Dec. 2009...Finally!!!

So here it is the end of February and I am just now getting to post about Christmas!!! I will say that so far this year is going by mighty quick and I find it hard to believe that it is already the second month of our new year. Before I get to the activities of our December let me update you on how we are doing…I have found a car, which if it will stop raining and I can think about it on a nice day, I will take and post pictures for you. Now it is prayers for Josh and his car that we need. His quit a few weeks ago and he has been so far blessed with friends from work who are willing to come out of their way to come and get him and then bring him back. At first we thought we were going to get his fixed but now it looks as if it is a computer issue and that costs a load so we are weighing our options. Quinn and I have been sick I am sure due to the back and forth of the weather and we are getting over that slowly (which Josh has been annoyingly well ;) Quinn also has two more loose teeth!!

Here are our yearly Christmas pictures taken at Target. We were really happy with them.

So each Christmas season we get a family Christmas ornament with our names on them. This year I found a snowman holding three ornaments each with our names on them from www.personalizationmall.com I thought that I would share some of the ornaments from the past with you. Before we get our family tree up, Quinn has the chance to decorate his own tree anyway he wants. Here are some pictures of him and Daddy decorating his tree…This year we were again lucky to buy a real tree and this one was one of the best shaped trees we’ve ever had! Here are my before decorating and after pictures…

Christmas Eve we went over to Mell and Mary Lynne’s (Josh’s parents) to open gifts. After that we headed to Christmas Eve service at our church in our new building with my parents…

When we got home, we tried to make Christmas cut out cookies but they did not look great and we were such a mess that I did not even take pictures of that. I had bought these small cookie cutters in shapes of a bell, angel, church, cross and present from work but I think they were too small to work with easily and when the cookies spread in the oven while baking, you could no longer tell what any of them were (except for the cross…how interesting…could it be a cookie message from above ;) While Josh was putting Quinn to bed with the Bible version of the Christmas story, I was getting all the presents ready to place under the tree. Once asleep, Josh and I finished stuffing the stocking and hanging them, placed gifts under the tree and took our final picture in front of the tree. Here are pictures of our finished tree with gifts, stuffed stockings and my mantel décor…

Christmas Day this year was SO GREAT!!! This year was the start of our new traditions and staying home on Christmas Day was one of them. Josh always goes in to get Quinn so I can take pics of his first impressions as he comes down the hall and sees the tree and surprises waiting for him under the tree. This year we got him a parakeet that he has since named Uncle Feather after the Myna bird in the Judy Blume book Superfudge. Why did we get a bird? First, we were getting him a mouse or two. Then, Josh kept talking about a rat. The mice I could live with but the rat not so much because you know who cleans the cage? Me and although I am not a girly-girl about a rat, I have a hard time bonding with something that is not very cute. So I suggested a bird even though Josh does not like birds. He was not happy about this at all but I convinced him that I was sure that this is what Quinn wanted since after reading that book he could not stop talking about having a bird. (Now he wanted a Myna bird but get real…) Funny now though how Josh was so anti bird yet you can catch him each day cooing and talking to Uncle Feather as if it were his baby!!!! He is also open to getting another to keep Uncle Feather company! Other things that Quinn got were lots of Star Wars Legos that I spent the day putting together as we sat around all day in our PJ’s, art supplies such as dry erase markers, paint pens, stickers and large coloring book, balloon animal kit, games like Mouse Trap, Guess Who? and a Star Wars video game, more beans for his very flat bean bag chair, two new movies, lots of character socks like Mickey Mouse, Animal from The Muppet Show, Yoda, Darth Vader and Spider-Man and a made-by-Mama fleece monkey blanket (that you will notice Josh is wrapped up in). This may seem like a lot but we actually do not buy toys for Quinn other than at Christmas, in January for his birthday and small outdoor toys to fill his Easter basket with…not bad when you consider that amount spread out through the whole year. Josh decided on the Christmas dinner menu this year…He wanted Cranberry Pork, Aunt Geri’s dressing, and Green Bean Casserole a la Melissa from our church, yeast rolls and the pudding dessert that I have posted before from Cooking Light. The Cranberry Pork recipe is one that I also have posted before but for Christmas I made the sauce and cooked thick cut pork chops in it for a quicker version. I do not have exact amounts on Aunt Geri’s dressing (sorry) and Melissa’s Green Bean Casserole is just like the regular recipe but with a few slices of American cheese slices added to the mushroom soup. We were blessed with such a wonderful day!!!

After Christmas Day we had the chance to visit at my grandmother Mimi’s house with my sister and her family. My niece and nephews are regrettably becoming anti picture people: (but here is Quinn getting his Mario Cart game from them and his Dual Action Light Saber from my parents. A funny story about the bag-o-batteries is that when Quinn opened the Light Saber and saw the Ziploc bag of batteries he said that the commercial said that the batteries were not included!! We had to explain that Grandma had included those batteries for him!

So that was our Christmas season for 2009. We were blessed in so many ways from good health and safety to food on our table and being free to worship our God. Through a tragic accident and death of my sister’s best friend before Christmas, we were feeling so thankful to love on and pray for my sister and her family during their healing. That they made it through to two hour drive safely to be with us is yet another praise to our God.

As 2009 drew to an end, I thought often about my posts to our blog being so sporadic and what I should do about it. I questioned if I should continue it or should I quit…I decided that I will continue our blog but that I will also continue to put the importance of my family first and not feel guilt about how often I post. I would like to say that I will post more often but I do not know what our future holds from one day to the next. If it is the choice between spending time with my precious son who gets older by the day and Josh who is such a treasure to me or spending time planning a post I have to choose them. I would like to continue to keep friends and family updated on a monthly basis in the future and maybe more than that once Quinn is off for the summer. It seems that “our” schedule as 1st graders (I say this because no child should go it alone with their school work and that requires time from us) has been dramatically different from our schedule last year. Not only are we helping with more homework but we have started our own “Sunday School” type Bible study with Quinn before bed. Although the Sunday School provided at church is very well done, we found that-unlike at school where he has no problems focusing-in Sunday School at church he was more interested in what his friends were doing than the message of the day so we decided it was best to do our own at home each night where there was not that distraction and he gets a dose everyday. We have added chores to Quinn list of things to do also. Quinn now helps me with dishes, helps Josh with trash one day and cleans the mirrors on another. I heard this week that the average child in the U.S. spends 8 hours a day in front of some type of screen…computer, T.V., video game, cell phone or MP3. Thankfully, we have kept Quinn on a schedule that allows him his T.V. time between school and dinner on weeknights and video games only on Fridays nights if we are home and one hour before lunch and one hour in the afternoon on Saturdays once again if we are home (none on Sundays). After dinner is homework and then playtime until Bible study, story time and then bedtime. So you can say that our life has become very full but balanced. Although we may not post often, we will post so we hope you will hang out and check in with us.

Much love until next time,

A