Wednesday, December 24, 2014

Christmas Eve: Gifts

 These pictures are self explanatory really.  In one box were matching PJ pants and in the other matching Star Wars t-shirts.  Then they raided the Man Cave for pillow props to make the pictures that much better and so my crazy guys.  Enjoy...












 After Jake went to sleep all the gifts came out.  There were a lot before because we had all the extended family gifts out too.  But you have to save some of them for that night so it is more fun to come out in the morning a see what wasn't there before.






I had to get it from all angles...


...and one with the big light off and just the Christmas lights.



...and then one more with that last gift I forgot to wrap so I just grabbed the tissue paper...


...and then the last stocking stuffer I forgot so I had to add....







And that is all for our Christmas Eve...Next the BIG day.

Christmas Eve: The Get Together

 On Christmas Eve we had Nee, Papa G, Aunt Sheila, Nana, and Papa Harmon over for finger foods and games.  The rest of the family was scattered to different places so we thought it would be fun to have a grandparent party.


 I love my little plate...



...and I love cocktail meatballs so I made them (and had enough of the sauce left over to bring to our Christmas meal the next day) and a few other things.


The guys were watching something (I can't remember what) so I made a couple of last minute gifts while I cooked....


Aaron and Jake had said how cool these Star Wars ornaments were one time when we were at Walmart...but they were $9 a piece so I made some.  At Walmart R2D2 and....


...C3PO figurines were sold together for $8.  So I added some ribbon and wa-la!  Two Star Wars ornaments!  They love them!

This was the first time I have used my Buffet as a Buffet.  Can you see how our Nativity was now official with the Jake figurine in the front.  I have told this story a million times and I will tell it a million more.  When Jake was about 4 he put up the Nativity and ran out of the room.  When he came back he had "his Willowtree figurine" (the one that we said was him)-a boy holding a gold heart.  He put himself into the Nativity and looking at Baby Jesus and we have done it every year since then. 



I had to take a picture of the adorable Snow man plates I found.
We were lucky to have everyone there for dinner.  Everyone except Aunt Sheila had been sick and she says she only avoided it because she had been working so much in her house that she hadn't gone any where to catch it.  This years cold is a head/chest cold that holds on...I took my tea and it never went into my chest!



Sadie was so good.  She went and laid on her bed until she heard chairs being pushed back signifying we were done.  She is always willing to help clean up any plates we need her help with.
  We played a homemade Christmas version of headbands.  You put a paper on your forehead that has a word on it.  You have to ask yes or no questions to guess what it is.  It gets pretty funny!





Especially when people spell it wrong and the person trying to guess tries to cheat and see the reflection in your glasses!


We ended on Jesus.  Although this shot is of them being goofballs it was a great one to end on and it lead us into the living room to watch The Nativity and He Is The Gift videos on LDS.org.  I don't know what it is about it but I cannot watch He Is The Gift without crying-the kind of cry that you have to try not to make noise when you cry.  It is amazing.  If you haven't seen it go and look it up.  It.Is.The.Best.

In fact here it is He Is The Gift.   And of course The Nativity is amazing too and you can find it there too.  But I am going to make you search if you want to see that too.  You never know what else you may stumble upon that will be just what you needed to hear.

It is a blessing to live in the same town as both sets of Grandparents and a Great Aunt.  To say Jake is spoiled is an understatement-and he deserves every bit of it!


Christmas Eve: The Man Cave Reveal.

 One night, a couple of weeks ago, when I couldn't fall I decided we needed to make the school room into a Man Cave.  You see we start the day in the school room but never stay in there and I am not a fan of having a room that doesn't get used that much.  And I knew turning it into a Man Cave for Jake and Aaron would be perfect.


It worked perfectly because a week or two before I had the idea I had put this sign on the door because I had all the gifts out to see what I had and what I still needed to buy...and I had crafts out.  I would go in and get Jake's school books for him-we didn't abandon school completely don't worry!)  So I let Jake in on the idea and he thought it was great.  We worked on it during the day and Aaron never even asked what was going on.  
 There is still a desk and a table in there so we can still work on school in there if we want to of course.  It is a hang out room.  We had to work really hard on Christmas Even to finish it and we were too excited to wait until Christmas morning to show it to Aaron.








As you can see we didn't go out and buy any furniture.  Some day we will get a recliner.  But it all works perfectly for now. 

We also didn't want to mess up the plaster walls trying to hang up the guitar holders so we left that for Aaron to do too. 


 


 This is the moment when Aaron noticed the poster he had on his wish list on Amazon that he didn't know we ordered.  It is the blue prints for some of his favorite Star Wars space ships, like the Millennium Falcon.



 It was a hit!  Aaron immediately put it to good use by wrapping Christmas presents in there.


While he did that I made some pies for Christmas day and got ready for our Christmas Eve get together.







After he finished wrapping he played his guitar.  I am a genius. :)

Thursday, December 11, 2014

Last night I did...

...this.  For a couple of hours.
And I am pretty much done wrapping.  I haven't taken a picture of all the gifts under the tree but I will.  Two weeks from today...!!!  Time flies...