2008 Christmas Card

It is one of my very favorite holiday cards ever!

Christmas Day

Christmas morning we went to mass (I thought it started at 8:30 and it was at 9 so we were there for almost 2 hours) and then came home to open all the presents that Santa brought. Andrew was more interested in the Chex Mix... He finally started to get into it and his favorite gift of the morning was a $1.19 can of tennis balls. He'd put them in, spill them out and squeal with delight! Oh, the simple things...

Opening a puzzle book. Check out my funky slippers! They are awesome!

AJ kept trying to look behind him at the bows but couldn't quite see or reach them! Here he is checking out a gas pump from Grandma and Grandpa Lipowski.

The tennis ball squeal!

He got the tube for his 1st birthday but he got a tent that connects to it now!

And here's a fun slide that'll stay inside until it gets a little warmer then 0 degrees...

The pick up truck is from Grandma and Grandpa Lipowski as well. He didn't want to go in it at first but eventually warmed up to it. This morning it was the first thing he went for. This thing took me 3+ hours to put together... grumble, grumble.

Uncle Craig and Andrew. AJ had some sweet potatoes for dinner and they are still on his face...

Grandma Jan and AJ playing patty cake.

Grandpa Jim and AJ.

My parents and my oldest brother, Craig, came down to Wausau for Christmas dinner. We had pork tenderloin with a rub and a sassy apricot, rosemary & jalapeno glaze. It was fantastic! We had a great Christmas!

Christmas Tidbits...

Geoff carved a Santa for my parents every year for 5 years back before he had a family...
I think they are pretty cool!

My mom and dad's tree is so dreamy. I love this picture. They found a really nice tree this year.

Remember I posted about my favorite ornament of all time? This is it! I love it!! My brother, Geoff, is behind me and my other brother, Craig, is next to me. We actually used to string popcorn for the tree...

Christmas Eve at the Dietrich's

Almost every morning we are waking up to more snow. I have no idea how much we have but it was a very white Christmas!

AJ is calling Santa, I think. He was on the phone all night!

Adreanna and Parker. Too cute!

My niece, Adreanna, AJ and my nephew, Parker sitting on Geoff! His back is going to hurt in the morning!

AJ is checking NORAD's website looking to see where Santa was. He was in Portugal! How did he get all the way to Wisconsin before morning? Must be magic.

The first picture posted of me! I made sure there was at least one of me since I am usually the one taking the photos.

My brother, Geoff, whispering in AJ's ear all the cool things Santa was going to bring him.

Christmas Eve is always one of my favorite nights. We spend it at my mom and dad's house just south of Minocqua in northern Wisconsin. We have appetizers for dinner including some guhuctas (I know I just totally butchered the spelling of that! Basically steak tartar) & herring. I stay away from that stuff- yuck. That is for my brothers and dad. We open presents from each other and it is a very nice time.

A couple of great books...

A few good books that I have read lately:
*Dark of the Moon by John Sanford. This is a new series with Virgil Flowers as the lead. I couldn't put it down. John Sanford lives in MN and I used to live there so I know the places he is talking about which make books more interesting, for me anyway. I like his writing style. A bunch of twists and interesting characters.
*Sugar Queen by Sarah Addison Allen. I heart Sarah! I love her books because they are romantic yet not sappy and they have a sense of literal magic to them. Pick this one up for sure! Garden Spells, her first book, is one of my all time favorites. They will transport you!
*Hold Tight by Harlan Coben. He is my favorite author and writes twisty, turny great mysteries! I have read all of his books and just love him! Tell No One is my favorite by him.
*Casting Spells by Barbara Bretton. I am half way through this book that I just started because I just can't put it down. Maybe that is why my Christmas cards were delayed... It is similar to Garden Spells and is about a human woman (half sorceress) who has to fall in love or the spell that is protecting her town of shapshifters, faeiries, trolls and vampires will be broken and their livelihood may become acknowledged. She has yet to come into her own powers and is starting to fall for another human who can't find out their secrets. Very good and a bit of fun romance thrown in.

If you love to read try these!! They are worth it!

Finally!

I am happy to say that my Christmas cards are DONE and the rest are going out today! I had the design I was going to do set in early November so why, oh why, are they not going out until 3 days before Christmas? I have no idea. November and December both were busy months that needed other things to be done apparently. I'm not posting the actual design until I know everyone has received them. Next to do: wrap presents and deliver cookies to my neighbors! Both of which shouldn't take long to do!

The stockings were hung by the chimney with care...

So one of the main things that drew me to this house was the fireplace. I love it. Except for one thing... we can't figure out how to turn it on!! The Santa on the hearth was made by my mom about 20 years ago (gasp! Hasn't seemed like that long since I was a Freshman in HS!!) She made the quilted wall hanging a few years ago as well (which of course has stars all over it). She even had me picking out fabric for that little surprise! Steve's mom made our three adorable cross stitched stockings- The lyrics to Christmas songs are on each one-mine is Frosty the Snowman, Steve's is 'Twas the night before Christmas and Andrew's is Santa Claus is Coming to Town. She has a fourth one planned as well. We'll see!

If you see this guy- Wish him a Happy 34th!

