our poopy-croupy-Lord of the Rings-Christmas

I forked over the bucks($8.62 on sale) and bought some Regency baker's twine this year. I know everyone uses it and it's nothing novel, but I just love it for Christmas.


Someone thought the bells were just for her and proceeded to chase them all over the house. Wrapping is quite the adventure with kitties around.






Michaels was out of brown butcher paper(rude, I know), so I bought the next best thing--white banner/sign paper. Pretty affordable option. $2.99 and if you had a 50% off coupon, it could be $1.50.


I was in heaven using my gold sharpie for tags this year.


Mom and Dad came up Christmas Eve and spent the night. Dad is reading Lord of the Rings(LOTR) to Finn.

My parents read the Hobbit and LOTR series to us when we were kids. When my parents were dating, they would happily read these books together in their rooms. How cute are they? So cute .



I love my mama. She's the bestest.


Finn and Cal made them Gandalf and Frodo pictures this year.

And John bought me some LOTR DVDs. See? I told you this Christmas was very Lord of the Rings.

John bought Finn a real bow and arrow. Finn's form was a little...um...off shall we say... so Grandpa Billy had to help him. (Don't worry. Finn's form has proved immensely since then.)

Finn now wants to be the elf Legolas, with his bow and arrow, from LOTR. Ok. I know you are sick of hearing about Lord of the Rings.

I was ridiculously exicted about this little carnival for tabby and tux.

Calvin got some hobbit legos. That is Gollum(bottom left), in case you did not know. I shall stop now. Scout's honor.

We stayed home Christmas day, but then I drove the 3 older boys to sister Lindsay's house for dinner. Twain and daddy had to stay home because Twain had a cough. So sad, but we made the best of it.



This was my Christmas uniform this year.








I look out of it. I mean, because I was...just a minute later I stepped in doggy-doo...my poor toms didn't know what hit them.


Hoodlums, I tell you.
Sister Jessica and her family had to stay home due to the sickies too. We missed them but are hopefully gonna see them for New Years Day.

Twinsies first Christmas! Can't believe they are 6 months old.


Could my hair be messier? I think not. After stepping in dog poop, there is no way one can even pretend to be glamourous.

Then John called around 8pm, and I answered my cell phone uneasily with "Is everything ok?"

"I have to take Twain to the ER", he said. And my heart jumped into my throat.

"Twain has been coughing nonstop for the last hour and a half, no matter what medicine I give him", John continued.

I kind of relaxed...phew just the cough. But still I knew the party was over...

This mama drove home immediately, praying her baby was ok. I just wanted to hug my little round-faced boy.

John and Twain were at the ER for 6 HOURS, mostly waiting around. By the time they saw the physician, Twain had practically stopped coughing.

They gave him Tylenol for a lil fever.
And said he had croup.

And we paid through the nose. The nose people!

Most expensive tylenol to mankind. Well, and they did give us a prescription for a steroid-which I hate using. But will if I have to.

Sometimes that's how it goes. But Twain is on the mend, and I'm so thankful.

Even more thankful that God decided to come down to earth as baby Jesus. He could have stayed up in heaven, but instead chose to humble himself and take on the form of a human, with all of our frailties and weaknesses. Opening himself up to all kinds of pain and sadness...even experiencing a brutal death on the cross, for our sins. And ultimately overpowering sin and death.  I don't know about you, but that is the kind of King that I feel honored to serve. 

guys in skinnies and our card.

My brother-in-law was trying on jeans and could not figure out why this one pair did NOT fit. He was like "what is WRONG with these jeans?"... followed by "man, did i put on some weight?"

He then looked at the tag, and saw they were skinny jeans. And discarded them in disgust.

Haaaa. I think that's so funny.

Anyhow. I wanted to get John a new outfit to wear for me every now and then. Just something I thought was cute. John does not care about clothes one bit and often wears his old volleyball tees from when he coached girls' volleyball. Shirts that say things like "...toughness, talents guts. that's what little girls are made of...the heck with sugar and spice!"-Bethany Hamilton.

