Christmases Past



My darling home when we lived in Virginia.  Snow was rare, but in 2009 we had a white Christmas.



Christmas morning- 2008

As a child, the anticipation of Santa's visit was thrilling.  I grew up in a beautiful, white, colonial style home that was set on the edge of a hill that overlooked the Santa Clara, UT valley.  My mother loves holidays and made each one special and rich with family traditions. For Christmas, she spent weeks decorating our home. Every room was trimmed and looked gorgeous when she was done; and many people would come each year to see. We had a special bag that she had sewn several years before I was born that was Santa's mail bag.  Each year, we children (I had 10 siblings) would write a letter to Santa and hang the bag on the outside of our font door.  His elves would pick up our mail and promptly deliver it to Santa, leaving us a treat inside.  It seemed like a decade passed between the mailing of our letters and St Nick's visit.  But he did indeed come every year!

Now I am a mother and have my own children and home. Each year as Christmas gets close, I feel a longing for home.  I sometimes wish to go back to the white house on the hill, to walk through the rooms and see my mother's hand at beauty, and feel the magic of my youth all over again.  But alas, childhood vanishes, but leaves behind for me such wonderful memories.  I wish now to share with my children my love for each holiday as we create traditions of our own.

This was Christoper Robin's second Christmas. Santa brought him a dump truck with a bucket of nuts to scoop into the truck bed.

 And although he doesn't remember it,

I do, and it was wonderful!  

We had 5 lbs. of nuts all over our house!

Christmas morning 2010

Last year, Jace fell in love with a "remote control crane with a bucket and a dumper" at Toys'rus.

So on Christmas Eve Ryan spent 5 hours in our cold garage building this amazing indoor sandbox.

On Christmas morning when Ryan saw the look on Christopher Robin's face when he saw his

remote control crane with it's bucket and dumper placed in a pile of sand,

it made every hour he spent in the garage worth it!

And Christmas morning this year? It's going to be magical. I can't wait!!

Posting again

Well I am back.  Last week was filled with sleepless nights because of a sick Gracie Rue and 75 Christmas cards to get in the mail. But Gracie is feeling better now and the cards are MAILED!

Saturday afternoon we ventured to the mall- a brave thing to do this time of year. We went to see Arthur Christmas. 

Jace loved it and Ryan and I got some good laughs. We took Gracie with us and she did pretty well.  She is still a tad too young to sit through a movie, but next year we will be set.

Sunday, I went to church and everyone else stayed home.  That never happens, but Ryan and I did not wake up until 9:24 AM! Church starts at 9:00 AM-so I rushed out the door to teach my class, and Christopher Robin spent the morning building -

this amazing bridge!

Sunday evening was delightful.  We finally made it to tithing settlement-our second attempt.  We then had the missionaries and the Ericksons over for dinner and good times.

And that was our weekend-in a wrap! 

My Prince came!

December 13, 2002

Some day my prince will come

Some day we'll meet again

And away to his castle we'll go

To be happy forever I know

Some day when spring is here

We'll find our love anew

And the birds will sing

And wedding bells will ring

Some day when my dreams come true

December 13, 2011

Some women have to wait more than one lifetime, but I have been blessed.  In July of 2001 I met my prince and on December 13, 2002 I married him. Today, we celebrated nine wonderful years.  Heaven does exist on earth. My dreams did indeed come true.  So "away to his castle we went, and I am happy forever I KNOW."

Christopher Robin got his tree

Saturday, after Ryan got home from the hospital, we tried again to get a Christmas tree.  First, we went to a local Christmas Tree farm. When we got there, there was a sign posted, "sold out, closed."  Our choices at that point were: go to Menards (like Home Depot) and buy one of their pre-cut ones or drive back to Solon.  The vote was unanimous-Solon, so off we drove.  We got there about 35 minutes later.  There was a sign posted "sold out-closed."

I am not kidding.  But we love driving all over IOWA for a tree, so it was no problem. We then went back to Menards and bought one.

