Traditions at Christmas

who'll stand under the mistletoe with me?

who, who will come hither?

who, who will it be?

with a hey diddley-hi

and a hey diddley-hoo

i'll stand under the mistletoe with you!

everytime we hang mistletoe i sing this song. i haven't hung mistletoe in years, but greenolive reminded me about this song and i realized i'd been forgetting the mistletoe. unfortunately, i don't know where to buy it. growing up we had fake so we never had to buy it. in college people sold it door to door. now, i'm gonna have to do some research to find a local place to buy mistletoe. i wonder if there are any other traditions i've been forgetting.

on another note, i've moved our stockings. they were hanging from the key holder, since i had no where else to hang them.

so my dad built a stocking holder for us using some wood and stuff he had just hanging around. now the stockings are with the tree.

now, here are some cute pictures of the kids.

Emmy's Receipt

the other night we were at walmart. we got everything that we needed and checked out. emmy was given the receipt because she likes to hold them. whenever we go to costco the person at the door checks our receipt and sometimes at walmart our receipt is checked, so like to have it handy 'til i get out the door. well, emmy wanted the door greeter to check the receipt, but when we got to the woman emmy acted shy and wouldn't do it. we left the store and emmy started freaking out because she didn't get her receipt checked. we tried to explain to her that she didn't need it done, but she wasn't listening. i took emmy back inside and had the greeter "check" the receipt. the lady was very nice and looked it over, tore the top a little, and gave it back to emmy. she then kissed emmy on the hand and talked to her a little. emmy was happy and we went home. derek says that emmy get her OCD from my side of the family. whaaaaat? that doesn't sound even remotely like us at all.

Happy Holidays!

well, i guess it's time for another update. not much has been going on. i've gotten some more gifts done. when i'm all done making things i will divvy them up as i see fit. i was telling a sister about the things i'm doing and she commented on how i was not giving everybody the same thing. she seemed surprised, but okay with it. i'm not giving her anything, though. she lives too far away and i don't want to mail anything. luckily, i was assigned to give a gift to the sister who lives near me.

i tried to get my family to stop drawing names this year, but i was overruled. not out voted, overruled. not that i think we shouldn't give gifts, i think we should just stop assigning it. that's how we're doing it in derek's family. i don't have to give a present to everybody, and i'm not expecting a present from everybody. i know that i will get something. a few people have already told me what they are doing, so i'm expecting something.

this year christmas will be very busy. we will wake up and open presents here at home, then go to my parents' house and open gifts, and then go to derek's parents' house and open gifts. usually we don't go to my parents' house, but this year my brother is coming and my mom wants us to be there. we were going to open presents with them on boxing day, but derek has to work.

anyway, i've got all the presents that we're giving the kids wrapped and under the tree. they are leaving them alone, which is good. they'll both get something that they really wanted. emmy is getting a tea set and doll, and andrew is getting a talking thomas and star wars blaster. they will also get a video and they can open their jammies on christmas eve.

christmas eve we are going to a birthday party. i've been assigned to bring the relish tray. that's easy enough. that's something i enjoy because i don't have to cook and keep something warm to take. cold things are much easier to transport.

well, that's all for now. i'll try to post more often.

I'm in My Kitchen

i got some stuff at Michaels to start making gifts. so far it's going well. turns out i need more supplies. good thing i have a couple of weeks still.

Gift Giving

i love homemade gifts. i like to give them and i like to receive them. of course i love store bought gifts, too. this year i want to make gifts for the family, but i'm gonna see if i can get some help. i can't blog about it though, because the people getting the gifts read this. i just wanted to dangle a carrot in front of your noses.

O Tannenbaum

yay! i got my tree all put up. i got the ribbon and the balls and the lights all put up, but it just seemed like something was missing. it needed more. 35 candy canes later, it looks great!

i couldn't get any pictures in the dark. actually, we were in the dark, but i had the flash on. i turned off the flash, but then everything was blurry.

It's Beginning to Look a lot like Christmas!

i am soooooo ready for christmas. it's my favorite holiday. i just love everything about it. i love the snow, assuming we'll get some. i love the music. i love the decorations. i love the food and drinks. i love the get togethers. i love the movies. i just love everything about christmas. i'll be putting my tree up soon. probably tomorrow morning, but we'll see. i bought of bunch of candy canes tonight to hang on the tree, but i also got some peppermints to put in a dish so hopefully the kids will go after those first. i really need to find my tree skirt so i can use it this year. i have one that i need to cut out, but i don't remember where i put it. maybe i just need to get another one. i wish that i had a place to hang the stockings. i don't have a fireplace or a stairway to hang them. growing up, we always hung our stockings from right under the banister. i always liked the way it looked with the stockings getting higher and higher. last year i just laid the stockings out on chairs on christmas eve so that we had them the next morning. one year in college we bought little stockings any my roommate drew a fireplace on some cardboard and we hung our stockings on that. it was a lot of fun.