Posts Tagged: Christmas


13
Jan 09

Hello, hello hello again!

Shaboom, shaboom…

Wow, I didn’t realize it had been so long since I updated here! My my my, how fast time flies. I’ve been backlogged on everything it seems (the worst being our property tax which I..um..forgot to pay until today..but that’s another story).

Christmas was awesome. I must say that I believe this was the best Christmas I’ve ever had. Kevin and I have now enjoyed 4 Christmases together as a couple, but there was just something magical this year – having Jack-Evan as part of our Christmas morning was the most precious gift we could have ever wanted. Children truly are the best part of life!  

Over the past couple of years, Kevin and I have started a few Christmas traditions together, and this year we added a few more.  For one, we always go to a Christmas tree farm to cut down a live Christmas tree.  This year, Jack-Evan was with us and we got video of him helping his dad “cut down the tree”.  He also had a surprise meeting with Santa too, and true to his easy going nature (Jack’s, not Santa’s), he didn’t cry a lick when we begged asked Santa for a impromptu photo shoot with Jack right there on the farm grounds.

We sang a lot of Christmas songs, enjoyed a few family-friendly parties and our church play (which Jack attended all of them), watched some Christmas videos, drove around with “Grammy and Papa” (my mom and dad) to see the decorated lights on houses, and read numerous Christmas books together. 

On Christmas eve, Jack-Evan helped me get out (chocolate) milk & cookies for Santa and celery for the reindeer, which we placed on a special santa cookie tray that I’ve been saving for years, awaiting it’s first use.  Jack & I then laid down to nurse one last time, only to be startled a few minutes later by sounds of thumping on the roof.  Kevin then ran inside, yelled that he spotted some reindeer land, then came in and all three of us danced excitedly around the room singing a final Christmas song to Jack-Evan.  

He had a blast being caught between his two goofy parents!

The next morning, we awoke to smells of “Daddy’s Annual Christmas Morning Breakfast” cooking in the kitchen (a tradition Kevin and I started the first Christmas we were married).  The first thing we checked was the Santa plate, and I made a huge goofy fuss over the crumbs Santa had left scattered beside the plate, and then we read aloud the “Thank You” note that Santa had left for Jack-Evan.  Then we enjoyed prayer and Christmas breakfast….and then opened presents.  I had always thought that I wouldn’t have trouble with wanting to give a baby a lot of gifts at Christmas.  After all, the box ends up being more fun than the toy and he’ll never remember them….but lemmetellyou, when the time actually arrived and I had to decide which gifts to buy, I felt like buying out the whole store!  There were so many cool toy whatzits that I wanted to get for him, but alas, our pocketbook isn’t quite as deep as Walmart’s shelves.  But we did end up with some nice things that he has really enjoyed playing with, such as a little teeball set for babies and a little real working keyboard (although that was a bit more of a “for mommy” toy than anything! ha!).

After Christmas at home, we headed to my parents for Christmas with my mom’s family, which lasted till evening.  Turkey, relatives, chocolate cake and Guitar Hero are a great combination!

Christmas festivities were then extended a week later as we headed off to upstate New York on January 1st to enjoy an after-Christmas party with Kevin’s family.  

And we drove the whole way.  

14 hours in the car.

With an 8 month old….

But that’s another post.

As for now, I best get to sleep.  I’m sitting here in the bed with my computer testing out the limites of my new wireless network.  This is the first time in my life I’ve ever had wireless anything and I’m as giddy as a hungry dog in a butcher shop (dork that I am..)! :)


20
Dec 08

Please, no more leaves!

Whew…

Yesterday, Kevin and I took on the massive job of getting up ALL the leaves in our yard. We live next to woods, have an oak tree in our back yard, and have 2 ornamental trees in the front yard…and ALL the leaves have fallen off of them. I guess they were up to my knees. Or well, it seemed that way!

Luckily we have 2 leaf blowers, but it still was a huge job. We were out there from 12 pm till 4:30 yesterday, with Jack-Evan playing on a large blanket. The piles are HUGE out back! I’m tempted to jump in them if I could forget about some of the creepy crawlies that I saw whilst blowing the leaves away.

Today we did the front and it took from 11:30 till 1:30. The leaves in the front, we were able to blow them out to the side of the street where the town leaf collector will come along with the machine and suck them up. So those are taken care of. And now all that’s left are the massive piles of leaves out back. And I am completely pooped and my hands hurt terribly. I’m sure I’ll have blisters on them within a few hours from holding up the blower so long (we have a little rope thing to hold it with because the handle broke).

