Life as we go it

It's been a while since I last wrote on here! 

First I want to wish you all a belated Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year :) I hope that each of your hearts was filled with love and joy over the holidays. And for those whose hearts may have been aching (the loss of a loved one, or dealing with financial strain, etc) I hope that the New Year wraps you in a big fuzzy blanket of peace and grants you the new beginnings you need :)

_________________

I intended on writing about some some pre-Christmas crafts that Liam and Chloe worked on, some photos of our indoor and outdoor Christmas decorations, some gifts that I made, etc....but I just didn't find the time because:

a) Taking care of two kids every day makes for some busy times! Nurturing them and loving them and teaching them, all the while trying to put up and decorate the Christmas tree/buy and wrap gifts for family/create photo calendars & Christmas cards/prepare food & bake sweets/clean the house for guests/etc just made it that much harder to find time to do anything extra, such as monkey around on my blog.

b) We were traveling around quite a bit prior to/during/after Christmas. It went something like this:

Matt's sister arrived from CA the week before Christmas and stayed with us for a couple of nights.

Then we hosted Matt's cousins at our house for our annual "Cousins Xmas". Then on the weekend (prior to Christmas) we traveled to Matt's parents' house for a couple of days and celebrated with his family. On Christmas Eve we visited Matt's parents again & then went to my mom's house, then back to our house later that night. Woke up Christmas morning with our kids at our house. Went to my aunt's house that afternoon/evening. Came back to our house. Went to my mom's house the next morning-Saturday. We got back home the Saturday after Christmas, only for Chloe to get sick that Sunday night.

and c)  I've been feeling yuck-o for the last two weeks. It started with the flu a couple of weeks ago (I had uncontrollable chills and stabbing body pains for two days). Then it turned into a lingering fever and cold. Then the cough set in. And that's where I'm at now. I have an annoying won't-go-away cough & zero energy. It also hit up Chloe, Liam and Matt, but in different ways.

I think we're finally digging ourselves out of the sick cave & heading towards normal again. Thus why I am finally sitting down to view photos I took from Christmas and blog about it! 

I took way too many a ton of photos, so I'll share these with you first,  then share some more in a few days. Enjoy :)

Sweet little Chloe's first Christmas!

Liam was a PRO at helping decorate the tree this year!

And Chloe loved watching her brother do the work.

Christmas is not complete in our house without a jar of pickled eggs (made by Matt).

December's Crafty Club was held at Urbane, a local bar/restaurant. But instead of passing around craft supplies we passed around drinks and homemade ornaments! 

Each of us pre-made one ornament to give to someone else in the group. And I must say -- everyone did a great job! There was a glass ball decorated and filled with popcorn, a glass ball filled with cute curly-cue papers, a ball covered in handmade paper flowers, a ball wrapped in holiday yarn, a Crafty Club themed ball (very nice Sarah) and a ball made out of socks. 

The ball above and below is the one that I made. I used things that I found laying around the house (felt, scrap booking paper scraps, a clear ball, ribbon and tiny red fuzzy balls). I just cut scraps of paper and felt into little teardrop shapes and glued them on the ball in layers, starting at the bottom of the ball and working my way to the top. I used Aleene's Clear Tacky Glue to stick it all together. It took me a 1/2 hour tops to make the whole thing. Quick and easy. My friend Joy was the lucky taker of my ball.

I just LOVE decorating Christmas trees. Each year as December rolls around I look forward to getting out our box of ornaments, looking at each one (and reminiscing over the memories I have with them) and then carefully put them on the tree. Although I think the term "carefully" is probably not the correct word to use anymore, since little Liam helped me this year!

I separated the ornaments into two piles right away: 1 pile of fragile/vintage/unsafe/breakables and then 1 pile of completely safe/fun/un-breakables (no glass, no hooks, no fit-in-the-mouth). I hung the "Liam do not touch those" ornaments on the top half of the tree while. And Liam hung his toddler-friendly ornaments on the lower half. What a great deal!

This little boy not only helped me decorate the tree this past Sunday, but he's helped me un-decorate and decorate it AGAIN and AGAIN and AGAIN every day this week. I sit by him when he does it, to make sure he doesn't try to climb the tree (or eat the tree or destroy the tree). 

It's cool to see that he loves decorating the tree as much as his mama does :)

To me, ornaments are a gift that keeps on giving. Every year I get to look at them & enjoy them. And each one has it's own unique story. Here are some photos of my favorite ornaments that I've been gifted/given or made myself over the years: