Our Family Christmas Celebration

Good Morning to you! I hope you had a wonderful Christmas and a relaxing weekend. We had such a fun family celebration on Christmas Eve morning, but I want to explain that as a very large group our kids found it easier to gather together on Christmas Eve and then have their individual family time on Christmas morning. We gathered, ate a wonderful brunch and then began to open presents. Here all the girls cousins are sitting together~a good thing because Nana and Papa gave them all duplicate gifts.

Little Man waiting paitently.

We also give fill each stocking with some sort of goodie-little man and his mama got a container of Agave Bears, because he can't have sugar.

Papa and the older boys made him a bow, just like theirs.

Love Miss A's smile!

Little Miss E didn't get the two gift cards as the older girls(due to age) but got a cute stuffed dog with a necklace that said Love and on the back had her initial.  Miss E is crazy in love with dogs and she loved this.

We game the boys a drone for their present.

Hubby made me a bread board and also a cheese board that is also inlaid; I love the purple heart wood  that he used.

Papa got a new tool for his tool chest.

We also gave the girls a set of four cups that we got from Beleek Pottery in Ireland.

One of the creative projects I worked on for the girls was making greeting cards with the photos of Ireland that we took~I will post another day; I also made cards of Kauai that we took several years ago.

We gave the sil's Spotting Scopes for their hunting/target shooting as well as spotting wild life in their back yards.

Hubby and I were also spoiled so much; we are so blessed by our family! Love each one to the moon and back!
On Christmas night we had dinner at Carrie's~oh was it good!  We enjoyed just visiting and watching the kiddos play.   We knew it was snowing, just didn't know that it was blizzard like outside.
WE got ready to leave and let's just say we were both very happy to be within a ten minute drive.
The weekend was pretty relaxed, I did go to Macy's and got a new pair of snow boots for every day use.  My daily winter shoes(Merrills)were given to me 5 yrs ago, after my dear friend passed away. They fit me like a glove, but were already several years old, so it was time to upgrade.  I got a great deal and I know they'll last me many years.
I'm looking at my week and it is pretty relaxed, except for one dental appointment on Wednesday.  I think I'll take down all my decorations on Wednesday afternoon and Thursday.  Since our early years, we found that having everything put away by New Years lets us enter the New Year organized.
I hope you had a day filled with Joy and Love.
Hugs,
Noreen

Christmas At My House

Happy Thursday to you. It's a day to be thankful for all the blessings in our lives, even amidst the chaos of preparations. I realized last night that I hadn't shared our Christmas Vignettes yet, so wanted to show how I changed things up a bit. Firstly, I'm not sure what I put on the mantel last year(have no pics of it), so decided to place our Manger front and center. I really like it in this place!

Next we put my small village on the top of a cabinet. I think it looks cute here; I had planned to give it away but hubby changed my mind.

O Christmas Tree, O Christmas Tree how lovely are they branches.

My Santa vingnette with all sorts of toy ornaments.

Our dining room table with my dough bowl adorned for a festive dinner.

My vingette of the angels worshipping the baby Jesus. I love the kneeling angel,small kneeling Santa, the candle, the tall glass Angel was a gift from my sister the Christmas before she passed and the little book that says Wise Men Still Seek Him all hold special places in my heart.

This Dickens Village was a gift, over the course of many years, from my Mother-in-law. Also there is one special "Quilt Shop" that my Best Quilting friend gave me for Christmas-to remind me of our many hours spent quilting together.

The gathering of Snowman and couples in our kitchen-just love these. As I've said before, most of my ornaments are 20-40 yrs old.

Last but not least, in fact, he is most dearly loved in our house-Hunter. He is patiently waiting for me to feed him his breakfast. For some reason, Bichons love to sit on the tops of couches, maybe it's a better view.

Hubby and I are running lots of errands today, getting a special present in the mail and I'll be working in the sewing room I'm sure.
I hope your day is filled with joy!
Blessings,
Noreen and Hunter