That's right- It's Steve's Birthday today! And you know what we're in for? According to a study, seen here: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/4801323.stm, number 34 will be the most expensive year of our lives! Uh-oh.

I Sense Trouble...

Steve and I were chit chatting on the couch and we knew AJ was playing in the kitchen, we just weren't sure what he was doing...

Who knows where that fork's been...

Playgroup Christmas Party

On Tuesday at our last playgroup before the holiday break we had a Christmas party and decorated a Santa Bag, made an angel (there was glitter all over us but, really, what else is new?), frosted (and ate!) cookies and visited with Santa again! This time around AJ wasn't too keen on Santa at first. He eventually warmed up and started handing him his wrapping paper garbage. And, obviously, this boy likes cookies!! I do feed him, I swear!! We had a great time!

Santa Brunch

AJ met Santa on Sunday! We went to the Santa brunch at our country club after church and AJ sat on the big guy's lap and decorated a gingerbread man. When decorating the cookie, all he really wanted to do was eat the mini M&Ms... Santa is coming to his playgroup on Tuesday too.

A Few of My Favorite Things: Ornaments

Okay, so I decided to start 'A Few of My Favorite Things' and feature different things that I like so much that I have to share! I do have a lot of favorite things... Since Christmas is coming and everyone is decorating their trees, I thought I would share my favorite ornaments that are on my tree. I really like a lot of them so it was hard to choose. My absolute favorite ornament of all time used to hang on my parents tree. My mom changed her tree this year so I don't know what she did with that ornament but it was a chintzy little gold frame with a picture of my two brothers and me on Christmas morning when we were little. We are doing a three man hug and have these goofy grins on our faces. It absolutely captures Christmas.

An angel holding a star... I found this little cutie pie at one of my favorite local shops- Evolutions in Design.

I think I have all of the star wizards in my ornament collection.

I found this snowperson couple at a craft fair in Eagle River and gave it to Steve for Christmas in 2001.

This Santa may look familiar to most of you. I crafted it from felt after it was our Christmas card a few years back.

Not many of you know this but I went through a flamingo stage when I was in Jr High/High School. They were trendy, it was the 80s, what more can I say... Should I be ashamed of that? ;) This funky flamingo is from my Godmother Carol in 1991. Handmade and totally fun. She probably found it on one of her many fascinating adventures!

I went to The Nutcracker for the first time when I was 8, December 1983. My mom bought this for me to remember that. This was my first ornament.

Another star wizard...

Another little obsession of mine (besides stars) is fairies. This is a fairy not an angel because she doesn't have a halo and I want her to be a fairy! I love that she is rustic and has fairy dust on the star in her hair. My mom found this one for me as well a few years ago. She even has curly hair!!

So I have to have an absolute favorite on my own tree and this is it! I found this handmade Raku star in New Mexico (Not sure if it was in Albuquerque, Santa Fe or Taos- I can picture the store but not which town- we did a lot of shopping! My guess is Taos.) on a trip in 2005 with my mom and our friend, Joanne. Mom ended up buying it for me but I had to wait until Christmas to get it!

So that is the first of many of the new feature- A Few of My Favorite Things! I hope you enjoyed it!!

A Love for Pound Cake and Pooh Bear

AJ loves stuffed animals. He hugs them tight and talks to them in his own language (in a very animated way!) and it is just so cute. Pound Cake and Pooh Bear are his favorites. I just got him a new little bear named Busby that he seems to like quite a bit as well. And the other thing is that I love when kids wear overalls so when AJ was running around with Pound Cake in overalls I just had to start snapping pictures. He is a little obsessed with the flash piece that 'pops' up on my camera and wants to close it so it is hard to get pictures of him now.

The Quest for the Perfect Tree...

AJ fell asleep on the way out to the tree farm. I think he was so bundled up and warm that he couldn't keep his eyes open.

Tromping out to where the trees are...

I was hiding in the trees taking pictures of him marveling at the snow.

He finally discovered me taking pictures of him from behind a tree!

AJ is probably thinking... 'Could you possibly get this sappy tree any closer to my face?' He wasn't too happy on the way home.

The finished product! The tree is finally up, decorated and clean all around! Our tree has a star theme and most of the ornaments on it either are stars or have a star somewhere on them. Would you expect anything different from the girl obsessed with stars?!?!? The tree though is a little less decorated than in the past. What can I say now that we have a little boy at a stinker age? He is fascinated with the lights more than anything and when he sees the pretty lights he says 'woooooo!' Christmas is going to be fun this year!!

So Steve, AJ & I bundled up (although Steve & I did not bundle enough!) and went out to search for the perfect tree at Paulson's Farm this past weekend. It sure was cold when the wind kicked up. So we all tromped out into the woods/field (AJ's mitten must have fallen off 6 times) looking and looking. The trees that we thought had a good shape were either too dry (it was a bad year for Christmas trees in the area) or were clumped together with other trees and didn't have one of their sides or something like that. There were plenty that were 30 feet tall and they told us that we could cut the whole thing down to get the top 10 feet but that just seemed like such a waste. So after standing around for what seemed like forever and freezing our bums off, we hiked back to the pre-cut tree section and found the tallest, best looking one we could find.