New 2010 Christmas Ornaments

One of the best traditions of Christmas for my family is the yearly Christmas ornament.  My mom started this tradition for me by giving me a new ornament each year.  She would find hand made ornaments from crafters and have our names and years placed on them.  I do love these, but I also have always adorned the Hallmark ornaments.  This year Hallmark had a pink ballerina Barbie ornament.  I fell in love with it.  She was beautiful and fitting for Reagan at age 3 who is taking dance, loves pink, and received her first Barbie doll for Christmas.  

I also bought a foam make your own ornaments pack at Michael's this year.  We shared our craft with our neighbors who graciously took pictures of all the kids and printed them out.  It was very fun for all the kids and I thought they turned out pretty cute!

Reagan's 2010 Ornaments

I also bought a family ornament this year.  This way when the girls are grown and take their ornaments I will still have a few to decorate our tree.  This year our family has really loved Michael Jackson's video "This is it."  Reagan and Madison love to watch it and dance.  Reagan even knows a lot of his songs.  Andy and I grew up fascinated with Michael and his music.  He has always been on my ipod ever since I've owned one.  My greatest memories growing up with my older brothers is dancing and pretending to catwalk like Michael across our kitchen floor.  I still laugh remember my brothers and their gloves, hahaha.  We are saddened by his death and hope his family finds peace soon.

Family 2010 Ornament

For Madison, I found a Dora ornament.  I really wanted a Baby Einstein ornament but couldn't find one anywhere.  The next two things she is into right now is Diego and Dora.  I also couldn't find Diego so Dora it was.  She knows when the show comes on and runs from the play room to our living room to dance.  At this point, she is only interested in the show's opening music before she runs back to play.  When I saw the Dora in the store I knew it was for her, especially because it is made of plastic and she could play with it without it breaking.

Madison's 2010 Ornaments

Finally, we packed up this week on the snow day.  Luckily we had a chance to have a free day together without the kids to pack up all the decorations and clean the house.  I love how freeing it feels when it is all in the boxes ready to go to the attic.  I do miss the beauty of the lights, but it is a great feeling to have a fresh house for the new year.  I haven't even put the pictures back up yet.  Now that I have cleaned it all out, it gives me a chance to do something different.  Just don't know what yet.

Taking down the decorations also makes our house seem so bare.  However, it also is nice because it feels like a fresh start to the new year.

Christmas with Nana

This year we went to Nana's house the day after Christmas instead of Christmas night.  I really liked it this way because Nana and Papa Fred came to our house Christmas Eve to spend the night.  We went to the traditional Christmas Eve service at Triangle Presbyterian in Durham which was excellent.  Then came home to a fabulous meal cooked by myself with huge help from  my husband Andy and my mom.  I honestly couldn't have done it without them.

Christmas day we enjoyed opening gifts and then had a nice big breakfast.  Before Papa and Nana left we all went outside on to watch Reagan ride her new bicycle.  She was so proud of herself pushing the pedals and doing so well.

Then we had the rest of the day to enjoy together cleaning up and packing to head to Nana's.  The next morning we headed to Salisbury.  Salisbury is where I grew up spending my Christmas Eve's and mornings.  It has taken awhile to settle in to my new traditions with my own family, but this year I really felt like I had found them.  It was nice to spend time with my mom and enjoy her traditional meals that I don't get to eat that often.  Plus the four grandchildren love spending time with their Nana.  Reagan loves  following Nana around and just "helping" her with whatever she is doing.

After lunch, we opened gifts.  Nana had given Reagan a Barbie and Savannah a Tinkerbell doll.  Reagan had said that she wanted a Barbie after watching the endless TV commericals over the holidays. However, when she saw Savannah's Tinkerbell it was a huge disappointment to her that she didn't get one.  So next year we all know to get them the same thing!  My mom gave me a quilt made up of all my old high school and college t-shirts.  I love it as it is something that reminds me of so many great things in my past but also functional.  If you know me you know I like things to have a purpose.  The quilt is beautiful and was made exceptionally well.  I will cherish it for many years to come!

Around 4:00pm my mom's brother and sister came with their families.   I don't see my cousins too often nor their children so this is very special to see everyone all at the same time.  It's so much harder that both grandparents are gone to get everyone together.  I have three cousins from my mom's brother.  They have five children between them.  So we ended up with nine by the end of the night which made it feel even more like Christmas to me.  I love that my mom finds that it is important to have our family get together and that she really cherishes our time together.  She puts so much effort into the house, decorations, food, and making sure everyone is invited and welcomed.  If it wasn't for her I know that we would not see everyone and keep our grandparents family together.  Thanks to my mom for being so great and really working hard to give us great family time.

Revealing the Christmas Tree

Luckily, Andy and I had one more day off than Reagan and Madison.  We were able to put up all the decorations after Thanksgiving.  I saved a few ornaments for Reagan to hang up when she got home from school.  I knew that this year she would want to help put them on the tree.  There faces when they saw the tree were priceless.  Reagan said, "Ohhhh, Mom it is so pretty!"  This is a very common phrase for her right now.  Madison just kept yelling and after telling her no touch many times she eventually kept saying, "No, no, no, no, no."