Home For The Holidays

A little late to the party, but we made it!  

Elise was hospitalized for 6 days last week (I will be writing about that whole adventure soon), and I felt a little bummed that we hadn’t yet put up our Christmas tree and decorations.  Days went by, and as I enjoyed everyone else’s Christmas posts on Facebook, it helped me to look forward to going home and getting our Christmas on!  

Without fail, I always seem to build these family traditions up to be more than what they end up being.  I picture the boys working together on homemade ornaments, Christmas music playing in the background, conversations of Santa and Jesus, and Elise relaxing nearby in new red and green holiday pajamas.  

Instead... the boys irritate the snot out of each other as I try to keep my "sweet" voice from becoming my "growling" voice.  Someone turns up the Chipmunks Christmas songs and puts them on repeat (help me!).  Our talk mainly consists of... "Crap! The cookies are burning!", and "If you break one more ornament...!"  Finally, Elise ends up peeing in her new holiday pajamas, resulting in stripping her bed and changing her into pjs that aren't even remotely "Christmasy".

Oh, well... We still manage to have a great time each year, and how boring would it be if everything did go just as planned?

This is the first year that we made homemade ornaments.  These are paint swirl ornament balls.  Easy for Lane, Ty, and most importantly, Mama!

 

We also made some pretty glitter ornaments.  Also super easy, but beautiful. 

  

Later that night, Patch the Elf got into the ornaments and made one himself.  This is as creative as I get with the whole elf thing.  

 Ty insists on me wearing these antlers around the house.  I have accidentally gone out in them to check my mail or get in my car to leave.  Thank goodness for the bells on them that remind me to take them off. 

Only a few more years left that both of my boys will enjoy Christmas books being read to them.  Who am I kidding?  I will probably force Lane to sit through these Christmas books way past his natural threshold.  Thank goodness he still likes them as of now!

This is the non-burned batch.  Lane was way more interested in the cookies than decorating the tree…  I can’t say that I blame him!

Ty, on the other hand, was thrilled to help decorate the tree.  It’s fun watching this stage all over again so many years after experiencing it with Lane.  

Ty has grown very attached to this Santa hat.  I'm waiting for him to ask to wear it to church!

 Random picture of Elise waiting for the bus one morning last week.  I thought she looked cute in her glittery shoes and silver bow.  

My mom took some pictures of Elise and me after we finished decorating.  

THE FINAL PICTURE:

WHAT IT TOOK TO GET THE PICTURE:

Merry Christmas!