Flight Suits and Fairytales: Christmas

Showing posts with label Christmas. Show all posts

Christmas 2012

Christmas was awesome this year...seriously, the best one yet! We decorated for Christmas the day after Thanksgiving, and this year I was pumped b/c Chris got us a new tree! I'm a HUGE nerd, and super allergic to real trees, so ours was fake...but FABULOUS! It was pre-lit, had a button that you push to turn the lights on, was the perfect height, and it looked awesome in our front window. But, I digress...enough about the tree!

Christmas was so great this year because we started (and continued) some of our very own traditions. Not the ones that we necessarily had when we were kids, but special ones just for our family. We have a snowman advent calendar that we bought in Germany a few years ago that we talked about every night (we even made up a song, but my hubs would KILL me if I told you about it!). I got out all of the Christmas books that my mom has collected for me over the years and those were the ones that we read to Elli at bedtime. We got dressed up and went to the Christmas Eve service at a church we had never been to before. We woke up on Christmas morning and sipped hot chocolate while we opened our stockings, ate some yummy monkey bread, and then opened presents around the tree while listening to carols. It was like a dream for me, just the way I imagined it would be for my children. And I remember just looking at both of them in awe, praying that they treasure these times when we're all together because I know that Chris's job makes holidays as a family a little bit uncertain. We let the kids play with their toys all day, and then I made a birthday steak dinner for Chris that evening. We don't do the traditional turkey at Christmas yet...I'm still a little bit intimidated!

We have a HUGE family. The kids have four sets of grandparents, aunts, uncles, great-grandparents, and then us...it makes for quite a lot of presents! Now I'm not anti-present or anything, but I want to make sure that in the midst of all the holiday hoopla, the kids understand the REAL reason that we're celebrating. This year we (Chris and I) decided to do 3 "Santa" gifts to represent the 3 wisemen's gifts to Christ. We then did 4 smaller presents sticking the the theme of: Want It, Wear It, Need It, Read It. Micah was so young that we didn't really do it for him, but Elli got a microphone, a dress, some big-girl panties, and 3 books. She was thrilled, and it's definitely a tradition that we'll continue!

Here's some pics from our holiday season...

Guess who loves Santa?!

The kids first picture with Mr. Claus

My little guy and I at the Kids Christmas Party on base.

Our little family

Elli's present from Grandma & Granddad...can you tell that she LOVES Cinderella?!

My precious girl ready for church

Mall Santa...I might have cried :)

This might be my favorite picture of the season! I love Elli's face, and how Micah is just laying there...I want to remember it forever!

Merry Christmas from The Duncan's!

Micah soaking it all up on Christmas morning.

I know it was awhile ago, but what are some of your favorite holiday traditions??

Christmas Picture Overload!

The whole family in Colorado for Christmas! Such a fun time :)

I just love this girl!!

Feeding Daddy some snow :)

Our Snow Bunny!

The Colorado Cabin Christmas Tree!!

Sledding is so fun!

Loving her new Barbie ATV from PaPa :)

Do a little dance...

Telling PaPa a story :)

Cousin Kisses

Playing the big girl piano...she's going to be a pro!

About to ride the train w/ Nana

And Elli sandwich with Aunt Stephie & Uncle Trav

Ohhh, I LOVE my new "Elli"Chair!!

One of E's all-time favorite activities...riding in her wagon!

She liked her presents, but she liked this box even more!

Yay for Christmas!!!

December, for us, seemed to fly by! We left for Texas around the middle of the month, so we tried to fit as much Christmas-y stuff into the first 2 weeks at home as we could. We took Elli to see Santa, but the line was too long (and none of us are very patient!) so we just went shopping instead :) Honestly, I wasn't too disappointed and I don't think Elli was either b/c when I took her back with her Nana she was NOT a big Santa fan!

We also went to a "White Christmas" program at our church. Funny story about that...we thought we were pretty connected, so when we heard about the "White Christmas" tradition we were all for it. We got all dressed up, and were super excited to participate in such a great cause. (After an evening of carols, everyone has a quick dinner together and helps pack up sacks of groceries filled with holiday goodies for the less fortunate families in our community). So we show up, listen to the carols & thoroughly enjoyed the fellowship. Then our pastor says a prayer and ends it with asking everyone to bring their "gifts" to the front. Ummm, what gifts?! We had somehow missed a key part of the "White Christmas" tradition! Each family was supposed to bring a canned good wrapped in white tissue paper, or an offering in a white envelope, to place at the alter. Oops! We were, literally, the ONLY people sitting down without a gift. Needless to say, we were pretty embarrassed! But, it was still a great evening and felt truly blessed to be a part of a such a loving church family.

