Christmas!

I love Christmas.
Going carolling and visiting with Great Grandma Dyer. She is about the sweetest thing on earth and we love her dearly!
Grandma and Grandpa Chisholm always give gold dollars, which the kids look forward to with great anticipation! This year they were in cool glass ornaments, all the boys got balls and all the girls got purses, shoes or nutcrackers! So fun!
Brotherly love in front of the Christmas Story lamp........
Me and my sissies with the stockings from when we were kids! We love them!!!
The whole family gave my parents a "Count Your Blessings" quilt, a lot of love, time and energy was put into it, it was really neat!
Visiting with special people is always fun.....even if this "special" person was "DEFINITLY NOT THE REAL DEAL", Jaemon figured out real quick that it was Uncle Richard and thought it was HILARIOUS!
Don't ask......well ok. We go fishing for ornaments on Christmas Eve, the ornaments are wrapped in paper bags tied with festive ribbon. Somehow, someone got the fantastic idea of tying the ribbons in Josh's hair, it's quite the masterpiece, really. And it has stuck, so every year, Josh has about 28 ribbons in that big massive curly head of his!!!!
On Christmas Eve we always make candy cane cookies to leave out for the fat man, everyone fights over the red dough, and no-one really knows how to make the balls into the canes, no matter how many times I've shown them. We usually end up with red and white swirled balls....not sure what old Kris Kringle thinks of em.....but we like them!
Special gifts for special people!!!!!
A little arts and crafts moment, amid the all out, drag out, craziness of the season.
We LOVE Christmas jammies and special books on Christmas Eve!
Our first EVER snow day! We spent OUTSIDE!!!!! We built 3 beautiful snowpeople!
A 13 year tradition, going on the Polar Express, except this year it was the "North Pole Express". Still lots of fun, but not quite the same!
My kids think the treat giving is out of control, I love it, I love making things and delivering things for friends and neighbors. The other thing they whine about is the Christmas cards we make and that I enlist all their help in. I think it's a great thing, they need to learn that making things is part of giving of ourself!
Sleeping under the Christmas tree with Christmas books on December 23 is a well loved tradition!
And this, this is my favorite. (well, this and watching SCROOGE, the original black and white version at 11:30 on Christmas Eve night, I LOVE IT! I love these funny, cute costumes. I love singing carols around the piano. I love reading the Christmas Story and just being together as a family. Cozy and Warm, just having fun and re-enacting the true reason we celebrate this season. I am feeling melencholy that my babies are growing up, but they will always have these memories, and so will I. Yes traditions take time to carry out, but the memories are worth every single second.

This is what it's all about, Family. Time. Memories. Traditions. Most importantly, a Christ Child that made it all possible.

I love Christmas.