Christmas Reflections



 I've been rather sentimental lately, about Christmas. So I decided to break out some old pictures to bring my sentiment to life. Only, the one and only picture I found of me on Christmas is quite nappyheaded. I had a mullet. No one told me to tuck in my pocket. And my glasses were huge and brown and falling off my face. And my t-shirt was covered in safety pins because I thought it would keep me safe. 

But by golly there were a butt load of presents!

The black kettle on the tripod was not my gift. I know many of you will be disappointed to find that out.

Of course Jason, on the other hand, has the cutest Christmas picture ever. He told me he actually doesn't know where this picture was taken, so I'm going to say that he was superimposed into it, to make me feel better about my mullet. That's his cutie-butt sister sitting with him at the table.

I have to point something out in the picture because I realized that the doily looking stocking ornament on the tree is very similar to one I think we had when I was growing up. Which also reminds me that my sister Bobbie had these bubble lights on her Christmas tree that were my favorite. Let me see if I can find a picture of what they look like so that you can see because I'm forceful like that when it's my blog.

See! They bubble!

Moving on.

Jason and I have had the same Christmas tree that we bought when were first married back in 2003. Which is why I'm sad to say that we are giving it away this year. Actually, I'm not really sad about it, should I be? We are buying a taller, pre-lit tree when they go on sale after Christmas. So actually, if you know anyone who wants our old tree, leave me a comment on here, or leave me a comment on FaceBook. Speaking of the tree...

This is our Christmas in 2005. We were married in 2003 but I didn't have the energy to search for that picture or for the one from 2004 because I have a picture searching energy limit. You probably do too. A couple of disturbing things I have to point out about this picture. First of all though, there's our tree! We still decorate it just the same actually too. Now that I think about it. Anyway, if you look to the right of the tree you will see two things:

1. We hung our stockings on on a CD stand. That is ghetto.

2. That tortoise shell hanging on the wall to the right of the tree was Jason's prized possession that he smuggled (not technically, but nearly) home from Brazil one year (this was before I had met him). It's now in the basement packed away somewhere because it's like a deer head to me and is not public decor.

 

2006 was Dawson's first Christmas. We didn't put up our tree that year in our one-bedroom apartment because Dawson would have eaten it. So here's our family picture in front of a tree at my sister's house. Besides, this tree would have been more healthy for Dawson to eat because it was real and not plastic.

 

2007 was our first Christmas in our new home. There's our tree! Do you see the candle on the shelf in the inlet? Yeah. That was my idea.

 

 Here we are in 2008. Little did we know that this would be the last Christmas picture taken in our home. We sold this house and moved to Colorado just a few months before Christmas in 2009. Jason even blogged about that one.

So our Christmas in 2009 was spent at Jason's mom and dad's house because that's where we lived after moving. As you can see, the right side of this Christmas picture is blurry because our camera was broken. It was not a result of my makeup. Because I don't wear makeup.

 More pictures from that year are here. I can't let my blog go to waste you know. Actually, does anyone even read this?

We were in our new house in 2010 I fought back the urge to bring out the CD stand to hang our stockings on it even though we had a fireplace. No I didn't! Seriously people! But I have to say that I'm annoyed by this picture because a stray hair was on my cheek. Aren't there talking cameras?! Who will invent a talking camera that will say "remove stray hair"?!

Last year, 2011, I was pregnant, swollen and this picture makes me look miserable because I was, but our tree looks good. Jason is a perfectionist, so you can also see how centered it is in our family room.
And finally, the moment you've all been waiting for the Coup de grâce. Christmas 2012:

I'm wearing my JOY JOY JOY socks. You should all have them this time of year.

This is what Dawson saw when he came down the stairs yesterday morning:

 
Good-bye tree.

