Christmas (finally) - Part 1

Okay so I am finally going to get around to posting about our wonderful Christmas. To be honest, it feels like it was so long ago that I was contemplating just skipping it, but I really do want to have a record of it and I know my mom would be really disappointed. :)

There is so much stuff to talk about and post pictures of, so I am going to break it down into 3 posts. Here is part 1:

As usual, our Christmas holiday season kicked off the day after we arrived back at home from our Thanksgiving travels. The day was full of decorating for me and lots of oohing and aahing from Colby. When Curt got home from work that evening, we inhaled our dinner and set out to find the perfect tree - and we did! The next day I used blood, sweat and tears to get the tree decorated. (I HATE putting the lights on the tree!) Here is a peek at some of the decorations.

Colby "helping" Curt water our brand new tree

Tree decorating is dirty work!

These are two very special ornaments given to me by my great Aunt Joan.
They were Colby's favorite!

My failed attempts at taking a pic for our Christmas cards.

Our next holiday activity was a Polar Express event at Wildlife Prairie Park. We thought the kids were going to get to ride a train, but it was more like a stage set. A little disappointing, but they still had a good time. The highlight of the night was a visit from Santa.

The following evening was our second annual Holiday Feast. For this party I break out the Christmas dinnerware and my Nana's red glasses and we have a "formal" dinner with some friends to celebrate the season. I love hosting this party! However, this is the one time of the year that I really wish we had a bigger house. Eleven months out of the year it is perfect for us, but on this night we cram in as many people as we can. Unfortunately we don't get to invite some people that we really wish could come. Maybe we'll have to start hosting two dinners so that we can have them all over. This year there were 10 adults and 5 kids and we were packed in. I even had to add a card table to the end of the dining room table. Classy, I know.

The table and the FEAST!

The kids' table in the kitchen

The friends!!!

Amid all of this, I took on the sewing and crafting challenge of my life. I had started making our family stockings last year, but they needed to be finished. I also decided that it would be really great to make most of our gifts. I was happy with the results, but exhausted in the end. If I do that again, I will need to start in August instead of the second week of December! I ended up making Christmas pajamas for my kids, stitcheries for my mom and mother-in-law, an embroidered pillow for my grandma, pajamas for my cousin's daughters and Polly Puppy for our newest niece. Here are some pics of my labor.

Our family stockings

My kids' Christmas pajamas

Pajamas for my cousin's daughters

Polly Puppy for Grace

I forgot to take pictures of the stitcheries for our moms and the pillow for my grandma. Here is a picture of my mom opening her gift on Christmas morning. (I am sure she will appreciate me posting this!)

Okay, that is the end of Part 1. If you have actually read through this whole thing, thanks. You are a trooper. I promise to be back in a couple of days with part 2.