Jace picked it out all himself.  He chose the soft, fluffy one. 

When we got home, Ryan unloaded it and Jace rode it like a broom as they carried it around the house to the back door.

They got it inside and in the tree stand. Then we let Robin and Rue cut off the netting. 

It took them awhile with their dull scissors-which was so fabulous because it gave Ryan and I time for a break on the couch. One side of the tree did end up missing some pine needles, but we turned that side to the back so you would never know!

Still at it!

They each had 10 fingers left when they were done.

That night, after it had soaked in water and opened up, we decorated it.

Gracie's job was to take each ornament that Jace placed on the tree- off!

 They just looked good enough to eat.

Christopher Robin worked and worked. He placed each ornament until they were just right.  After Gracie was asleep for the evening, I heard silence.  Odd, so I investigated.

This is what I found: A beautiful sight! Christopher Robin was all done and

completely tuckered out!

His tree looked beautiful, and so did he!

Decking the halls

Last Friday I started hauling in my red and green plastic totes from the garage. They are filled with my Christmas wreaths and nutcrackers and Annalee dolls.  I inherited some of my decorations from my Mother.  She collected beautiful things and has now passed them on to her children.  

On of my favorites is this 1950's vintage paper village that she bought new in the 50's!  Yes, my mom is in her 80's now.  This has always been a favorite of Jace, but I have kept it out of reach for obvious reasons.  This year I let Christopher Robin assemble the village while Miss Rue was taking her nap.

This was a special treat for him!  He loves building houses anyway, so the privilege of assembling  a whole village was spectacular.  He spent a LONG time getting things just right~

He carefully stuck a light bulb inside each house. 

But his favorite part,

 was sprinkling  the snow all over the village.  It is fake of course, but none-the-less, fabulous stuff.

The snow!

Ta-da!

Now we are all done decking our halls, and our house looks beautiful.  And Christopher Robin is anxiously awaiting the arrival of St. Nick!

No buck for the bang!

On Saturday, Robin and Rue watched the rain fall all morning long.  They had high hopes of going to Handley's Holiday Hillside tree farm to get a Christmas tree.  At 2:00 PM it finally let up.  So Ryan and I decided to take the opportunity to go, since he works next weekend.  We fed our kids, dressed them in coats and boots and  headed to Solon, Iowa, 30 minutes from our house.

We arrived at Hadley's farm at 3:10 PM.  It was wonderful.  There were numerous trees to look at and fall in love with.  We combed the isles for about 30 minutes until we found the perfect one.

Grace loved dancing in the leaves.

Just as it was time to go, since they close at 4:00PM, we realized that we had no way to pay for our tree.  We had forgotten that they only accept cash or check.  And we had neither!!

Gracie got her hands COVERED in pine gum! She went home with grass glued to her hands!

So there was nothing to do but go home with no tree wishing we had more buck for the bang!

Thanksgiving aftermath

If you would have walked in our front door on Thursday after Thanksgiving dinner, this is what you would have seen. As you can tell the excitement goes up a notch or two when Ryan walks through the door.  The boys made a purple paper airplane and launched it into our ceiling fan.  The fan was set on high and it shot the airplane around the room when it hit the spinning blades.  It's quite fun to watch.

This is exactly why a boy needs a Dad!

They are terrific-anyway ours is!!!

One of our Thanksgiving traditions is for Ryan to make his Aunt MeeAnn's dinner rolls.

This year he had the best help money can buy!

And they don't get much cuter than this.  I think I have some stiff competition now!

On November 30th Ryan finished his month long rotation on Pediatric General Surgery.  This Thanksgiving we felt so truly blessed for many things.  We are grateful for the gospel of Jesus Christ, our families, and our healthy children.  There are so many sick kids at the Iowa University Hospital that Ryan worked with, and we are so grateful that ours are home and happy and healthy with us this Thanksgiving. 

Hope you all had a very Happy Thanksgiving!