December 27, 2008 by Amy Jo.

ALLISON:  Daddy, do I look any different today?

DADDY:  I don’t know, how would you look different?

ALLISON:  I looked in the mirror and I was a little cuter today.

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December 26, 2008 by Amy Jo.

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December 25, 2008 by Amy Jo.

We went to a 4 pm Mass on Christmas Eve and then drove around and looked at Christmas lights for quite a while.  Carter really loved the lights.  Whenever there wasn’t a house with lights in view, he’d politely say:

More. More, please.

Also, we discovered quite a few light-up reindeer that had some lights not working… sometimes the head wasn’t lit.  Sometimes the body wasn’t lit.  And sometimes there was a small dark patch that only Carter could see.  For all of these reindeer Carter would say:

Broke. Reindeer.

In fact, the broke reindeer were the highlight of the trip!

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December 25, 2008 by Amy Jo.

by Allison
Allison wrote “Ho Ho Ho Ho” on this drawing all by herself!

Allison’s ornament picture from preschool.  Every picture from preschool
is a mug shot… she never smiles for them! 

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December 23, 2008 by Amy Jo.

Here’s my latest knitting project: 

Done just in time for Christmas!
The purple one is for Allison and the blue one is for Carter. 

Check out this link for the pattern:  Prehistoric Pals Dinosaur

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December 23, 2008 by Amy Jo.

“That’s a sturdy little branch!” Jim said as Carter hung a third ornament from the same Christmas tree branch.

Our Christmas tree this year has most of the ornaments in the bottom front.  Thanks to Carter.  Allison distributed a couple of hers around to the bottom back, but most of hers ended up in the bottom front, too.  Jim and I managed to put a couple ornaments up high in between helping the kids - but for the most part, the ornament distribution is bottom heavy.

I thought of redistributing the ornaments and spacing them more evenly to make the tree perfect (according to my standards).  But when the kids were done, I found that what their little hands had worked so hard to do was perfectly beautiful and I wouldn’t change a thing!

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December 23, 2008 by Amy Jo.

This is a picture of my dad (Pop), my brother (Brian), and my mom (Nana) from 1983 - shortly after Christmas, I think.  I believe they were visiting Chicago to look at colleges for my brother who was a Senior in high school that year.

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December 22, 2008 by Amy Jo.

ALLISON:  I got a little carried away.  I got a little too much lip gloss.

I’d say!

Take a look…  that purple mustache is her purple lip gloss!

(Although she looks sad in these pictures, she wasn’t in trouble - she was watching Little Bear on the TV behind me and was trying to ignore the flash!)

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December 22, 2008 by Amy Jo.

I was once told that everything in my house has a story…  And that’s pretty much true.  Especially at Christmas.  Here are the stories behind some our special decorations:

A Willow Tree Nativity - My Mom has been giving us a part of this set for Christmas for the last three years.  This is the first year that we set up the creche and I just love it!

Our Old Nativity - Mom gave me the figures for this nativity sometime after I had graduated from college and had my own apartment.  The figures were originally bought for my mom by my grandmother for the first Christmas that my Mom and Dad were married.  Mom has a beautiful stable that she’s still using with her nativity, so she bought this stable for me (I think it was at an after Christmas sale!).

This is an old ornament from my grandmother’s tree.  I have two that she gave me.  Grandma passed away in 2003 - just before Jim and I got engaged - and I still miss her dearly.

This is a little pottery ornament.  The impression of the feet was made with dolls feet.  Each of our children have one with the year that they were born.  Allison’s is pink with 2004 on it.  Carter’s is blue with 2006 on it.  And this one is for our baby Gabriel - who we lost on December 9th, 2005 by a miscarriage.

 
(Not the best pictures, but they’ll do.)
Cactus Ornaments - These ornaments are from Nana and Pop for 2007 - when we had just moved to the desert.  Nana gets the kids an ornament for the tree every year - just like Grandma did for me and my brother.  (Notice a little Carter face behind the ornament in the right picture… the stinker crawled under and behind the tree to be in the picture!)

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December 21, 2008 by Amy Jo.

We put up our Christmas tree today and we even got many of our other Christmas decorations out!  We have a Rudolph in the front yard and electric candles in all the front windows.  Plus, three manger scenes inside!

And after all the fun was done…  Mommy rested.

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