our family christmas - 2011

Well, I've got to admit. I'm glad Christmas is over. It's funny because I remember feeling this way last year too. I wonder what that's about....anyway.

There are two reasons why I'm glad this years Christmas is over, the first being it was the first without mom. We pretty much went on like we usually do by going over to my MIL's house in the early afternoon and then headed over to my parents house that evening. Things felt fine until we got there. There was an obvious absence and at one point, my dad gave me a bag of socks that my mom used to wear and I just about started crying. My mom loved socks. According to my dad she has loads and loads of them. These socks aren't just your normal white crew socks, no way, these socks have all sorts of fun and cute designs on them from cats and dogs to hearts and stripes. She loved herself some socks. So seeing them just brought up the sadness in me.

My dad also gave me some of her fun baking utensils which brought a smile to my face. She had this cute cookie cutter roller thingy that has about 6-7 different shapes on it and it rolls across rolled dough cutting all these shapes in one swoop. So cute and fun! Along with that he gave me some cookie mixes that had cutters attached to them and that was fun too. It was nice to receive these fun items that used to be my moms and I know I'll always think of her when I use them.

The second reason I'm glad Christmas is over is because I've simply not felt well, at all. For the past three weeks or so, I've been experiencing episodes of a rapid heart beat. Most days it sits at 100 bpm or more. It leaves me feeling weak, tired, restless and very very uncomfortable. One day at school it was going so fast that I felt faint and that's when I decided to call my doctor. I was given a heart monitor to wear for 24 hours and I'm waiting on the results from that and I also had an EKG done. I'm sure everything is fine but I just feel so awful on most days, I just don't feel like doing anything. I've also started having morning sickness again which has been stinky. Today was a rough day with feeling nauseated for most the day and being very grouchy. Poor Ben and Evan have to put up with my moodiness. I am trying not to take it out on them though but it's hard when you feel like poop all day.

We decided to put away all the Christmas decorations yesterday and I've already got all my Valentine's stuff out! I purchased some white and red lights on clearance at Target and wrapped them around my garland I made last year. It looks so cute! I haven't taken a picture yet and since I'm feeling lazy at the moment, I'll wait to post one for another post.

Anywho, I feel myself getting off topic so here's how our Christmas went!

The week of Christmas, Evan and I started on a gingerbread men project that we never got around to finishing. I bought these fun gingerbread men pops and we only got so far as sandwiching the two men together before I got busy with other things and continuing to not feel well. I was, however, able to get some pictures of the naked gingerbread men! haha!





I'm sure they would have looked very cute all dolled up but they simply just didn't get there. Poor gingerbread men....

I just have to sneak in a quick picture of Evan being silly. This was when we were making the gingerbread men and he was 'taking a picture' of me!

On Christmas Eve I finally started my gift wrapping and loved that I only purchased the paper! I already had the curling ribbon at home and I decided to make my own gift tags with scrapbook paper and my whole punches. I think they turned out really cute! I really liked the colors of the paper and even more so that I had everything at home already to go with them!

Here are the gift tags I made!

And the curling ribbon! I think the colors are so pretty!

These rolls of wrapping paper were only $2.50 for 90ft at Target! I thought that was pretty cool!

And I took a quick picture of my work area. I was feeling all crafty, something I haven't felt in a long time so I just had to capture the moment!

I only wrapped about 3-4 presents before taking off to my MIL's house but I got a chance to snap these pictures of them before doing so.

Have I mentioned how much I love the colors?!

That evening at my MIL's house, we had dinner and then just sat and visited with each other. My MIL brought out some old sweaters that my hubby and his dad wore when my hubby was Evan's size and we just had to have them try them on! These sweaters were from a store that just recently went out of business a few years ago! I'm not sure why, but they totally make me think of Sesame Street! haha!

Aren't they so cute?!

After we left, we headed over to my sisters house and my brother and his wife were there from Sacramento along with some of my BIL's family. There was food, fun and laughter! We sat and watched one of my moms favorite movies, Nacho Libre, and it was just a wonderful time! I think we've decided on a new Christmas family tradition to watch this movie every Christmas Eve together in memory of mom! I loved it! Unfortunately the few pictures I did happen to get didn't come out so I don't have any to share about this. Boo.

After we left, we headed home and soon realized we were in for a very long night. My sister got Evan an Iron Man r/c doll for Christmas and it totally freaked him out. He was up over half the night freaking out and crying. He was hiding under his blankets screaming, "No Iron Man! No Iron Man!".  So needless to say, we had to put Iron Man away for the time being until Evan feels comfortable playing with him. We're still not quite sure why he's so afraid but I definitely don't want to have another sleepless night over a silly toy!

We made it a very late morning on Christmas morning due to all the lack of sleep, so we didn't start our gift opening until after 10am. It did push our plans out an hour or so but at least we got some sleep in. Evan got a bunch of fun toys (the non-scary kind), Ben got a fun game and money and I got a paper guillotine, all three of the Twilight movies out on DVD and the newest Kelly Clarkson CD. It was a good morning and I even got some laundry done! That's never happened on Christmas before! haha!

We left and went over to my MIL's house again on Christmas morning for breakfast and gifts! My MIL always gives us all stockings and Ben thought it would be fun to actually wear his!

And then to wrap up this novel of a post, I just wanted to share the gifts that I was able to make myself. I have been seeing on Pinterest these fun subway art prints and found one recently that a couple had made for the sign in table at their wedding. It had both their names on it along with their wedding date and the brides new last name. I thought it was so cute that I decided to make a version of my own and make them for my sister and her hubby as well as both my SIL's. Here's the one I made for Kathleen:

I blurred out their last name for privacy reasons but obviously you get the idea. I just loved how they turned out in the matted frame so I went ahead and made one for myself too! I'm still trying to figure out where I want to either hang it or display it on a stand somewhere. But I just really liked it!

And finally, I decided to crochet some gifts this year so I purchased a book and watched a million videos on YouTube and taught myself! Here's the scarf I made for Kathleen in this pretty yarn I found at JoAnn's! It's so soft and I just really really liked it! I used a pretty shell stitch and then added some fringe to the ends and that was it! I also made one for my other SIL, Brittany, but hers was in a heather gray with a pretty oatmeal colored scalloped trim on the ends. I wish I got a picture of that one!

And Christmas wouldn't be complete without our family group picture! This was the best of the bunch that I got with my camera so please excuse the poor quaility!

So that's about it for our Christmas this year. It was fun but I'm so glad it's over. Now I just have to wait for our little miss to arrive...in only 10 weeks! I started the third trimester today and I really hope that this nauseous feeling goes away and doesn't decide to stick around for the reminder of my pregnancy. Have any of you moms out there ever gotten morning sickness again later in the pregnancy? This is just so weird not to mention annoying!

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas and a wonderful New Year celebration with family and/or friends! Stay safe!