Christmas

It was the first Christmas in our new house! I had been wanting to create a nature or woodland theme for years and this was the year to finally do it! With how face paced and technology driven things are now days,  I decided I was not going to give a single gift that was electronic in any way so I thought the two themes were perfect together. Our tree was adorned with; berries, acorns and pine cones, owls, birds, and squirrels to name a  few. It turned out to be one of my favorite trees ever.

I absolutely love hosting Christmas at my house. I feel very blessed that my family is willing to bundle up in the icy cold to spend the day at our home. Especially because I don't like going anywhere at all on Christmas.

My kitchen was filled with homemade treats,  plenty of comfort foods and warm drinks. My living room looked like something out of a magazine but the company and Christmas spirit was even better. It was wonderful.

Copper was so funny, he could smell the treats in his stocking and went straight for them in the morning.

Russ had wanted a deep fryer for a couple years so the kids got him one for Christmas. They wrapped up a 5Lb bag of potatoes to make french fries with but they gave that to him before the fryer and the look on his face was priceless (the kids thought it was hilarious). I'm not sure how I would have reacted to getting a bag of potatoes for Christmas. Haha

After all the gifts under the tree had been opened, I told the kids there was one more thing for them in their bedroom that was too awkward shaped to wrap. They each had gotten new furniture that they had wanted. Ashleigh got a make up table, chair and chevron blanket for her bed. Jackson got a couple tall bookshelves, cool display items and pillows. They had no idea, I loved it!

 

Christmas Eve

We spent a few hours at my Mom's on Christmas eve. She had a full dinner with all the trimmings and more pie than we could ever eat!


 This year we did something new and had a white elephant gift exchange. It was hilarious! There was everything from an old umbrella to a stuffed mouse, chocolate pudding to a pocket sized box of tissues. The funnies where these crazy looking garden hooks that looked like a combination of a sea horse and a flamingo...on acid. It was so fun!









We exchanged regular gifts with the people we wouldn't see on Christmas day and opened our traditional Christmas Eve PJ's.

House Eddition - Moving Day

 I tried to be as organized as possible for the move, I had color coded and labeled everything from the old house.

My Mom and Mark helped us move with their horse trailer. My little brother and his wife helped us with both of their vehicles. Russel and I had a friend from work offer to help as well so with our 3 cars also, it only took 2-3 trips each.

The only real hiccup was the new refrigerator not fitting through the doors but Russell and Justin had it in the house and set up by the time I got to the house. They moved in the washer & dryer and had them set up before I got back from the next trip also.

I was so appreciative of all the help. My kids were a great help too and didn't even complain... much. The only casualty of the entire move was a small glass lampshade. I was pleased.

After the few trips back and forth (a whopping 1.5 miles from the old house) we took a break and my mom bought everyone lunch. She is fantastic. Everything went pretty smooth.

The house was a wreck for a while. At least it was organized chaos. It's been fun seeing everything come together.