Christmasiness and a crazy story. :)

Tis the season and now it's past! Wow! What a whirlwind! I made a lot of gifts this year and spent way too many nights saying up way too late. Last night the visitors were gone, kids were tucked in bed, there was nothing to make, tree was already down and I'd spent a good portion of the day organizing, so I sort of crashed. I was talked out, touched out, and tired out. I grabbed a (big) bowl of coconut milk whipped cream and some home made berry sauce, topped that with a little coconut milk ice-cream, grabbed the remote and totally zoned out on the couch in the dark. It was beautiful. :) This introvert can be social but boy do I crave my down time. And the treat was soooooo good, if I'd had more I totally would have continued to stuff my face.

Pre-crash photos… :)

Holiday aprons make the baking more fun. :)

This doesn't really have anything to do with Christmas but it's so cute! I could do a whole post filled with pictures of my kids snuggled up during their "sleep overs". I can't help myself they just look so darling!

Christmas Eve spent hanging out with my weird family. ;) We had a nice visit with my husbands dad and his wife at our house, then we headed of to a really nice, very packed, Christmas Eve service at our church. 

The kids got to open their one present on Christmas Eve (Which is always festive pj's, ha ha!) and hang their stockings with care. Then off to bed! 

Everything is all ready for Christmas morning! Even J got a stocking. :) And I bought tall gift bags to make stand in "stockings" for my mom and my sister, since they were both with us on Christmas morning.

My kids are made to wait in their rooms until I tell them we are ready. It builds the anticipation. :) And keeps from getting up at 3 am. ;) Also I get to take one of these cute pictures every year.

Stockings are the best part. :)

Crocheted my husband a Seahawks hat. He's a big fan. Me I couldn't care less… There I said it. Sorry people I'm simply not sporty. But Christmas is about loving on the ones you love, so I fed his Seahawks spirit. ;) I also made one for J…

I promised I would try not to get him in pictures (he hates it) and I did try… but I was taking a group shot and he just happened to be in it. ;) Such a grown up boy, my J-bird. Sigh. 

Leiella with her Teressa doll Christmas morning, all matching. :)

You should have seen my daughters face when she opened her pj's present Christmas Eve. I found a site that sells clothing for girls with matching outfits for 18 inch dolls.

Back story- She has a rag doll that has been in our family for a while. My grandma's sister made it, then my grandma gave it to my little sister and she in turn passed it on to my daughter. Well actually my daughter fell in love with her when she saw her at Neenee's house (her grandma). My mom said she could borrow her and the rest is history. ;) Her auntie felt that she should have her when she heard how much Lala loved her. Anyways the dolls name is Teressa (my grandma's name). She's always had some pretty worn clothing, nothing that fit very well. Not that Leiella cared. She's been carrying that doll with her everywhere and sleeping with her since she got her a while ago. At first I didn't think it would last but she's still going strong. Some times she's a sister, sometimes her baby. :) I really wanted to find some clothes that fit. So I measured her and she was about 19 inches but about the same diameter around as the ever popular American Girl dolls. Someone told me about this site and I'm so glad I went to it and ordered the matching Christmas pj's! She was over the moon excited! And they fit! They are a little short on the legs, because that's were the extra inch is, but Leiella doesn't care at all. I'm thinking there will be some more matching outfits in the future. :) 

 

My mom telling us all about Teressa and marveling over her adorable outfit. :)

Lap full of poodles. :) They have grown so much in a year! 

Had to share this photo. :) It was the only thing he mentioned over and over again, for months now, that he wished he could have. 

My mom liked her ceramic travel mug. :)

I made my daughter (and her cousin) a bear cowl for Christmas. So cute!!!

Okay before I wrap this long post up I'm going to share a funny story. Something that's probably only happened to our family. ;)

My son Ira lost his front tooth Christmas day. He was super excited as it's been a long time in the making. We don't put teeth under pillows around here, we have an idiot of a tooth fairy that just can't find teeth hidden under pillows. ;) So we put it on the window seal in the kitchen. Better results that way. We use to  have a cute little glow in the dark tooth shaped container, but over the years it got lost and now we just put it in a cup and place it in the window seal. My son came to me before bed asking where his tooth cup went. I was super confused was trying to figure out what in the world happened. All the sudden my mom, his Neenee, breaks out in hysterical laughter and while gasping for breath, tells us that she drank it! No kidding. She saw a cup on the window seal, grabbed it, filled it with water, and gulped it down! She didn't know that we don't do under the pillow here, and had no idea what the cup was for. Now don't ask why she would grab a cup from the window seal instead of the cupboard, but whatever. She often makes no sense to me. ;) Needless to say the house was filled with hysterical laughter there for a while. What a story! What a night! And in true Ira form he tried to convince my mom, when she went to tuck him in, to go through her poop and find his tooth. He worked hard to get that tooth out! Ha ha! Oh dear goodness!!! My sister and I kept cracking up late into the night and then all three of us would dissolve into hysterics again. Good times. Honestly this is only one story out of so many weird stories I could tell about my mom and her antics, ha ha! But it's probably by far the best now! This is going down in our family history… "Remember the time Neenee swallowed Ira's tooth?" Oh yeah, every Christmas from now on. ;)

So the day after Christmas I was totally burnt out on the Christmas clutter. My tree had been dried out for over a week and I wanted it gone. This is the earliest I've ever taken the tree down! My sweet sister helped me before she left. It was a relief and helped reduce my after Christmas clutter anxiety that kicks in hard this time of year. I decided to rearrange my living room as well. It's funky and pushing it for me as I always line everything up and tend to like things super symmetrical. I angled all the furniture...

It sort of makes a nice optical illusion, makes things look more spacious. It's such a tiny and awkward living room.

Makes a lot more room, tilting the furniture.

So anyways we will see how long it last. ;) Considering I'm usually obsessively straightening everything… Ha ha!

Now I must stop blogging, I have so many organizing projects I meant to do today!!!

On to a New Year!!!