Merry Christmas! 2009

Christmas Eve we spent with my cousin and her family in Sultan-which is only 30 minutes away. She is my 2nd cousin, but she is close to our age. It's so nice to live close to family! Her parents live near Las Vegas, NV and her siblings are scattered. She is the only one who lives in Washington and I am the closest family she has. We spent Christmas Eve with her and had a really yummy dinner there. Lobster Spagetti-YUMMMMM!! The little cousins (my kids and her kids) exhanged gifts and opened them. We read the Christmas Story out of the Bible (in Luke) and then we went home to settle OUR boys into bed. Mason went willingly, Mac...not so much-because he's a teenager you know (14 going on 21 or something like that).


CHRISTMAS EVE: Mason putting out Milk and Cookies in Santa Cup and plate we have for Santa. He also wrote a letter to Santa (that he wrote himself with some help from me). He set out the letter and Santa wrote him back! Mason went to bed oh so willingly....because you know, Santa won't come until all the children are asleep-and that includes teenagers. Mason was freaking out and was affraid that MAC wasn't going to go to sleep.

We have a glass ornament that looks like a pickle. It's a German tradition that the first person who finds the pickle ornament that is hidden in the tree gets a special gift. "Our" tradition....the first person to find the pickle hidden in the tree gets to open the first present. Last year, I hid it high in the tree, not thinking Mason couldn't find it (stupid me). This year, I hid it low so Mason had a fair chance. The pickle ornament is the EXACT same color as our lovely fake tree. So it's a little hard to find. Mason started looking high like last year, hence the reason why he climbed the window to find it.

Then I told them it was "low", then I was saying "hot and cold". After about 5 minutes of searching, Lee lost his patience and told the boys to move out of the way and he would find it. He found it after 1-2 minutes. So The Dad got to open the first present and Mason got to help hand out presents (because he got really mad when Dad found the pickle).

The boys smiling nice for me....I told them if they didn't smile nice for me that we would finish opening the presents after lunch. So they smiled nice.

All of Mason's "hopes and dreams" were inside of this box.

The toy train that he asked Santa for in his letter.....and it helped that he carried the Bed, Bath and Beyond catalog since the day after Thanksgiving telling everyone that he wanted THIS train.

Hmmmm....I wonder what's in this box?

Yep, his first rifle. He was totally shocked and suprised. He didn't ask for it, but Lee felt he was ready for his own. Mac was over the moon, and he still is.

And this last pic, just because I thought he looked cute. We hope you all had a Merry Christmas!

Our Halls are Decked

The reason why I haven't been blogging so much....I've been busy "Decking our Halls". I do this with little to no assistance from my boys. They decorate the tree, but that's about it. Lee declared to Mac one year when he was about 4 years old "Son, don't touch the Christmas lights, your Mom's a little freaky about how the lights are done".

Our Main Christmas tree in the upstairs living room. It's artifical because Lee is affraid of the house catching on fire with a live one. I have tree smelling candles burning through the house to get the "tree" scent going on. The garland over the tree is a new addition. It was Lee's idea of all people. I got a screaming deal on garland at Target last year after Christmas. Like the boombox on the right? It's Lee's work one and he's letting me borrow it so I can play our Christmas CD's.

This is our "Charlie Brown" Christmas tree that is downstairs in the Family Room. It's small, it has multi colored LED lights and the boys are in charge of it. They have full and complete control of this tree. I added extra blue LED lights this year and it looks really cool.

I have 3 different Nativities on the entertainment center. I used to have some garland strung across the entertainment center...but we have a plasma TV now, so NOTHING is to be strung across it. I was having plug in issues for some Christmas lights on top of the "Center" and found some battery operated lights. It excited me.

This is our front door. I started to put garland with white Christmas lights around the door and on the banister of our porch last year. Lee installed a new front door a couple of months ago and it's a full window door. So no wreath can go on the new door. But do you think that stopped me? NO!

