The photos Christmas Day~2008

Here are some of our Christmas Day photos.  I prefer natural light for photos but I think I need an external flash and or a tripod.  I do not like to use my flash but it was DARK and these photos have shadows etc.

My boys all ready to come downstairs early Christmas morning.  

Kate is still sleeping and we let her sleep a little longer. That makes everybody happy:)

Will is very happy with an I~pod and some Legos.

Dave is thrilled with the grapefruit tree he has always wanted. He really wants a citrus grove like his Godfather has but this will have to do for now:)  The blooms smell so good!

Harry had a great Christmas!  

He loved his creep crawly oven and the silver jingle bell that was anonymously left for him.

Aunt Staci always gets Kate the perfect gifts.  Last year it was a GREAT tea set and this year a microwave AND a coffee maker.  Kate played with the coffee maker all day!

Thank you Fairy Godmother!

Kate wore her "Christmas morning gown" again this year for the morning.  It still fit her and I figured there aren't many opportunities to wear a "Christmas morning gown!"

Reading with Aunt Waukita.

Uncle Joe, Aunt W, and Aunt W's Mom came over for Christmas dinner.

Kate, Aunt Waukita, Aunt W's Mom (TI) Uncle Joe, Harry and Will 

This last one of our family is after a LONG day of cooking (for me) and immediately after red wine, coffee and glass ornaments all went flying in my living room.  Most of it landed on me so I had to go change right before this photo.  Do I look stressed? I was.  

Kate also LOVED playing with the box from one of Harry's toys right before bed on Chrsitmas night!

Christmas 2008~the video

Turn off the music at the bottom of my blog to hear this video. You can do this by clicking on the stop or pause button on the music box.




Christmas 2008 from Kim S on Vimeo.

I want my children to be able to look back on their childhood memories. I want them to remember the things we did together as a family. I doubt they'll go back and read the blog. But they might show their children a 10 minute"home movie" of their childhood Christmases. I am even going to go back and make one for last year (it was our first Christmas with Kate).

The photographic quality of this video is very disappointing. I made a Christmas video and a video of our year in review (2008) as a surprise to show the kids on New Years Eve. The quality that I needed to reduce it to post is not good.  Also, Y*utube would not accept the original music (copyright, schmopyright). So this varies a lot from what I made for our family to watch on the DVD player but I knew my Mom and sister and a few friends might still want to see it.

I will still post Christmas photos this week. I am sure most of you do not want to sit through 10 minutes of our Christmas celebrations:)

A bloggy visit!

Several of you asked about the shirt below that Bagel gave me for my birthday. I decided to contact the company to see if they'll give me a little discount to pass onto my blog readers...As soon as I hear back (either way:), I will tell you where you can order them!

Oh and I never let the boys shoot the nerf guns in the house..they are outside toys for those of you who were surprised!

I will post more Christmas soon but we have been relaxing with friends, entertaining quite a bit and hanging out as a family. Today, we had a nice visit from Jennifer and her family.  

We dropped in on Jennifer in August when we were moving to Texas but we did not get to meet her husband and her sons then (they were at work and school).  They are such a kind family!  Our boys had a great time playing Wii, nerf guns and legos.  They really got along great and were sad to part ways.  Richard really snuck into Miss Kate's heart and she was flirting shamelessly with him. She also climbed right into beautiful Miss Jennifer's lap.  Jennifer and I really have a lot in common and have such similar taste.  I really wished we lived closer.

It is somewhat ironic that Jennifer came to visit today because just yesterday I was trying to pull off one her best fashion looks. Jennifer and Denise always look so cute in these tees with long sleeve tees under them. My friend, Bagel gave me the above t-shirt for my birthday and I thought it would look cute with a pale pink tee under it. I LOVE the shirt Bagel gave me! But I think the double Tee look is best for my tall friends like Jennifer and Denise. Thank you Bagel!

Hilights of Christmas Eve

I hope you all had a GREAT Christmas.  Will claimed that this was his "best Christmas EVER!"
I take so many photos (surprsied?) and we have so many little family traditions around Christmas. I want to preserve each and every one.  Sometimes, I look at a photo and even though it is not a good one~I love it because it reminds me of the memory.  So, instead of posting every little picture that I desire here.  I am going to make my family a little Christmas video on I-movie.  I might post it so that it is here for our family. Here is just a little (ha ha) of our Christmas Eve....

I always insist on taking posed photos in front of the tree before Christmas Eve Mass. My whole family moans and groans but it is important to me.

Harry took this one with my camera~ pretty good Har!