But the whole yard sure does look terrific. :)

Would you believe that I did the yard work in a tank top and shorts? Yep. It’s that hot here in South Carolina right now. Only a week before Christmas and it’s almost summer-like with this heat wave that’s come through. I had the air condition on 72 just the other night because we were sweltering in the house! Where is the cold weather? So much for dreaming of a white Christmas, huh?

Anyway, we’re about to head out to go bowling with my cousins Nathan & Dylan and their girlfriends. Then we’ll probably come back and work some more in the yard. Kevin wants to get the Christmas lights on the house finished! The neighbors have us beat completely – they have 5-6 of those huge blow up Santas and Snowmen and other characters out front. All we’ve done outside so far for decoration was to hang a wreath on the door. :)


20
Dec 08

Being Santa…

…will wear you out!

Just ask Jack:

My Santa by you.

Our favorite waitress at our local buffet gave Jack-Evan this little Santa suit for Christmas and he wore it this past weekend to church where he was passed around like a little football.  I grew up in the small church we attend and everyone there is like family, so of course Jack is the baby of the church.  Everyone just fusses all over him!

This is what he looked like just before we left church!


18
Dec 08

Lil’ Santa and DaDa

 

My Santa by you.

 

 

My Santa by you.

Doesn’t this just put a smile on your face?  It does me!  Kinda makes me go gushy all over. :)


18
Dec 08

It’s Almost Christmas….

…and I’m wondering where Thanksgiving got to?

Weren’t we just celebrating Halloween yesterday???

This month is flying!

Were in the midst of refinancing our house from a 30 year fixed to a 15 year fixed (yay!) so we’ve been busy sprucing up the house a bit. We’re approved for the loan as long as the value of the house comes back at what we think it should.

Jack-Evan is to that stage now where he’s *almost* crawling and *almost* sitting strait up by himself. He ‘s just got to get the confidence. I can see it in his eyes – he’ll start to crawl without thinking about it and then once he realizes what he’s doing it’s as if a light bulb turns on and he gets scared to take that next step, so he lets his body sink back to the floor.

Isn’t that how life goes in adulthood as well? You have the ability to do something, yet fear of stepping out into new territory keeps you from reaching your goals.

Only difference, Jack-Evan will soon lose that fear and begin to crawl at full speed. Some adults never lose their fear and live their entire lives without taking that first step towards their dreams. Pity…


8
Dec 08

Great New Christmas Song: I Need a Silent Night (Amy Grant)

Yesterday afternoon as Kevin and I were preparing to go into the buffet restaraunt to eat lunch with my parents, this amazing song came on.  I had never heard it before, so I made Kevin wait just so I could finish the song!  It must be extremely new because I had a hard time even finding it on YouTube…but the words are awesome and I wanted to share it.  There’s just something about it that gives me chills.

It’s Amy Grant’s “I Need a Silent Night”.  I’ve included the lyrics too.

Verse 1
I made this same mistake before
Too many malls, too many stores
December traffic
Christmas rush
It breaks me till I push and shove
Children are crying
While mother’s are trying
To photograph Santa and sleigh
The shopping and buying and standing forever why
Well what can i say

Chorus
I need a silent night
A holy night
To hear an angel voice
through the chaos and the noise
I need a midnight clear
A little peace right here
To end this crazy day
With a Silent Night

Verse 2
December comes, then disappears
Faster and faster every year
Did my own mother keep this pace
Or was the world a diffferent place?
When people stay home wishin’ for snow
Watching 3 channels on their tv
Look at us now rushin’ around
Tryin’ to buy Christmas peace

Chorus
I need a silent night
A holy night
To hear an angel voice
through the chaos and the noise
I need a midnight clear
A little peace right here
To end this crazy day
With a Silent Night

Bridge:
What was it like back there in Bethlehem
With peace on earth, good will toward men?

