Christmas 2010

We made it! Another Christmas in the books.
Special annual ornaments were sought but not found to represent the big event for us this year: moving.
So on Christmas Eve I threw together some quick and dirty crafty type ones. I just Mod Podged pics of the old house on one side and the new house on the other. Sparkly Mod Podge of course. It is Christmas after all.

Whatever works.
There was no particular theme for the tree this year. We just used all our yearly ornaments which makes for a pretty heavily decorated tree after all these years.

After wishing for pretty much my whole life to have a mantle from which to hang the stockings, we finally do! And yet, we decided that we kind of like them hanging from the stair railing as they have for the past 16 Christmases.  So that's what we did.

And I used the mantle to display some treasured Nativities and other keepsakes that I usually don't even put out because it's too hard to keep the little people away from them. The mantle is perfectly out of their reach.

tsk! tsk! with the power cords! Oh well...
We decorated cookies on Christmas Eve. It was just going to be the gingerbread men that I bought from the co-op but at the last minute I cranked out some sugar cookies from a mix to go with them.

Oh how I hate getting my picture taken. But at least there's proof I was present.

Kenzie got a special gift this year. The plague! She was just coming down with it on Christmas Eve and is still under the train today. Poor kid. As if that's not bad enough, today I took her to a podiatrist to get her toenails partially removed. But that's a blog post for another day.Don't worry. No pictures.

Jaxon was meticulous with the frosting...

And generous with the sprinkles!

Oh Holy sprinkly disaster Batman!!!
We had the obligatory mistletoe, of course.

Perfect for grossing out the preteen daughter every chance we get.
Traditional new pajamas on Christmas Eve? Check!

Stroke of luck finding that personalized t-shirt for Roger, eh?
Santa showed up as expected.

He brought Jaxon that awesome tool bench.

Emily received an mp3 player which has been permanently embedded in her ear since the big day. I guess it's a suitable upgrade from the Barbie one she's been using for a couple of years.
And Kenzie got what every teen always wants...

A fancy new phone. Well, not new new. She helped Santa search high and low for a fancy used phone because she is frugal and merciful.
Speaking of presents, I only made two this year. Not counting neighbor gifts. Rare for me to make so few gifts.
I made two quillows.
It's a quilt! It's a pillow! It's a quillow!!
One for my cat loving Aunt Verna

And one for my Mom. Frogs because she loves them,

With a special cover that has Kenzie, Emily and Jaxon's handprints on it because, well, she loves them too!

Kids, grandkids, my Mom, Aunt, Uncle and Brother all came over for our traditional Christmas brunch followed by watching movies while slipping in and out of a food coma. 
And that was that.
Except for the giant task of packing away all the decorations. Ugh!
I hope everyone had a Merry Christmas! And may we all have a Happy New Year!