Christmas cards

I have sent out Christmas picture cards every single year since I moved out on my own at age 18. I think most, if not all of the cards that I have made consist of just one big picture of our entire family. I prefer using just a single picture because you get a larger photo to keep and it's sometimes hard to really see the people in the smaller photos when they have multiple photos on the card.  Plus I just like the simplicity of the single photo. I used to include a Christmas letter in with my cards, but stopped writing a Christmas letter years ago when I started making this blog.   Instead I let people know the blog name so, if they wanted they could follow along and see updates of our family.  This year I was way ahead of the game. I had decorations up the day after Thanksgiving.  Since we haven't had a professional family picture taken this year, I set up my self timer and took my own family picture.  I had my Christmas cards ready to go before December. My Christmas shopping was done before December. So, since I had free time I spent one afternoon writing a fun Christmas poem. I used to write poems all the time in high school. I haven't wrote a poem forever.  Anyway I wrote the following poem and included it with my Christmas cards that I sent out.  To my surprise I received a Christmas card from my aunt Gena with a short letter included and she added my Christmas poem to the bottom of her letter she sent out too.  The biggest form of flattery! It warms my heart to know my little poem brought a smile to someone's heart.  If you notice it spells Christmas on the left side and each line has rhyming words.

Christmas is a time for loving, sharing and giving. It's hope reborn again. For peace and understanding. 

Houses and trees adorn with lights that twinkle even brighter. Friendly hugs get just a little bit tighter.

Ringing bells and jolly carols, the sounds of Christmas joy. Stockings filled for every girl and boy.

In every city there's smiling faces, giving and receiving warm embraces.

Spirit of Christmas fills the air, as people show how much they care.

The spell of pies and cakes galore. With cookies and milk left thoughtfully for Santa by the door.

Merry hearts sing with cheer, as families and friends all draw near.

All because God's love came down, to light our way all over town.

So we celebrate at Christmas time, Our Lord and Savior, holy, divine!

ornament time

Top picture- a creation Kaiden made. The boys and I made salt dough ornaments.  Connor actually made a snowman decoration for Aunt Sue, a santa face for Aunt Frann and a silver hook which he put a magnet on the back for Grandpa.  Kaiden made everyone decorative tree ornaments. I made a bunch of snowflakes that I strung together and wrapped around the tree.  Bottom picture is my current office at work. Due to my shoulder injury I'm not able to work on 6S until it's completely healed. The nurses on 6S do full care, no NAC or aides, which means I need to be able to lift and move patients.  So, temporarily I'm working at Employee Health doing Covid calls and investigations. I spend my time either sharing an office with Emily (who is a hired Employee Health worker) or sitting at my own office in 120.  I'm liking working normal day shift hours! I haven't worked day shift hours since I was at Principal, 11 years ago.

pre-Christmas crafts

 Kaiden showing all his missing teeth.  He lost quiet a few recently. Then Kaiden showing us a magic trick he learned.  Some wooden crafts I made for our tree.  Kaiden and Connor both drew pictures on tiles for my Christmas gift.  I love to display their drawings on our entertainment center.  Chippy and Daisy (our Elf on the shelf) having a Nerf gun war.

Thanksgiving

 This year it was just the 4 of us for Thanksgiving, but I decided to cook a big dinner anyway.  I love having left overs and a few days break with no cooking!  Jason's favorite- crab salad, turkey and stuffing. Connor's favorite- green bean casserole, potatoes, cooked carrots and cottage cheese-jello salad.  Kaiden's favorite- Red Lobster biscuits and cooked carrots. My favorite- green bean casserole and cottage cheese-jello salad.  Everything turned out really delicious!

Kaiden and I decided to make some ornaments out of Grandma Charette's yarn. When we cleaned out her apartment after she passed away last Christmas I took some of her yard.  She was a crafty woman and loved to create with plastic mesh and yarn.  I thought it would be nice to have some of her yarn made into a craft to hang on our tree.  I think she would have liked it.  As we crafted it was snowing outside with huge flakes coming down.

Hannah

 I have kept in contact with Hannah.  She used to babysit the boys after school on the days that I had to work and Jason didn't get home until 2-3 hours after I had to leave.  The boys adored spending time with Hannah.  She's such a wonderful, sweet person.  Anyway, because of Covid she was home in Quincy and just recently moved back to this area.  She's living in an apartment that's only 5 minutes from our house.  So, I invited her over for dinner and to visit and then a few days later she came back to go for a walk with us around the lake with her dog, Baxter.  Piper wants to play with Baxter so badly, but Baxter is obsessed with Kaiden.  He loves Kaiden and follows him everywhere.  He kinda ignores Piper and focuses all his attention on Kaiden.  Connor is such a great big brother.  Part way into our walk Kaiden decided his legs were too tired, so Connor offered to carry him.  And yes, Connor is taller than Hannah.  She's 4'11"

We have been watching the Star Wars movies after dinner every night.  Great family movie time.

Family pictures

Every year I have a Christmas card made with a family picture. With Covid we really haven't taken any family pictures this year, so I did a family photo shoot today.

school pictures

 the boys are both still on-line for school.  I work with Kaiden on See Saw.  His laptop and supplies are set up on the end of our formal dinning room.  Connor works on Grad Point on his mac computer in his room.  Since it looks like they might be on-line for the entire school year I decided to take my own school pictures.  Kaiden 1st grade.  Connor 6th grade.  I pick their clothes out for picture day every year, but the rest of the year they choose whatever they want to wear. I picked this gray shirt with bright yellow for Connor because his favorite color is still "bright colors." Technically bright orange is still his favorite color and I have bought him a ton of orange shirts, but he wore an orange shirt for pictures last year so I wanted something other than orange this year. I actually had a gray and red pull over shirt picked for Kaiden, but he said it wasn't "fancy enough" and HE chose this button up shirt with a sweater over the top.  He's a far better dresser than I am.

Below is Kaiden modeling. Goofy kid. Then a picture of me and my boys.  The bottom picture Kaiden insisted on taking. He's so independent and likes to do everything on his own. He wanted to take some pictures with my camera too, so he did. Dang, I think he might be a better photographer than I am!