Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas! We had fun at our local Breakfast with Santa event earlier this month.

Fab Color Combination

The Fab Friday challenge blog has a fun color combination up that I wanted to try.

I had not used much of the Gumball Green card stock, but I really like the color and will use it on more holiday cards. The wreath was made with the 1/2 inch circle punch and a crop-a-file. Some of the supplies for the card are on sale now through Monday December 2 and are liked below.
In Color Card Stock
Neutrals Card Stock
Circles Collection Framelits Dies
Cherry Cobbler Dazzling Details

Sledding

Alex told his teacher that he was going to ride an airplane to and see snow. I was not sure if we would see snow in Ohio. Alex got his wish to see snow; we now have about 8 inches on the ground. We had fun sledding. Alex also enjoys throwing snow balls.

Christmas

We were delayed flying out of San Francisco due to rain and wind, but we made it to Ohio on Christmas Eve. We have enjoyed lots of time with family. Alex got to stay up late on Christmas Night waiting for Aunt Jenni to arrive since she is a nurse and had the overnight shift on Christmas Eve. Alex loved opening presents! It is hard to teach a three year old to be patient!

Christmas Eve

Christmas Day

Fantasy of Lights

We may have a new tradition of going to the Fantasy of Lights at Vasona Park. We went on a week night before Christmas, so there was not a wait to drive through the park. We avoided the freeway traffic and saw beautiful homes and lights on the way.

With the rain and our work schedules, we did not get to do as many holiday activities as I would have liked. In the future, we will have more to check out Christmas in the Park in San Jose, Train of Lights & Union Square in San Francisco.

Around Here (December 2012)

Around here...

I love having the Christmas Tree up! After our "Charlie Brown" tree stopped working a few years ago, we borrowed my parents' tree. We no longer had an artificial tree and decided that this year was not the time for a real tree. For weeks, we had borrowed a truck to move our stuff from the apartment to the house, but we did not get a tree then. Instead, we learned that a 7.5 foot artificial tree does not fit into the trunk of a Camry. Bungee cords to the rescue! John had to go back into Lowe's after we purchased our tree to buy some bungee cords to secure the tree and trunk for the drive home.

We were still unpacking over the last two weekends. First we unpacked the boxes labeled "Guest Room/Xmas Decorations" that were packed by the movers in Texas. Beyond just Christmas decorations, we found some random items including John's softball glove, a plaque that I received while working at CFAC. Last weekend, I tackled the third bedroom, which is my office/craftroom and a guest room. I am happy to have it unpacked!

We made a fun trip to Ikea last Sunday buy some items for the house. It was not too crowded on a Sunday morning, and Alex did not melt down. He loves to check out all of the displays. He kept saying, "Follow me" as he led us to the next area.

I have wrapped up teaching my freshmen seminar course for the semester. I am so grateful for the opportunity to teach, but I did find it challenging to work more than one job this semester. Since I was grading papers, I feel like I got a late start on Christmas.

It has been cold in the Bay Area this week. There was even frost on my car yesterday morning! It has been over 8 years since I lived in Ohio, so I no longer keep an ice scraper handy. I think that I have one somewhere, but I just used my Safeway (grocery store) card to scrape my windows as I warmed up the car.

Now I am happy to be off work until the new year!

Christmas

Alex woke up on Christmas morning and immediately tore into one of his presents from Grandma Mickey. There was a look of sheer delight and he jumped when he saw the presents under the Christmas tree. He managed to wait to open the rest of the gifts until my parents came over. We ate our almost-burnt cinnamon rolls while we waited. Santa Claus brought Alex his own digital camera so that we would stop trying to use mine. John recently got an iPhone, so both boys took lots of pictures on Christmas.

Alex wanted to play with each gift as he opened them. At the end, the area was a mess, but we all had a good time. Alex was in miss matched pajamas since he woke up with a wet diaper.

We skyped with my brother and then had lunch at Rudy's. My parents have been the last two years on Christmas, so now it is a tradition. You know that you are in Texas when you can get barbecue on Christmas.

Alex enjoyed playing with his toys and one of John's new co-workers sent Alex a gift. We watched National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation (while Alex watched cartoons). John was able to skype with his family later in the day. We enjoyed this Christmas in San Antonio and we'll see where we are next Christmas!

Last Christmas Celebration 12/27/10

Our Christmas celebrations lasted for over a week and wrapped up with John's family on Monday. His mom's side of the family likes to play cards, so Alex had his dinner and watched them play Euchre. Gotta start them young!

More Christmas 12/26/10

On December 26th, we celebrated Christmas with my extended family and continued to celebrate with John's family.

Most of my extended family made to my aunt's house for our "white elephant" gift exchange, dinner, and good times. It was great to catch up and introduce Alex to many of them. I am thankful for time with my Oma and that Alex got to meet her. Alex is pictured playing with Heather (my cousin's wife) and John.

We headed back to John's mom house for more time with family. Alex had fun playing with his Uncle Nate.

I cannot forget about the dogs. Sammie belongs to John's mom and Bella belongs to John's sister, and they are both great with kids. We get a kick out of how Sammie sits with her hind legs straight back.

White Christmas 12/25/10

I only remember some white Christmases growing up in Ohio. Alex's first trip to Ohio delivered a white Christmas. Alex had fun opening presents, playing with family, and checking out the snow. Alex is having fun with his new toys and playing with old toys that belonged to his dad, aunt, and uncles.

Warm Christmas (Christmas Round 1)

I uploaded the pictures that I took on my brother's camera at our first Christmas celebration in San Antonio on December 19th. I was impressed with the photos from his Nikon (COOLPIX S360) camera.