I can finally talk about it!

Here is the story of Melissa and the crappy tree. I have been so mad I haven't wanted to even write about it :) But, now that the tree looks so pretty I can share my horror story.

Morgan and I purchased our second tree about three Christmases ago. We found it at Mervyn's the day after Christmas for 50 bucks!! It was regularly $25o. It's 6ft and pre-lit. Well Let me tell you about this tree that has made me HATE it! Last year some strands of lights stopped working. So I replaced several bulbs, and when I say several I mean close to 60 lights! This year when we plugged it in only two strands worked!!!!! I tried everything to get the rest of the strands to work, and NOTHING made them work. So I spent three days cutting the pre-lit lights off and re stringing new ones on. Can you say pain in the butt!! I had scratches up my arms and a sore back from bending and cutting. What makes me mad is that the tree Morgan and I bought when when we got married (Dec 20th 2000) has NEVER had any problems and we only spent 20 bucks on the little thing!

Day two. Not even half way done.

Finally done on day three. What a horrible horrible experience!
sorry this picture is sideways. It was taken with a cell phone.

Nutcracker

My good friend Katrina got tickets to go see the Nutcracker and invited Bailey and I to go with her. Katrina took her niece and we went on a girls night out. We started off the night with a gourmet meal at Wendy's. After that we headed out to Capitol theater for some Christmas ballet. This was Bailey's first time seeing the Nutcracker and was super excited!
We had really good seats. About 6 rows from the front. This may just be a girls night tradition!

Bailey and Erica

Snow Day

After 20 minutes of getting everyone bundled up we were off in the front to play in the snow. This was Avery's first time playing in the snow. Last year she was too little. At first she was okay with it. But as soon as she fell over and couldn't move it wasn't fun for her any more. Maybe I bundled her up a little too much:) The boys loved making snow angles. They also learned the hard way that when snow is heavy and wet, snow balls are actually ice balls. Ouch! We tried to make a snowman but no such luck.

Yeah she wasn't having fun anymore! This was actually Bailey's snow suit that she wore when she was Avery's age.

Here is miss Bay in the suit. Why is it I can never get a smile from these girls when they wore this suit?? he he

Help me, I have fallen and can't get up

Time to decorate!

I love decorating for Christmas. The kids love it too. It's been our tradition to put up our Christmas on Thanksgiving night. We have two trees. One in the living room and one in the family room. The one in the family room is the kids tree. They can decorate it however they want and I don't care. The one up stairs is MY tree. I'm the only one who gets to decorate it. This year MY tree has had some problems. That is a different post in its self. I'll get to that one later.

Here I am handing out the kids baby's first Christmas ornaments. The kids get to put those ones on very first.

This year Avery was able to "help" hang the ornaments. She sure got the hang of it.

I love her chubby hands :)

This year it was Carsons turn to put up the star. We go in order from oldest to youngest.

All finished!! They did a great job!
Here is the new fireplace all decked out for Christmas. I love it!

Thanksgiving

Better late then never right?? I haven't had much time for a lot of things lately and blogging is one of them, but I didn't want to forget about our Thanksgiving! This year we had Thanksgiving dinner at my Aunts house. We had 25 people there! That is big time for my moms side of the family. I wish we would see each other more often, when we get together we sure have a good time!

Every year I bake a turkey for our little family. We love the leftovers. So many things to make with turkey. Our fav, pot pie :)

Who needs toys when you can have olive fingers??
Cohen and Avery

My mom and her nieces and nephew.
Gayleen, Robin, Shelly and Dorthy
Sisters

Nana and great grandma.

Advent

As most of you know I love advent calendars!! I have made a few and have purchased a couple also. Two years ago I made a really cute one. You can go here to see my creation. Anywho, last year I put candy and a puzzle piece inside each box. By Christmas the kids have made a manger scene with the pieces they got from the boxes. This year I am going to stick with the puzzle piece idea, but I'm also going to put in acts of service the kids can do. Example. Make cookies and deliver them to someone who is lonely. Or write a letter to a family member. I hope the kids will learn how great it can be to do acts of service for others.

Your turn!!

How do you transition yourself from one holiday to the next?

I try to just enjoy EACH holiday as they come. Although, that's very hard sometimes! I find myself looking forward to Christmas before Halloween is even over.

-When do you put up your Christmas decorations?

It's been tradition since Morgan and I have been married to put up our Christmas on the night of Thanksgiving.

-Do you wrap all the presents throughout the month and put them under the tree, or do you wait until Christmas Eve?
Well, we usually will wrap all of our gifts once they are all bought. I'm usually done shopping weeks before Christmas. This year however, I'm worried that little miss Avery will have a blast unwrapping every single gift I put under the tree. I might have to do a few "test" gifts and see what she does. I have learned over the years to stop putting bows on gifts. They always get ripped off by the younger ones ;)

-Do you warn your kids that Santa might NOT be bringing them what they want for Christmas this year?
YES!! This year, especially! As my Bailey gets older, her list gets more expensive! She wants an American girl doll this year! Yikes!! I usually can figure out what the kids want and if I can get a hold of it I will make sure they don't forget that they want that from the big man :) This year it's pillow pets :)

-Do you decorate your Christmas tree with colored lights or just white?
WHITE!! :) Well I like white lights on my tree, but have yet to get Morgan to put lights up for years on the house. If I did they would be colored lights.

-Have your children watched all the old Christmas movies that you watched when you were little?
My mom bought the three pack of Frosty the snowman, Rudolph the red nosed reindeer, and Santa Clause is coming to to town.

-Do you let your children open a gift on Christmas Eve?
It's been tradition since Morgan and I have been married that we go to my MIL house on Christmas Eve and open one gift. It's always a par of jammies!! They kids have really enjoyed this tradition.

-Does everyone have the same stocking each year, or do you purchase new ones every Christmas?
We have had the same stockings for about three years. I had purchased green and blue ones that had the initial of each persons name on it at Target the day after Christmas. Then we decided to have another baby two years later and Target didn't sell them any more! I needed them to match, so I bought a stocking off of E-bay that was green with the initial W on it. I tore it off, cut it apart and made a perfect letter A. Now we all have matching stockings that we will use for many years.

-Does your Christmas tree have a different theme each year?
We have two Christmas trees in our home. One is the kids tree. It goes right next to the fire place. On this tree we have "kid" ornaments. Baby's first Christmas ornaments, ones the kids have made, our first Christmas together, some that were Morgan's ornaments when he was younger and just some odds and ends. It's been a tradition that we buy a new ornament for the tree every year. One rule about the kid tree. I let THEM decorate it all by themselves. The tree that is up stairs has the same theme every year. Red and gold ornaments and bows. That is MY tree and only I get to decorate it :)

-Artificial tree or real?
We have always had an artificial tree. I would like to go and cut one down on a tree farm one year. I think it would be fun to go up in the mountains to find the perfect tree to cut down. Then we would haul it out and put it on top of our car. Maybe :)

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I would love to hear your answers!