I found these Gel Sticky things at a store on S. Whidbey Island a few months back. We have a white roman shade for the door (for privacy at night or whenever) so the sticky things looked pretty cool on the door.

This is the Christmas wreath that used to be on the front door that is now on the front closet door. I made it 5 or more years ago. I love it.

Our Stockings that are hung around the gas stove. We have little mantels on each side and Train stocking holders. You can't see them. But, more garland and there are little red holly LED battery operated lights in the garland. They are cute at night.

The Santa table. This was the first year I've been able to do this because Mason won't get into stuff so much. Mason is in charge of counting down the day til Christmas.

Our China cabinet...more garland and little red lights are up there too. With some little ornaments tied in there.

My new big addition to the Christmas decorations...the garland with white lights and little ornaments tied into it. It goes around the new sliding glass door-in our dining room- that Lee installed as well a few months ago. I had enough garland and lights and I couldn't help myself. It looks way cooler in real life, but I love it.

So as you can see, we are ready for Christmas...well, we have been completely decorated since December 5th. Now, time to get those cards out!

Mason's 8 !

Mason's Birthday was on December 7th...but we celebrated 1 day early. We had alot of family come over on Sunday the 6th because of Mac's Ordination (he's 14 and a Teacher now). It was a busy weekend, but a fun one. It was nice to visit with our families. Uncle Sam (Hope's brother) and Aunt Andrea with the kids came over on Saturday night (didn't get any pics). Grammy and Pa Bryant came over on Sunday with Calvin, and Janean.

Mason with his present from Grammy. IT was a really cool Pirate Book. She also made....

A yummy Pirate Cake. Patty is really talented! Mason loved it.

Mason with Grammy.

The candles were on the sides with the cannons. Unfourtunately, he didn't blow all of the candles out at once, because they were on 2 sides. I can't believe Mason is 8 already. Time goes by super fast!

Thanksgiving 2009

We had a great Thanksgiving Weekend! It was busy, very busy. My cousin, who lives in Sultan with her family came over. She is my second cousin-but I've known her most of my life. She and her husband are around our age, so it was really nice to catch up, talk about the families, her Dad and my Grandma Bocz (who passed away last August). We had a great dinner and dessert (hello PIES!).
I spent Friday shopping (Old Navy at 6:00am), cleaning up, and setting up our Christmas tree with lots of help from Mason. He gets excited for Christmas and LOVES the decorating part of it. Mason and I drug the totes out from underneath the house and went through stuff. I couldn't find the Christmas lights from all of the shifting around Lee did over the summer. He could "feel" my displeasure of not having my lights right away. He told me I was way ahead of my Christmas decorating schedule and I needed to relax a bit. He knew if he wanted to live to see Monday...it was in his best interest to find them ASAP.
Mason and I drove to Yakima on Saturday. One of his classmates from his Sunday School class was getting baptised in Yakima with his cousins and so we went. Mason got car sick in Kirkland. I couldn't believe it! He was more upset about me thinking we needed to go home and forget about it. I found a Rite Aid and bought some cleaning supplies. The cashier had pity upon me and gave me extra plastic bags. I got things cleaned up and off we went to Yakima. If Mason got sick again between Kirkland and Yakima I was going home. We made it there-we visited, we went to the baptism(s)-there were 3 kids getting baptised. We stayed with my brother Sam and his wife Andrea. We visited them too. It was a quick trip, but that was alright.
We stopped in Ellensburg to visit Grandma Dawson...but she was so sound asleep. I didn't want to wake her. So we took off for home. Mason slept all the way home from Ellensburg. He was worn out! So was I. But to my pleasant suprise, Lee found my lights! He said they were right in front of me (probably blocked by some insulation and other stuff of his). I didn't see them and Mason and I really searched. I put the lights on the tree so it didn't look so sad.
I have been finishing "Decking our Halls" around here with some new decorations thanks to some awesome sales I hit after Christmas last year. I'll take photos and post them later.