Christmas Tree 2011

On Saturday, we decorated our little, fake Christmas tree. It's so much fun decorating it because we only have enough space to put up the important ornaments. This year, we added an ornament from the Kennedy Center, France, and Switzerland to our collection.

As we decorate, we tell the kids about each ornament before we let them put it on the tree. We even talk about the ones we've lost in tragic kid-cidents. Hawaii and Disneyland will not be forgotten! Someday we may even replace them.

London is getting to the point that he knows the stories. "I know. I know!" he complained often. But I think he secretly liked hearing the stories anyway.

First we pulled out the jingle bell snowmen. These are the kids' favorites, I think.

Taking turns:

Brandt choosing just the right spot (which may have been just the right spot for the ornament he put on right before this one, too).

London pondering what to do next:

Daddy putting up his special doctor ornament:

When we pulled out our Steamboat Springs ornament, I asked the boys if they had ever seen one of these before.

London said, "Yeah, in Shrek."

I asked him if he knew what Shrek used it for.

London said, "Ummm . . . he went there to read a book?"

Yes, London. You will fit in nicely with the Johnson and Sumner men. ;)

Okay, that was a picture from last year, but I wanted to give you a visual. ;)

Me rearranging (shhhh!):

Then it came time for the star. It took lots of help to get it up:

And voila! Our tree:

London was feeling a little picked on that I made him come back to be in a picture. And Khyah was very worried about him.

Then we remembered that we hadn't started our Star Wars Lego advent calendar yet, so we pulled it out and the kids huddled around. (Turns out, waiting until Dec. 3 to start was a smart thing. No arguing over who got the first Legos!)

We love decorating for Christmas! So many wonderful memories of all our adventures over the years.

P.S. Don't tell anyone, but we used a Costco-size box of Cup-of-Noodles to heighten our tree. Wonderfully effective!

Gingerbread Evening

On Thursday, Rick and I surprised the boys with a Gingerbread experience over at Gaylord National (a fancy, schmancy hotel with lots of family-friendly activities). Their theme this year is Dreamworks, so we got to meet all kinds of characters while we decorated our gingerbread family and house.

And here we go with the pictures. Here we are at the gingerbread kitchen:

And just to prove I was there:

This is us just about to start decorating. Notice that the Brandt and Khyah are looking at something to the right . . .

That's because Gingy from Shrek appeared:

I know you can't hear it, but I can. It's a choir singing "Laaaaaaaah!!!" Seriously, love at first sight. Brandt was jumping out of his skin with excitement. Luckily we were pretty much the only ones there, because Brandt kept going back to give Gingy hug after hug after hug . . .

However, Khyah would not go near him. Not for anything.

That said, she was pretty upset when he left to go perform in his show. Women.

So first we decorated our gingerbread cookies. Daddy may have helped Khyah.

But the boys worked alone. They had definite ideas about what they wanted:

In case you're wondering, Brandt is making it snow sprinkles on Gingy.

Rick made his:

And I made mine:

And voila, our gingerbread family. Those smallish blobs are two dogs and a cat. Can't you tell?

Right about then, the Dreamworks show started, but the bakers promised to guard our work with their lives so we could go watch.

Again, Khyah wouldn't go near, but she insisted on being held so she could safely watch from a distance. When they left, she was sad.

Then they lit the big, hanging glass Christmas tree. It went from this:

To this:

Again, you should be hearing, "Laaaaaah!!!"

After the show ended, we went back and worked laboriously to finish our gingerbread family's house.

Daddy got a bit upset when the kids wanted to help put up the lights on the awning. They weren't as diligent about following his established color pattern as he would have liked.

And voila! Our house:

Then time to carefully pack up the ensemble. Daddy refused help.

But we got it safely home . . . right up until I pulled the thing from the box. But luckily, we brought home the extra frosting so we could fix it. :D

All in all, we had a great time!

Santa's Workshop

Okay, I started this post forever ago, and never got past the draft stage because I was waiting for some other pictures, but I think now that Christmas is two months past, I'll go ahead and just post it. :)

On Saturday (Dec. 18th), we took a trip to the national tree, and visited Santa's Workshop (after waiting an HOUR in line). London and Brandt got to meet the big guy himself and tell him what they wanted for Christmas.


Brandt wanted a red choo-choo train, and London wanted a Star Wars Lego Ship. Santa delivered the goods and both boys were thrilled.

Here are the kids with the National Christmas Tree (and some random guy) in the background.

We got all decked out for the cold and it took forever to find a parking spot. And even then, it was metered parking and we had very little change. But we put in what we had and crossed our fingers that Christmas would put the metermaids in a forgiving mood.

And the tree from a distance. I'm definitely glad we went at night. It was beautiful!

So we waited in line forever and finally got into Santa's Workshop. Our new friends in line offered to take our picture for us. Umm, yeah, the expressions on the kids faces about captures how excited they were by then.

Santa gets a lot of mail.

In case you didn't know, he has a naughty and nice alarm (it turned red SEVERAL times while we were in the shop. Not that we could see the name that popped out of the machine just then, but I have an inkling whose it might have been). ;)

And since I think this is pretty important, I wanted to share the pictures from Santa's "Most Wanted" list. Please keep an eye out for them and call the appropriate officials if you spot them. And don't try to apprehend them on your own.

Belated Merry Christmas to you all!