s appointment to discuss surgery.    But we had some really precious moments…

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Emmie had to stare at the nativity (that my grandmother had painted a lot of years ago).  She loved pointing to Jesus and saying, “Baby.”  Those precious moments helped my sad heart to make it through the season.

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New Year’s Day

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As hard as this is, I still want to share our awesome experience with Y the Brave (more on why we call him that later).
New Year’s Day is a big deal where Y is from.  So, we celebrated with a gift for each child and then driving an hour to a lake house to spend time with our Bama friends.

 Soccer ball…what almost every 8 year old European boy loves to have.  Y was thrilled and any smidge on it was a cause for concern.  We also got a pump (which he wanted to use constantly) so we could deflate it for the trip home and he could inflate it there.
 I think Ace was more excited than Liam!
 Ace got a practical joke gift set-that explains the maniacal face he is making.

Apparently, 12 year olds do not want to have their picture taken when opening a gift.

 They don’t do Santa Clause as much as they do Father Frost…nonetheless, Y knew all about Santa and thought his Santa sack gift was perfect to go with his hat!

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Merry Christmas!

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I’m just a bit sick when I think about these next pictures.  We realized at the end of January that we have some how deleted a lot of pictures.  All of our Christmas day present opening chaos pictures are gone.  We had a tinsel fight after we decorated the tree.  Those pictures have disappeared.  And, even sadder, Liam’s birthday pictures are gone.  So from here on through almost the new year, most of these pictures are from our phones so please be patient.

 Zoe and I not only made pants for all the kids, Zoe wanted to make pants for her and Ceili Rain’s American Girl Dolls.   She did an amazing job!

 Christmas Day!  I was so excited I got to make some cute embroidered shirts for everyone too!

 We finally did it.  We got Mark a coffee maker!  And it’s a pretty red.  It has definitely been used quite a bit since then.
Christmas Breakfast and Y’s first time eating hot fruit compote and my homemade biscuits.  He approved.

 Meal time is always quite entertaining in our house.
 We got Y a rubber band bracelet hook and bands.  By the time he left he had over 15 bracelets made and they almost made it to his elbow.
 We found out pretty quickly that Y LOVES cycling!  He would have been riding every single day, no matter the weather.

Okay, we worked hard to make sure Y not only tried a lot of American food but that he had some that was rather familiar to him.  He did not like borscht even though his brief description said he did.  But cucumbers and radishes and any kind of meat…that was perfect for him.  A veteran hoster had mentioned a blog called Natasha’s Kitchen and testified that her recipes were pretty authentic for Eastern Europe.  Every time I made one of her recipes, Y was super excited and would quickly give me two thumbs up.  For Christmas supper, I made meat piroshki.  Oh my, we won’t even discuss how unhealthy these things are all fried up.  But the taste.  Ahhh, they were amazing!  This may be our new traditional Christmas supper.

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Looking a Lot Like Christmas!

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 Traditionally, we purchase our Christmas tree the week after Thanksgiving but since Y was coming, we wanted to let him in on the experience.   So, we waited.  It proved beneficial.  He really enjoyed seeing  the trees and  hiding from us and jumping out saying, “Boo!”

 Thankfully, Mark was able to explain what we were doing when the guy came to cut the tree down.  There were plenty of times that we forgot to explain what we were doing or going to do and he was so confused for a bit.

 Decorating ornaments for the tree.  I love how I caught Emmie cheesing for the camera.

 Our gingerbread train.

 I finally ran out of the fabric I had purchased for stockings some years ago.  Since I needed two new stockings, we decided to do new ones for everyone.  I absolutely love these and the pattern was so easy and beautiful.  They are fully lined and took less than 30 minutes to complete.  And, my combo machine meant I could embroider all of our names on them. I loved seeing all these stocking lining our fireplace, er, I mean, where our fireplace used to be.  Christmas season was the perfect time for us to start converting our “fake” fireplace in to an actual functional gas fireplace.

And the front yard decorations this year!
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Merry Christmas with Ge and Granddaddy!

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We traveled to visit Granddaddy and Ge and all of our extended family to celebrate December birthdays and Christmas.
True to Y’s personality, he tagged along and enjoyed the time with everyone.
 A little present balancing before the chaos!

 Checking out the presents before the chaos!

 And after opening gifts with Aunt Yaya and the fam, we celebrated Christmas with Granddaddy’s sister and fam.

 My favorite picture.  Y had gone to the bathroom but had been in there a loooong time.  We were all waiting on him to open gifts.  Mark went to check on him and discovered a sink full of bubbles.  I don’t believe he was used to liquid soap and the bubbles were just too inviting for a young boy.    He decided the bubbles needed to go on Ma and came out and attacked me.  This was one of the first times he voluntarily climbed in to my lap.

 This is all the grandkids of Granddaddy and Aunt D.  The Santa hats were a big hit this year.  Last year Aunt D and Ge decided to get together and purchase several small items that the kids could/would use.  They were a big hit (my kids still play with the goofy balls they got last year) and so they did the same thing this year.  Honestly, though, the kids all have a blast together whether they get gifts or not.

 “These are MY gifts?!”
 Y approved of the red velvet cake.
Aunt Yaya getting some Liam lovin’!
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Christmas Candy Tradition

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I guess if we do something two years in a row, it should be considered a tradition.  We were so super busy getting things ready for Y that we didn’t get a chance to do our big baking days. But, we did set aside one morning to get pretzels dipped in almond bark.

We didn’t get to share these with anyone because when I stepped away for a split second, I returned to discover several faces smeared with almond bark and fingers in mouths.  Those puppies belonged to the family after that.

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Fourteen Years

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Actually, eighteen years ago, this happened:

Our first date lead to this…

It doesn’t seem like we’ve been together for eighteen years, but we have.  I’m so glad that Mark chose me.  I could not imagine my life with any other.
One day, I’ll digitize all of our wedding pictures (a must since they are in an album that is enjoyed regularly by our crew), and I’ll tell the full story of our wedding day.  I’m sure, by the pictures, you can tell it was not a very traditional wedding.  But it was our wedding and for us it was an opportunity to honor God for the gift of each other.  We did so with our own “unique” flair and our marriage has been defined by lots of opportunities to do things differently from that point on.
I love you, Mark.  Thank you for being my everything and for putting up with me and all my crazy ideas!  Let’s celebrate by hugging our babies and eating Japanese food!
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