The Spirit of Christmas - Me

I saw this sweater in Wal-Mart.  I made a comment that I thought it was cute.  It made me think of my brother, Corey.  

It's actually not a sweater that I would wear and the more times I saw it, the tackier I thought it was.  Evidently, I had not said that aloud – or at least loud enough that either Jenna nor Roland heard.  I don't mean to complain or sound ungrateful.  It's what one would wear for an ugly sweater contest.  

If I put it away for next year, would I actually be able to find it?  Fortunately the Spirit for me lives in giving and not receiving - though I was surprised with one of Jenna's gifts. 

          I don't think Roland often listens to my desires or my non-desires rather.  For example, there was one year I told him that I did not want a quad (four books of scripture in one book) but that I preferred having the Bible separate to compare two scriptures side by side. 

He brought me a quad that year. 

He also purchased the DVD of "Mama Mia" the year it was released. 

I told him I was happy with the soundtrack and really didn't want the DVD as I didn't believe I'd watch it enough that it would be worth having in my collection.  It stayed in Utah the year we moved to Oregon. This year it was a hair dryer that I had already mentioned I hadn't wanted.  

          In addition to my hair dryer and holiday sweater, there was an unexpected gift of macadamia clusters from Jenna.  That is the gift that surprised me the most.  The most practical gift I received (also from Jenna) is probably the one I was most genuinely excited about.

only thing I had asked for really

Jenna (or Santa's) surprise scrapbook paper

surprise!

I like it thus far

The Spirit of Christmas - Jenna

Initially Roland and I had agreed on purchasing only 3 gifts for Jenna to open.  I had forgotten about the 5 books we had purchased in September.  Roland also went haywire one day when he wanted to go to Roseburg and neither Jenna nor I wished to go with him.  He returned with some Pokémon cards and some other things.  We had also given a stuffed toy of Snoopy that shakes his head to the “Lucy and Linus theme” I think there were at least twelve gifts for Jenna.

She said her favorite gift was the snoopy 

The Spirit of Christmas - Roland

            Roland's first gift came in the mail.  It was from his boss.  She sent him a melted snowman kit.  Jenna has been playing with it ever since, and enjoying it immensely. 

          I didn't realize how many ties Roland has or may have not purchased any - though it came at his request.  He did ask for a more subtle or blended design than what we had purchased, but I think he was pleased just the same. 

all of the rings are full - some with more than 

one tie each.  I counted 7 Christmas ties

these are the ties he received for Christmas

He was hoping the design would be subtle as these

here are the ones he didn't receive (I have to call)

 

          In addition to the ties, we had given him fruitcake and snowballs.  Roland often gravitates toward both. 

 

J also gave R a bandana

 I probably should have just gone with my initial plan of getting him a DNA kit.   It would have been the only gift under the tree for Roland.  I just think the price will go down again.
  Of all the gifts received on Christmas morning, Roland says his favorite was the cowboy tie that Jenna had picked out for him.

The Spirit of Christmas - Gifts

          We sent hats to all of our kids for Christmas this year.  They are Oregon Duck hats.  Many people here are avid Duck fans.  I have no preference, though I do like the "Duck" colors better than the "Beaver" colors.  I thought Biff might like the orange, but we didn't see any Beaver sock hats.

  

          We've made and received many sweets this year.  Roland had wanted to make gingerbread men but we ran out of time before we could purchase all ingredients, so he purchased a tin of butter pecan meltaways instead.  I will always think of them as "Mexican Wedding Cookies" as I had learned that is what they were called - but the name probably is not a best seller at Christmas time - possibly?

Next year I am giving out Queso and chips as I felt burnt out on sweets this year (as I'm certain many others did).

          Roland is the sole eater of the gingerbread house as Jenna and I are not too crazy about gingerbread.   I doubt he will eat it all and we'll end up throwing at least half of it away. 

Spirit of Christmas - Decorations

I believe we decorated the trees outside before we brought our Christmas tree into the house.  Roland had started out with the lights and gradually we added large ornaments and bows.

We also purchased a starlight system to save ourselves from having to hang lights      

Jenna framed our mirror with the sock toys that Corey had given us years before

and put out many decorations that we have used in previous years.

Aunt Julie sent us this when we first moved to West Valley

middle tree pop up from a card from Ooki (son) and 

back tree gift from Salad Master, Nativity to my mom

her last Christmas

also from Aunt Julie.  It was designed as 

a door hanged.  But we have moved it to

chain on screen door

and added a few new ones as well

Santa is really a tree topper and a stocking Jenna colored

not a great picture.  Jenna received this fragile piece

I displayed our books on the end table this year as Jenna and I had decided to do away with the coffee table

The cards we received were hung on the door

2017

 and I took these pictures as Jenna and I traveled about

at Lowes, I believe

 We picked up some more ornaments at Pier 1 as they had been marked down

I thought this was really cute, but

possibly too big for the tree as compared

with the other ornaments we have

4 nutcrackers purchased for 2018 ornament

Christmas Eve

          When Carrie and Randy’s gift arrived at our house, Jenna decided it would be the first one which would be opened.  We played a game of Monopoly though there’s at least 20 games in our possession that I’d rather play.  After I lost and Jenna forfeited out of boredom, we turned on the Muppet Christmas Carol though we really don’t have a great copy.  I fell asleep while it played.  

We had planned to open our first gift on Christmas Eve after we watched “It’s A Wonderful Life” but since I had fallen asleep during Muppets, Jenna decided to open the gift before  “It’s A Wonderful Life” started.  It was a game! 

Because of the time, we decided we would play in the morning instead of right then. 

Jenna decided to go to bed after only an hour into the movie. Between 9:30 and 10:00 last night Roland retrieved the presents from my closet.  I spread the gifts beneath the tree.  We filled the stockings and finished with the movie. When “It’s A Wonderful Life” ended, I went into the bedroom, though I don’t remember Roland coming into the room until possibly an hour later.  I don’t know why. 
          When he did get into the bedroom, he read a bit before turning off the light.  At midnight Jenna opened her door and asked if it was time to open presents.  She gets very excited.  I think she must have left her room shortly after that as I noticed there were more gifts placed beneath the tree and in our socks.  I love it when my children get into the Christmas spirit and each attempt to play Santa themselves.

Traveling Ornaments

        Almost every Christmas tree I can remember being in my house had a wide variety of ornaments – not just colored baubles, but Santa Clauses, snowman, bells and stars – even partial nativities.  It seems like there were some ornaments that made their way up and down and around the tree as someone would take it off to looks at it and hang it back in another spot, or parents would move clumps from one branch to even out the tree.  I noticed that our tree this year had several bald spots - and I could sense that some of the ornaments had traveled throughout the tree once again.

        On Saturday night, we watched the Disney’s 2009 “Christmas Carol”.  Don’t much care for that particular version – though not my least favorite version of "the Christmas Carol".  I did enjoy watching behind the scenes.  It always amazes me how much time goes into each shot.  With Disney’s 2009 “Christmas Carol”, there was also a lot of technology.  

It was interesting to watch. 

I had enjoyed the behind the scenes of “Elf” also.