Christmas Eve

Yes, I know Christmas is long over but I am just getting to some pictures. I am not sure where January is going but it does seem to be flying by. We had a wonderful Christmas season, but I am glad to be done. The decorations are put away and the house feels so clean now. Oh how I love the Christmas decorations though. First up I thought I would share my Christmas Eve table. I was very happy with how it turned out. Every Christmas Eve we spend it with my 3 brothers, all of whom are single. So here is the table set for 5. Emma and Evan sat at one end but I didn't put out the good stuff for them. I am also pretty certain that my brothers wouldn't care it I set a fancy table so I strictly do this for me and Jim. (thank goodness he likes things like this.) On my buffet you can kind of see part of my snow village. For some reason, I cannot find the other half to my village. It looked very pretty in person.

Here is a view from one end of the table. ( I forgot to remove the price from the poinsettia, oops.)

Here is a close-up of the table setting. Nothing to fancy.

A close up. I did birds with candle holders and my crystal pieces that were wedding gifts. I just love the hurricanes. I used part good china and part every day. It seems when my brothers are here something gets broken or spilled. Thankfully nothing broke but Emma pulled the table cloth and one of the votives splashed onto the tablecloth. I hope it will come out. This happened last year but that was done by one of my brothers. Aargh..... Oh well, always a memory.

Here is Scott. He never can give you a normal smile.

Here is Emma with Dad. Not sure what her look is but she just got some ice cream toys and loved them. Funny how all her uncles remembered another niece getting these exact ones a few years ago. I was impressed that they remembered!

I just love this picture. Evan was so into his toys and when he opened this one he got so excited and it made us all laugh. Evan and Todd had a lot of fun together that night.

Another hit was the recordable books from Auntie Sue. Emma especially loves her book. She was just reading it again today and is beginning to memorize the story. I am very proud of her and these books are a hit. I will have to get more of them for her.

Sorry, more Christmas pictures are coming. January isn't a very exciting month for pictures so bear with me.

Meeting the guy in the red suit!!!!

Well we did it. We braved meeting Santa this year. We talk about it all the time but they are always afraid to just meet him. Well, this year at the District Education Center ( the same place Emma goes to preschool) the local American Legion holds a Christmas party for the kids in the area and Santa comes. I was excited that Mrs. Claus was there too. She looked great, Santa, well he needed a little work. Anyways, it was a great because there was no one there. We walked into the room and Evan spotted Santa and was very nervous but he noticed that Santa had candy canes. Oh how he wanted one. Santa said "you need to come see me first". Up he went on his lap. He was so nervous the whole time. (Emma was still working on getting her coat off.) Sorry, the picture is blurry but you can see Evan was a little scared.

This picture shows his expression more clearly. HE really wanted to get down but he sat there for a few minutes.

In comes Emma and she walks right up to Mrs. Claus and sits on her lap. It was very sweet.

I am pretty sure Emma is telling Mrs. Claus a thing or too. Evan, still scared.

Well Santa wanted her to sit on his lap so up I put her and she was a little nervous too but sat there enough to get some pictures. Overall I thought they did great. They also had balloons and homemade cookies. The kids loved the cookies.

Here are a few pictures of my kitchen. I hope to post more of my decorating throughout the week.

Close up of the hutch in the kitchen. I did snowmen and red and green in the kitchen/family room area. Very happy with it.

Another view of the hutch from a distant.
Well we are in for another big snowstorm today, possibly another 5-8 inches. YUCK!!! It is going to be a VERY long winter. If we get another 12 inches (including todays storm) we will hit a new record for snowfall in December. Isn't that something to be proud of? NOT!!!!