Christmas Bloggy Open House

I'm finally getting around to posting pictures of my house decked out for the holidays....

I have to give all the credit to my mom.  She is my chief decorator, which has been convenient since she is here every week now to babysit Adeline.

The star at the peak of the house is called a Moravian star.  They are popular in my hometown.  

She made these beautiful swags, one for each side of the garage.

My front porch, with greens and lights around the door and an antique sled I picked up at an auction.

In my dining room...

Adeline has her own little tree complete with bears in her playroom.

I bought two paintings a few years ago from my cousin's wife.  She does beautiful work.  My mom had them matted and framed for my birthday, and I always look forward to getting them out for the season.

You see this desk and tree when you walk in my front door.  I love the candy cane display with the book and crystal sleigh with candy.

The top of my china cabinet

These wise men have so much detail.  I love to display them.

Here is the banister heading upstairs, and if you look in the background, you can see the other picture that Theresa painted.  A lovely poinsettia.

One of my favorite new decorations this year.  This gingerbread house is made of resin, so I can keep it for many years to come.

I LOVE this arrangement with lights in the bottom of the container.  It is so pretty at night.

I posted this tree before, but it has gotten a splash of red since then.

My mom collects nativities, and I inherited her love.  This is one of my favorites.  For many years, my parents would give me a few more pieces to add to it.  I always look forward to setting it up.

You can really see my mom's talent here.  I LOVE what she did on my mantle.  

Thanks for stopping by!  Hope your holidays were filled with beauty and cheer.

Christmas Finery

Here are a few Sunday finest pictures I missed recently. I didn't get one today because the outfit from church was pretty much done for by the time we got home (I'll just leave it at that...).

Tomorrow you get the Christmas house tour...ya know, now that many of you have taken down all your decorations. sigh...

Christmas Post #1

I'm finally getting around to posting about all of our Christmas festivities.  I separated it into three posts, and posted them so you can read from one down to three instead of going backwards.  On Christmas Eve, we attended the service at our church.  We love it!  Patrick and I were both involved.  He sang in the choir and did a scripture reading.  I played the flute.  The service is a nice combination of readings and singing, and families and individuals get involved as well (ie a family recorder choir, vocal duet, and family of 11 singing in 4 part harmony).  It ends with a candle lighting while singing Silent Night.  Patrick's mom and grandfather came, and then his sister, her husband, and two of their kids joined us at our house later that evening to spend the night.

  

It was fun to wake up with so many people in our house excited about Christmas morning.  Adeline's version of opening this gift was to take one tiny piece of paper off at a time and carry it to the couch.  We eventually helped her to speed up the process... 

Our adorable (and ALWAYS happy) nephew, Dominick.

Our niece, Taylor, opening our gift to her.  We had backpacks made in Korea for all the kids with characters they would enjoy embroidered on them along with their names.  Taylor's had Dora the Explorer, and she was thrilled.

It was so fun to watch Adeline excited about helping to open gifts this year.  I think it is just going to keep getting better from year to year.

Scrub pants!  Just what I wanted since I haven't bought any new ones in about 9 years, and I have recently gone back to work part-time.

After Adeline opened a few gifts, she just wanted to play with her new toys and was not interested in opening more.  She loves all books...

Dominick just wanted to play with the paper...

Here is Adeline showing off all of her Christmas plunder.  She didn't know where to start.  Her favorite gift was a shopping cart from Grandma with lots of play food.  She loves to push it all around the house.

The reason you don't see pictures of the other adults opening gifts is because....they didn't.  They were gathering at Patrick's moms later that evening to open gifts.  They didn't want to haul everything to our house, and we needed to leave for more holiday fun with my family...

Christmas Post #2

After our fun morning with Patrick's parents, we made the drive to PA to be with my dad's side of the family.  Everyone gathered at my Grandmother's house.  It's amazing how much this family has grown through the years.

This is my aunt, Karen, playing with some of the great-grandchildren generation.

Here is my (almost 88yo) grandmother with all of her great-grandchildren.  Two more are on the way (and contrary to popular opinion, only one of them is mine)...

Adeline, who is usually more than agreeable to sit with the other kids to pose, would not be separated from Grandma, so you can see my mom holding her in the top row, trying to lean back to get out of the pictures.

Instead of exchanging gifts, this is a fun tradition that my family started several years ago.  We donate goods to make health kits for a mission to Africa.  They include soap, toothpaste, a toothbrush, nail clippers, a hand towel.  My grandmother is a seamstress, and she sews all the bags we use to pack the kits.  The great-grandchildren especially enjoy helping.

Christmas Post #3

We opened gifts with my parents the day after Christmas.  Here's Adeline helping Grandma with her stocking...

Paw paw was so excited to give Adeline this tractor to ride, complete with animals.  She loved the animals, but was leery about sitting on the tractor.

Our everyday silverware must fall in the same hole as baby girl socks and our pens because we can never seem to have enough.  Patrick and I were both excited to open this gift with several forks and spoons....great idea mom!

My mom saw this at a craft show and couldn't resist getting it for Patrick.  The handle says, "Hillbilly Briefcase."  The leg holes are sewn shut.  We all had a good laugh over this one!

Adeline had fun "reading" all of Grandpa and Grandma's Christmas cards.

And the moms were outnumbered...

On the Tuesday before Christmas, I hosted a breakfast for the moms (and any other ladies who happened to be around....the more adults the better) for breakfast.  I served lemon curd coffee cake, chocolate chip muffins, Sarah's breakfast casserole, along with pomegranate seeds and sliced fruit.  It was both yummy and fun.

After breakfast, we caravanned to Homestead Gardens, a nursery that has a train garden, and lots of cute Christmas decorations to purchase.  The kids LOVED the trains.

Rock and Adeline really were happier than they appear in this picture....but it was getting dangerously close to lunch/nap time.

It was such a fun outing.  Thanks ladies!

Riddle of the day...

Q:  What do you get when your husband misses a renegade coffee bean that lands on the floor?

A:  A toddler with coffee breath....at 5 pm.  :o/

Helping Grandma

A few of you have asked me how my new job is going. I guess I failed to give an update. It's great! The facility is nice, the commute is reasonable, and my co-workers are fun. The facility is privately owned, and so the atmosphere is a lot more layed back than some of the places I've worked. My mom has been making the trip to our house each week, and she is LOVING the extra Adeline time. Adeline, of course, is hopelessly in love with Grandma and is soaking up all the extra love and attention she gets with Grandma here. This is the scene I came home to a few weeks ago...

Adeline helping Grandma bake cookies. She really was helping to take the paper off of some Andes mints and putting them into a bowl. She said, "Hi mommy, I helping!" It was too cute for words.