Christmas Eve 2013

Hands down the star attraction is my sister's new baby girl.  She decided to come in with a bit of drama into the world and spent 2 weeks in the NICU.  She is now a month old and not even quite 7 pounds.  She is so tiny.  We all fight for the opportunity to hold her.  She is absolutely beautiful!

As you can see here with grandpa:

She loves to be held!

 Of course when I turned around I found her older sister like this:

Apparently there was something in the cupboard she wanted.  Look at that guilty look!

Shay, my brother, mom and I went to hang out in the front room and chat.

When we came back we found my dad and baby sound asleep.  Apparently we were partying too hard!

Keeping with my sister's husband's side tradition.....all presents were arranged under the tree to perfection.  Each present was adorned with a bow.  The kids were overly excited for Christmas to come.  We often found them sitting in front of the tree looking for their names on the presents!

The tree looked absolutely.  My mother decorated it while my sister was in the hospital. 

After a wonderful dinner of ham, funeral potatoes, bacon wrapped beans, pear salad, and homemade rolls (Yummy!  My family members are amazing cooks and it makes holidays wonderful!), we sat down and read the Christmas story from the scriptures.  It was the first time that we have read about the birth of Christ with electronics.  It was a new tradition.
Below you can see my sister's husband and two boys!  We all had a good chuckle when my sister's son on the far right asked, "What about the wise guy?"  Up to that point we hadn't read about the wise men and he was concerned we skipped over "him!"  We all thought that was so cute ("The wise guy!")!  It still makes me laugh out loud now!

I love that all of my siblings read and discuss the true meaning of Christmas each year with their kids.  Shay and I keep this tradition alive in our home and look forward to sharing this tradition with our future children!

As a child, I loved that every Christmas Eve my parents had us kids bring out our scriptures and read about our Savior's birth.  It always brought such a wonderful feeling into our home.

When we would finish reading the scriptures, our mother would always hand out PJs to us kids.  This tradition hasn't changed....well, except that my mother now gives PJs to the grand kids instead of the adults.  The grand kids love them!

My youngest brother was down for Christmas as well so as a Christmas surprise Shay and I got him Christmas PJs.  

As you can see below he was super excited! 

Mainly because of the pictures found all over his PJs.  My family LOVES "A Christmas Story" movie!  Below you can see the PJs up close: 

Shay and I got on our "Christmas PJs" and took a picture with him.
We love fun PJs at Christmastime!

The kids LOVED the PJs my mother brought them:

Another tradition I had when I was a kid, which my sister still does, was being able to open one gift on Christmas Eve.  I was one of 5 kids so my mother and father had us choose names secretly.  The name you got was the person you were to buy a Christmas gift for.  

My sister's children picked names this morning and we all went to the store.  My sister's oldest girl asked if she could go shopping with Shay and me so that she could find the perfect gift without her brother seeing.  We had a blast shopping together!

Here is a picture of her with her new stuffed bear she got from one of her brother:

She looked up at me and said, "THIS IS THE BEST CHRISTMAS EVER!"

We love spending time with family and making wonderful memories together!  

Can't wait to get to bed and see what Santa brings tomorrow!

Merry Christmas all!

Summer's Christmas Gift 2013

Due to the fact that Shay is one of eight children, Shay's siblings only draw one name in which to purchase a Christmas gift (Winnie's family rotates siblings every year).  

We both enjoy this tradition because we are able to spend a bit more time and money on the siblings we have each year. 

This year we picked Shay's sister Summer for Christmas.  Winnie immediately felt a desire to make a modern quilt for Summer (She remembered that Keely, another one of Shay's sisters, had said that Summer lacked blankets in her home).  

So Winnie went shopping that week and bought the fabric that she thought Summer would enjoy 

(They were also fabrics she loved as well!).  She even bought fabric for some throw pillows too! 

She solicited the help of her mother 

(Winnie's mother is an excellent seamstress and makes beautiful quilts). 

Below is the end result of the sewing projects.  

It turned out beautifully!

Not only did they make the quilt, but also Winnie's mother made the two throw pillows on her own! (Winnie's mother also did all the top stitching while Winnie was at work.  Winnie felt so bless to have her do that for her!)

Summer seemed to really love the quilt and pillows!

Winnie and Shay also got John and his family for Christmas this year (John is Winnie's brother).  We sent John a BYU Snuggy, BYU mini tree for his office, and PJ bottoms with Grouch on them.  We also sent them BYU duck ornaments for the 4 kids, movies, and other odds and ends.  Winnie forgot to sent the Christmas napkins and ebelskiver pan for Nicole (she felt terrible!) so Mark, Winnie's youngest brother is going to take them back to him when he flies home after Christmas.  

To top it all off we sent John and Nicole a gift card so that they can go out to eat a few times!

They liked their gifts, which made us both happy!

Merry Christmas to all!

Christmas Village 2013

I love to decorate for Christmas!  I get it from my mother and grandmother.  This year was a bit more hectic than most so not all of the Christmas decorations were put up this year, which made me sad, but Shay still thought it looked good and that is all that matters to me! :-)

Take a peek at our home this year:

I decided to do two trees in the front room this year.  I have always loved Santa Clauses and have them throughout these trees...they are hard to see.  When I was younger I had the misconception that Santa was a symbol of God the Father.....maybe it was the white beard or the fact that He gave us the ultimate gift, His son, but I have always loved how the Santas remind me of Him and to be more like Him each day.  

With lights off:

I also LOVE the painting above the manger scene that you can see in the picture.  Shay knew I loved that picture and had wanted it for years and bought it for me for Christmas 2 years ago (LOVE how he spoils me!).  I love how it pulls the Santas and manger scenes together in this room (Can you tell I like to decorate?  Do you?).

I have really tried to occupy my time with finishing up decorating my house for Christmas, for instance.

This is the entry trees I did this year:

What it looks like when you walk into our home:

 I decided to only do the entry way staircase this year...which you can see below.

I just didn't have time to put the garland up on the catwalk this year. ....but I did finish the village.  Shay always requests to have it up.  We get a piece to add to it each year.  My mother bought me the houses one year and I painted them.  Every year I enjoy putting it up differently:

Luckily my brother Paul's children came to the rescue!

My two nieces help me put together the village this year.  I think it turned out beautifully:

This is our family room Christmas tree:

We both really love the bright colors of this tree!

This is our fireplace.  The stars are a new addition that my mother gave us for Christmas this year!  My mother is always spoiling us rotten with fun new Christmas gifts!

The white balls have scenes of the nativity on them.  They are so pretty up close!

Well, that is about all there is this year....but we love it!

Merry Christmas to one and all!