Speaking part:
There were shepherds out in the field
keepin watch over their flock by night
And the glory of the Lord shown around them
and they were sore afraid
And the angel said “Fear not
for behold I bring you good news of great joy
That shall be for all people
for unto you
is Born this day a Savior
who is Christ the Lord
And His name shall called
Wonderful Counselor
Prince of Peace”

Chorus:
I need a silent night
A holy night
To hear an angel voice
Through the chaos and the noise
I need a midnight clear
A little peace right here
To end this crazy day
With a Silent Night

Ending:
To end this crazy day
With a Silent Night


20
Jan 08

Christmas in New York

Every year, Kevin’s father’s side of the family gets together in New York for their annual Christmas celebration in January.  This year’s party was on Saturday, January 5.

Of course we went!

Although I have been to NY twice already, this was my first time going to the Christmas party.  We left on Thursday night after Kevin got off of work (Jan. 3) and we drove through the night.  Or well, I should say I drove through the night. :)   Kevin’s our family day driver.  I’m the night driver since I’m the night owl!  We left my mom and dad’s house around 9 pm that night and arrived in Kendall, NY (Upstate) shortly before 1 pm on Friday.  That included a 2 hours naptime during the night.  I was so glad I didn’t have to stop as much as we though I would! 

We stayed with Donna (Kevin’s mom) that afternoon and then Friday night the family gave me a  terrificly fun Baby Shower.  It was great!

That night we stayed with Jason & Michelle (Kevin’s brother and his wife)….and Saturday morning by 9 am we were headed  out to the family Christmas party!  It was held at Kevin’s Grandpa’s house (as it is every year) and we all ate a huge breakfast (there had to be at least 30 people there).  Around noon we all took off for the bowling alley where the family had rented out half of the center.  Everyone bowled 3-4 games a piece (bowling is a huge pastime in our family).   I didn’t bowl though….I just joked that I was carrying around my own bowling ball already and didn’t care to try to throw another one around. :)   I love bowling, but it did kinda worry me about what might happen if I strained myself…being 6 months pregnant and all.  At least there’s next year, right?

One really awesome thing – while we were bowling, DeAnna came and got me to tell me it was SNOWING!  Woot woot!  Being the little southern bred lady that I am, I have never seen more than a few inches of snow – ever.  And here it was, 4 inches of snow on the ground already and it was snowing again.  People thought I was nuts!  They kept saying “This is NOT a lot of snow.”   All I could say was….”You forget I’m from the south!”.    I’m so glad we had our camcorder there to capture all of those fun moments – especially the snow. :-D

After bowling (around 4 pm Saturday afternoon) we went back to Grandpa’s house to eat pizza and play games,  chitchat, play cards, and watch movies.  Someone had brought the Wii so a bunch of the cousins were playing the sports games (bowling, tennis, baseball).  With all of the fun going on, the evening passed really quickly!  Before we knew it, it was nearly 11 pm.

So my first Christmas with Kevin’s family was a pretty awesome one. 

That night we all spent the night with Kevin’s dad at the house Kevin & his brother and sister grew up in – and the next morning we went over to Kevin’s mom’s house for yet another Christmas breakfast.  This time it was just the immediate family, so it was a bit more cozy.   After breakfast we opened gifts and just hung out for a while.  It was a really special time for all of us.

….then, as with all good things, our 3rd trip to New York came to an end, signalling the final conclusion of the holiday season – and our last holiday as a single couple.  We arrived back home in SC around 10:30 am Tuesday morning (1-8) and Kevin went back to work Wednesday.

We now look forward to celebrating our first Christmas with our first child in 2008!  How exciting it will be!


19
Jan 08

Welcome to Little Jack’s Website

Well, I finally did it. I’ve brought my unborn son into the computer world. :) With a mommy that loves computers and technology so much, you should have known he would end up here sooner or later!

My name is Lisa and I am going on 25 weeks pregnant with our first child – a boy whom we are naming Jack Evan. In one way, I feel the pregnancy is passing very slowly – until I stop to realize that in just 15 weeks (or sooner) my son will be here in my arms. We are very fortunate to live near my mom’s extended family, all of whom we are very close with. Unfortunately, my husband’s family lives in New York. We love them dearly, and regret that they are not close enough to share little daily happenings with us! There are also many friends and other relatives whom we love but with daily life being so busy, we rarely get a chance to see them.

So…this website will be a great way to share our lives and our baby’s new life (and growth!) with those near and far.

Thanks for visiting and we hope you enjoy reading through the upcoming posts!

 

 

Little Jack Horner sat in a corner,
Eating his Christmas pie.
He stuck in his thumb
And pulled out a plum
And said…
What a good boy am I!”