December: Day 21-24...Christmas preparation

"'Twas the night before Christmas, and all through the house..."

I decided I had to get more pictures of the holidays posted before the year was gone.  Since we were spending Christmas with Mark, we opened a few of our presents before we left.  We had wonderful relaxing time at Mark and Amber's.  On the flight over, we had rented the movie "The Avengers" which Warren liked, but I did not care for it too much.  He had to finish watching it after we arrived in LA since it vanishes from your device in 24 hours after you start watching the movie.

Watching the end of the movie.  He borrowed Amber's Bose noise canceling headphones.                                               

 Mark declared a birthday and Christmas gift truce with us, but I could not do it.  It was his 30th birthday after all...we gave him money, and a photo album of memories of his 30 years.

One of the best things about the whole trip was meeting up with old my suite mate from college.  It had been 30 years since we had seen each other.  She came to me (thank goodness--I hate LA traffic).  We had a nice lunch and a long chat (5 hours).  It was like we had never been apart.  

Barbara and Me

Still the same after all these years...well almost.  A little more wrinkles, and hair color from a box.

Christmas moments.

Christmas Eve dinner.  The old McKelvy tradition of meat, cheese, and fruit trays, stuffed mushrooms, and jalapeño poppers.  It was yummy indeed!

Two handsome men.  Warren (my honey), and Mark, my son!

He was growing a beard in his time off!

Mark and Amber

The best gift of all...each other.

Amber made the McKelvy Truffle Cake.  She did the whole nine yards.  Cookies, scratch cake, and frosting, and truffle layer.  We had it Christmas night... it was a 5 star cake for sure.  

It was a very relaxing time.  Mark had on instrumental Christmas music the whole time...almost the whole time.  We did watch "Mickey's Christmas Carol", and "Pluto's Tree."  That was definitely a trip down memory lane for me.
Good times, Good times...

Christmas 2011

Good golly miss Molly, am I ever behind in getting Christmas pictures posted.  I decided I had to get something done today or it will be Christmas again before you know it.  We had a huge snow storm settle into our town on December 23, which was the day Amber and Mark were to fly in.  All flights in were canceled, all roads in and out of town were closed.  Mark and Amber went back to LA and I was one sad Mom.  Thank goodness Mark was determined to get here.  They rebooked a flight into Albuquerque the next day, rented a 4-wheel drive SUV (thank goodness Obama has not gotten rid of them), and made it in. (the road had opened the next day).

The snow did make for some pretty nice pictures.  Warren was a good sport and went out to let me get some pictures of him...but I was told to hurry up, which I did.  I loved my pictures of my awesome man.

It is really snowing hard, yet his toleration is remarkable.

 This is one of my favorite shots.

 It is really cold out here, can you get on with this?

 I don't want my hat ruined because of the snow.

 I have things I gotta do.

Like shoveling the sidewalk.  Where are my boys when I need them?

Snow means snowball fights and snowmen.

 Reid is rolling the second snowball...the first one is on the left.

It takes two to lift it...Ian and Mark.  Reid supervises.

 Now for a nose...no carrots, but we have lots of icicles.

 Erynn brings one arm...icicles too.

 And Reid brings the other arm.

 Kind of looks like a President Nixon move with the arms!

This is the gang that built it, minus the photographer who made the bottom snowball.

 Amber looking good.  She has her sunglasses on in a lot of pictures.

I think Mark's getting ready to plaster me with a snowball.

 The family picture that is so hard to get.  Everyone complains about posing.

 Concentrating on a game of chess...boys against girls.  I don't remember who won.

 This is a pretty good picture, but Mark moved, so he's a little blurry.

 This one is in better focus.

 No sunglasses.

Mark getting plastered with snow.

 And he had a birthday too! 29 years old.

One more Christmas shot, and we are done.  I know.  There are a lot of pictures, but at least you don't have to read an essay from me, just look at pictures.

It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas...

It is beginning to look a lot like Christmas...all through the house! I love all the warmth and colors of Christmas.  I have taken hundreds of pictures--although you would not know it judging by the "no pictures" here.  I was fascinated with some stockings and a cute mantel I found on the website:positivelysplendid.com.  I knew I would be insane to try to make the stockings with all I had on my list to do, but I just could not stop thinking about them.  You know what I did?  I broke down and made them, and I love them and I am glad I took the time to make them.

This was my inspiration picture. 

This is my mantel.

I had most of the items on top of the mantel, and made the NOEL sign from letters I got at Hobby Lobby.  I just added Christmas scrapbooking paper to the front of them.  I wanted to have the word JOY, but they were out of those letters.  Others must have thought of the same thing, so I did NOEL.  I do like the word NOEL which means "Jesus' birth" in Latin. And isn't that what Christmas is all about?

Next, I experimented with getting the lights on our Christmas tree to look like stars using a photo technique.  I wanted to have Warren in the picture, but he was busy with a heating pad on his leg, so there is only the stars.  I will try again later to get this picture with a person.  

Wish I had a person in this picture.

Up close of the Noel. Left side of my mantel.

Up close of the right side of the mantel.

When it came time to get out our Christmas tree, there was discussion about maybe getting another one.  That was quickly nixed, because we both love our skinny, flocked tree.  Warren did most of the tree decorations while I tackled the house.  He did a great job too.  Naturally, he did it differently than I would have done it, but I like the change.  Sometimes, change is good!

I have a couple of dear friends who have become wonderful prayer partners with me.  Early on, our motto became: Clean hands and a pure heart.  Consequently, a lot of our gifts to each other have something to do with hands and hearts.  I love this heart ornament.  When I hang it on the tree, I think and pray for my friend.

Heart ornament from my friend Pat.

Talking about pure hearts, I have another friend who really does have the purest heart I know.  One Christmas, she gave me this snow scene ornament.  At the time, it was the biggest ornament I had ever seen. I like the cross on the house or church or whatever that building is. It is another of my favorite ornaments.

Ornament from my friend, Marisha. It is made in Poland.

When Warren and I were first married, we had no ornaments.  I found a salt dough recipe in a magazine with pictures of homemade ornaments, and thought they were so cute, so I made us some.  They were so whimsical and were a delight to both of us.  Through the years, they have gotten broken, and are no more.  This is my last one...and you can see that the top of his scarf is missing its end.  When Warren pulled this ornament out of the box, he brought it to me, and said, "Do you remember this?"  How well I did.  I am so glad he remembered too, because men do not always remember things we women do. Maybe I will make us some new, "old" ornaments one day.  But this little guy is a treasure to us.

Ornament from Our first Christmas as a married couple.

Thank you for taking a trip down memory lane with me this morning.  It has warmed my heart which is wonderful, because today is rainy and dreary...but I am thankful for the rain!  Be warm and blessed.