Another Christmas Come and Gone

~Christmas~

I love the Christmas Season. I love the smells, food, shopping and my family. So as much as I love it, it reminds me my boy is growing up too fast. I keep thinking, one year closer to him growing up. He will have his own life, family and adult worries. I will be reduced to the occasional visit and Holiday phone calls. That part makes me a little sad. But today is a good day. I have my little family and God is good and so is life.

 

Our tree

MJ posing with his milk and cookies for Santa



MJ wrote out is Christmas list to Santa and left him a bribe.
This is the first year MJ actually asked for a specific
gift. So we made sure we got em.



MMMM tamales! As the joke goes, we Mexicans are so poor we make tamales on Christmas so we have something to open. Yep, still funny!

Now it's time to get down to business!

Nerf, was on the list

So were the angry bird shirts

Mine Shaft, a must NOT buy. Took all day for Mark to assemble!

Walkie Talkies, on the list too. He still has fun with them



My boys! The reason I live and breathe. I didn't get a picture of
Mark's Christmas gifts from MJ, but he got him a led sled. Mark was stoked!



Family Pic time

MJ did a great job taking our pic

MJ and his pics with Santa!

MeRrY ChRiSTmAs!!

Christmas Tree Hunting

Seems like every year we do this, we get a little smarter and better at getting the perfect tree for Christmas.

No more walking 2 miles looking for a tree. Now we drive until we find a spot that has enough to choose from. The key is to not wander too far from the truck so you don't have to haul it over a mile holding a chain saw.

MJ being MJ

He is such a ham when I pull out the camera.

  

Mark testing the chain saw

This was the first one I saw. It was nice, but not our tree

This is more like it and of course it was a lot further from the truck than Mark wanted.

MJ and his Daddy:)

The final inspection to make sure it's the right one.

Me with the chain saw after I cut the sucker down. AS IF!

LUNCH TIME

Tree Hunting takes a lot out of you. It was so nice up in woods, so it makes sense to stay for a bit.

Hot dogs are today's lunch special

MJ's gotta inspect em too.

Waving at passersby

Having a contest on who can take a bigger bite. Mark won of course, but give MJ will be giving him a run for his money in a few years. Yeah, I don't even want to think about what our grocery bill is gonna look like in about 6 years!

The I'm so happy to have a hotdog dance

Loading up for our trip home.

Happy DAY! MJ was so excited to get our tree and said he couldn't wait to get home and put on the ornaments we made.

He slept the whole way home and the remainder of the day.

HAPPY HAPPY DAY!!

Christmas Activities

I Love the Holidays!

Lights of Tanea

If you live in the Reno/Sparks area you know what a cool place this is to see.

It's one home that really knows how to decorate for the Holidays.

The lights are set to the music of TSO.

MJ ready and waiting to go!

I always try to get at least one family picture.

Summit Tree Lighting!

There are a couple of tree lighting's in Sparks/Reno. This one is my favorite.

Smile say cheese!

Thank Goodness Mark has long arms:)

Of course MJ and his fairy wand fascination.

My 2 favorite men.

I am very lucky that I found such a great man!

MJ was so excited to see Santa. I wasn't quick enough on the clicker to get the pic of Santa shaking MJ's hand.

Tree Lighting



Christmas Is Upon Us

Christmas Crafts w/MJ

Another Christmas tradition in our home is MJ and I make a few handmade ornaments for our tree. This year we decided to make dough ornaments. Super easy and MJ loves playing with dough.

All you need is salt, flour and water.

1c Salt

1c Flour

1/2c Water (more or less)

Kneed and roll out dough.

Then using cookie cutters (hand for Santa Ornament) cut out your shapes

bake @ 200 for 3 hrs

Paint, seal and ready to hang

I rolled this our to about 1/4 inch thickness

Using a cookie cutter, cut out desired shape. I used a wooded skewer to make the hole to loop the ribbon.

After cutting our shapes, line a baking sheet with parchment paper and bake @ 200 for about 3 hrs

Once the dough is completely cooled, we are ready for paint.

This was MJ favorite part. Why is the messiest task always the funnest for my little Monkey?

MJ finished painting all his ornaments.

I added all the detailed work.

Lots of fun and they make great gifts!

Just make sure your mark them fragile and use lots of bubble wrap when you mail em :)