Baha. Kill me. Now.

So we went to Target and I grabbed him a flannel and some cute grey levi jeans, and he picked a tee. On closer inspection, the grey levis said "skinny fit".

Uh-oh.

As John went into the dressing room, I just kind of shoved the clothes at him and said "Here honey. Try these on!" I held my breath that he would not notice they were skinnies.

When he emerged, I was like "Hya handsome!" And the jeans were not really skinnies, in my book, at all. The bottoms were not tapered...they were more of a slim fit. So we got the outfit and left.

On the way home he asked if he looked "totes adorable" in his new outfit.

It's 'totes adorbs', hun. And yes.

My dear friend Alisha took our Christmas pics this year. Thanks so much Lish! I love them!

John later told me he doesn't like these jeans at all.

Can you believe it? At first I felt like he tricked me. I was like "I thought we decided you were totes adorbs!" But then I got over it real fast. Because really. Heart check. Who cares that much what people wear anyway? It's all good and fun to dress up, but at the end of the day most people I know would just as soon snuggle up in their pi's. Omyword, did you see that pic of the football dude in pi's with his wife? That was awesome.

And even though I know John doesn't like those jeans... I often find him wearing them, just for me.

What a sweetheart.

The other day I was talking to his brother who said something I'll never forget. He said "I was with a bunch of guys the other night who were totally into their appearances and I went home not feeling happy. It's good John isn't into clothes. Because guys who are too into their clothes are often into other things that are not good". (I realize this was a sweeping generalization, btw. I know plenty of guys who are naturally very stylish and have their hearts in the right place.)

So honey. You wear whatever you want. Volleyball shirts and all. I love you just the way you are. John gladly uses his spending money on our family all the time for treating us to lunch out...rather than buying toys or whatever some boys like to buy. He's a daddy and family-man to the core, and takes such good care of us.

Thank you Jesus for my precious family.




And I snapped a few photos of my boys as well:


They were completely over pictures, but I got them to rally for a few.


Well, Finn cried, but here is one where he's kind of smiling. Or is it a smirk?


So serious, Tweeds.
















And my card is pretty simple this year.

And no misunderstandings about my card this year! That's a first. Well, except that Dr. W. thought we were at the beach with all the white sand. Nope. We were in the riverbed.

colored lights, bulbs and branches

I changed things up a little this Christmas.

My one lil project this year was making 2 little trees from branches.

I went across the street and scoured around til I found the perfect branches. It was a fun little activity for  me and the boys.

John made a little wooden stand to hold this branch up. I am totally liking metal bulbs this year.



And I decided to switch up the tree a bit too. Just wanted silver garland, colored Christmas lights and metal bulbs, for the most part. I let a few knitted balls stay.


Reminds me of when I was little.


Here is my other little branchy tree.


And got two new stockings this year(first and third from left-to-right). They were from Target.


This one is my favorite. I could not resist its charms.


My favorite part of the season is setting up the play-mobile nativity set.

Some people leave the manger empty til Christmas morning...and then they put baby Jesus in it. This was not the case with us--unfortunately, our baby Jesus is has been MIA for days, at the hands of Ollie and Twain. Instead, I saw my little mouse figurine laying in the manger. I was like "No way boys! That manger is for baby Jesus only!"



And some more colored lights.

At night I like to sit in the dark and just gaze at the lights on the tree and wall. I have done that ever since I was a child.

Our country has seen some dark times in the last few days with the school shooting. I cry whenever I read something new about it. I have no pat answers. No words. It is just SO SAD.

The only thing I can do is continue to shine my little light for Jesus in this dark, dark world. I have been learning about light in bible study and at church. No matter how small our lights may seem, they will show up in darkness. God will magnify us. Kind of like no matter how dark my living room, my little Christmas lights still show up.