Family Gifts

Once again, Family Christmas gifts proves to be lovely in every way.  It takes thought, creativity, effort, time, and love.  A few of my favorite things.

Travis drew Jay

A race track for his cars.

Ty drew Daddy.

A flying air ship to hang in his office.  Almost a whole roll of painters tape sacrificed it's painting purpose to illicit the proper wind resistance.

 Corbyn fretted over Ty's.  Why?  Because we required they use their own funds this year.  Corbyn has some difficulty parting with his cold hard cash.  But in the end he did it and it was lovely.  He bought him gum....his favorite thing and some "tooter balloons."

 I drew Corbyn.  He drew this lovely picture on Dad's iPad forever ago and has been begging me to print it out.  He hoped to frame it and hang it in his room.  So I finally did it for him.

 And Jay drew me.  My sweet lover boy took care of this one.  He made me a forever and ever hand print which is still drying in my kitchen window:).

And these because they will cheer me up on any sort of day.

If your tempted to comment about child nudity. . . sing a hymn.:)  love you.

Christmas Time.

Interesting traditions, a hilarious time, enjoying family nearby for the first time.  I loved this Christmas.  

I didn't ruin it this year with rushing and stressing and overdoing it.  So glad I only had to ruin one Christmas to catch a glimpse. We kept it calm, simple, and wonderfully fun.

Our favorite ugly sweater

 Our favorite house down the street to visit.  We went there many nights to sit and watch the lights blink to the music.

The fun of the live nativity

 Taylor style game night

 Nativity

 Christmas lights drive.  Extra awesome this year.  A whole neighborhood dedicated to our viewing pleasure.

 Plenty of time for late night Papa reading.

Gingerbread houses with Nana

 Christmas dinners

 BINGO NIGHT Christmas Eve.  One of my most favorite traditions!

 Santa Time

 Christmas Breakfast

I like to record what the boys asked for each year as a fun memory for later on.

Corbyn's hopeful list: mario kart wii game, marble run, pokemon deck
Ty: skylanders characters, pokemon deck, marble run, bike
Jay: um.....nothing yet.  But he got a shopping cart.

Christmas Preparation

We have our new number system to help Ty count down.  I made it for partially selfish reasons.  Every day Ty wakes up and asks how many days until Christmas.  Then again at breakfast, snack, second breakfast, lunch, snack....your catching on.

Now we just point upstairs and he runs and counts himself.  

Bliss.

We give the kids their own tree, to decorate and redecorate and to put all the lovely sweet ornaments they make, and even a few my my younger years.  They love having their own tree.  By seasons end the ornaments are strewn and chewed and broken... I suppose I love that they have a tree they can enjoy which invariably means destroy, and it doesn't break my heart to see it tipped over or sat upon.  If that's how you enjoy your tree, rock that.  I personally prefer to sit on the couch and look at mine but adults are boring and predictable.  

 Part of our Christmas was our last order of long term food storage.  Oh happy day!  If the world ends tomorrow we can feed our family for a good deal of time. . . hopefully they are right and it equates to one year.  As of right now we will enjoy a bounteous feast of oats, black beans, rice, and wheat pearls.  Yum.

We tried out our new advents calendar this year.  It was lovely watching them get excited to open the activity/craft/lesson/nativity person each day.  We did have a little treat in each stocking until a certain day when some certain friends realized their were treats and enjoyed an early Christmas feast.  Their favorite stockings were our RACKed activities.  Random Acts of Christmas Kindness.  A lovely woman does this each year and we decided to adopt her tradition.  We had a ball taping quarters to vending machines and parking meters.  We loved getting up early to run to Starbucks to get the boys teachers hot cocoa and a goodie.  Once our kids got over the hump of "well can't I have this quarter" "what do I get for doing this" and "I want a hot cocoa too" it was pure magic.  My sweet mother's hands will forever be sore for helping me make all of these little stockings and hats.

 Christmas Dance Party

Oh blessed Thankful Day

The baking.

The smell.

The family time.

I love this day.

This is what occupies the critters while I bake.

 And this....of course.

 This is how cute I look after a run, a hat, and a morning in the kitchen.  My hair does very creative things.

 Classic.  Pumpkin, Apple, and a Chocolate Mousse that's firming up in the fridge.

Interestingly enough I was feeling generous and asked what pie everyone wanted....

Travis wanted cheesecake.  He didn't want pie.  So I found my recipe, then we had another talk about how we needed to have whip cream-not cool whip, and strawberry and cherry and possibly blueberry topping for this cheesecake.  

Timeout. 

It's thanksgiving.

Sorry cheesecake lovers.

I'm making pie.

That's one thing I love about Taylor's-if you ever want to know what they think, just ask em.....they wont hold back

If you don't want to know, don't ask.

And if you decide to dismiss all requests and make what you feel like baking, they love you anyway.

 Muahaha.  Heidi tortures Travis with more purple!  Booya.

Table presents are a fun and lovely Taylor tradition.

 Heidi was our lovely host and it was fabulous food and fabulous fun!!

 This boy and his turkey leg.  It's tradition.  If I ever buy a rotisserie chicken he begs and begs for the drumsticks.  He'll do just about any job or any homework to get one.  It's a good bargaining token.

Our yearly thankful tree