Christmas 2011

       I spent the New Years weekend taking down our Holiday decorations. It feels good to have them down; it's a fresh and clean start for 2012. Before I talk about resolutions though I wanted to share with you our Christmas. 
       Our Christmas 2011 was simple but sweet. We were showered with more gifts then I ever expected, but it was a big reminder that the gifts are such an unimportant part of the holiday. As we create traditions in the coming years for our family, I hope to keep the emphasis off of the gifts and on the Spirit and meaning of the holiday. Our tree actually ended up quite a bit fuller then I expected.

I loaded up on wrapping paper after Thanksigiving, 

and had fun with the wrapping.

(Ugh....all that wood paneling. Isn't that illegal in 2011?)

One day, I came home for work to see this under the tree, 

and I had not put it there. 

Apparently Jon had been doing some shopping of his own.

I did a little bit of decorating around the house, but mainly just used materials I had

and kept it cheapy-deapy.

I decided that I wanted to continue a tradition that we have in my family.

We received an ornament each year, 

so that when we moved out to start our own families 

we had lots of meaningful ornaments to fill the tree. 

I saw this one in town and I had to get it for Buzz!

Hopefully it lasts a couple of decades until he's on his own.

Jon worked a 48 hour shift on Christmas Eve Eve & Christmas Eve

so we had to tweak our Christmas plans a bit. 

Nolan and I met Jon at the station on Christmas Eve

and we all had dinner with a few of the other fire families. 

We also had to tweak our gift opening. 

Instead of opening our gifts on Christmas morning,

we opened them a few evenings beforehand with champagne instead of coffee!

Jonny had a surprise under the tree. 

He got the power tools that he had been drooling over. 

I tried to fool him by wrapping some of the tools separately in smaller boxes.

After he opened the second tool though,

he was on to me.

I snuck away to bring him one last package,

with the remaining tools inside.

(Despite his expression, he was quite excited).

But he was just as excited to see Nolan open his special gift.

Probably the first of many bikes under our roof over the next few years!

Christmas love is better then any gift love though.

When Jon got off shift on Christmas morning, 

he came home and we packed up (quickly!) and headed to the bay to see my family.

We snapped a family photo before everyone else arrived and it got totally crazy.

It was a day of kiddos and merriment.

The decorations are all put away now

 but I still have a few repairs to make. 

I'm probably not the only mother of a toddler out there with this issue.

I'll be working on getting these glued up, 

and packed away with everything else these next few days.

On Wednesday I'll be sharing our goals for 2012!