Our Tree

Sunday, we decorated our Christmas tree. It is one of my favorite parts of Christmas. Getting out the tree & looking at each ornament as we put it on the tree. We don't have one of those "themed" trees like most people do nowadays. I love the look of those & maybe one day I will have a second tree somewhere like that, but our tree is special to me. It is the story of our lives together. See, we always get an ornament as a souvenir when we go to special places and each year the kids get a new ornament for the tree. It usually has something to do with something they have done that year or something special to them.

Today I took some pictures of some of our ornaments just because I couldn't help myself. There's my all time favorite ornament from our honeymoon... (a very glittery seashell)...

And there's some old ones that just make me smile remembering my Memaw- this one was her ornament & it was very thin fragile glass.... I love it!

And she made so many special ornaments, but this red bird is my favorite of those she made. Even though this is technically not a cardinal, it makes me think of her because she loved cardinals...

All the ornaments mean something on our tree and that is just the way I like it! Like the one I got for being in Meredith's December wedding...

or these two special ones from Theresa (she shares my love for ornaments!)...

We have some symbolizing sports the kids have played each year...

And some that remind us of their current interests that year...

Some remind us of rites of passage... like that first year of Kindergarten! Some freeze their sweet little faces in time... (Jackson)

(Eli)

And some that help us remember our pets over the years... (this was Opie!)

Ornaments for baby's first Christmas (this one was Jackson's first ornament)...

This one is the very first ornament I ever had that I kept in my hope chest. It was from the first ornament swap I went to with my mom in 1997. I have been to one every year since!

Some others have been brought to us from special places... like Alasksa!And this one was handmade from my late friend, Karen. She passed last year & this ornament made me smile today when I thought of her...

Here are some ornaments that are representative of Randy on our tree...

and some that remind of special places:

Our first trip to the NC mountains as a married couple...

2 trips to Disney!

Grove Park Inn....

A trip on the Polar Express!And some that I have bought because I just love them (so I guess these are "mine.") Like this adorable manger scene (cutest baby Jesus, ever!)...

This one I bought our first Christmas in our new house...

And this one I bought once we became a family of 4... (It has 4 elves on it, each one labeled with our names)

There are definitely less that I bought just because & way more from ornament swaps throughout the year & gifts & souveneirs. Either way, I love them all & I love our tree! See the story we have going on here!? To me, this is so much more special than having a green themed tree or a theme of glass & silver. They are beautiful & appeal to the organized side of me, but for now, I like remembering the story of our family!

Merry Christmas All! I hope you all have great memories to sustain you this holiday season!

Thanksgiving Preschool Program

Eli had a little Thanksgiving program at school last week. It was really cute. The kids all lined up on the stage, dressed as little Indian boys & girls, & sang some Thanksgiving songs.

Here is my cute little indian up close!

And afterward we got to have a little snack together. It was quite the perk that we were seated at the table with Eli's little "girlfriend", Lilli! She is such a sweet little thing & cute to boot!

I hear stories all the time from their teachers about how much these two love to play together & always want to sit together. It is so sweet! And I personally really like her mama, Candace, so I can see this working out in the future! :)

Anyway, here is a little video of their singing! Eli is on the far left end in the center row!

Skype Time

As you saw in a previous post, Jackson has been emailing back & forth with Uncle Todd overseas. In his last email he asked Todd to Skype with him sometime like he does "the girls." (Can you tell that he really misses him!?) I had never asked that because I didn't want to impose on ANY time he got with his girls, but we got a little surprise the day after Thanksgiving! Todd skyped in unexpectedly! What a fun suprise it was! We got to talk to him for an hour & a half! It was fabulous & good for my heart to see him & chat like he was across the table! Unfortunately, Jackson wasn't even here! Oh, no! He had spent the weekend with Grandaddy & Grandma Tee (& Kenneth, of course). So, I took a picture of Todd waving to Jackson & texted it to Grandma Tee. Don't you just love technology? But anyway, we now have a skype date on the calendar for Jackson to talk to Todd! We WILL be available for him this Tuesday night!

Email rocks!

I know that it is fun to receive snail mail. But for a 7 year old, email is pretty cool too! I asked Jackson if he wanted to email Uncle Todd & he jumped at the opportunity! We just got a snail mail address for him, so it will take some time for real mail to start arriving, so I thought this might be a fun way for Jackson to talk to him. He asks about him all the time, prays for him every night, & so I know he is missing him!

Halloween 2011... The best costumes yet!

Happy Halloween to you all! We hope you all had a wonderful, chilly, day like we did. This was certainly the worst halloween in terms of weather we have ever had since kiddos. It turned rainy & nasty just in time for trick or treating! Boo!

But in terms of costumes? BEST ever!
I managed to pull off costumes that suited not only my kids personalities, but their current interests!

And this was the first year that I took on actually making their costumes... from scratch.

Jackson was Harry Potter (& the cutest one I have EVER seen, I might add)...
Eli was a viking. As in, vikings are in one of his favorite movies- How to Train Your Dragon... He played his part well!
I had a lot of help from my friend, Theresa, on Jackson's Gryffindor robe. She'll tell you that she only hemmed it, but I will tell you that she was 75% of the brains behind the how-to in terms of how to construct it! And was my cheerleader.

And he was thrilled!! He really got into character & was dancing around all evening with his wand (that Randy made him! complete with his initials, JM, since Harry's was engraved with HP)

Eli also got into character, whacking that $1 axe on everything! In case you are wondering... his "fur" is made from toilet bowl covers! lol! Got that wonderful idea from "I am Momma, Hear Me Roar!" I love blogs!
We had to convince him to wear a beard, though... which involved me demonstrating it on myself first. Oh, the things we do! But it paid off, because vikings need facial hair. They are a rough bunch. They can even train dragons, ya know!

We hope your halloween was as fun as ours!!!