Merry Christmas

Here's a few pre-Christmas pics.

This was the pic for our Christmas card this year. We could not get JM to smile, so if you recieved a Christmas card from us with him smiling, that smile was Photoshopped in from another pic.

I LOVE our Christmas tree this year!! We bought it from a Boy Scout troop. In B'ham every road intersection has a Boy Scout tree lot, but here in north Alabama this is the only one we could find. It smells so good...it might be a while before we take it down :)

Since we had to redo our fireplace/chimney this year, we haven't put up the mantle yet (we are making is stone up to the ceiling), so our stocking are hanging on a piece of furniture that was my grandparents. My stocking is Vixen, J has Dasher, and JM has Roudolph, and of course Miss Belle has her doggie paw print stocking.

This is our family stocking. It has history. When J's parents got married and they lived in Tuscaloosa, a neighbor gave it to them. It was their first stocking. It has "White" knitted into it. I don't put anything in it because I'm afraid it'll streach it, its very delicate.

This is my Christmas card garland. Ever wonder what to do with all of the Christmas cards you get??? Well I took last years cards, traced a Christmas tree over the most interesting part of the front of the card and cut it out, punched a hole inthe top and tied a ribbon to it. I cut out who it came from and taped it to the back of the tree. (please excuse the view of the backyard...it has been neglected for quite some time now.)

It snowed here a few weeks ago!! It didn't last too long but it was JM's first snow. He wasn't really sure about it at first, and neither was Miss Belle.

This is the fence along the pasture across the street.

The boxes almost beat us.

So folding some boxes shouldn't be hard, right??? I bought JM some of those boxes that have the brick pattern on the side of them. I remember them from preschool and saw a set for cheap at Target. They came with instructions, that should have been my first clue. It took us longer than it should have to figure our how to fold them. The first few were not easy, but it got better once we figured them out.

Boxes - 1, Us - 0

Belle finished folding hers before we did one :)

We needed to rest our brains after the box folding event.

I made a $5 five minute scarf for JM's sitter. She is AWESOME and I wanted to do something for her for Christmas. I saw the directions on Natalie's blog, and had to give it a try. It was super easy! You need to use the super thick yarn for this.

We have a sick doggie right now...Miss Belle has a UTI, which has not been fun for any of us. She had to sleep in the kitchen 2 nights in a row, so she wouldn't destroy our carpet. She usually sleeps in our closet floor, so she was not happy with us when we gated her in the kitchen. Funny, we use our baby gates for the dog, not the baby.

JM got to see Santa Claus!! And I think they liked each other, what do you think?? Beofre it was our turn one kid in front of us cried and screamed when it was his turn with Santa, nothing made him happy. Then the other kid I believe talked Santa's ear off. The whole time I was thinking please don't cry JM. The only time he really smiled is in this pic when he looked up at Santa. I love it cause its not posed, and it makes you wonder what is going on in his mind.

His little outfit cracks me up, its smocked with the scene of a roof top with Santas boots sticking out of the chimney and a bag of presents. Santa asked if he could stay, sorry Santa its bedtime!