25 Days of Christmas Ornaments Dec. 17

Wow, I cannot believe it is December 17th, or how the month of December has played out in general. One highlight has been doing these ornament posts. Thanks Mama Bear!

It was hard to get a good pictures of these, being that they are clear. They are heavy/durable enough to actually be ON the tree, but absolutely beautiful lead crystal. I received these quite unexpectedly in high school from a boyfriend's grandmother at a family Christmas party. I certainly was not expecting a gift, but these have been on my tree ever since. Even though we are most certainly not still together (#1 and I met between my junior/senior year of college) I have never given these up. Too pretty :o)

In Dray news, those of you in Michigan who will be seeing us VERY soon (yeah!!!!!), will be very happy to know that I took my children to the doctor today. Oh my.

Ok, so they have had coughs for a good week now, and #1 and I are tired of being up half the night with them. I was pretty sure it was just chest colds that were not going away easily. But seems how the kids and I were headed to MI for a few days to see my parents and brother/sister-in-law I thought I'd better get it checked out along with Little Monkey's 18 month check up. Urgent Cares in other states are not my idea of fun on Christmas Eve. Last year on Dec. 23 we took the kids to the doctor just because something "wasn't right" and that was when both kids had ear infections (the first of MANY for poor Little Monkey) and we also found out that he had lost weight, the beginning of the nightmare from 2009. I decided to get a head start on what appears to be our Christmas doctor visit.

So, simple colds would have been lovely. I even apologized for having them looked at to the nurse, as I was sure I was wasting valuable office time. A simple weigh in for Little Monkey would have suited me fine. (26 lbs, 31 in. by the way. HOLY COW). But no. It turns out that Snug (who insisted on telling stories, smiling, using the potty, and enchanting anyone who would look at him the entire hour and a half visit) has tonsillitis, bronchitis, and an ear infection. He claims the ear infection is because his winter hat is itchy. Hmmmm. I think the doctor would not concur. Little Monkey has bronchitis, and his ear tubes are the only thing that is keeping him from all the other fun his brother is sporting. Why do my children bundle up to their eyeballs the minute it turns 55 deg. and why do I feed them healthy food? Is it working????

Ah, so 2 co-pays and $80 in prescriptions later, they are both heavily medicated and ready for travel. Chest colds. Ha.

25 Days of Christmas Ornaments Dec. 16

Sorry I didn't post yesterday, I got the same lovely stomach bug Monday afternoon that #1 and Snug had. Now we all have chest colds. It's the most wonderful time of the year!
Here's my ornament for today.

My cousin Jenny gave this to us when we got married. If you look closely you can see the how long we've been married/how many kids we have ratio. Yes, by the time we celebrate our 6th anniversary, we will be the parents of 3. Wow.

Thanks Mama Bear for doing this!

25 Days or Ornaments and Luke 2 Video

Remember to go over to Mama Bear's blog to see what she has posted today for her ornament, and check out other people's too!

I'm trying to be better about taking pictures of ornaments ON the tree, not on our carpet. I think they look better anyway. These are ornaments we got as a wedding present. I got it from a family who went to Peru with our church when I was in high school. I loved that missions trip, and it was life changing. These I believe are gourds that have been hand painted. They were on top of a present, which I'll talk about in a little bit.

I also wanted to point out the red star which is part of our garland. I think we have 4 or 5 garlands like it (not all exactly the same, but enough to cover the whole tree) and they are from Ten Thousand Villages. Ten Thousand Villages is a fair trade organization who sell things handmade by people all over the world. I love their stuff!

This nativity was what was in the box that the ornaments above were tied on. Mary, Joseph, the animals, and Baby Jesus came as a set, also from Peru. (The creche and angel were added on later). One thing that I love about this nativity scene is that they are not white skinned, blue eyes people. Neither was Jesus. Although made to look South American, they are closer to what Jesus' family would have looked like than most of our American versions.

I have to talk about the angel too. I got her as a present from one of my first graders one year. I knew teaching in a public school that in order to get the nativity story in, I'd have to cover all aspects of the holiday season. We did every celebration I knew existed, and ended with Nativity. I think the kids picked up on what I believed because this little guys said "cause I know how much you liked that one angel story".

Oh, and I wanted to take a picture of some of the mittens I mentioned in this post.

Next up is a video of Snug saying Luke 2:8-12 He has worked really hard to memorize those verses. Don't plan on getting them out of him in real life, he gets really shy, but feel free to try. Sorry that the video is on its side.

25 Days of Christmas Ornaments Dec. 13

Ah, the third week (can it be true???) of this blog carnival. For those of you who do NOT enjoy seeing these ornaments, and just want to hear all the craziness that goes on in our house, I usually leave a little update at the bottom of each post. But for me, this has been a blast! Thanks Mama Bear!

I really should just keep taking pictures of the ornaments ON the tree instead of the originals I took before we were going to have a tree. Oh well, not this morning. Yep, I said morning and I mean wee hours. It is currently not even 6am. I had to go to the bathroom about 4:30 and that means I am probably up for the day. Pregnancy has been a relative breeze this third time around, less the insomnia.

Back to the original post, this is one of Snug's ornaments. I got it at Bronner's the same day I got this ornament. I kinda stocked up that day and I know you'll see at least one more from there sometime. I don't exactly live close to go every year! I love that this has the original Little People from Fisher Price. We have some and they are Little Monkey's favorites to stick on his fingers and walk around with. I have several vintage Fisher Price toys that my kids love, and I hope someday to outfit a playroom with some shelves and have them there for decor/use when wanted. I don't love them being stepped on, but I do love them being loved!

25 Days of Christmas Ornaments Dec 11 & 12

Mama Bear is hosting a blog carnival this month that gives everyone an opportunity to share special ornaments and memories. This week features homemade ornaments, which probably makes up 50% of our ornaments. You'll be seeing homemade ones way past this week from me.

Sorry I didn't post mine yesterday, many of you who know us IRL know it was a bad day here. I can't go into it online, but you can be praying for #1 and all other police officers. They give up so much of themselves on a daily basis. While we are all home in our beds at night, they are out doing who knows what to protect us.

These are some ornaments I made either before or the first year #1 and I were married. They are made out of old wooden spools, buttons, and rick-rack.

And I know these were made my first Christmas living on my own, because along with them (and about 15 more) I also made a LONG string of felt mittens that hang in our house, and a set of felt mittens for each of the teachers in my building. It was a lot of work, but fun to still have.