Christmas Vacation

As I write this blog I am sitting here thinking how time has gone by so fast and there is only two days left of the vacation. Wow. We did have a great vacation though. On Christmas Eve we all get to open one present. And as much as Steph would like to pick out which one she gets to open, I have a set present we open. I'm sure most of you have this same tradition also...The opening of the wonderful Christmas PJ's. This year though I didn't just do the PJ's. We did the robes and slippers also....well all of except for Kurtis. He is just fine with his pajama pants. So before I let them dive into the pajamas we played a little Wii to get Christmas Eve Rolling.
But of course playing Wii was driving Steph nuts! She wanted to open the present! She sat right under the tree just eyeing up the present that she thought was the one she was going to open. After Torturing Steph long enough I sat them on the couch and made them wait again....hahah I am so mean....LOL.

Alright so I am not that mean....I finally let them have their present.
Steph went first then Sam and Ohhe poor Mike had to go last.


Then me and Kurtis got our turn.

I didn't get Jack a present but hey...he didn't need one....he had a blast with the wrapping paper!
"Ooooh look! A place for me to hide from all these weird people!"
Look at our lovely PJ's. LOL me and Sams even came with boxers!And then there are the robes! Gotta love the soft and cuddly robes!OK! now go to bed! Christmas will be here soon enough! See...There it is...... Christmas Morn.

Mikes favorite gift was her Tinkerbell car accessories for her car (floor mats, seat covers, steering wheel cover and a cd holder). Sams favorite gift was her Jenga blocks that she doesn't play games with, but builds houses with. She has a ton of them. Stephs favorite gift was her Ipod. Now she can be like Mike and Sam who got theirs last year. My favorite gift was 2 DVDs that mom had put together from our old 8 millimeter movies from back when I was growing up. I watched them all Christmas Morning! I laughed and I cried and my kids joked about the huge hair my mom used to have, and thy funky 70's clothes we used to wear. Ohe they were awesome videos! We had a wonderful relaxing day. In fact our whole vacation has been quite relaxing. Most the time me and the girls have just lounged around in our cozy bathrobes. But Kurtis on the other hand....because of all the snow we had, he was either pushing snow for the state, or out on wrecks and fires, or clearing the snow from our place when he had a chance.

And Poor little Mikes car out in the snow. She wanted to go put her new Tinkerbell gear inside, but not in weather like this! To bad Mike. For New Years eve we just all stayed here as a family and watched New Years Rockin Eve, and played Apples to Apples. It was yet another relaxing night! But now it is 2010. Wow. How time goes by. I hope this year is filled with lots of happiness and luck. Happy New Year to all!

A few of my favorite things!

OK, one of my favorite things about Thanksgiving is the vacation time afterwards to start pulling out the Christmas decorations. Ok, it's not my favorite thing to start decorating, infact I get quite onery when I decorate, but....one of the best things is pulling out the box marked "ORNAMENTS". Our family Christmas tree is what you would most likely call a modge podge Christmas tree. I have ornaments on there from when I was a kid, ones from when the kids were little, and ones from family and friends throughout the years. This is my favorite tree off all. I will take a modge podge tree over a beautiful highly decorated tree anyday. So, me and the kids will sit down and go through the onrnaments and reminsce about each one. They love it as much as I do. I buy the kids a new ornament each year to add to our collection. I tell them that when they are married they can take their ornaments with them and start their own MODGE PODGE tree. We have such a great time. Here are a few of our favorites.
This one is one I have had since I was a little girl. Even when Mom got a nice pretty cordinated tree, I still had to hang this one on the tree. This is the one ornament that I get so excited to see each year.

This one is one that represents my hobby of photography. I loved the old fashioned camera.

These represent my preschool teaching days.

This one realy represents what Steph is all about. Her love for ice cream!

These next two represents Stephs SCOOBY DOO faze and Strawberry Shortcake faze.


This one represents the love of basketball that Sam has.

And this one is Sams love of PIGS! We all get a kick out of this one!
And this one of Sams is from our phase of visiting the M&M World in Vegas.

And for Mike what would Christmas be without her love for Elvis! Here is her Elvis Ornament collection.

This one is special to Mike because it came from her "GREAT GRANDMA FLUFF" at least that is what she called her. It's really great grandma Huff.

And this one is one of Mike's favorites becasue it was her first ornament.
Now of course Kurtis doesn't get sentimental over all the ornaments so we have to do it for him. Me and the girls picked out this one for him because it does represent his love to save money. Kurtis is known for taking his own lunch to work everyday to save a buck. While everyone else goes out to eat every day, he makes his own lunch. So we thought this lunch box fit him perfectly.

And of course we can forget Jack who got his first ornamaent last year.

So there are just a few of our favorite things. Now here is what it looks like all put together. This is the modge podge tree.

Now, like I said Kurtis isn't sentimental over the Christmas ornaments, but the one thing that he is very proud of is that he gets his own tree. The FIREMAN TREE. This tree is loaded with fire department ornaments. I then get to build my villiage around it. The tree also comes complete with ladder garland and a fire hose, Kurtis's dads fire boots, and a Teddy Bear Fireman.

So now that I'm to this point, I am getting excited with the Christmas Spirit. It's a wonderful time of year. So I have also added to my playlist, some of my favorite Christmas songs. Enjoy!