Journey to the North Pole

The weekend of Thanksgiving the whole family decided to take a trip to the  North Pole. Jason calls this place "a fair on steroids". I loved it. Who cares what the kids thought. Just kidding. The North Pole is an amusement park with a Christmas theme. You can take the kids to sit on Santa's lap for pictures -something we didn't do because I'm scared of Santa. They have tons of rides there for kids of all ages. Jason and I both went on rides with Dawson. You know, so he wouldn't feel left out or anything... There was no line for the slide so Dawson went down. It was slower than molasses. Well, how slow I imagine molasses would be if it went down a slide.

Here they all are waiting for Dawson and I because we were in line to go on this:

Oh yeah! The Tilt-O-Whirl! I love that ride. I think I should have been a carney.

Next up we rode the umbrella thing. I can't think of the technical name for the ride but can you believe some of these rides were invented in the 1800's? (Come to think of it, based on the rust factor of some of these rides... they may be the original).

A perfect diagonal shadow across my face.



Hi Evan.



Dawson was willing to curl up and ride this ride with his sweet cousin Mia. She loves him and I'm pretty sure he likes it that she adores him.

That's Jason and Dawson peeking through in the second car from the front on this roller coaster. I was holding Evan and trying to get a picture of a moving object up in the air. Sheesh!



Um. At least I got the top of Jason's hand and you can see all 5 of Dawson's fingers!



Dawson thought he was cool because he could ride with no hands... while the coaster was barely moving.



Absolutely. I got Dawson and I spinning like nobodies business on the Tubs-O-Fun. Who named this right? They should try again.



Hi Evan.

We didn't want Evan to feel left out of the fun. So we let him ride the

Car-Seat-Stroller -Combination-O-Fun. He liked it.

By the end of the day, Dawson felt so inspired that he decided to compose his Christmas gift list:



So that you are all aware, we did not teach Dawson about Santa. I refused to allow Santa to take the credit for all of my hard work.

  

Thanksgiving First

You should all know that Dawson is the inspiration behind the title of this post. I said to him "Dawson, I need a title about our Thanksgiving Day" and he said "Ummm. How about Thanksgiving First". So there you go.

I shall say that I'm thankful for these two little turkeys.

And my tummy was thankful for this one:

 

Just before Thanksgiving, Evan began crawling. He does this little sideways crawl, so as you can see in the picture it appears that he is trying to stop crawling and sit up, when really... no, that's his crawling position.

*WARNING*

 You are about to be exposed to 500 pictures of our family. This is because I believe all people everywhere should experience the painful effort it takes to get a perfect picture of a family of 4. See for yourself...

 

Jason looks drugged, I'm looking at Evan, Evan is looking at me and Dawson is smiling at the camera with gorilla arms.

Let's get everyon looking at the camera and see if Evan will smile.

Nope.

 

 Nada.

 Great idea, we sat him up. Still no smile.

 No thank you.

And... not so much. So, we took a break to go eat our feast. 

We had a guest this year. A friend from church. I, of course, am surrounded by light because I'm the angelic Thanksgiving diva.

 

 Look at that cutie butt smiley Gabi!

We finished our meal, fought over who would clean up (I'll take a minute to insert here that I demanded paper plates this year, or someone else would be doing dishes. I won.)

And after the meal we took a few more attempts at that pefect shot.

Evan is more like... seriously people, I'd rather eat toe jam for the rest of my life than have my picture taken. However...

Look! We all smiled. But my hair is crazy and my smile is delirious. The craziness you get just before you are about to snap.

 

And then, it happens. It's not pefect, but it's good enough.

 

Evan was so traumatized by the experience that he napped.

 

After the festivities, we went home to relax. Look who decided to break out the fun.

 

Jason only sucks on the pacifier when he's tired. No worries.

 

 And Dawson only sucks on the pacifier when he's tired of his thumb.

To conclude this Dawson titled post, here are the pictures of the 1,000 piece glow in the dark puzzle that Dawson and I completed while he was on Thanksgiving break.

 

 See it GLOW?