Recap Christmas Day

Good morning, dear readers!  Happy New Year to you!  

Since I'm doing some early spring cleaning and some other chores that need to be done, and I work nights (aka I don't have a life), I don't really see much good blog content in the near future.  

Since that seems to be the case, I thought I'd recap our Christmas day.  This year was our year to spend Christmas on my side of the family.  We have kind of started a flip flop tradition where one year we'll spend Thanksgiving on one side, Christmas on the other, and then the next year we flip flop which families get which holiday.  That way we get to see both every year.

My grandma decorates a beautiful tree.

This year my family did Christmas a little bit different.  Usually we all show up Christmas day around 10:00 am, and eat Christmas lunch around 11:30.  After lunch we typically spend the day together, open presents or play dirty santa (differs every year), and then most everyone leaves around 4:00 pm.  

All the above stayed the same this year, except some of us stayed the night on Christmas night.  

When I was a kid, the house used to be so packed that all of us kids would have to sleep on the floor, and the couches were taken.  Nowadays most of my cousins either have Christmas with their own families, or live out of state and can't come, so it just seems a little too small and lonely each year.  But we are thankful to be together, and had a great time spending the night and part of the next day with my grandparents.

Many people who have visited my grandma's house have told her it is "like a museum."  She collects all kinds of antiques and rustic decorations, so her house is full of interesting items.  Her attic is basically the same square footage as the rest of the house, because she all-out decorates for pretty much all the major holidays or seasons.  At Christmas time, we play a game called "count the Christmas trees" because she has so many tiny, small, medium, and large Christmas tree decorations throughout the house.

The "dessert bar" is in the laundry room that is off the side of the kitchen.  The best spot in the house, if you ask me.

 My grandparent's lost their cat of about 15 years earlier this year, and have since 'acquired' two little neighborhood cats that come visit them.  I think they do a little more than 'visit' these days since they come inside, get fed there, and sleep inside at night.  Maybe they're just in denial that they now have two new cats.

 This is how Tom says that he wants inside.

And this is Syll.  Her name was Sylvester, until they realized that 'he' was actually a 'she' and so she became 'Syll.'  I think she feels like a queen in my grandma's fancy animal print themed spare bedroom.

My mom and my great grandpa before lunch!

My dad is always the life of the party, telling his crazy work stories (whether you asked to hear them or not).  We're not sure if my cousin asked for it or just ended up in the conversation.

After lunch, we all opened gifts.  Tyler and I didn't get a chance to have our traditional Christmas with just us this year, so I brought his stocking to family Christmas.  He is always fun to watch opening gifts (yep, he was the fun kid that ripped all the packages open - the opposite of me).

Family Christmas is also the time to make sure everyone is practicing good health, so the blood pressure monitor made its way out and got passed around.  (You think I'm kidding?  There's the picture to prove it!)

 A Christmassy mantle.  How many Christmas trees do you count in just this one frame?  Now imagine an entire house.  No one gets the same number of Christmas trees in the count the trees game.

This shot here is just the top of the refrigerator.  I count 5 mini trees.

My grandma and her dad, my great grandpa.

Our family picture with Tyler - before I figured out how to use self timer, so we took turns.

And now Tyler taking our family picture for us with me in the picture.

After my Great Grandpa left, I had some time to figure out how to use self timer, and so we took another picture where Tyler and I were both there.

Another aspect that makes my grandma's home "museum-like" are these photos, which she had restored several years ago.  They are of my Great Great Great Great Grandparents (I think, don't hold me accountable to the number of 'Greats').  I just think they are amazing.

Do you see the family resemblance???  I'm not sure if I really can tell any traits for sure or not, but it is still neat to see what my grandparents so many generations ago looked like.

How did you spend your Christmas Day?  

Snowy Saturday

Saturday morning we had some snow come through Oklahoma.  At first it sounded like we wouldn't get very much, but even around noon it was still snowing.  By the time it stopped snowing, we had several inches of white, untouched snow.  

After finally convincing Tyler to venture to the cold outdoors with me, we had a great time seeing the nature near our apartment and playing in the snow.

There's nothing quite like duck prints in the snow...

We are always surprised how the ducks don't seem to be bothered by the snow and ice, but their tracks are just too cute.

Tyler's new hat from his sister is great!

Mischievous husbands have many mischievous faces.

Perfect snowball snow, unfortunately for me!

I'd say he hit the target a few times.  

If it isn't a snowball thrown at me, then I should obviously balance one on my head.

Tyler was not excited to go outside at first, but after I got him out the door he was having a blast running, throwing snowballs, and building snowmen!

Using the bridge to the gazebo at his own risk.

The beauty of snow makes the amount of cold almost worth it!  ...almost.

Tyler enjoyed making a snowman by the gazebo.  

He decided to move him under the roof on the interior rails.  We named him Fred.

Fred looked like he was missing a head, so Tyler made him one.

I guess Fred has antennas?  I didn't ask...

Now Fred has some arms.

After a morning full of falling snow, the sun came out and began to melt it all away.

Tyler with Fred the snowman, and his arms, antennas, and a nose?  Or a pipe?  Or sticking his tongue out?

Winter is pretty, but by the time we finished the snowman I was too cold and ready to go back inside.  I wish the cold didn't bother me so much so I could enjoy the pretty scenery more. What is your sentiment toward Winter?

Our 2014 Christmas Photos

Wow, can you believe it is already here?!  It seems like last winter just ended, and here we are again approaching Christmas.  

If you're like me, you appreciate having some good holiday family photos.  I like to send a photo as a card or with a card to our family every year, and to have the photos to add to my album as well.  As many of you know, Tyler and I work opposite schedules, so finding time to take photos can be hard.  Those of you who work full time will probably feel me on this.

Since I'm pretty sure most everyone I sent cards out to this year has already gotten theirs, I wanted to share with you our 2014 holiday photos.

This year's Christmas photos only took us maybe 10 minutes.  I grabbed our camera and a tripod, and headed out to a field with some trees near our apartment.  I've always known about the field, but earlier this year ventured further and found a nice area with some cedar trees that looked like the perfect area for our Christmas pictures.  It had snowed the day before, but unfortunately most had melted before we had the chance to take our pictures.

 We just set up the tripod in a couple different locations, took a couple different poses, and one 'couple selfie' and called it good.  It was just before the sun went down, so the lighting was nice as well.  Our outfits consisted of both of us in brown jackets, matching scarves made for us by Tyler's mother, my Christmas-red pants, and off setting the red with Tyler's cream khaki dress pants.

I'm a firm believer that for outdoor Christmas card pictures, brown grass, dead trees, and green cedars are really a must for the card to really feel like the season.  I see so many green grass/hot sun pictures where people are just wearing sweaters in the summer for their Christmas pictures.  I just don't feel it when it just looks like summer, so we waited until the end of November to snap our photos so they would  be 'in-season.'  When you can take good pictures in just a short period of time, there's really no reason for the green grass Christmas photos.

Go ahead, just call me nitpicky.

I'm loving our photos this year.  I love when we take pictures these days, because it seems like the longer we've been together, the fewer pictures we actually take together.  Its a good thing the holidays come around so I'm conscious of taking some good pictures of the two of us.  Last year we took our Christmas pictures indoors by our Christmas tree.   Do you find that the longer you've been with your significant other, the fewer you take pictures together?  Do you make a point to take a holiday photo together?