A Christmas Story...

"You'll shoot your eye out!"

Andrew has a new favorite Christmas movie..the same one as mommy (and mommy didn't have a thing to do with it, I swear!  Ha!)  It matches his "shiner" he got at school last week (he did it to himself this time).  It cracks me up- I brought out the Christmas movies tonight because it is a tradition for me to watch "A Christmas Story" while putting up the tree every year.  Then I pretty much watch it daily from then until Christmas!  Sometimes multiple times a day!  There is just something about a cheerful Christmas movie to put you in the spirit!  Anyway, Andrew got really into it!

 

Andrew loved watching those boys press their faces against the window!  I suppose he'll be doing that soon enough now!

On Saturday we put up the Christmas tree.  Andrew was beyond excited.  He kept saying "Christmas tree!" over and over.  He was so happy he gave daddy and I a hug, then hugged the tree!  He loved the lights and kept saying "pretty."  We saved the decorating for tonight.  I made a special supper and we put up decorations.

Do your Christmas ornaments evoke memories for you?  That is one of my favorite parts of decorating the tree- talking about each memory as we unwrap the ornaments.  It is a tradition in my family that on each Thanksgiving, my grandma gives each of the grandkids an ornament.  She's done it since my first Christmas.  I have so many special ornaments, one for every year of my life.  Each one brings back a memory from that year.

This is my "Annie" ornament.  This was my favorite movie when I was a little girl.  I've seen the musical a bunch of times.  I used to scrub my dad's garage floor with all my neighbor friends while singing "It's a Hard Knock Life" and wearing my grandma's old dresses.  My dad always said he had the cleanest garage floor in town!

 

This is my favorite Christmas movie of all times; "A Christmas Story."

 

This one is from the year Craig and I got engaged.

 

Bought our first home together...

 

Had an incredible Honeymoon in Maui...

 

And were blessed with our first child.

I just think it is so special to be able to look at our tree and share those special memories together, year after year.  The tree sort of tells our life story, and I just love it.

 

This year I put so many lights on it, it is almost blinding!  I had forgotten that I recycled most of my strings from last year, since half of each string went out.  So I had to purchase some new lights.  I bought a few boxes, thinking I'd take back what I didn't use... well, I went ahead and used them all!  I love lights!  There is just nothing like shutting off all the lights in the house and having only the Christmas lights on.  I just love this time of year so much!  I can't wait to decorate the rest of the house!

 

This is one of my favorite ornaments. I hope to get one each year and put Andrew's picture from each Christmas in it.  I love hanging pictures on the tree as memories, too.

 

Andrew hung up his special ornament from his 2nd Christmas, Thomas the train!

 

He was so funny, when we started hanging things on the tree, he found they "stuck" better when he threw them in the branches!  He was getting so excited because he'd just toss them in and they'd stay!  I had to do some rearranging later!  Ha!

Andrew was climbing up to peek in the boxes to see what ornaments we'd pull out next!  He had a blast!

 

Little stinker...I was trying to get his picture by the tree, but he wanted to sit here!  Go figure! (Can you see his shiner??)

I realize it isn't even Thanksgiving yet and our tree is up...but if you think about all the work that goes into putting up the tree, and the number of days between now and Christmas, it really doesn't seem that far away.  Time goes so fast.  I want to have time to enjoy the decorations and I just hate taking them down.  The house seems so empty afterwards somehow.

Many of you have been asking about Andrew's results from his scan last Friday.  I have been putting off posting, simply because we don't have all the answers yet and I hate to say too much when I don't know everything yet... Dr. M called us and said the results weren't what we had been hoping for...there was 69% flow to his left lung.  He thought Dr. D (the one who performs the caths in Iowa City) may want to do the cath sooner than we thought (he even breathed the word...surgery...which I promptly ignored.)  However, I know the last scan he had done the flow was 75%, so it seems like it is better than it was then.  Dr. M and Dr. D need to discuss the next step, and they haven't connected yet.  Iowa City has the results and we are just hoping and praying we can put this off until after the holidays and his birthday.  I'll be sure to update when we have a plan.  Until then...thanks for your prayers!  Please pray we can put it off and enjoy the holidays together.

 

I'd love to hear about your Christmas holidays and traditions!