Our Christmas Together

Our Charlie Brown Christmas Tree


Joe setting up the lights outside


Alathea putting her 1st ornament on the tree


Hello from Maryland! We hope you all had a fabulous Christmas!! We have really enjoyed creating lots of special family memories and new traditions this year with Alathea being almost two. We started with setting up our very special "charlie brown" christmas tree (its more like a four foot branch...but we love it!) the weekend after Thanksgiving. Alathea was REALLY into it! She helped put most of the ornaments on the tree and had a difficult time when we were finished. She became our "light police" and wanted the tree and mantel lights on at all times, even during the day. She would "ohhh" and "ahhh" every time we turned the lighta on and would sit and stare at the tree with such delight.
Another fun tradition was we took her to McAddenville. Since she got so excited over our little four foot tree at home, you can only imagine what miles and miles of lights on houses did for her!! She also loved sitting on Daddy's lap as we drove 5mph through the town. (I'd post picts of this, but they are all on my computer at home!).
My favorite new Christmas "tradition" (I put it in quotations because this is our 1st time doing it- which I don't think makes it a tradition yet), was a little Cookie Decorating Party with a few of Alathea's little buddies. I made a bunch of sugar cookies, and set the table with tons of different kind of sprinkles and the kiddos went at it. They seemed to enjoy it a lot, especially eating all the sprinkles and icing.
I was also thrilled to follow in my Mom's footsteps and made a gingerbread house with Alathea. Since she is so young, I didn't bake the gingerbread from scratch and build an elaborate house- we simply assembled a kit. Alathea licked every piece of candy before putting it on the house and actually took bites out of the roof of the house, but it was such a joy to see her enjoying it and it brought back so many memories from making them with Mom every year. Mom did an amazing job of making Christmas SO special and I really desire to do the same.
We've enjoyed a full week of celebrations. We celebrated Christmas with the Lechner family Friday night, did our own special family Christmas Saturday and headed up to MD Sunday morning to celebrate Christmas with my Dad's family that afternoon. We've been at my family's house since then and had a special Christmas day together(although it is always bitter sweet and never the same without Mom). We're loving this week together and will be heading home Friday or Saturday.
Sorry for the lack of pictures- they are all at home so I'll have to post them later!