Elli liked to peek at all of the presents under the tree!

And she LOVED to help hang the ornaments!

She might have liked taking the ornaments off the tree even more :)

She loved the trains at the mall...too bad she was too little to ride :(

And she loved giving my Santa towels kisses...so cute!

Still Around!!

Hey friends!! I hope you are all having a wonderful start of December, and really getting into the holiday spirit!! We've been under the weather lately, which is why I've been on hiatus from blogging. First is was E, then me, then E again...or maybe she never really got over it! Her lowest point came when we landed in the ER due to dehydration. Let me just tell you, it was the hardest day of my life. Yes, I'm serious! We had to hold her down to get an IV started, it took 3 tries (one of which made her arm/hand swell due to not getting a vein), and she ended up just crying herself to sleep once the tourniquet was in place. Awful, I tell you! But, it was but an instant in the grand scheme (that's what I'm telling myself, at least!), and she's doing much better now...and hopefully hasn't been scarred by our horrific experience. She's back to her happy, fast-paced self, and loving all of the Christmas-y things that we've been doing lately.

I have tons of pics from the past few weeks, but I thought I'd share some of the ones that make me laugh! Elli loves to "talk" on my phone. She holds it to her ear and carries on a complete conversation with "someone" while walking around the house. Last week she got so caught up in her conversation that she ran into a wall! Don't worry, she didn't hurt herself :)

Christmas Cards

I'm a huge Christmas card fan. I mean, HUGE! I love getting them in the mail, and have been known to hoard them all on the counter until after dinner so that I can have a moment to really savor opening each one. Okay, maybe I shouldn't have just admitted that :) But I do love a good Christmas card. And Christmas letters are even better. Some people think they're cheesy, but I adore getting them...it's like I get to share a little piece of your year with you even though I'm far away. I keep thinking, "this is the year we'll finally write one", but I've yet to follow through. Next year. Well, maybe :)

I don't know about you guys, but I have a time-line for my Christmas cards. I try to have the pictures taken by late October so that I can plenty of time to choose just the right card, and have it delivered by mid November. It only takes me one night to address them b/c once I get started, I get so excited that I just can't make myself stop. (Does that sentence have "dork" written all over it?!) And then I mail them out on the 1st of December. Not the 2nd. The 1st. Why, you may ask? I have no idea...it's just what I do. Maybe I can blame my mom for that little piece of neurosis? Yeah, I think I'll blame her!

So this year, everything was going according to my completely ridiculous, way-too-thought-out plan, and I was happy. We had to move past some minor hiccups (like me changing the design a bazillion times) but I finally decided on a card from Tiny Prints (super cute stuff!) where I could fit a maximum number of pictures on it b/c I couldn't just choose 1 (or 3) of Elli. Now that I think of it, I may have a small decision making problem! Anyway, said cards arrived and I got started with the addresses. Ummm, note to self: make your Christmas card list BEFORE you start addressing the envelopes!! I got through about 1/2 of them and realized that 1) I hadn't ordered NEAR enough cards, and 2) there was also a shortage of envelopes. In the end, I had 6 cards left over w/ no envelopes to match, and about 20 people who I still wanted to send card to. Hmmmm. So, just FYI, if you usually get a Christmas card from me you very well may get a super cute (in my opinion, anyway!) card in a very large, non-matching, red envelope that I got from Office Depot today in hopes of still making my December 1st mail-out deadline :) OR, if you're lucky (and at the end of the alphabet), you may receive a cute little generic card from Hallmark! Tee Hee! Merry Christmas friends!!

Where do y'all get your Christmas cards from? Any funny stories that go along with yours this year? And please tell me that I'm not the only one out there with a crazy card routine :)

All I Want For Christmas...

Have y'all made your Christmas lists yet?? Now that I'm a mom, I've found that I don't buy near as much stuff for myself as I used to (unless you count shampoo & face soap!)...E is now the happy recipient of my shopping shenanigans :) But there are definitely things that I still want, and Christmas is the perfect time to dream big...and *dreams* they are unless we win the lottery between now and the 25th! Nevertheless, here are some of the things that I'll be passing along to Santa on my wish list:

How cute are these boots?? I'm currently all about them!

This tote is from Penny Bennett on Etsy. I LOVE it! Her bags are designed to hold your "bible, books, & journals". I can't think of anything more perfect :)