After Mass, we always have pizza.  We do this because we go to Mass in the late afternoon and we cook two breakfast casseroles for Christmas morning and a big Christmas dinner.  Anyway, we love this tradition but this year we decided to make our own gluten free pizzas.  It was a lot of fun but I am not sure we'll do it again. Ironically, the gluten free crust irritated all of our stomachs.

The n*aked Chef~Katie Ru!  There was no way I was letting her cook in her silk dress!

Waiting for her pizza to cook.....Kate decided to sneak into the pantry and find a snack!

And she was caught climbing on a still unpacked moving box (I think my bread machine is in there).  This is a BAD habit of Kate's ...she is a BIG snacker and not a meal eater.  Dave is helping me "wean" her off all the snacking this week.  

It isn't pretty.

After our delicious pizzas, we hopped in the car to drive around and look at Christmas lights....

I do not own a tripod and I do not know how to shoot in the dark...but I wanted to show y'all how they decorate down here.  These are HUGE live oak trees completely wrapped in lights and the the lights hang down from the branches.

This one neighborhood is incredible! It is a sea of lights.

After the lights...we go home and hang stockings, each child opens a gift and we read Christmas stories.  

Every year, I buy the boys a nut cracker that reflects their interests of that year.  As much as I am not a fan of Star Wars, they LOVE it!  So, this year, I broke down and ordered Star Wars nutcrackers from E-bay.  I am sure their future wives will love them as much as I do:0)

As you can see...they were so happy. And that is what matters!

Kate gets an ornament each year.  This year I bought her a cupcake because she loves cupcakes! I also get her a little bracelet.

Finally, we read the story of Jesus' birth and Twas the night before Christmas but I'll save those photos for our family movie.

More of Christmas to come......

Old Traditions

Me and my peanuts...I feel as though I look fat here but really I have a puffy tafetta skirt on..really.

All ready to go to the party!

There are some family friends of Dave's that he has known his whole life.  The Mom (who was friends with his parents) has a party every year on December 23rd.  We have been going to this party every year we have lived in Houston for as long as I can possibly remember.  In fact, I vividly remember bringing the boys in their infant carriers. One year Harry was just days old and we brought him to the party!  Since we have lived in Virginia for the past four years, this is the first time Kate went to the special party.  She was so cute...even though she is sick, she was asking all day to put on her party dress.  She was so excited that she could not nap. Then in the car, on the way to the party, she said, 

"I love a party!"

We had a great time at the party.  It was good to see old friends and meet some new ones too.

Speaking of traditions, I always feel an undeniable urge to clean like crazy on Christmas Eve. My parents used to tell us that Santa did the "white glove test" and if your rooms were not immaculate, he might not leave gifts.  Now, even at my age, I still feel like I need to clean for Santa!!! So, I am off to scrub the house a little before Mass.

Hope you all enjoy your family traditions this year.  We are starting a new one tonight.  I hope it goes well.

Happy Birthday Jesus!

Merry Christmas from 3 Peanuts!

We want to wish you all a Merry Christmas!

Thank you for all of the kindness you show us throughout the year.  

Here is the photo in better detail.

P.S.~Thank you to all of you who e-mailed me with such kind words.  I was able to send a few of you cards.  However, I quickly ran out of cards yet again. I am so sorry. I told Dave that we need to stop moving because we gather so many lovely friends with each move that our Christmas card list grows and grows:)

Happy~the Elf

The other day when the boys arrived home from school there was a beautifully wrapped box on the front porch.  It had no name on it (either to or from).  They excitedly brought it inside and asked me if I knew what it was or who it was for.  I said "let's open it and see what is inside!"

Will and Harry were so excited!  They had heard of the elf on the shelf but this is the first time he has come to our house. They immediately named him "Happy" and he has been going back to the North Pole every night to report on their behavior.  They run around each morning looking for where Happy might be the next day.  Today, he is in Harry's room.  They sure are well behaved when Happy is watching!

Here are a few photos I took as we were decorating our tree a few weeks ago.  I won a camera lens in one of the adoption raffles (85 mm) and I was practicing with it so some of the photos are really out of focus. It is a prime lens and not ideal for the situation I was using it but I got a few good ones of Kate.  I am not sure if I like the black and white or color better..what do you think?

See, here the tree is in focus and Will is not.  Will is hanging one of his favorite ornaments.  It is the White House and I bought it when I was lucky enough a few years ago to go see the White House decorations for Christmas.

Kate hanging an ornament I got for her last year.

Harry has a crumb on his cheek.  I forgot to retouch it.

He loves his soccer ornament.