HAPPY THANKSGIVING, CHRISTMAS, AND NEW YEARS!!!!!!
Phew!!! Ok all caught up!..........just kidding
Well in any case we hope you had a Happy, Merry, and SAFE holiday season! We spent it very much like everyone else I'm sure. Lounging about, eating WAAAAAAY too much and not caring one bit about it, listening to holiday classics, and snuggling up by a fire drinking homemade hot cocoa ......mmmmmmm......there is nothing like good family quality time.
After halloween we did all of our Christmas shopping......(yes after halloween...I HATE CROWDED STORES WITH RUDE AWFUL PEOPLE COMPETING OVER TOYS!)
Its really fun when we do it because we take a day off, hunter's in school, and we go have breakfast and make a day of it. I love shopping for toys with the hubby becasue I love how excited he gets to play with them with our son......he is like a kid in, well a toy store!
I spend the rest of the shopping day laughing, chasing him down saying "daddy,.... put down the toys." :)
We didn't get to travel this year at all for the holidays. I had surgery and was unable to make any trips to share the season with family soooo I am going to travel back in time a bit and share a bit of our holiday season through the wonderful world of technology.....aka...photographs.
Thanksgiving:
The weather here was great so we spent most of the time outdoors feeding the ducks.
We love this location. We have lots of areas like these in our neighborhood and hunter can't seem to get enough of it. The ducks are always there and are very friendly.. I guess I'd be pretty friendly for free food too!....Heck I'm pretty happy just hearing the word food so I can definitely relate!
Thanksgiving is always hard because its IN THE WAY OF MY CHRISTMAS!!! (said the scrooge with an evil grimmacing face....)
There is not alot for decorations like there is for Halloween or Christmas so while its a great holiday for giving thanks, its very hard to stay focused when christmas trees are twinkling with lights in stores while christmas music is blaring in your ear and I swear sometimes they pump the ventilation system with apples and cinnamon....ya know....so just in case you thought you were going to run into the store for a quick few items you can guess again.........its hard...so this year I decided to embrace Thanksgiving and make it a holiday that gets equal treatment in our house...Decorations and all.
So I made a Mayflower, Santa Maria, and Pinta Nina! (well, thats what we call them, they don't exactly look like them...
We did other things too like putting corn husks on the mantel, and fall leaves/pumpkins on the hearth., and I made a wreath......
It was definitely Thanksgiving in our house and a tradition we are going to keep. I didn't get to make our "Thanks"giving tree like I wanted but I'll save it for next year. (I'd like to have a tree with little count down pockets on it where each day hunter/we write down something we are thankful for)
I cooked a different Turkey this year than our normal family turkey and it was a KEEPER! It was a Truffle Butter Turkey. I think daddy could have eaten the whole turkey by himself but we made him share. It looked pretty too!
and that pretty much wraps up Thanksgiving! Gobble Gobble!
Christmas:
Uuuuh just let me start by saying taking a photo with Santa was a NOoooo GOooooo. We were able to get one his first year and that has been it so far. He won't go near him! Our fingers are crossed though for next year! I have to say, I love his first picture with Santa so much that it has made me last these past 2 years getting none.
Ok, so I am a Christmas NUT. Our little family tradition is on Thanksgiving night we have punch, cheeseballs, cookies, meats, etc.... put on A Christmas Story (ya know...red rider BB gun with a compass in the stock and this thing that tells time....) and DECORATE FOR CHRISTMAS! Tree and all!
you can still see fall stuff in the background! we take that down as we put up for Christmas.... :)
Now we are not allllll fun and games on this night....Momma means Christmas business...
We usually have lots of fun new things we've made each december but this year was very minimum....gimme a break ya'll!, I had surgery!...(do ya'll hear that violin?)... I was SO bummed not being able to do alot...but if you know me, and if your reading this long ole thing then you do,...I still got SOME things in...
I made...A WREATH! (surprised?!! hahaha...man I made a lot of these things this year)
and my FAVORITE thing I have made yet was my ornament accent for our table light...
We usually make some ornaments for our family tree..... Oh the tree....yes, the hubby and I made a bargain. See he is VERY PARTICULAR to his family christmas heirlooms. In fact our star on our tree is the one he had growing up! He still has his stocking from the hospital the day he was born...(christmas is his bday.. :) ) sooo we compromised that we have a family tree and then I can have my designed tree as a second tree in the office. So far I love our family tree so much that i haven't put any thought into the designed one. Although we didn't get to make ornaments this year...we still had plenty from previous years. Here are a few.
It's always a great start for christmas. On December 1st we introduce Barnabee,...his elf on the shelf.
Most of you probably know what elf on the shelf is but some of you may not so quick synopsis here:
Barnabee is one of Santa's helpers. He appears (for us) on Dec. 1st and each night travels back to Santa to tell him whether hunter has been naughty or nice. When hunter wakes up in the morning, its a game to find out where Barnabee is at! (so he's in a different spot each morning than when hunter went to sleep the night before.) Your are not allowed to touch him or the magic will disappear! yikes!
Barnabee was so helpful this year. He had hunter a winter breakfast ready to start the christmas countdown when we woke up! We caught him still building!
He was also very mischievous this year and dyed the milk green!
Needless to say there is no telling what he will do! Hunter got the biggest kick out of him!
We wrote our letters to Santa in his special lil mailbox but I guess Barnabee must have told Santa that he was really good because Christmas morning Santa left a surprise for him! (barnabee shoulda talked to momma first!...hunter good??!! really?! I'VE got the inside scoop on him that would change yo' mind Santa!)...
There was one thing that CRACKED US UP Christmas morning. Hunter woke up and rubbing both eyes he stumbled/ran down the hall, ......towards the living room,....... straight to the..........plate where the cookies and milk used to be.............
He begins to cry and scream not for the toys but for the, are you ready for this, the missing cookies (dun dun duuuuuuun)........... "SANTA ATE ALL MY COOKIES MOMMA!!!!"....hunter.....was...... DEVASTATED.
Yes, we explained it the night before and he was OK with Rudolph getting oats and carrots but he was hesitant on Santa with the cookies. We had to show him that we had PLENTY more cookies and that we needed to learn the SHARE.
We directed his attention to the toys and then he was set!
We made the rest of the day mandatory PJ day (easier with my surgery) and decorated a gingerbread house. Se Magnifique!
and played with our toys...
our little drummer boy...
hunter got a shaving kit just like daddy's!
We watched Christmas movies and counted our blessings for our happy, healthy family. It all ended with a peaceful, happy the toys have stopped making sounds driving us all nuuuuts, silent night...
(i think our christmas train is hunters favorite part...)
Sweet dreams to all and to all a Good Night!
Well, New Years was great! Christmas decorations were down by then, except for the glittery pertinent New Year's decor, and a lights only Christmas tree.
As far as resolutions the only one I ever make each and every year is to drink more water...laughing yet? Its true! Think about it, I can pretty much cover all the healthy stuff I want to with that one......Drink...More....H20.
I think hunters resolution is to become a lumberjack...he won't stop with the hat,
My favorite part was the sparkling grape juice with hunter. It was his first time to have a carbonated beverage and he kept blowing on it saying "Woooo thats hot!"
Well thats it for us Stinsons! We hope your holiday season was a Very Merry one indeed! From our house to yours Happy New Year!! (and some best wishes from hunter....i LOVE this video)
